What is faith?

I sat by my window, sipping on my coffee and looking at the world. While my heart and mind were just having an internal clash. I might have done my morning chanting for an hour yet i lacked hope. I could feel how i just wanted to sit by window whole day, doing nothing. My mind wandered from one thought to another till i hung by a question. Do i have faith? If yes then why don´t enjoy chanting or why i am unable to have a break through. Once i started thinking in this loop, there was no stopping. I immediately shake it off and go back to my room and took up gosho with intention to find what is faith? 

There i was jumping from one gosho to another with whole gosho marked with different colored markers. Suddenly, i asked myself; what am i doing? And at the back of mind, i was putting action. 

So there i was, Dammit Priya there is no definition of faith. Then, what is faith and how do i reach my goals...

Faith is action.

Faith is chanting whether i feel good or bad.

Faith is going to meeting even though my mind give 100 excuses for not going.

Faith is when i wake up and my first priority is to pick my coffee mug and sit down for chanting.

Faith is after 16 hour of long day, i reach home feeling dead tired yet i sit down do my evening gongyo before i can drift off to sleep.

Faith is when i choose to practice despite seeing any visible change in my situation.

Faith is not giving up.

Faith is not doubting each day why i am chanting.

Faith is letting it flow and enjoy my journey till i reach my goals.

Faith is reaching my goal but going back home for gratitude daimoku.

Faith is sharing this joy with rest of the world.

Faith is ACTION.

Do you have faith? Yes, you do. Even though you might be stuck and having irregular practice but reaching out to a leader. Even though you haven´t practiced in days, weeks or months but you go back to a leader or fellow member. Even though you return with a dozen of excuses, complaints and what not. But reaching out is a sign of having faith. You have faith and you have the hope, otherwise why would you even care to go back. 

Yes, faith is nothing but putting our practice in action.

Do you have faith?

We have same practice like you do.

We have same gohonzon like you do.

We have same daimoku like you do.

Then when the problem comes;

Why do some of you choose to call and talk?

Why do some of you choose to beg for daimoku?

Why do some of you choose to suffer and make others suffer with you?

A ground breaking point in my practice was when I understood meaning of independent faith and PRACTICE TOGETHER.

We encourage members to meet other members. But we encourage for practicing together not crying together. We don´t say ¨talk¨ rather we say STUDY TOGETHER. 

We encourage you to win together and strive together. We don´t encourage you to call and talk every time a bomb falls on you. 

We encourage you to take guidance and may be take support of members. We don´t encourage you to get clingy or start begging for daimoku.

Now once again i ask you, do you have faith? If you said yes but you are acting otherwise (doing things we don´t encourage), then i would have to ask you again. Do you have faith?

I have faith means; i will go to gohonzon when problem or victory comes. I will put more daimoku rather then begging for daimoku. I might be in tough moment but i will work on pillars of faith, practice and study. If i feel lost, i will seek guidance not to complain practice rather to have a clear direction on how to proceed. 

Yes, you can call each other and may be share your problem. BUT don´t use this person as a way to vent out. Learn to grow in faith, support each other by reading sensei´s guidance or gosho together. Focus on advancing not on talking in circles filled with complains or excuses. 

Now, DO YOU HAVE FAITH? YES. 

What will you do when problem comes? I will chant, study and act. If i feel like giving up, I will reach out for guidance and practice more with fellow members. 

Mind it! Practice together - daimoku, study and soka gakkai activities.

One secret for making impossible to possible

Yesterday was a groundbreaking day for self reflection, shaking my resurfaced karma with Gakkai members and so much more.

I have been putting a huge amount of effort in taking care of my place where i put my Butdusan and things like printing NMRK cards, ordering extra liturgy books to give away to new members and so on.

Without losing any time, here goes my ground breaking realization:

If we go full force for working for the law of cause and effect then life will naturally start falling in place. Challenges will come and we will overcome then too. So the only truth is,

¨Our tendency is to live life and practice to make life work BUT the secret is, Live the practice
and rest all will workout. ¨

Last weeks, my only priority was to attend every meeting i had every single day whether daimoku at 9:30 pm or reaching center for byakuren or supporting a fellow member with one message or phone call. Result, i was more productive at work and things started shaping up on their own. Yes i worked, i put my actions yet it worked out as my priority is my practice.

