Tony Robbins meets the Buddha and the Buddha loses

Almost half a year ago many of us made resolutions for the new year.  Perhaps we resolved to do more or less of something, depending on if we were in a glass half full or empty kind of mood. For most, resolutions are born of the desire improve the quality of our lives and kick the habits that prevent us from being healthy, productive, and enjoying great relationships. But to sustain these resolutions is no small feat; we may not even remember what our resolutions were. Bringing out your best self can be terribly challenging when faced with the daily grind of work, or school, topped with the endless cycle of negative media about tragedy, corruption, and war. Can Buddhism help? Nichiren Buddhism is centered on the lifelong practice of human revolution or bringing forth our inner reserves of courage, wisdom, and compassion to all of our daily actions and interactions.

Here are five Buddhist resolutions (for any time of year!) on bringing out your best self in a very fundamental way, as explained by philosopher Daisaku Ikeda.

1. Find the strength in your weaknesses.

We often lament our weaknesses. Every day we go over our laundry lists of things we’d like to change about ourselves: “I’m too quiet, slow, careless,” etc. What we don’t realize is that each of these shortcomings are actually also indicative of our strengths. “For example,” explains Ikeda, “a person’s shyness can be transformed into valuable qualities such as prudence and discretion, while someone’s impatience might be transformed into a knack for getting things done quickly and efficiently.” (Discussions on Youth pg. 97) What’s most important is that we don’t begrudge ourselves (or anyone around us) for seemingly undesirable characteristics, but instead, focus our energy and intention on making the best use of those characteristics.

2. Face the things that make you unhappy or uncomfortable.

Running away from the things that make us unhappy is actually what causes suffering. We have to “look unflinchingly at the people and things in our lives that are making us unhappy,” writes Ikeda (Discussions on Youth pg. 100). Anxiety, for example, often comes from uncertainty about our future. If we don’t look squarely at what is making us feel this way, our anxiety only grows. Looking at the source of our fears, which are often smaller and more manageable than we think, makes them easier to conquer.

3. Take the first step now, even if it’s a small one. 

Buddhism is a philosophy of action. Getting into the habit of immediately taking the first step toward our goals or tasks, even if it’s uncomfortable, propels us toward the next one, and the next one after that. “Life is a struggle with ourselves,” writes Ikeda. “It is a tug-of-war between moving forward and regressing, between happiness and unhappiness.”   (Discussions on Youth pg. 98). He encourages young people to try challenging some task--anything at all--and keep at it until they are certain they have done their best. This helps develop the habit of taking action, which is strengthened by the belief we gain in our capacity to actually get things done.

4. See people and situations for what they really are.

According to Buddhism, every person is endowed with the same limitless potential for enlightenment and happiness no matter who they are or what they’ve done. Their worth isn’t determined by social status, success or wealth. If we strive to view people in this manner, we free ourselves from the delusions of hate or jealousy, because we don’t evaluate the people around us as better as or worse than us based on superficial criteria. “[Buddhism] teaches us to look at a person through the eyes of the Law and the eyes of the Buddha,” writes Ikeda. “In other words, to focus on a person’s life, state of being and what is inside, just as it is, free of external embellishments... Truly respectable are those who based their lives on the truth--on the reality of things.” (Discussions on Youth pg. 30)

5. Courage is the key to developing compassion.

What we typically think of as an act of compassion- simply feeling bad for someone or writing a check to a favorite charity-appear not to require courage.  However, everyday forms of compassion such as checking in on a friend who hasn’t seemed like themselves lately or speaking out when you see someone being manipulated or used, require tremendous courage. As Ikeda shares, “Courage and compassion are two sides of the same coin. Compassion without courage is not genuine. You may have a compassionate thought or impulse, but if you don’t do or say anything, it’s not real compassion.” By mustering the courage to take action to relieve the sufferings of others, we manifest true compassion. In this way, Ikeda explains, “if we act with courage, we find that our compassion for others grows deeper.” (Discussions on Youth pg. 336)

