Every day can be an adventure into the unknown. If we allow ourselves to go with the flow of events, we can find ourselves in new situations, with new challenges. Making assumptions about where life will take us, to expect the mundane, the ordinary, the usual, may mean that we walk straight past the very opportunity we need to take our lives in a completely different and exciting direction.
The belief taught in the Lotus Sutra provides no easy answers, no escape route from the difficulties of human life. In fact it firmly rejects such easy answers, and instead implores us to take up the two tools for exploring life. The use of those tools, belief and understanding, allows us to continually challenge, and work to perfect, ourselves. When combined with the practice of chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, they also provide us with the wisdom, courage and compassion and the energy to do just that.
Ultimately, happiness rests on how you establish a solid sense of self or being. Happiness does not lie in outward appearances or vanity. It is a matter of what you feel inside, it is a deep resonance in your life.
Of course there is a sadness about the passing of Steve Jobs, the Apple guy, but it’s only ‘so long’ and not goodbye. Steve will be back with us very shortly, granted in a different form, but as a practising Buddhist, he believed it, and we all do too.
In Nichiren Buddhism, attaining enlightenment is not about embarking on some inconceivably long journey to become a resplendent, godlike Buddha, it is about accomplishing a transformation in the depths of one’s being.
They are estimating the Friday Euro Lottery draw will have a jackpot of €100,000,000. What would you do with that kind of money? Buy a fancy car, a posh house, even buy Greece? It’s a pipedream for so many people, which is where all the money comes from, from the tickets that people buy. For many, it is, in effect, their only realistic route to such riches. Or is it?
Having had a nice long weekend, with beautiful weather and plenty of time for chanting, had left me well rested and ready for the start of a new week. It’s well documented that I’m allergic to Mondays, they are always busy with the build up of orders, questions and issues from the weekend. But with my batteries fully charged I was ready to meet the challenge head on.
Probably the best aspect of living alone, is that it allows plenty of time to let me find out who I really am. Wisdom is rooted in the souls of human beings. One way to acquire it is to follow the simple advice of Socrates, to ‘Know thyself’. This is the starting point for the establishment of a sense of human dignity, preventing the degradation of human beings into anonymous, interchangeable cogs in a machine. The essence of true knowledge is self-knowledge.
Amazingly, today is the anniversary of my blog, and there’s been a post each and every day. As it says in the 
The initial tests Charlotte has had have come back with very good results, but they want to do more to find out why she feels a bit wobbly now and then. In my mind, it’s hardly surprising seeing as she in in the middle of a course of aggressive chemotherapy and is looking after three little boys at the same time.
The Search For Enlightenment 
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