By default, we put our practice either as a last priority saying if i have time i will chant or go for a meeting. We put everything first and buddhism last. But that´s the reason we have doubts or we fall often. Buddhism is a 24 x 7 practice, if we live it as our only priority then rest of the priorities like life, health, fiance or career will naturally fall in place.

Give it a try and experience what you haven´t experienced yet.

Happy chanting

The journey of Human Revolution

Day after day, something moves in me. Day after day, something stirs me up. Day after day, I keep falling and rising again. And day after day, I keep chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and practicing harder.

I faced many challenges and I overcame some while others I know those victories are in process. Sometimes we don´t see any real proof but is it really true? I worked hard to challenge my work karma but still I feel as if I have not moved even an inch closer to them, forget about making that impossible into possible. Not only this, two months back a lot of things have changed. My personal life in Spain has always circled around Gakkai people. And when those relationships took a down fall, my life took it too. This strong shift not only left me feeling lonely but at first I lost my capability to trust gakkai members again.

Interestingly, with my continuous practice, I came to a realization that it is not first time when something like this happened. 3 years ago, my life was soaked with people at my work place. I lived with them, cooked with them and I got confused between work relationships as friendship. So, once again I felt like my karma from past was resurfacing but this time in Gakai. My immediate instinct was I need to learn something from this or this negative cycle won´t leave me in peace.

Therefore in past few weeks, I spent fighting my inner devils and kept facing the decline, disgrace, censure, or suffering (the four adverse winds) (Ref, Gosho: The Eight Winds, vol 1.). It started with my gakkai or personal life in Spain which later own extended of becoming visible from invisible at work. I have always kept my head down and mouth shut at work. But this year it was different, I started a journey of building a better me. In result, things like how I carried myself, how I voiced my opinions or ideas or asking questions in group meetings brought me in lime light. Suddenly, people knew I exist and at times I got some looks as well. At first, as I was in my own emotional turmoil and facing wind of huge human revolution, I got affected with movements at work as well. Then, my experiments at work failed all over again and I lost hope of ever changing my situation. Until, I pushed harder in gakkai and rise above it.

Actions: I have been working 11-16 hours per day depending on the work situation, later even if I reach home at 9:30 pm I had one activity per day for last 2 weeks. While this week was a bit slower yet it is invested in gakkai as I got some intense guidance last Sunday and all my force is to put that guidance into action.

Observation:

1. I have learnt the importance of never mixing work with personal life and similarly in gakkai. I meet or talk to members as fellow members, support them or they support me but only in terms of faith.

2. After 3 year and half, I have cordial relationships at work and I focus on work by working one day at a time. Honestly, my work is moving forward though soon I will be challenging impossible into possible every day in coming weeks.

3. With Gakkai, I am more and more grounded with my goals to work in rhythm with this law. Result, I shared this philosophy with 5 people at work and 2 are already practicing. While one is in my group and other is out of Barcelona, thanks to her I went to her group and got connected with more members

4. Talk about family, my mother who was once against my practice these days she is sharing with me words of Daisaku ikeda gakkai books. My father goes to meetings and my sister is already a practitioner is walking her own path.

Conclusion

Yes, there is no denying to the fact that we all want to overcome challenges and share our victory. But, just reaching one goal doesn´t liberate us from our fight or suffering. As soon as we overcome one problem, another is already waiting for us. Yes, it is easy to smile on the day you reached your goal or win over your problems, but Buddhism is a practice of every day. We need to win each day no matter where we are. We shouldn’t forget, Buddhism teaches about, ¨how we live our life¨. Each day I take a step forward, some days feel like as if I am walking backward. Some days are just hard and life doesn´t make sense. But Life is not about making sense, life is about living it and growing through the process. While life was falling apart, my faith got stronger so does my goals for Gakkai. I know I can´t see my goals in sight but something has changed that I am able to share this practice with people at my work place which never seemed possible. People talk to me, as I listen and talk to them with Ikeda´s spirirt , heart to heart dialogue. I feel the strong wind of obstacles which is a sign that I am not only growing more and more but also I am moving forward.

Take a minute today and be grateful to the winds you are facing, observe how our way of talking or listening and supporting others have changed over years or months. From a girl who couldn´t even speak Spanish forget about reading Gakkai magazines in Spanish today I not only read, but I feel those words and I share it with people. I know I am changing for better and believe so are you. We are victorious already as we fight each day and wake up with new spirit.

Happy chanting