The Search For Enlightenment

This morning was great. The sun was shining and the short trip to Jack Horwood’s house in Wimborne, for the meeting, was traffic free.

I really like the idea that the SGI districts have men’s and women’s meetings, as well as meetings for everyone. This morning was a men’s meeting and there were half a dozen of us in attendance.

Of course Jack and Ken were there, as was Boots, who appears to have a season ticket, because he’s been at every meeting I have attended since finding the local groups. Good on you Boots. Thierry and Jeff arrived a little later, having come from Dorchester. Jack has a beautiful garret room, dedicated to his Butsudan, very conducive to concentrating on Practice and study.

Having had a quick coffee, which was very welcome and did a good job of waking me up, we sat and chanted, guided by Ken. Again, the energy of the group was amazing, and being all male voices, the dynamic of the resonance was different from that at the mixed meetings.

I know I’ve said this a number of times, but the energy levels at group chanting sessions are so much higher than when I chant alone. It’s a bit addictive if I’m honest.

Following Gongyo, the group discussion started with Thierry reading some quotes, from the last few days, from Daisaku Ikeda’s book Buddhism Day By Day. It has, as you might expect, a quote for every day of the year. and as with all Sensei’s writings, they were full of wisdom and provided several interesting talking points. The discussion continued on a varied and diverse number of topics, with much humour, but with much to absorb, me being a complete novice compared to the others.

I was given the honour of closing the meeting by chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo and ringing the bell three times. Even I couldn’t muck that up.

So the morning flew by and, as always, I left feeling full of life-energy, having learned more about the Practice and Nichiren Buddhism in general.

My thanks to Jack for being the perfect host, and to the guys for making me welcome as usual.