I have always been prone to setting my expectations too high, and that leads to disappointment when the expectation isn’t met. My Dad, on the other hand, always seemed to be a bit pessimistic, he never appeared to have very high expectations, never got overexcited about things, so didn’t allow himself to show disappointment, or that was the way it looked to me.
Since I have been practicing Nichiren Buddhism I have an inner strength that helps me through difficult times. It is a great comfort and I would recommend it to anyone who is struggling with issues or problems.
The strange thing is that Buddhism doesn’t always make the problems go away, although that does sometimes happen, but it gives me a different way of looking at the situation and a focus that makes the problems more easy to understand and to bear.
In general, my life has been pretty easy. I have a very loving family, great parents and had a very stable home life in my formative years. I’ve been through a few troughs, the usual things like losing my grandparents and my father, and failed relationships, the same as every one else. I’m about to set off on a new career path of teaching, which could prove to be a challenge, but I truly believe that my inner strength will see me able to cope much better now.
If I were to try to pinpoint the single most important reason for this, I would say it was a new found mental calm. Now I’ve never been a fighter. At school I used to use humour to get out of the usual confrontations all kids get into. But I was prone to letting my feelings show, particularly when disappointment was involved.
It does seem that because I can now see the situation from all angles, just like those images on the web, where you can spin the item around and look at it every which way, I can rationalise things more easily. Being able to see a situation from other peoples perspective allows me to make sense of how things appear to them, and understand why they are reacting in the way they are.
It has changed my life, or at least the way I look at it, and it can help anyone. Maybe it could help you.
No matter the situation, make sure that the last thing you say is not something, you or the person you say it to, will regret for the rest of your lives.
It is very easy to be critical of others, particularly when they are out of earshot. It is, however, valuable to also look for their strengths, as you gain nothing by only criticising others imperfections.
There are two types of people in this world, and no not those who say ‘There are two types of people’ and those who don’t. The two types are those who are Radiators and those who are Drains.
With my recently announced redundancy still five months away, time is not yet of the essence to find alternative employment.
Whilst feeling a little adrift given my current situation and enraged by the lack of fairness in the way modern institutions and those in power treat us mere morals, I found this piece by Sensei rather encouraging …
We must never underestimate the power the mind has over our bodies. If we can remain positive, with high life-energy and in one of the higher worlds, not only will our bodies respond positively, but also those around us will feel more positive too. If we allow negativity to creep in the battle will be all the harder, and we will find that we do not inspire those who need our support to try that little bit harder to support themselves.
It is very easy to be critical of others, particularly when they are out of earshot. It is, however, valuable to also look for their strengths, as you gain nothing by only criticising others imperfections.
We all get them, those times when life just seems to get on top of us, we feel like we are drowning or being crushed by the pressure, we scream inside, but we know nobody can hear.
Every day we have highs and lows, wins and losses, good things happen, bad things happen, each and every day.
The Search For Enlightenment 
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