Chanting Growers Group

[SoCal Hippy]

"A life lived without purpose or value, the kind in which one doesn't know the reason why one was born, is joyless and lackluster. To just live, eat and die without any real sense of purpose surely represents a life pervaded by the world of Animality. On the other hand, to do, create or contribute something that benefits others, society and ourselves and to dedicate ourselves as long as we live to that challenge-that is a life of true satisfaction, a life of value. It is a humanistic and lofty way to live "

Daisaku Ikeda

 

[SoCal Hippy]

Whether or not your prayer is answered will depend upon your faith; [if it is not,] I will in no way be to blame. When the water is clear, the moon is reflected. When the wind blows, the trees shake. Our minds are like the water. Faith that is weak is like muddy water, while faith that is brave is like clear water. Understand that the trees are like principles, and the wind that shakes them is like the recitation of the sutra.

The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 1079
Reply to the Lay Nun Nichigon
Written to the lay nun Nichigon on November 29, 1280

 

[SoCal Hippy]

Buddhism spreads according to the time and the people’s capacity. Although I may not be worthy of this teaching, I expound it because the time is right.

The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 861
This is What I Heard
Written to the lay priest Soya Jiro on November 28, 1277

 

[SoCal Hippy]

Compassion is the very soul of Buddhism. To pray for others, making their problems and anguish our own; to embrace those who are suffering, becoming their greatest ally; to continue giving them our support and encouragement until they become truly happy-it is in such humanistic actions that the Daishonin’s Buddhism lives and breathes.

Daisaku Ikeda


Do not become subservient. Do not dwell on every tiny setback in the course of pursuing your chosen path. To do so would be foolish. Victory or defeat is determined by our entire lives. Moreover, our final years are the most crucial. What is enviable about the pretentious rich? What is great about conceited celebrities? What is admirable about political leaders who gained their positions of power by treating others with contempt? Dig right where you stand, for there lies a rich wellspring!

Daisaku Ikeda

 

[EasyMyohoDisco]

Thank you all! Each your kind words and posts really inspired me to keep going, faster than if I would not have been reading your posts for the last couple days. Onward and Upward.

Too many times I overrun myself with anxiety, desperation and excessive pressure because I'm always pushing myself as hard as possible and it gets overwhelming. Holidays hurt when I relive the suffering of family issues yet I go forward keep chanting. My chanting has helped me find so much good fortune that I'm living in a warm apartment, doing well in 4 out of 5 classes, and still employed. My circumstances before chanting made it very difficult for me to maintain even a portion of one the things I just mentioned not including all the other amazing things going on.

You know when you're just feeling downright shitty and having a tough time even going through the motions. That is what I've been going through recently. I needed the rest we got over the weekend and I look forward to going full speed ahead for another month.

Thanks everyone for all your encouragement. Let's finish up the year STRONG AND FEARLESSLY!

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo!

 

[SoCal Hippy]

Strive ever harder in faith, and never give in to negligence. All the
peoples appear to believe sincerely when they first embrace the Lotus
Sutra, but as time passes, they tend to become less devout; they no
longer revere or make offerings to the priest, giving themselves up to
arrogance and forming distorted views. This is most frightening.

(WND, 1027)
Letter to Niike
Written to Niike Saemon-no-jo in February 1280

 

[SoCal Hippy]

Faith is the ultimate essence of intellect. Through the practice of
correct faith, the intellect comes to shine. Intellect without correct
faith lacks a firm anchor in the soil of life and eventually becomes
disordered. This prompted the first Soka Gakkai president, Tsunesaburo
Makiguchi, to remark that many modern thinkers were suffering from what
he termed "higher psychosis." Faith without intellect, meanwhile, leads
to blind faith and fanaticism. Faith or intellect alone -- one without
the other -- is unhealthy.

Daisaku Ikeda

 

[SoCal Hippy]

Though water may be muddied, it will again become clear. Though the
moon may hide behind clouds, it will surely reappear. Similarly, in
time my innocence became apparent, and my predictions proved not to
have been in vain.

