The Search For Enlightenment

Having basked in the warmth of one success after another, I have issued myself a warning not to rest on my laurels.

Buddhist practice is like a dog, for life, not just for Christmas, and must be part of your very being.

I’m not suggesting that I have been back sliding, because I haven’t, but I feel I can still do more towards my goal. The difficulty is getting the balance right, treading a fine line between strenuous regular practice and learning, and an obsession with the new way of life.

Given the fact that the whole point of adopting Buddhism as a way of life is to gain a happier existence for me and those around me, I need to get this right.

Those of you who know me, know that I have an addictive nature and throw myself into new ventures wholeheartedly. The problem, in the past, has been keeping that going. I have been, I admit openly, in the World of Hunger, for most of my life, always looking for the next new thing.

I am certain that I am addressing that and making some headway, but self criticism is healthy in this respect.

One reason for keeping this blog is to prove to myself that I have changed, and that I have the drive and desire to keep my practice strong. You have my permission to tell me, if you see cracks appearing.

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.

Having waited months for this special day to arrive, the inevitable has happened, it’s been postponed.

Ok, so it’s only by a few hours, a day at the most, but time was when I would have been distraught. Not this time.

My inner strength is amazing even me and I remain stoic and unfazed by the whole thing.

It’s so good to feel ‘in control’ and be in a position to be able to see the good things in what is, after all, a potential disappointment.

Onwards and upwards, and chanting wins again.

It started off as one of those days, I was due to drop my car off at the my local dealership to have a fault sorted, something I had been putting off for a while, but knew I had to get fixed.

The traffic was horrendous and I was late arriving, but the receptionist was kind and said she would call me when they had identified the problem and knew the cost of repair.

My colleague kindly gave me a lift into work, but we were both late and walking into the office I managed to take a chunk of my thumb off on the office door. Then we found that one of our senior managers was sitting waiting for us … and so it went on.

No call had come from the garage by lunchtime, never a good sign, so I called them. It appeared that the fault was taking some time to track down, so the receptionist said she would call me when they knew more.

At about 3:00pm the call arrived. They had found a problem with the electronics in the braking circuit and the car needed a new command module. The lady was very apologetic but said the repair would be about £550, far more than I had expected.

Chatting to the guys in the office, there was talk about how it ‘always costs more to service the car than expected’, ‘they always find something wrong’ and how I shouldn’t be surprised.

Having let the news sink in, I decided to chant for some kind of help with the situation, before I set off to collect the car. I found a quiet corner and gave it my all.

Talking to the lady in the service department, it became clear that there was no way round the repair. Brakes on a car do not really come under the ‘nice to have’ category, so I was going to have to cough up.

Then she stopped and told me she was going to have a word with the service manager, to see if they could soften the blow in some way. After a couple of minutes she returned, and smiling, she told me that there was good news. It appears that the module I needed was still under manufacturers warranty, even though the rest of the car isn’t, and that they would replace the part free of charge.

You could have knocked me down with a feather.

Now I’m not saying that the chanting tipped the scales, but things like this seem to be happening far more since I took my practice seriously. The more I chant, the better life is getting. Not just for me, but for those around me too.

You may be sceptical if you want, but I’m chalking this one up to more proof that my Nichiren Buddhism practice is working. To paraphrase Gary Player, the great golfer, ‘The more I practice, the more fortunate I become’.