There are times when you need to take a pace backwards, re-evaluate your situation and start to rebuild from a position of strength.
On my path to enlightenment, my epiphany moment came whilst I was reading, or rather listening to, The Buddha, Geoff and Me by Edward Canfor-Dumas. Ok, so it’s a story, it’s not a text book or a definitive work of Buddhist teaching, but it changed my life, forever.
I have many books on Buddhism, in fact most of my limited library consists of them. Nichiren’s writings, Daisaku Ikeda’s writings, study materials and dictionaries, that help me learn the finer details about my religion. But the fact is that, for me, none of them strike that unique chord that brought me to Nichiren Buddhism in the first place.
So I have taken that pace back, I’m re-reading The Buddha, Geoff and Me, and it’s working. The chord is resonating once again, I’m fired up about my belief, and feeling all the better for it.
This post may come as a bit of a shock to some of you who read the blog regularly. So let me just explain a little more. My faith has never wavered, my chanting is as constant and central to my life as it has been from the start, but now I feel ‘unburdened’ from some of the fog that had started to cloud my view. Maybe my mirror needed polishing, I’m sure it still does, but I am confident that I am going about it the right way, and that feels good.
The Search For Enlightenment 
Sep 06, 2011 @ 11:37:35
There is a relationship with your blog on Shakyamuni and this one today. Nichiren recognised the importance of Shakyamuni’s teachings, saying (I paraphrase) that the significance in his being in this world was his behaviour as a human being. He had great integrity towards the Law, he was peaceful but wasn’t a ’60’s “peace and love man” type character. He wasn’t averse to putting somebody straight very strictly, on one occasion castigating Devadatta in front of the assembly. Nichiren wasn’t handsome and was physically very ordinary but he had also great integrity of the Law. The importance of Nichiren Buddhism is that the emphasis is on the cause, whilst Shakyamuni’s was about the effect. The book you mentioned is powerful because it uses all of the teachings of Nichiren Buddhism and puts them into today’s context, something we all have to do in our own way. To those who know ECD, the events are very real. The teachings have to be in the context of our daily reality or else they are just an academic exercise. So all of the study material is our user manual for creating our own special script.We each write the script of our lives and each decision we make each day, changes that script. It is always our choice. More power to your elbow! Great blog!