(WND, 1007)
Letter to the Lay Priest Nakaoki
Written to lay priest Nakaoki and his wife on November 30, 1279

 

[scegy]

besidehimself: welcome and i'll try to answear you, cos i'm going through the same questions lately: am i not a buddhist if i smoke weed? well the answear is in me, it has nothing to do with buddhism. cause and effect - if i'll smoke my whole life as much as i do now, my lounges or something will collaps probably, so therefore i'm making the cause with every joint i smoke, totally my decision. my plan is to smoke less and less through time, and refocus on other things that fulfill my life...

i mean, if i'm happy, why would i shorten my life with smoking all the time? i can do it once in a while and get my socks off, feel better, get more potent and quality high...

READ YOURSELF

I'm not sure I'd be able to take the 5th Precept at this point in my life, nah meen?

i know what you mean, but once you start chanting or dealing with your shit somehow, you get to the point that you just accept the fact that MJ helps you to stay passive in dosages and rates like mine.
the bold part is our decision, and another decision that Gohonzon let's me do it is that i've decieded to fight my problems even harder and get past the point that i need ganJAh so much.

hope you make some sense out of this, good day!

Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo

 

[SoCal Hippy]

"Now since you, Ueno Shichiro Jiro, are an ordinary person in the
latter age and were born to a warrior family, you should by rights be
called an evil man, and yet your heart is that of a good man. I say
this for a reason. Everyone, from the ruler on down to the common
people, refuses to take faith in my teachings. They inflict harm on
the few who do embrace them, heavily taxing or confiscating their
estates and fields, or, in some cases, even putting them to death. So
it is a difficult thing to believe in my teachings, and yet both your
mother and your deceased father dared to accept them. Now you have
succeeded your father as his heir, and without any prompting from
others, you too have wholeheartedly embraced these teachings. Many
people, both high and low, have admonished or threatened you, but you
have refused to give up your faith. Since you now appear certain to
attain Buddhahood, perhaps the heavenly devil and evil spirits are
using illness to try to intimidate you. Life in this world is limited.
Never be even the least bit afraid!"

Proof of the Lotus Sutra (WND,1109)

 

[SoCal Hippy]

Buddhism means putting the teachings into practice. Practice equals
faith. With sincere prayer and action, our desires cannot possibly fail
to be fulfilled. When you continue to apply yourselves to your Buddhist
practice toward kosen-rufu, solidifying and gaining mastery in your
faith, you will find that all your prayers will definitely be answered.

Daisaku Ikeda

 

[SoCal Hippy]

I vowed to summon up a powerful and unconquerable desire for the
salvation of all beings and never to falter in my efforts.

(WND, 240)
The Opening of the Eyes
Written to Shijo Kingo in February 1272

 

[SoCal Hippy]

There is no coincidence in Buddhism.
In the darkest times, you should triumph with resolute prayer all the more.

"Reply to Yasaburo," WND I p. 829

 

[SoCal Hippy]

Nichiren Daishonin writes, "If you light a lantern for another, it will also brighten your own way" (Gosho Zenshu, p. 1598).
Please be confident that the higher your flame of altruistic action burns, the more its light will suffuse your life with happiness. Those who possess an altruistic spirit are the happiest people of all.

Daisaku Ikeda

 

[scegy]

http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103677
rewind to 19:45

"have a drink once in a while, and if u devote your whole life to completely avoiding something you like, then that thing still controls your life and you've never learned any discipline at all...the discipline come from within"

good night buddhas

 

[SoCal Hippy]

One hundred sixty years ago, the Lotus Sutra was first introduced to
America by the emerging circles of New England Transcendentalism,
amidst a defining era in American intellectual, literary, and social
history from the 1830s to 1860s. This also was a time that some
scholars have referred to as the "American Renaissance of orientalism."

The movement's most famous thinkers were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry
David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. Through a brief consideration of
their masterpieces, such as Emerson's Essays, Thoreau's Walden, and
Whitman's Leaves of Grass, we can see how their views of the
universe resonate with that of the Lotus Sutra, specifically in light
of the key Buddhist principle of "dependent origination."

