Do you ever find yourself getting into a state over a situation that is mainly in your own head?
If your world is not anchored by your faith and is dependant on factors outside your control, your imagination can run riot.
Our Fundamental Darkness, or my Dark Passenger, is a devious character and will use everything to get it’s way. Your imagination is one of it’s most powerful weapons.
This is how I was until I found Nichiren Buddhism, and it is a very precarious state in which to live. Each day can be up, or down, at the whim of something or someone else, and that’s no way to go through life, particularly if that something or someone cannot be relied upon. Everything, everyone changes over time, so basing your happiness on them is bound to fail, sooner or later.
Taking back control of your life is simple, it is a state of mind, a determination to re-centre, re-focus your life. That certainly doesn’t mean that you have to rid yourself of the something or someone, and it doesn’t mean that your relationship with them is any less important. It’s just that your life centres around something infinitely stable, and that can make all the difference in the world.
My anchor, my honzon is my practice, and I’m a better, calmer, more contented person for that. I am happier for that, and at the end of the day, isn’t that what we all seek from life, a little more happiness?
So many of us wish for things we would like, or wish to be things we aren’t. Short people wish they were taller, plump people wish they were thin, people with straight hair wish it was curly, people with curly hair wish it was straight.
A great work of art is one that truly moves and inspires you. The test is when you yourself are moved. Don’t look at art with anyone else’s eyes. Don’t listen to music with others’ ears. You should view art with your own feelings, your own heart and mind.
Having confidence in yourself, in your faith, and in my case, my practice is a really comfortable place to be. But simply having someone else question that confidence can be a good thing at times, even though it might leave you questioning yourself.
Do not become depressed or downhearted. Do not dwell on every tiny setback in the course of pursuing your chosen path. To do so would be foolish.
The human being is not, as some people seem to believe, a frail wretch at the mercy of fate.
We’re all still reeling under the onslaught of the continuing bad weather in Great Britain. The sheer volume of rain, combined with the tremendously strong winds shows us how powerful nature can be, and with continuing red flood alerts, just how fragile our existence on this Earth really is.
In his writings regarding Buddhist practice, Nichiren repeatedly emphasized the importance of the heart.
The Search For Enlightenment 
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