The story of my path to Buddhahood through the teachings of Nichiren Daishonin
15 Jan 2014 Leave a comment
in Buddhism Tags: Oneness Of Self And The Environment, Practice, Reflection, Respect, Self Awareness, Wisdom Courage and Compassion
The misfortune of others is our misfortune. Our happiness is the happiness of others. To see ourselves in others and feel an inner oneness and sense of unity with them represents a fundamental revolution in the way we view and live our lives.
Therefore, discriminating against another person is the same as discriminating against oneself. When we hurt another, we are hurting ourselves. And when we respect others, we respect and elevate our own lives as well.
~ Daisaku Ikeda
17 Dec 2013 Leave a comment
in Buddhism Tags: Life-Energy, Life-State, Self Awareness, Self Discipline, Self Improvement, Ten Worlds
The advent of each day brings us joys and challenges, each of which have the ability to alter our life-state in some way. Joys tend to raise our life-state, challenges may lower it if we let them, and therein lies the conundrum. We need to be vigilant, to observe our life-state from moment to moment, but in doing so, we affect that life-state.
Just as in quantum physics, the mere act of observation affects the phenomenon being observed, self observation of our life-state can, and most likely will affect it too. Imagine a situation where you become angry because something has not gone the way you would like. Initially you may be reacting instinctively, in an animalistic fashion. But as soon as you realise that you are reacting in such a manner, in other words, you observe your life-state, there is a large chance that you will change to that of a more calm and reflective mood, even into a state of tranquillity.
So we have this little test for ourselves. We must be, as far as possible, aware of our life-state. Ideally we want to be in one of the higher states, not grubbing around in the worlds of Hell, Hunger, Animality or Anger, but in Learning, Realisation, Bodhisattva or even Buddhahood. The act of testing can help us raise our life-state through awareness, which is a good thing. But be warned, when the results come back, and you find you are in one of the lower worlds, that can be a sobering moment, when you realise that you are not as far along the path to enlightenment as you would like to be.
10 Dec 2013 Leave a comment
in Buddhism Tags: Books, Buddhist Practice, Learning, Nichiren Buddhism, Practice, Self Awareness, Self Improvement, Ten Worlds
Every now and then it is a good thing to brush up on the basics. That applies to pretty much everything in life, be it academic, occupational, sporting or more especially spiritual.
Let’s imagine that the Government decided to bring in some form of driving test for experienced drivers. Now I have been driving since the 6th of March 1973, over 40 years, since petrol was 50p a gallon, not a litre, a gallon, so I consider myself to be pretty experienced.
I fear however, that were I asked to take a driving test tomorrow, I would fail. Not because I am a bad driver, but because I have picked up bad habits over the years, habits that would be frowned upon in a test environment.
So what, I hear you ask, has this got to do with The Ten Worlds or the World of Learning. Well, having been a Buddhist for a little over a third of the time I have been driving, I have picked up bad habits there too. Well not bad habits exactly, but the lessons I learned in the early years have been reinforced by lessons learned more recently, reinforced, but also made slightly out of focus.
When you feel a loss of focus, there is only one thing to do, so I am studying the basics yet again, to generally sharpen up my Buddhist act once more. Besides, the World of Learning is a wonderful place, so rather than filling me with any form of dread, it fills me with a renewed excitement and a yearning to re-examine all I have learned to date.
09 Dec 2013 Leave a comment
in Buddhism Tags: Bad, Challenges, Changes, Confidence, Daisaku Ikeda, Good, Happiness, Life-State, Sadness, Self, Self Awareness, Self Discipline, Self Improvement
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.
If we experienced no change or drama in our lives, if nothing unexpected ever happened, we would merely be like automatons, our lives unbearably monotonous and dull.
Therefore, it is important to develop a strong self so that you can enact the drama of your life with confidence and poise in the face of whatever challenges you may encounter.
~ Daisaku Ikeda
21 Nov 2013 5 Comments
in Buddhism Tags: Atheism, Nichiren Buddhism, Nichiren Daishonin, Self Awareness, Self Improvement
So many of the World Religions base their beliefs on a God, a Supreme Being, a Creator or an Entity whose existence is the focus of the religion’s belief.
As a confirmed Atheist, that focus never sat comfortably in my psyche. I don’t think anyone really believes in a white haired old man sitting in the clouds these days, but there are millions of people who base their faith on a Being whose existence cannot be proven. In fact, many religions actively seek to dissuade followers from even trying to prove that existence.
