Are your efforts in practice going in waste?

Answer is NO.

So someone asked me other day, "Priya, do you think our lives will ever change? May be all our efforts have gone in waste. Priya, why do you still practice when your prayers weren't answered? Priya, what should i do? How should I even continue in this dark tunnel?" (In short she said, "what the fuck and why the hell are you doing it?"😜)

Response: Benefits, Blessings, Protection, Answers and victories, they all come disguised. We don't even realize when they come and when they lead to new paths. (so, what we need is faith sometimes it will be easier with visible results other times it will be working with our fundamental darkness and other times it is already there but just a bit longer to manifest)

We as ordinary human beings are blinded by our own illusions which our mind has for example my victory will happen when i will get a job, i will find love or i will have financial security and so on. This practice has something beyond all that. Yes, we will get benefits but the problem is we as ordinary beings are always looking for shortcuts. It's like i am chanting but it didn't happen but you said all my prayers will be answered. Excuse me, my mother gave me everything i needed but she didn't accept my demands of junk food or chocolates everyday. Practice is exactly like that, gohonzon and buddhas of ten directions are like our mother not only protecting from bad but also pushing us in our own ways and limits to do our required human revolution. If we got everything we chant for, then we will keep stalling in our comfort zone thinking "oh yeah i just need to chat and i will have it". When sensei says "Gakkai activities are shortcut to happiness", why you still didn't take this line seriously. Dear, 4 activities does not guarantee life time happiness, each meeting we attend is like a cause which generates happiness immediately like the joy you feel after that meeting. 

Buddhism goes 24x7 without saying, life is about personal growth and this practice not only talks but demands us to act accordingly. We are lazy people, after all we enjoy being one and trust me in my case i started eating healthy just because i am lazy, it is easier to mix salad then cooking. But in other areas of my life laziness comes with its own consequences of stagnant life, un met deadlines and then stupid accusation from bosses. 

If we want to have victories, then we have to give our all out, 100%, why? 

1. Well, buddhism is about taking responsibility of our actions as the first thing. If we actually took this responsibility then why the hell are we blaming the practice or law when things don't go as planned. Which means my first human revolution comes into picture when things don't go as planned and instead of blaming, i must take full responsibility of what has happened. If i didn't blame practice that means i won't be ordinary being because first thing as an ordinary being i do is blame or complain. But once i break this chain, i have already won by taking a big step towards breaking my negative karmic chain.

2. Did i say, things didn't go as planned? Oopsie, aren't we forgetting about the "Strategy of the lotus sutra". We set goals and then we need to chant with the conviction that how or when or where but i will reach my goal and for that i seek wisdom, compassion and courage.  (In my share, i suffered the loss as i had too many plans and all those plans went into dust, i got dissected inch by inch by the truth of lotus sutra strategy testing me if i will still stay strong in faith.)

To conclude, 

"The body is endowed with the four sense organs, and the mind is generally related to all four. Hence the mind induces the rise or fall with respect to the body" (This where we can see why mastering one's mind is so important, this where we can see once again how mastering one's mind we can make hell into heaven); "The ten directions are the "environment," and living beings are "life". To illustrate, environment is like the shadow, and life, the body. Without body, no shadow can exist, and without life, no environment. In the same way, life is shaped by its environment. " (All my heart sees and feels is, our environment is only shaping our life similar to our challenges and that muddy water is making us grow like a beautiful lotus flower); "Lotus sutra conquers the fundamental darkness [from which all earthly desires originate]" (This practice is not about forgetting our desires or wishes rather this practice helps us win over them sometimes in form of real proof other times we just have to get the real human revolution done to reach there to get it) (Gosho 79, vol 1: On Omens)