The Nichiren Shu and modern Kempon Hokke priests betray the Lotus Sutra

The Nirvana Sutra states: “If even a good monk sees someone destroying the teaching and disregards him, failing to reproach him, to oust him, or to punish him for his offense, then you should realize that that monk is betraying the Buddha’s teaching. But if he ousts the destroyer of the Law, reproaches him, or punishes him, then he is my disciple and a true voice-hearer.” You should etch deeply in your mind the two words “see” and “disregard” in the phrase “sees someone destroying the teaching and disregards him, failing to reproach him.” Both teacher and followers will surely fall into the hell of incessant suffering if they see enemies of the Lotus Sutra but disregard them and fail to reproach them. The Great Teacher Nan-yüeh says that they “willfall into hell along with those evil persons.” To hope to attain Buddhahood without speaking out against slander is as futile as trying to find water in the midst of fire or fire in the midst of water. No matter how sincerely one believes in the Lotus Sutra, if one is guilty of failing to rebuke slander of the Law, one will surely fall into hell, just as a single crab leg will ruin a thousand pots of lacquer. This is the meaning of the passage in the sutra, “Because the poison has penetrated deeply and their minds no longer function as before.”

Nichiren interfaithful?

"In a country where non-Buddhist teachings have already spread, one should use Buddhism to refute them."

Singapore Ikeda cult members and those excommunicated ex-Ikeda cult members, please read this

http://markrogow.blogspot.com/2013/07/trading-rocks-nichikan-gohonzon-for.html

Chilling...The Muslim Conquest of India

http://www.scribd.com/doc/142229342/The-Moslem-Conquest-of-India-An-extract-from-Will-Durant-s-11-volume-Story-of-Civilization

How pitiful

"Perhaps for this reason, they turned against their teacher Dengyo and for the first time established the True Word school at Enryakuji. This marked the beginning of our country’s ruin." -- Nichiren

How pitiful that the modern Kempon Hokke invites the descendants of these slanderers and followers of Kobo to their celebrations.

Lotus Sutra Buddhism supplies answers to the most profound questions of being.

Lotus Sutra Buddhism supplies answers to the most profound questions of being. 

Individual Karma...

One child is born sightless to poverty stricken parents in a drought and war ravaged region of Africa and another born to immensely wealthy parents in a penthouse in Zurich. One child is born with an IQ of 60 and can barely feed himself and another is reading an encyclopedia by the age of two. A four year old girl who never took a music lesson can play several different instruments while another with cerebral palsy can not even hold a spoon. One child is born into the Brahman caste and another into an untouchable family. Still another overcomes her disability and goes on to develop a cure for AIDS while a perfectly healthy world class athlete suffers a career ending compound fracture of the femur. There are five billion examples of differences in fortune, wisdom, physical and mental drive and abilities. 

There are rarely encountered adults and even children who have a documented first hand knowledge of historical individuals, events, and locations and there are unmistakable shared physical and mental characteristics among certain deceased and living individuals with no associated shared heredity. Only the doctrine of Karma reasonably explains and answers this observable reality.

Collective Karma...

Examples of collective karma are those with cerebral palsy, those born white, those killed in the holocaust, doctors, lawyers, indian chiefs. Either there is individual and group responsibility or there is none. Weal and woe either happens by chance, the will of god, or through the thoughts, words, and actions of individuals and groups. Those who have faith in the Lotus Sutra believe in personal and group responsibility caused by the thoughts, words, and deeds of individuals and groups accumulated since the infinite past. Who is the agent of your weal or woe? I hit my thumb with a hammer. I would be a fool to blame someone else. Likewise, only fools blame God, others, the environment, or chance for their misfortune.

Nichiren Daishonin on Karma:

"Question: How can you be certain that the exiles and sentences of death imposed on you are the result of karma created in the past?

