On the transformation of karma.

I am a fukushi. I am really proud of having been brought up within this Buddhism and to have all these years of experience in faith.

Often the years of experience mean very little. I am now 27. This means that I have chanted my first daimoku more than 26 years ago and I have been doing gongyo regularly for 15 years.

And yet, only a few weeks ago did I really understand (and experience) the principle of transforming your karma through your buddhist practice.

In buddhism, we believe that at some point in the distant past, we have been sitting at a ceremony, called the Ceremony in the Air, with Shakyamuni Buddha and countless other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. In that occasion, we have made the great vow of becoming absolutely happy and teaching others to do the same.

In order to fulfil this vow, we have all chosen, allow me to repeat, we have CHOSEN a certain karma, laden with specific challenges. We have made this choice in order to be able to transform this particular karma and, by doing so, to provide example to others and lead them to the path of happiness.

Sloganmania

This morning I was bored and mooching about on the internet. The plans for the morning are to do a long, sweaty bellydance session (my exercise routine has been disrupted by the holidays), a shower using the new citrus fruit stuff I treated myself to yesterday and calling some guy to buy a new mattress. None of this can happen for another hour (just had breakfast, you try and do undulations if you just had breakfast!). 

So, mooching about it is (well, also made a batch of gluten-free chocolate muffins with berry compote and put some chicken in a homemade garlic marinade, but that was before breakfast).

Sometimes the internet surprises me. Today I found the Sloganmaker.
It's an app that transforms any word you input into a catchy slogan. You can keep hitting the button until it produces something you like.

Let's see the results when inputting some Buddhist lingo.

And here is a picture of a cat. Just 'cause. Oh, my comments are in italics.

Sometimes you just need to blow your own trumpet...

As part of my journey of becoming a person of unlimited self-esteem, I decided to write a list (or two), of things that I can do well and that I am proud of. 
I am generally my harshest critic, so putting it together was a pain, but I think it's important if I want to learn to truly appreciate myself. 

On sincerity and actual proof.

I have been meaning to talk about the idea of sincerity in Buddhism and the impact sincere prayer has on actual proof, if any.

I have had a few experiences on the topic, some of which I am going to be sharing now.

At various points in my life, I have found that I was at odds with someone. My relationship with a certain person, be it a member of my family, or a member of the SGI, or someone I would work or study with, would be strained or completely broken. I am an incredibly forgiving person, so it was usually the other person who would decide not to have a positive relationship with me, not the other way round. As I will mention in a post on changing karma, that would also often be connected with my “left-out” karma.