Chanting Growers Group

[Desiderata]

Hi Ganjarishi!

Hi Ganjarishi!

Wow! Amazing thread! Near 8 years and approaching 300,000 views! Wow!

Bravo PTD! Bravo!

Peace to you and yours

Thanks for dropping by bro. You have alot of spirit! How goes it?

desi

 

[Ganjarishi]

Thanks for dropping by bro. You have alot of spirit! How goes it?

desi

Hello. Thanks for the warm welcome. This is a great place and I'll surely be stopping by for all of the wisdom within.

 

[easyDaimoku]

^^^^^^^
THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT MY FRIENDS!

The Gohonzon is the most amazing jewel in the in the universe and we are fortunate enough to embrace Nichiren Daishonin's life embodied in the Gohonzon when we chant with sincere faith! Everyone gets this point and the crucial piece is that we continue! PTD has come a long way and over the years I've spoken to him and he has echoed his recent sentiments with regards to continuing on the thread because of all of us. I understand that if we continue to propagate this amazing law of cause and effect, we will continue to unite and protect each other through our daimoku.

I have tried in vain to advance in life and always had trouble sustaining anything worthwhile. Six years ago I started chanting in my home and then after I got the Gohonzon only great things started happening. The greatest thing was kick-starting the best time in my life through this thread when I began my practice. Sure Babba, PTD, and Socal really supported me along the way, but how could I ever forget any of the chanting growers that have really encouraged me during my darkest moments in these past years. In Fact, its because of the chanting growers that I never gave up my faith and only increased in my potential to carry out my mission as a Bodhisatva of the Earth. Together we have matured into the flower that Luda refers to! We are growing amongst strong Bodhisatvas in this Canna-room, and enjoying the rigors of life with dignity and respect for humanity, especially ourselves!

The more I enjoy this thread, the more I grow in compassion and self respect. This is because never in my life have I poured my heart out on a medium, such as this thread, and have gotten the perfect feedback everytime! Its always a Gosho quote from the Daishonin, or some references that help redirect me to the Buddha within. The more I chant the more my Buddhanature radiates across the universe spectrums, and the better my life continues to be. Next week I'm taking the biggest test I ever took to get into graduate school. Its been a long time coming, but my faith is absolute that I will suceed since I'm doing this to advance kosen-rufu.

The battles we fight within only help purify our environment. Don't forget about honin'myo, its all about from this moment going forward! Many times during some hard struggles Babba told me "just keep going forward Bud". That is the spirit of this Buddhism to be renewed and refreshed at every juncture of our life when live with conviction in our faith and deeply respect our environment. I'm so convinced that the compassion of this thread will lead to over 50 more shakubuku before we know it! Who knows perhaps we have already achieved 50 chanting Bodhisattva Chanting Growers from this thread already!

Hurray to the chanting growers! You are the foremost compassion driven cultivators in the world! I know because it is always a great honor to count myself among your ranks

 

[PassTheDoobie]

Hi Luda!

You have taken your first real sip of courage, feeling that desire to be free of worldly constraints, to be able to let go of the negativity that surrounds us all. When you chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo it goes beyond this world out to infinity. But it brings back everything that makes us whole living humans. It's good & bad, it opens up all the avenues that are available to you, to help you succeed in all your endeavors. It's time and space and everything in between. Suffering will be a part of it. At times it will be deep, but so will all the Joy you will experience. Some things will become clear, and the truth will shed light on your path or different paths. The chanting will guide you. I don't see an end to it. Things grow and keep growing.

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo!

desi

That was spot on and absolutely beautiful! Thank you so much Desi!!!

Bowing in humble obeisance.

Thomas

 

[PassTheDoobie]

THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT MY FRIENDS!

The Gohonzon is the most amazing jewel in the in the universe and we are fortunate enough to embrace Nichiren Daishonin's life embodied in the Gohonzon when we chant with sincere faith!

...Don't forget about honin'myo, its all about from this moment going forward! Many times during some hard struggles Babba told me "just keep going forward Bud". That is the spirit of this Buddhism to be renewed and refreshed at every juncture of our life when live with conviction in our faith and deeply respect our environment.

...Hurray to the chanting growers! ... I know because it is always a great honor to count myself among your ranks

Thanks for your many contributions for the last six years Easy! You are a shining example of the Power of the Law! You are a great reason for this thread to have continued!!! I sincerely bow in deepest respect and humble obeisance!