Answer: A bronze mirror will reflect color and form. The First Emperor of the Ch'in dynasty had a lie-detecting mirror that would reveal offenses committed in this present life. The mirror of the Buddha's Law makes clear the causal actions committed in the past. The Parinirvana Sutra states: "Good man, because people committed countless offenses and accumulated much evil karma in the past, they must expect to suffer retribution for everything they have done. They may be despised, cursed with an ugly appearance, be poorly clad and poorly fed, seek wealth in vain, be born to an impoverished and lowly family or one with erroneous views, or be persecuted by their sovereign. They may be subjected to various other sufferings and retributions. It is due to the blessings obtained by protecting the Law that they can diminish in this lifetime their suffering and retribution."

Namu Myoho renge kyo and Karma...

Karma can be the most comforting or the most disquieting belief. Everything depends on one's Buddhist faith and practice, true and correct or false and mistaken. Certitude of karmic reward is always comforting while certitude of karmic retribution may or may not be disquieting. You will have to repay your karmic debt. If you have accumulated much karmic reward, the debt seems insignificant. If you have accumulated little karmic reward, your debt seems oppressive. Chanting Namu Myoho renge kyo with a correct faith and teaching others to do the same, is the way to accumulate infinite karmic reward. One's travails pale in comparison.

Trading rocks [the Nichikan Gohonzon] for jewels [the Nichiren Gohonzon]

Those in Singapore expulsed by the Soka Gakkai should realize that, 

"when you chant the daimoku of this sutra, you should be aware that it is a more joyful thing than for one who was born blind to gain sight and see one’s father and mother, and a rarer thing than for a man who has been seized by a powerful enemy to be released and reunited with his wife and children." 

But  instead, so delusional are they that instead of feeling an auspicious opportunity for great gain, they feel a sense of great loss. It is thanks to the warped and bizarre SGI teachings and their evil spiritual "friend" [Ikeda] that they have become nothing but whiny cry babies. Who in their right mind would choose a Nichikan Gohonzon over a Nichiren Gohonzon? Now that they are free from the oppressive teachings of Ikedaism, they have the rare opportunity to trade rocks [the Nichikan Gohonzon] for jewels [the Nichiren Gohonzon]. We will show them how.

Singapore Ikeda cult is pretty bad

i.  “On what basis can you say that the General Director is wrong?” – MD Senior Leaders
ii.  “Even if the General Director is wrong, you must follow” – MD Senior Leaders

iii  “When you point out the mistakes of the General Director, it is equal to faulting the entire organization” – MD and YMD Top Leaders

iv. “The General Director is appointed by Sensei, so how can the General Director be wrong!” – Top Leaders

Such statements indicate the misconceptions that the General Director is infallible and absolute.  It creates a wrong perception that by pointing out the mistakes or disagreeing with the General Director, one is going against Sensei.  A senior Japan leader once mentioned: “When we follow Sensei, we are supporting the General Director”.  This statement is so true and not the other way round, which is what the top leaders claimed!" -- SSA cult member

but Italy Ikeda cult is ten times worse. I know. Been there done that.

They do it to Nichiren's teachings [read between the lines] why not Mentor's?

"Ex-General Director shared that there are hidden meanings in Sensei’s guidance. Different countries have to interpret it differently and have to read Sensei’s guidance between the lines. He also mentioned that to understand deeper meanings in Sensei Guidance, it has to depend on individual’s capacity."

My Mentor and I

SGI top senior leader spouting Ikeda guidance

Oh Gawd! How could he????

"There were also feedbacks on Ex-General Director doing things in his own way instead of following SGI guidelines and bringing members close to the mentor."

Markie in Gakkai Land "curiouser and curiouser"

"He mentioned that the Japanese senior leaders were born close to Sensei in this lifetime because they did not receive strict training from Sensei in their past lives. In retrospect, we are born far away from our mentor because we had received strict training from our mentor in our past lives." -- Singpore SSA cult leader

The evil slanderous Soka Gakkai's self agrandizement

Makes me ill.

