The Search For Enlightenment

So many World Religions base their beliefs on a God, a Supreme Being, a Creator or an Entity whose existence is the focus of the religion’s belief. That God, or the followers of him (it’s usually a male god) have set down the laws or rules to tell the followers how to live their lives. The God is almost always the only true god, whose word is law and whose actions and will are unquestionable.

As a confirmed Atheist, that focus never sat comfortably in my psyche. I don’t think anyone really believes in a white haired old man sitting in the clouds these days, but there are millions of people who base their faith on a Being whose existence cannot be proven. In fact, many religions actively seek to dissuade followers from even trying to prove that existence.

I was schooled in the Sciences, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology as well as Psychology, and those sciences demand proof for each and every hypothesis. So when I stumbled, and that is the right way to describe it, upon Nichiren Buddhism, I was overjoyed to find that there was no supreme being and that every part of Practice demands we examine the results of that Practice as proof of it’s validity.

Nichiren Daishonin said that we should seek proof of the effectiveness of our Practice in the results it brings. He also says that if the results do not support the practice, that we should desist.

I don’t want anyone to think that I am putting Nichiren Buddhism above or before any other religion, I am only saying that, for me, it fits my thinking and for me, it works. I have been practicing a little while now, but I’m still learning new things every day, and the results have been amazing so the proof is there for me, and others to see.