AS I DO TO ALL OF THE CHANTING GROWERS EVERYWHERE!



Much love and deepest respect,

Thomas

 

[PassTheDoobie]

Taking action is the very spirit of Nichiren Buddhism.
Let's make every possible effort to help others.
Thoughtfully and quickly,
let's do our absolute best to wholeheartedly work for people's happiness!

Daisakui Ikeda

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"... one who embraces the Lotus Sutra will realise that hell is itself the Land of Tranquil Light."

(Hell Is the Land of Tranquil Light - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol.1, page ) Selection source: "Kyo no Hosshin", Seikyo Shimbun, March 4th, 2012

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"When we speak with conviction based on our own personal experiences, our words have the power to profoundly move other people’s hearts."

SGI Newsletter No. 8462, The New Human Revolution––Vol. 25: Chap. 2, Shared Struggle 18, translated March 1st, 2012

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"When we speak with conviction based on our own personal experiences, our words have the power to profoundly move other people’s hearts."

SGI Newsletter No. 8462, The New Human Revolution––Vol. 25: Chap. 2, Shared Struggle 18, translated March 1st, 2012

My deepest thanks to all!

T

 

[PassTheDoobie]

Let's all, with great respect, praise those members
who are especially challenging to share this Buddhism with others!
People who speak about this Buddhism,
even if it is only a single word or phrase,
are indeed "the emissary of the Thus Come One"*.

Daisaku Ikeda

*"The Lotus Sutra states: 'If one of these good men or good women in the time after I have passed into extinction is able to secretly expound the Lotus Sutra to one person, even one phrase of it, then you should know that he or she is the envoy of the Thus Come One. He has been dispatched by the Thus Come One and carries out the Thus Come One's work.' One who recites even one word or phrase of the Lotus Sutra and who speaks about it to another person is the emissary of Shakyamuni Buddha, lord of the teachings." - "The Pure and Far-Reaching Voice", WND-I, page 331

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"Myo means to revive, that is, to return to life."

(The Daimoku of the Lotus Sutra - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 1, page 149) Selection source: Kyo no Hosshin, Seikyo Shimbun, March 5th, 2012

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"The power of medicine is very important, but overcoming an illness depends, in the end, on your life force. As long as you don’t transform the karma of suffering from illness, you may recover from one illness but you’ll only come down with another. Buddhism teaches the way to bring forth your inner life force and transform your karma."

SGI Newsletter No. 8462, The New Human Revolution––Vol. 25: Chap. 2, Shared Struggle 18, translated March 1st, 2012

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"At the time when the Law has spread far and wide, the entire Japanese nation will chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, as surely as an arrow aimed at the earth cannot miss the target. But now you must build your reputation on the Lotus Sutra and give yourself up to it."

(The True Aspect of All Phenomena - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol.1, page 385) Selection source: "Kyo no Hosshin", Seikyo Shimbun, March 3rd, 2012

 

[Bonzo]

"The power of medicine is very important, but overcoming an illness depends, in the end, on your life force. As long as you don’t transform the karma of suffering from illness, you may recover from one illness but you’ll only come down with another. Buddhism teaches the way to bring forth your inner life force and transform your karma."

SGI Newsletter No. 8462, The New Human Revolution––Vol. 25: Chap. 2, Shared Struggle 18, translated March 1st, 2012

nam myoho renge kyo

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"'When one carries out the single practice of exercising faith in Myoho-renge-kyo, there are no blessings that fail to come to one, and no good karma that does not begin to work on one’s behalf.' - From “Conversation between a Sage and an Unenlightened Man” (WND-1, 133).

"Our efforts to chant and spread Nam-myoho-renge-kyo produce myriad benefits and good causes, which multiply boundlessly when we all unite together in the shared prayer and aspiration for kosen-rufu. Not a single effort we put into our SGI activities is ever wasted.

"That is why it’s important that we bravely move forwards based on faith and practice when we face obstacles or problems. Let’s not forget that we can open the path to victory where we are right now through having the courage to take action."

SGI Newsletter No. 8464, Living the Gosho: Words of Encouragement from SGI President Ikeda, (69) Making Positive Causes through Our Efforts for Kosen-rufu, from the February 24, 2012, issue of the Seikyo Shimbun, translated March 2nd, 2012

 

[PassTheDoobie]

"Because I have expounded this teaching, I have been exiled and almost killed. As the saying goes, 'Good advice grates on the ear.' But still I am not discouraged."

