The Search For Enlightenment

I find it fascinating, that having searched for Buddhist study groups around Poole, and drawn a near blank, I make one cause and see such an immediate effect.

Finding the Salisbury study group, and attending the meeting last night, has directly resulted in me speaking with the husband of the SGI Poole district leader. Not only that, but there is a meeting tomorrow night, and I’m going.

So months after practically giving up trying to find like minded Nichiren Buddhists, even to the point of thinking I might need to try to start a local group, I am going to meet those very people tomorrow.

The law of cause and effect applies to everything in life and forms the basis of our Karma. The results of all the causes we create are the effects we see every day. The more good causes we create, the more good effects we see, and generally, the happier we are in our lives.

Dora, in The Buddha, Geoff and Me, explains that karma is a little like letters we write to ourselves. Many of those letters were written so long ago, that we have forgotten all about them. The nice letters are lovely surprises when they arrive. The nasty ones come as a bit of a shock, they may annoy us and we might even write another nasty one in response. Of course, in time, those responses get delivered too, so the cycle may repeat itself, time after time.

That is, of course, until you understand the way the process works. Once you realise that you create the causes, you can create causes for nice, or good effects, rather than going round and round forever.

Can there be a more important lesson to learn, to know that your karma, your future, is determined by you? It is the most empowering feeling, to take control of your life and to have your destiny in your own hands.