I was schooled in the Sciences, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology as well as Psychology, and those sciences demand proof for each and every hypothesis. So when I stumbled, and that is the right way to describe it, upon Nichiren Buddhism, I was overjoyed to find that there was no supreme being and that every part of Practice demands we examine the results of that Practice as proof of it’s validity.
Nichiren Daishonin said that we should seek proof of the effectiveness of our Practice in the results it brings. He also says that if the results do not support the practice, that we should desist.
I don’t want anyone to think that I am putting Nichiren Buddhism above or before any other religion, I am only saying that, for me, it fits my thinking and for me, it works. Although I have been practicing for a little while now, I am still learning new things every day, and the results have been amazing so the proof is there for me, and others to see.
18 Nov 2013 Leave a comment
in Buddhism Tags: Death, Determination, Life, Life-Energy, Mindfulness, Self Awareness
If you think about it, although we may not be destined to die five minutes from now, we are all, without exception, going to die at some point. We can count on it 100%. There is nothing surer than this.
Victor Hugo said, “We are all under sentence of death, but with a sort of indefinite reprieve.”
Ideally, we should live every minute of our lives mindfully, as if it were the last moment of our lives. Those who live aimlessly are left with a sense of emptiness at the end of their lives, but those who live all-out, striving to achieve their goals right to the end, will die peacefully.
Leonardo da Vinci said “As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well used brings happy death.”
One who is aware that death could come at any time, will live each day to the fullest. So don’t wait for something to happen, or someone to come along, before you start living, do it now.
17 Nov 2013 Leave a comment
in Buddhism Tags: Enlightenment, Learning, Lessons, Life, Progress, Self Awareness, Self Determination, Self Improvement, Wisdom
I love the way this poem beautifully encapsulates the stages of learning, and the long, long road to enlightenment …
Life is a series of lessons. As our wisdom increases, we learn more and more from each lesson. Be heartened by your progress, do not be down-hearted by the mistakes you make, they are a sure sign that you are living life to the full.
15 Nov 2013 Leave a comment
in Buddhism Tags: Bodhisattva, Buddhahood, Enlightenment, Self Awareness, Self Determination, Self Improvement, Ten Worlds
You know the saying about taking the rough with the smooth? Well life generally consists of a mixture of good times and bad times, happiness and sadness, health as well as sickness. In general, it is the ratio of these opposites that makes us feel that life is going well, or going badly.
Buddhism teaches us that human life is endowed simultaneously with both good and evil. The human mind is interpreted as partaking of ten different conditions, or states, the Ten Worlds, including, at one end of the scale, hell, which is filled with suffering; hunger, dominated by greed; and animality, characterized by fear of the strong and contempt for the weak.
At the other end are the worlds of Bodhisattva and Buddhahood – states of mind in which people strive to help others by eliminating suffering and imparting happiness. Buddhism further teaches us that it is the nature of life for good and evil to be essentially inseparable.
As we have seen previously, all ten worlds contain, and are contained within the other worlds. This explains how we can be flying high one second and down in the dumps the next, generally at the whim of some external cause.
By realising that the worlds are so interconnected, we can learn to exercise more control over our changing life-states, or mood swings as they are commonly known. The result of greater self-awareness, brought about by the self-improvement that our practice brings, is that we can maintain a more stable, happier state of mind, and isn’t that the whole point?
28 Oct 2013 Leave a comment
in Buddhism Tags: Experience, Illusions, Self Awareness, Self Improvement, Wisdom Courage and Compassion
Illusion about the true nature of existence is literally illusion about the nature of one’s own life. This is the fundamental source of all illusions.
If we are ignorant about the nature of our own existence, then we will be ignorant about the nature of other people’s lives too.
On the other hand, when our lives are free from illusion, we perceive the treasure that shines resplendent in all people. in all beings.
22 Oct 2013 Leave a comment
in Buddhism Tags: Enlightenment, Learning, Self Awareness, Self Discipline, Self Improvement, Wisdom Courage and Compassion
The path to enlightenment involves a lot of learning, much of it about yourself.
Wisdom is rooted in the souls of human beings. The way to acquire it is to follow the simple advice of Socrates – ‘Know Thyself’.
This is the starting point for the establishment of a sense of human dignity, preventing the degradation of human beings into anonymous, interchangeable cogs in a machine.
The essence of true knowledge is self knowledge.
The Search For Enlightenment 
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