(The Essentials for Attaining Buddhahood - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol.1, page 997) Selection source: Thoughts on the Human Revolution, Feb 8th, 2012

 

[PassTheDoobie]

Let's transform our karma into our mission!
Let's use hardships as a powerful spring board for our advancement.
Buddhism elucidates the principle of "changing poison into medicine"*.
With great confidence and conviction in our chanting
let's all write a wonderful "drama" of a victorious life!

Daisaku Ikeda

* Changing poison into medicine: http://www.sgi.org/buddhism/buddhist-concepts/changing-poison-into-medicine.html

 

[PassTheDoobie]

Changing Poison into Medicine

"The process of changing poison into medicine begins when we approach difficult experiences as an opportunity to reflect on ourselves and to strengthen and develop our courage and compassion. Suffering can thus serve as a springboard for a deeper experience of happiness. From the perspective of Buddhism, inherent in all negative experiences is this profound positive potential."

SGI members often speak of "turning poison into medicine" when they describe how their Buddhist practice has enabled them to transform a difficult, negative or painful situation into something positive.

In its most fundamental sense, "changing poison into medicine" refers to the transformation of deluded impulses into enlightenment. The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom, attributed to the third-century Indian Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna, compares the Lotus Sutra to "a great physician who changes poison into medicine." This is because the Lotus Sutra opens the possibility of enlightenment to people whose arrogance and complacency had caused them to "scorch the seeds of Buddhahood." In earlier sutras such people had been condemned as being incapable of becoming Buddhas. An important implication of this principle, thus, is that there is no one who is beyond redemption.

In his writing, "On First Hearing the Teaching of the Supreme Vehicle," Nichiren develops this idea, stating that by using the power of the Mystic Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, one can transform the three paths of deluded impulses, karma and suffering into the three virtues of the Buddha, i.e., the Dharma body, wisdom and emancipation.

This can be understood to mean that any unfavorable situation can be changed into a source of value. More fundamentally, it is by challenging and overcoming painful circumstances that we grow as human beings.

How we respond to life's inevitable sufferings is the key. Negative, painful experiences are often necessary to motivate us. One Buddhist scripture describes illness as awakening the desire to seek the truth. Likewise, people have been inspired to a lifetime commitment to peace and justice by their experience of war and injustice.

The process of changing poison into medicine begins when we approach difficult experiences as an opportunity to reflect on ourselves and to strengthen and develop our courage and compassion. The more we are able to do this, the more we are able to grow in vitality and wisdom and realize a truly expansive state of life.

Suffering can thus serve as a springboard for a deeper experience of happiness. From the perspective of Buddhism, inherent in all negative experiences is this profound positive potential. However, if we are defeated by suffering or respond to challenging circumstances in negative and destructive ways, the original "poison" is not transformed but remains poison.

Buddhism teaches that suffering derives from karma, the causes that we ourselves have created. The Buddhist teaching of karma is one of personal responsibility. It is therefore our responsibility to transform sufferings into value-creating experiences. The Buddhist view of karma is not fixed or fatalistic--even the most deeply entrenched karmic patterns can be transformed.

By taking a difficult situation--illness, unemployment, bereavement, betrayal--and using it as an opportunity to deepen our sense of personal responsibility, we can gain and develop the kind of self-knowledge from which benefit flows. Buddhism teaches that self-knowledge ultimately is awareness of our own infinite potential, our capacity for inner strength, wisdom and compassion. This infinite potential is referred to as our "Buddha nature."

The original meaning of the phrase "to turn poison into medicine" relates to this level of self-knowledge.

In the "Belief and Understanding" chapter of the Lotus Sutra, Subhuti and others of the Buddha's long-time disciples respond to the prophecy that another disciple, Shariputra, will attain the ultimate enlightenment. The disciples admit that they had long ago given up on becoming Buddhas themselves, but that on hearing the teaching of the Lotus Sutra they renounced their earlier stance of resignation and spiritual laziness: "[T]heir minds were moved as seldom before and danced for joy." Nagarjuna and T'ien-t'ai (538--597) therefore compare the Buddha to a good doctor capable of turning poison (the laziness and resignation of the aged disciples) into medicine (a sincere aspiration for the ultimate enlightenment of Buddhahood).

This teaching of the possibility of profound transformation makes Buddhism a deeply optimistic philosophy. This optimism propels Buddhists as they seek to transform the negative and destructive tendencies within their lives as well as those in society and the world at large.

