To me, and maybe to many of you, when we hear that we automatically assume we have to 'give up' desire, or material possessions, or dreams or whatever. He explained to me so beautifully, to overcome attachments in Nichiren Buddhism simply means to overcome our attachment to our fears, our mistrust, our incorrect beliefs, our past, etc. He said that we suffer because we have an attachment to our pain and suffering, and if we can chant to understand the origin of the pain and suffering, and then 'let go' we will, quite quickly overcome our need to perpetuate it and begin to attach ourselves to our Buddhahood and the mystic law.

Then our lives will open in a huge way, fulfilling all desires and dreams. He said that we attach ourselves to our suffering because 'the effect is what we're familiar with.'

So, he encouraged me (as I am now encouraging you) to place my trust in the mystic law. To place my trust in my Buddhahood and when Nichiren Daishonin said in "On attaining Buddhahood In This Lifetime," if you think the mystic law is outside yourself, you are embracing not the mystic law but an inferior teaching.

How we can interpret that is, anything or anyone (parents, friends, lovers, you name it) who has made us believe that we weren't good enough, or lovable, or worthy, or deserving and that now is the time to discard that belief, and place our trust in the power and truth of our own lives.

One last thing he said was that when we are chanting for our dreams and desires and we get negative feedback from the environment or it seems that something just isn't, or can't happen, he said that is our 'cue,' our opportunity to transform the karma. He said we have two choices, one is to give up, the other is to chant with complete conviction that we will transform the doubt and lack of self worth we have about ourselves (another attachment).

The environment reflects both our positive and negative tendencies and most of the time the negatives one’s being how we "genuinely" feel about ourselves. He said, this is the Buddhism of cause, but we keep trying to change/manipulate the effect. He said, we must focus on our own lives and eradicate our feelings of lack of self worth. The environment will respond to our treasuring and valuing our lives accordingly.

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This page was last modified on Sunday, August 20, 2006.