"The cart that overturns on the road ahead is a warning to the one behind."

The SSA or Soka Singapore Association fails to heed Nichiren Daishonin and therefore, SSA is on the brink of self-destruction. Over what? A temple, the construction of the Soka Peace Center.

Nichiren teaches:

"Dengyo lived at the end of the Middle Day of the Law, during the period described in the Great Collection Sutra as the age of building temples and stupas."

This age, however, is the age of the Essential Teachings....

"At that time the Buddha addressed Eminent Conduct and the host of other bodhisattvas: "The divine powers of buddhas are so infinite and boundless that they are beyond thought and expression. Even if I, by these divine powers, through infinite, boundless hundred thousand myriad kotis of asamkhyeya kalpas, for the sake of entailing it, were to declare the merits of this sutra, I should still be unable to reach the end of those [merits]. Essentially speaking, all the laws belonging to the Tathagata, all the sovereign, divine powers of the Tathagata, all the mysterious, essential treasuries of the Tathagata, and the very profound conditions of the Tathagata, all are proclaimed, displayed, revealed, and expounded in this sutra. Therefore you should, after the extinction of the Tathagata, wholeheartedly receive and keep, read and recite, explain and copy, cultivate and practice it as the teaching. In whatever land, whether it be received and kept, read and recited, explained and copied, cultivated and practiced as the teaching; whether in a place where a volume of the sutra is kept, or in a temple, or in a grove, or under a tree, or in a monastery, or in a lay devotee's house, in a palace or a mountain, in a valley or in the wilderness, in all these places you must erect a caitya and make offerings. Wherefore? You should know that [all] these spots are the thrones of enlightenment. On these [spots] the buddhas attain Perfect Enlightenment; on these [spots] the buddhas roll the wheel of the Law; on these [spots] the buddhas [enter] parinirvana." -- Lotus Sutra Chapter 21

Today in Mappo, there are no special places to practice the Law, chant the Daimoku, worship the Gohonzon, Lotus Sutra, Buddha, and Nichiren Daishonin. Wherefore? Because all places were the devotees receive and keep the Sutra is a special place. 

The Sho Hondo was the most glaring error in the history of the Latter Age and the Soka Gakkai continues to make similar mistakes all over the world, in Atlanta, in Singapore, and especially in Tokyo with the nearly completed Soka Gakkai Headquarters. Can severe calamities fail to befall Atlanta, Singapore and Tokyo? Haven't these calamities already begun?

Why don't you forget about the SGI?

"One will never grow weary of admonishing him, nor will there be limits to one’s grief."

SGI false rationale for seeking guidance from Joe Blow Territory leader: "The Gohonzon doesn't speak."

The reality: The Gohonzon speaks through the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren Daishonin's writings [the Buddha's pure and far reaching voice].

Why seek guidance from Soka Gakkai staff, consultants, or advisers since their views are "unofficial"?

Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in the Materials on this Site are those of the various Soka Gakkai staff members, consultants and advisers who prepared the work and do not necessarily represent the views of the Soka Gakkai, its affiliated organizations, or its membership.” — Words of Wisdom “OFFICIAL” SGI publication.

Nichiren's advice? Go to the source, the Lotus Sutra and his writings. In authentic Nichiren's Lotus Sutra Buddhism, the views of Shakyamuni Buddha of the Juryo-hon Chapter, Nichiren Daishonin, and their disciples and believers are official views. 

Because Daisaku Ikeda chose a Nichikan Gohonzon [rather than a Nichiren Gohonzon]....

 "...none of the Buddha images in the temples and pagodas of Japan, though their forms resemble that of the Buddha are really Buddhas in mind. Rather they have the minds of ordinary beings who live in the nine worlds." 

Nichiren goes on to say:

"the custom of revering ignorant teachers as though they were wise men began with this."

Think about it.