August 24, 2016, marked three years of chanting Daimoku. When I began doing it on August 24, 2013, I did not know where my journey would lead me. All I knew was that chanting nam myoho renge kyo resonated something deep within me. It did it more than other Buddhist mantra that I have ever chanted. My journey has been a journey of unveiling my true potential, my wisdom, my compassion, and my courage. I would not have been able to move my life in a better direction without Daimoku. My recent financial battle has shown me that, plus other things. Without my practice, I would have counted the costs of those 4 hour daily commutes from home, given up, and become bitter at life. I will never forget when a professional had told me that my odds did not look good. I was very crushed by that news. I sat down by myself, and began to chant inconspicuous Daimoku. A few moments after that, I read this quote from Daimoku Ikeda from the book Faith Into Action: "No matter what the circumstances, you should never concede defeat. Never conclude that you've reached a dead end, that everything is finished. You possess a glorious future. And precisely because of that, you must persevere and study. Life is eternal. We need to focus on the two existences of the present and the future and not get caught up in the past. We must always have the spirit to begin anew 'from this moment,'to initiate a new struggle each day." Upon reading that, I remembered my vow back in July, and an anger welled up within me. It was like the scene from Mulan when she ultimately decided to disguise herself as a young man and take her injured father's stead in the army. (For those who never saw Mulan):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AARl1cMxS9w
I decided to use the strategy of the Lotus Sutra to get the money. What initially happened was the deadline was pushed back three times. However, two weeks of commuting to school from home began to take a toll on me, By last Friday I was so physically and emotionally exhausted that I was in a very bad way. A part of me did not give a shit about the outcome and just wanted the ordeal to be over, and another part of me was worried about making another costly mistake like I had done in my earlier adulthood. I reached out to my friend Nick Kano and he encouraged me to stick it out. The following Saturday, I was physically rested, but I was burnt out from emotional exhaustion. It was so bad that doing Gongyo, and chanting Daimoku over my situation was like walking in marsh. Then I decided to do inconspicuous Daimoku. After 10 minutes of it, I instinctively read the May 2015 Living Buddhism, and read the experience of George Nakamura of Phoenix, Arizona. As a result, I underwent a huge human revolution. For years, I had viewed gratitude as two things: a compulsory act that you did just in case it's the last time you saw someone before they died, or as a way of saying accept the shitty parts of your life because the shit can smell a hell of a lot worse. Now I realized that gratitude is a way of acknowledging the things that have benefited your life and continue to benefit it. Gratitude is how we truly grow and connect with other people. Gratitude is stopping for a moment and doing these things. I initially began chanting to overcome my tendency to complain. Then I began chanting Daimoku to express my gratitude for my parents, my family, my friends, my practice, Daimoku, President Ikeda, second president Josei Toda, first president Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, Nichiren, and even the World Honored One Shakyamuni. As a result, I smiled more and more. The following Sunday, after doing some inconspicuous Daimoku, I instinctively read the "Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace" section of the June 2016 Living Buddhism. As a result, I realized that in my heart, I still blamed my environment and my background for my issues, even though I had intellectually grasped the futility of doing that. So I chanted to overcome that tendency. Finally, Monday morning I underwent a third human revolution. For two years I had dismissed the arts because it was not a guaranteed big bucks career. Now I realized that the arts is a part of me, serves a far greater purpose than turning people into magnates., and to dismiss the arts is to slander my Buddha nature. Later on that Monday, based on my GPA, I received enough money to go to school and live on campus.
In addition to my recent breakthrough, the most indicative sign that Daimoku has benefited me came when a friend shouted me out on my 26th birthday and another called me awesome because of my persionality, and not just because of my intelligence and my musical acumen. My personality. So for that, I say thank you Daimoku. I may not know the future bends that I must undergo, but goddammit I will be a hell of a lot better because of them. :')
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