Expect Effects

14 May 2011 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: ,

Cause and EffectMany of us have a mental wish list, the things we would like, or would like to happen, in our lives.

Karma is, as we know, all about cause and effect, we make, or have made causes and we see the effects in our daily lives.

There is a wise old saying about being careful what you wish for, so formulate your wishes very carefully. Make sure that you are precise, with both the wants and the don’t wants, that is very important.

Remember too, that for every positive, there is an equal an opposite negative, to maintain the balance in the Universe, so be ready to embrace both. Like shoes, they come along in pairs

So if you have some deep seated wish, you must make that wish part of your heart, embed it into your life and make causes towards that goal, you have nothing to lose. But when you start making causes, don’t be surprised when the effects come along, sometimes much sooner than you expect.

The Limitation Of Changes

28 Mar 2011 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , ,

Sadness On The Path To HappinessI know that my Buddhist practice has changed the way I interact with everything and everyone in my own personal Universe.

The change is difficult to explain, and even more difficult to prove over the short term to others within that Universe.

Those difficulties are still further compounded by the fact that no matter how radical the change, nothing can change the past.

Like karma, my past was formed from the past causes I made. What I can do, is to try to make better causes now, and in the future. What I can not do, is influence the past.

That limitation is, I have to say, a very real sadness on this journey towards a happier and more enlightened future.

The Best Laid Plans

22 Mar 2011 6 Comments

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , ,

ButsudanTonight, ten of us attended the study group at Jayne and Ken Hawkins’ flat in Sandbanks.

The meeting had been planned by the Youth Division, there were several young people there and the topic had been set based around several poems about youth and the importance of youthfulness. The youth of today are, after all, the future.

We started to discuss a couple of the poems, but one lady, who had practiced Nichiren Buddhism in her youth, rather derailed the discussions when she started to explain that she had been rather ill, both physically and mentally. She wanted to know why she was being punished and told us that there were times when she felt she just could not face the future.

Whilst it wasn’t the planned discussion, it gave us all the opportunity to show our support and to help her see that she wasn’t being punished, that is was simply her karma to be suffering in the way she is.

Ken pointed out, that although she had been through some very difficult times, that was in the past and by focussing on the future, and making the right causes, that she could be confident of a much better future. We all tried to explain that the future was under her control.

I don’t think that this single meeting will change her current plight, but it will, if she is supported and resumes her practice, be the trigger for her to create a much better future for herself. After all, we are responsible for our own lives, and for creating the causes for the happiness we wish in our lives.

The meeting ended and I had offered Simon, the head of the youth division in Poole, a lift home. I had no idea that he had been cured, or rather, had cured himself, of Hodgkin Lymphoma, a form of cancer that attacks the body’s lymphatic system.

Whilst Charlotte’s cancer is slightly different, it had spread to the lymph glands under her arm, so is similar. Simon was very helpful and during the journey to Bournemouth, jotted down several natural remedies as well as some useful website addresses for me.

So an evening that was intended to be all about youth, turned into a support group for one of the members and a fact finding mission, albeit unwittingly, about cures and treatments for Charlotte’s condition.

When we chant, it always brings results, but as I have said on so many occasions, not always the results you might expect.

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.

Make Causes, See Effects

09 Mar 2011 2 Comments

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: ,

Creating Our Own DestinyI find it fascinating, that having searched for Buddhist study groups around Poole, and drawn a near blank, I make one cause and see such an immediate effect.

Finding the Salisbury study group, and attending the meeting last night, has directly resulted in me speaking with the husband of the SGI Poole district leader. Not only that, but there is a meeting tomorrow night, and I’m going.

So months after practically giving up trying to find like minded Nichiren Buddhists, even to the point of thinking I might need to try to start a local group, I am going to meet those very people tomorrow.

The law of cause and effect applies to everything in life and forms the basis of our Karma. The results of all the causes we create are the effects we see every day. The more good causes we create, the more good effects we see, and generally, the happier we are in our lives.

Dora, in The Buddha, Geoff and Me, explains that karma is a little like letters we write to ourselves. Many of those letters were written so long ago, that we have forgotten all about them. The nice letters are lovely surprises when they arrive. The nasty ones come as a bit of a shock, they may annoy us and we might even write another nasty one in response. Of course, in time, those responses get delivered too, so the cycle may repeat itself, time after time.

