I 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 relatively short term, to others within that Universe.
Those difficulties are still further compounded by the fact that no matter how radical the changes, 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. However, the changes I am making now, appear to be creating a better and brighter future for everyone.
There was once an old lady who cried all the time. Her elder daughter was married to an umbrella merchant while the younger daughter was the wife of a noodle vendor. On sunny days, she worried, “Oh no! The weather is so nice and sunny. No one is going to buy any umbrellas. What will happen if the shop has to be closed?” These worries made her sad. She just could not help but cry.
This is nothing about the motto of the Boy Scout movement. It is about being ready to face whatever life may throw at you. Life challenges us daily. There are joyous days and days of suffering. Sometimes really unpleasant things happen, but this variety is actually what makes life so interesting. The dramas we encounter are part and parcel of being human.
A man was offered the chance to visit Heaven and Hell. Upon entering Hell he was greeted by the sight of an infinitely long room filled with tables laden with the finest of foods, meat, fruit, wine and all manner of delicacies. But around the tables sat groups of starving people, crying out in their hunger. He realised that each person was holding a spoon, but the spoons were so long that they were unable to feed themselves.
Funny how Nichiren Buddhism, and the principle of Cause and Effect, keeps proving itself over and over again.
When bad things happen to us, events that we can’t explain, there is a tendency to blame fate, bad luck or coincidence. It is perhaps more comfortable to believe that when something goes wrong, we are at the beck and call of forces unknown and unseen.
It seems to be a recurring story, but for so many of people I know, with the exception of a couple of high points, 2013 has been a year of sadness, and another one that most will be happy to see the back of.
Many things happen in life. There are joyous days and times of suffering. Sometimes unpleasant things occur. But that’s what makes life so interesting. The dramas we encounter that are part and parcel of being human.
So many of the ills in modern society are driven, if not caused, by our insatiable desire to earn, to own, to use, more and more.
The Search For Enlightenment 
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