Living Buddhism 10/01/2004

 

[SoCal Hippy]

dependent origination

[縁起・因縁] (Skt pratitya-samutpada; Pali pati-ccha-samuppada; Jpn engi or innen )
Also, dependent causation or conditioned co-arising. A Buddhist doctrine expressing the interdependence of all things. It teaches that no beings or phenomena exist on their own; they exist or occur because of their relationship with other beings and phenomena. Everything in the world comes into existence in response to causes and conditions. That is, nothing can exist independent of other things or arise in isolation. The doctrine of the twelve-linked chain of causation is a well-known illustration of this idea. See also twelve-linked chain of causation.

(source: http://www.sgilibrary.org )

 

[SoCal Hippy]

twelve-linked chain of causation

[十二因縁・十二縁起] (Jpn juni-innen or juni-engi )
Also, twelve nidanas or twelve-linked chain of dependent origination. An early doctrine of Buddhism showing the causal relationship between ignorance and suffering. The Sanskrit word nidana means cause or cause of existence. Shakyamuni is said to have taught the twelve-linked chain of causation in answer to the question of why people have to experience the sufferings of aging and death. Each link in the chain is a cause that leads to the next. The first link in the chain is ignorance (Skt avidya ), which gives rise to (2) action (samskara) (also, volition or karmic action); (3) action causes consciousness (vijnana), or the function to discern; (4) consciousness causes name and form (nama-rupa), or spiritual and material objects of discernment; (5) name and form cause the six sense organs (shad-ayatana); (6) the six sense organs cause contact (sparsha); (7) contact causes sensation (vedana); (8) sensation causes desire (trishna); (9) desire causes attachment (upadana); (10) attachment causes existence (bhava); (11) existence causes birth (jati); and (12) birth causes aging and death (jara-marana).The twelve-linked chain of causation is seen in two ways: the way of transmigration and the way of emancipation. From the viewpoint of the way of transmigration, ignorance gives rise to action, action causes con-sciousness, etc.; finally, birth causes aging and death as explained above. Thus one is caught in the cycle of delusion and suffering. On the other hand, from the viewpoint of the way of emancipation, if ignorance is wiped out, so is action; if action is wiped out, so is consciousness, etc.; finally, if birth is wiped out, so are aging and suffering. In short, if one eliminates ignorance, which is the source of suffering, one becomes free from the cycle of delusion and suffering, or attains nirvana.The Great Commentary on the Abhidharma, a text of the Sarvastivada school, views the twelve-linked chain of causation as operating over the three existences of life, meaning one's past, present, and future existences. (1) Ignorance and (2) action are together interpreted as the causes created in a past life; (3) consciousness through (7) sensation, as the effects manifest in the present life; (8) desire through (10) existence, as the causes created in the present life; and (11) birth and (12) aging and death, as the effects manifest in the next life. Aging and death in this life are thus the results of causes formed in a previous life.

(source: http://www.sgilibrary.org )

 

[en-lighten-ment]

Hi Every one,

We just got back from a short vacation in S.F.. We had a great time. I hope every one else is doing well and had great holiday weekend.

I like your quote Scegy.

Could any of you practicing bodhisattvas give me your view on marijuana, specifically as it relates to the 5th of the Precepts?

Do you ever feel you are enabling mindlessness for yourself and others through marijuana?

Don't get me wrong I love getting high, was just researching Buddhism lately and wanted to find a take on that issue specifically, from a Buddhist that smokes.

I'm not sure I'd be able to take the 5th Precept at this point in my life, nah meen?

I will like to try to answer your question but keep in mind I am just a newb. There is a big difference between using canna as a medicine or supplement and using it as a means of escape from your life. I think you will find that if you use anything as a "drug" or means of escape to often you will suffer immediate consequences including karmic( kind of like running into a brick wall). It also seems to me in my newb perspective of the situation that trying to escape your life is the exact opposite of Nichiren Buddhism. Which seems to preach proactively embracing life and your community.

Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo!

 

[SoCal Hippy]

All these things I have done solely to repay the debt I owe to my
parents, the debt I owe to my teacher, the debt I owe to the three
treasures of Buddhism, and the debt I owe to my country. For their sake
I have been willing to destroy my body and to give up my life, though
as it turns out, I have not been put to death after all.

(WND, 728)
On Repaying Debts of Gratitude
Written to Joken-bo and Gijo-bo on July 21, 1276