That is, of course, until you understand the way the process works. Once you realise that you create the causes, you can create causes for nice, or good effects, rather than going round and round forever.

Can there be a more important lesson to learn, to know that your karma, your future, is determined by you? It is the most empowering feeling, to take control of your life and to have your destiny in your own hands.

Amazing Resonance

08 Mar 2011 3 Comments

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , ,

Study Notes & BeadsTonight was my first study group meeting, and it was fantastic.

There were only five of us, I say only, but when we chanted together there was a melodic resonance that completely filled the room. Chanting alone is great, it boosts my life-energy and raises my life-state, but group chanting is like lone chanting on steroids.

A small altar was set up at the front of the room, with flowers, candles and a picture of Daisaku Ikeda surrounding the Omamori Gohonzon, a miniature copy of the Gohonzon.

Gongyo, chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo and part of The Lotus Sutra, took about thirty minutes although it just flew by.

We then discussed the nature of Karma. Mutable Karma, that which is created and experienced within this lifetime. Immutable Karma, that which was created in previous lifetimes and which can be experienced within this, or future lifetimes.

We discussed The Nine Consciousnesses. Sight, Hearing, Touch, Smell and Taste being our five senses as well as The Mind, The Subconscious, The Karmic Storehouse (alaya) and Buddha Nature (amala). We talked about how chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo allows us, with constant practice, to perceive all nine levels on consciousness.

There were study notes on all aspects covered during the discussion. We covered a lot, and the notes will help jog the memory on some of the finer points.

The group was very welcoming and happy to help me find a group nearer to home, so I may attend another meeting on Thursday near Poole. I was also given a gift of a book of lectures ‘On Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime’ by Daisaku Ikeda.

All in all a brilliant experience. Thank you all, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.

Karma Means Control

17 Feb 2011 4 Comments

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags:

LotusWhen something happens that we can’t explain, there is a tendency to blame fate, bad luck or coincidence. It is comfortable to believe that when something goes wrong, that we are at the beck and call of forces unknown and unseen.

The fact of the matter is, that all of us are in the position we find ourselves because of the effects of all the causes we have made in this, and previous lives.

In one way this can be quite scary, because it puts the onus of responsibility on our shoulders. On the other hand, it is very empowering to know that we have complete control of our own destiny and that we are not simply the plaything of these unknown forces.

Having said all this, it is important to remember that Karma is not some form of punishment, or reward, because there is just as much good Karma as bad.

So work hard to make causes and enjoy the results. Your Karma is made to measure and you have the ultimate control over your destiny.

Karma – A World View

04 Feb 2011 1 Comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , ,

Mohamed BouaziziBeing laid up with this bad back has given me a little more time to think.

Before I go any further, I would like to thank all the people who have taken the time to send their best wishes for my recovery. The good news is that the pain has lessened greatly and I’m on the mend.

I’ve been thinking about all the major events happening around the world. The political unrest in Egypt, the Yemen and Tunisia, cyclone Yasi in Queensland Australia, all examples of cause and effect.

People tend to think that Karma is a personal thing, but it also has a collective effect.

The riots in Tunisia, started by the self sacrifice of a single man, have empowered people and caused political change, maybe on a massive scale. The cause of the unrest, far from being Mohamed Bouazizi’s self immolation, was the corruption and oppression of the peoples of Tunisia.

Cyclone Yasi, the most powerful storm recorded in over a century is not due to the Karma of the Queensland inhabitants exclusively. Although they made the causes to be in the eye of the storm, the storm itself is a result of rising sea temperatures, an effect of global warming, which is your responsibility, my responsibility, the developed world’s responsibility for using ever more energy.

As I lay in my bed, it was easy to imagine that I was isolated from the rest of the world. But in fact, we are all connected, all of the time, however tenuously, through the Earth and ultimately through the Universe.

We must all change, we must consider the effects we are causing, and how much worse the disasters will become if we do not make that change.

Simplistic though that thought may be, through Kyo Chi Gyo I we can make the world a better, safer, happier place.

A Helping Hand

17 Jan 2011 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: ,

Ouch !!!Generally speaking, today has been a disappointing sort of a day, even for a Monday. No specifics, but disappointing non the less.