[Courtesy January 2002 SGI Quarterly]

 

[Babbabud]

Nam myoho renge kyo

Nam myoho renge kyo

Changing Poison into Medicine

"The process of changing poison into medicine begins when we approach difficult experiences as an opportunity to reflect on ourselves and to strengthen and develop our courage and compassion. Suffering can thus serve as a springboard for a deeper experience of happiness. From the perspective of Buddhism, inherent in all negative experiences is this profound positive potential."

SGI members often speak of "turning poison into medicine" when they describe how their Buddhist practice has enabled them to transform a difficult, negative or painful situation into something positive.

In its most fundamental sense, "changing poison into medicine" refers to the transformation of deluded impulses into enlightenment. The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom, attributed to the third-century Indian Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna, compares the Lotus Sutra to "a great physician who changes poison into medicine." This is because the Lotus Sutra opens the possibility of enlightenment to people whose arrogance and complacency had caused them to "scorch the seeds of Buddhahood." In earlier sutras such people had been condemned as being incapable of becoming Buddhas. An important implication of this principle, thus, is that there is no one who is beyond redemption.

In his writing, "On First Hearing the Teaching of the Supreme Vehicle," Nichiren develops this idea, stating that by using the power of the Mystic Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, one can transform the three paths of deluded impulses, karma and suffering into the three virtues of the Buddha, i.e., the Dharma body, wisdom and emancipation.

This can be understood to mean that any unfavorable situation can be changed into a source of value. More fundamentally, it is by challenging and overcoming painful circumstances that we grow as human beings.

How we respond to life's inevitable sufferings is the key. Negative, painful experiences are often necessary to motivate us. One Buddhist scripture describes illness as awakening the desire to seek the truth. Likewise, people have been inspired to a lifetime commitment to peace and justice by their experience of war and injustice.

The process of changing poison into medicine begins when we approach difficult experiences as an opportunity to reflect on ourselves and to strengthen and develop our courage and compassion. The more we are able to do this, the more we are able to grow in vitality and wisdom and realize a truly expansive state of life.

Suffering can thus serve as a springboard for a deeper experience of happiness. From the perspective of Buddhism, inherent in all negative experiences is this profound positive potential. However, if we are defeated by suffering or respond to challenging circumstances in negative and destructive ways, the original "poison" is not transformed but remains poison.

Buddhism teaches that suffering derives from karma, the causes that we ourselves have created. The Buddhist teaching of karma is one of personal responsibility. It is therefore our responsibility to transform sufferings into value-creating experiences. The Buddhist view of karma is not fixed or fatalistic--even the most deeply entrenched karmic patterns can be transformed.

By taking a difficult situation--illness, unemployment, bereavement, betrayal--and using it as an opportunity to deepen our sense of personal responsibility, we can gain and develop the kind of self-knowledge from which benefit flows. Buddhism teaches that self-knowledge ultimately is awareness of our own infinite potential, our capacity for inner strength, wisdom and compassion. This infinite potential is referred to as our "Buddha nature."

The original meaning of the phrase "to turn poison into medicine" relates to this level of self-knowledge.

In the "Belief and Understanding" chapter of the Lotus Sutra, Subhuti and others of the Buddha's long-time disciples respond to the prophecy that another disciple, Shariputra, will attain the ultimate enlightenment. The disciples admit that they had long ago given up on becoming Buddhas themselves, but that on hearing the teaching of the Lotus Sutra they renounced their earlier stance of resignation and spiritual laziness: "[T]heir minds were moved as seldom before and danced for joy." Nagarjuna and T'ien-t'ai (538--597) therefore compare the Buddha to a good doctor capable of turning poison (the laziness and resignation of the aged disciples) into medicine (a sincere aspiration for the ultimate enlightenment of Buddhahood).

This teaching of the possibility of profound transformation makes Buddhism a deeply optimistic philosophy. This optimism propels Buddhists as they seek to transform the negative and destructive tendencies within their lives as well as those in society and the world at large.

[Courtesy January 2002 SGI Quarterly][/quote

Nam myoho renge kyo

 

[PassTheDoobie]

Let's all combine our energies to encourage and support those who are new to this faith and practice.The very foundation of this practise is gongyo and daimoku. Together with our new members, let's stride to realise the highest life condition of "Buddhahood" and spend each day full of joy!

Daisaku Ikeda