In the Gosho “Letter to the Brothers”, Nichiren Daishonin says: ‘The cart which overturns on the road ahead is a warning to the one behind. In a time like this no one can help but thirst for the true way. You may hate this world but you cannot escape…. You must endure this trial and see for yourselves the blessings of the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren Daishonin will also loudly call upon the Buddhist gods. Now more than ever, you must neither show nor feel any fear. (Major Writings, Vol.1, p.139).

When Dr. Kawada (Director of the Institute of Oriental Philosophy) was asked how we can recognize the qualities of Buddhahood beginning to work in our lives, he answered with one word: ‘Courage!’.

We can change the fear, insecurity and lack of confidence by starting to like ourselves and therefore beginning to have more confidence. Once you’re happy within yourself, other people respond positively. If you are in harmony with yourself, others will be too. Only, it’s confusing when you don’t know how to get in harmony. There are different ways to live and different lifestyles. Your lifestyle is not what determines your happiness. What matters is to draw out your Buddha nature.

Fundamentally, Buddhahood is about having the confidence to be our true selves wherever we are and whatever is happening. This means really appreciating life itself. When we appreciate our own lives and the lives of others, we are able to perceive things and act in a different way – a creative and positive way.

Stress is often the cause of diseases. And stress itself is usually the effect of lack of confidence, like, that things will work out (which causes insecurity to come out); or always trying to control things with your mind (which causes anger to come out); and thirdly, the fear for commitment. When we start the process by facing the lack of commitment to ourselves and others, fear and anger will come out as physical symptoms of our spiritual ‘poison’. If we don’t take care and speak out for ourselves, how can we take care of others?

The opposite of fear is courage. When you have the courage to face yourself, you can overcome the fear. Fear is there because we don’t want to see or acknowledge something. Karma in itself is not good or bad, but what we create from it is important. If we try to cover it up and pretend to be something we are not, then we suffer deeply. It is one’s reaction to one’s karma that matters. If you don’t fear something you can’t discover your courage. Courage is one of the qualities of Buddhahood. So you could say that your own fear leads you directly to your Buddhahood.

People sometimes think that to change your karma means to change your physical circumstances and even your personality. Changing your karma, or human revolution if you like, means that in spite of, or rather because of you become happy anyway. After all, you can’t change the basic essence of yourself. The point is to learn to really enjoy and value your own life, here and now. To overcome fear (which is a small inward-looking thing), is to look outward by passing on the benefit of experiences, which will give you courage.

Daydreams can be manipulated and moulded to fulfil our heart’s desires, without any of the pitfalls and fears of reality. Buddhism teaches that our heart’s desires can become a reality when challenged with confidence and faith. So your desire to turn your dream (and your ego) into reality, is often followed by a state of panic and terror. Fear for commitment and creating reasons for not being able to get on with it. As long as it remains a dream, we’re full of confidence and courage, but as soon as it might become a reality, we are consumed by it.
The Buddhist view is that we human beings can create our environment or the situations occurring around us if we choose to, as opposed to being controlled by and reacting as a result of them. In other words, when a situation occurs that we dislike, we instinctively blame the outside circumstances, instead of facing up to our responsibility for changing the situation through our Buddhist practice. So, it’s about the realisation that the terror we are experiencing is in fact not being created by what is happening, but by the inherent fear within us of any new or untried situation when we expose ourselves to the criticism or judgement of others. How often have we found ourselves in situations where we keep avoiding doing something because we lack the confidence to tackle it. Fear exists only to highlight the areas of our lives that need to be challenged and conquered. But we need to be big enough to recognise this fact.

QUESTIONS:

It is often said, “No pain, no gain.” Do you agree that people only grow through struggle and suffering?

“It’s a lack of courage that prevents us from attaining Buddhahood.” So states Nichiren Daishonin. How important do you think courage is to living a happy life?

The concept of sansho shima outlines the various obstacles that arise to hinder our Buddhist practice, and thus our path to complete fulfilment. What is your strongest obstacle to fulfilment, and how do you fight it?

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