Having made it through to the time to go home, I was feeling flat, tired, emotional and generally down. As I drove away from work, I was wondering what the evening would bring.

There is always a queue to get through the town centre, but tonight seemed particularly slow. Then I came across the reason, a chap in a Fiat Punto, had broken down in the middle of the road.

Now a small part of my bad day had been contributed by a rather sore back, but in a fit of madness, I completely forgot about it and found myself offering to help, by pushing him into a nearby side road.

I parked up and having explained that you cannot push an automatic when it’s in park, we got things moving. Other motorists sat and watched, nobody offered any help, but we got it done. I made sure he had a mobile and was going to be able to get help to recover the car to a nearby garage and went back to my own car.

Only then did I notice that the pain in my back had completely gone.

Now, whatever it was that helped with the pain, adrenalin from the exertion, the physical effort of pushing the car on my own, whatever, my back is fixed.

Not only that, but helping a poor soul in need made me feel good too, and double points on the good karma scale into the bargain. Nice end to a dodgy day.

A Predictable Outcome

13 Jan 2011 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , ,

ballotAs I write this, there is a huge furore over the outcome of the Oldham by-election.

My question is, why? With the Coalition having to put the country through the financial mill, for pretty good reasons, you could have bet your shirt on the result.

In these kinds of by-elections, the people take the opportunity to give the Government a good kicking, safe in the knowledge that it won’t bring about any major change.

Let’s remember who put these politicians in power in the first place. We voted them in, because the alternative was even less palatable, and gave them the mandate to steer The Good Ship UK for a while.

We are all responsible for our own Karma, the result of all our actions, in this and previous lives, is where we are now. Both individually and collectively, we must take responsibility for those actions and understand that the outcome is our own doing.

So don’t moan when the results of your actions are not quite how you imagined they would be. If we want things to change, we must take the actions for that to happen.

Remembering Past Times

09 Jan 2011 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , ,

In The Court Of The Crimson KingI had a wonderful time today reliving my teenage years while watching a concert of Emerson, Lake and Palmer at the Isle of Wight on TV.

E. L. and P were one of the first supergroups and I was a huge fan back in those days. Along with groups like Cream, Yes, Pink Floyd, King Crimson and Led  Zeppelin, they wrote the soundtrack to my youth. I could name many, many others, but the list would fill the page.

Things were very different back then. An Afghan was an embroidered shaggy coat that smelt awful when it got wet, not what it means today. My first live concert was at the Town Hall in Birmingham. It cost 6/- (six shillings), 30p in today’s money, and I watched Genesis, Lindisfarne and Van der Graff Generator on their first tours and soaked up every last note.

But listening to the music today, some 40 years after I heard it the first time, revived memories in a way that only certain smells can emulate. I say smells, because in my case, the smell of steam engines takes me right back to childhood holidays in Margate. Each morning, or so I recall, my grandfather took me to the shunting yards to watch the tank engines arranging the commuter coaches into the trains for people to get to work. One whiff of coal smoke and oily steam, and I can see it all so clearly.

The music took me back to school days. Long hair, loons, tie-dye T shirts and evenings spent in my bedroom with the commandeered family PYE gramophone, and a reel to reel tape recorder blasting out the latest Progressive Rock tracks. I was supposed to be studying, or doing homework, but all I can remember is trying to pick out the chords on my six string and practicing riffs. No wonder my exam results suffered.

As those memories came flooding back, it got me thinking about how wonderful it would be if we could recall events from our past lives. I have been through past life regression sessions in the past, with some interesting results, but that’s not quite what I mean.

My life has been a cycle of repeated events, some good, others not so good, but the cycle is quite clear. Finally I have seen the light, I’m taking steps to avoid another cycle and learning from past mistakes.

My Buddhist Practice, and particularly the study of Karma, have made me look at the past in a different way. I now realise that I created the causes for that cycle to repeat and by stopping my life will change course forever. It can be a painful realisation, but not as painful as going on the way I had.

As a postscript, I would like to say a huge thank you to all those folks who read my blog, over 1000 of you now. I hope you enjoy, or at least gain something from, my thoughts.

Namaste,

Anupadin.

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