How to chant Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo?

Hello wonderful people who read my blog!

I am so sorry I have not be able to write recently. I have been really busy and happily engaged in one thing and the other. It is incredible how rich my life has become and I am so grateful.

I don't want the blog to wither and die just because I have no inspiration to write at the moment, so I thought I would share this lovely video I have found on the YouTube. It explains the basic daily practice of Daimoku and Gongyo and gives some basic information on the theory of Buddhism as well.

Enjoy! 

Oh, please, do comment here or anywhere else if you have questions or requests for posts. I am always thrilled when I receive requests as it pushes me into action!

SGI's Daily practice

And yet more awesome stuff from SGI-USA.

This is a short video that explains very clearly our daily practice of Nichiren Buddhism.



Have fun and Happy chanting!

District Leaders handbook

I went to a YW inspiration meeting tonight and one of my fellow District leaders mentioned having read a rather inspiring publication: SGI-USA District Leaders Handbook.

The handbook is written from the perspective of the SGI-USA. As such, some things will be different (like the concept of Groups, which we don't have in the UK), but the general spirit and the guidelines are actually relevant for any leader in my opinion.

I thought the sheer idea was so awesome that I immediately looked for it to post a quick one on my blog.

You can download the manual from here.

And with that, nighty night!

SGI UK Youth Division song

UPDATE: the website mentioned here has now been discontinued. All the songs and materials can now be found on the SGI members website. Every area has a unique login and password, so if you want to access this free content, you need to ask your local leaders for the login details.

Here is a link where you can find the Youth Division Song. We sang it today at my Chapter's study kick-off. I really really like it, especially the rhythm of the chorus, it's really catchy.

You can download both the lyrics and an mp3 file.

Once again, the instructions on the page to download the mp3 don't work on my Mac. And sadly the "Copy link location" trick I did last time didn't work this time around, but I'm having problems downloading anything today, so I'll try again and maybe edit. 

My Chapter's leader happens to be one of the writers of the song, and he told us the story of how it came to be. He was in Trets - a Buddhist cultural centre in the south of France where a lot of international training courses are held (note to self: MUST go to Trets, soon), when a National leader approached him and a few other musicians and asked them to write a song for the YD. They sat under a tree and did it.

It might sound cheesy that a group of young people, sitting under a tree in the sun would come up with a lovely song in just a few minutes, but it makes perfect sense to me. A training course is just a monumental source of inspiration, and it maximises your natural talent... you actually get to discover talents you didn't know you had, to be honest (and I speak from personal experience here).

More songs

Today I went to an inspiration day. It wasn't in my chapter, but I happened to lilac with the vice action chief on Thursday and she invited me to go anyway.

It was a lovely meeting, featuring a lecture by the Men's Area leader on "making the impossible possible", two great experiences and (and here we go to the point of this post) a short entertainment provided by a Young Man. First he sang a song he composed and then his favourite SGI song "March towards the 21st century".

Dedicated Lilac Song

UPDATE: the website mentioned here has now been discontinued. All the songs and materials can now be found on the SGI members website. Every area has a unique login and password, so if you want to access this free content, you need to ask your local leaders for the login details.

Here is a link where you can find the Dedicated Lilac Song. It is an amazing song, really uplifting!

You can download both the lyrics and an mp3 file.

I found the instructions on the page to download the mp3 not to be working on my Mac. The option "Download linked file" doesn't appear when control clicking (or doing the double finger clicking which corresponds to right-click).

"Copy link location" works fine, oddly enough. The file is now safely stored in my iTunes library :)

Gohonzon map

Receiving your Gohonzon is one of the most important moments in the life of a Buddhist person. I will dedicate an entire post to it.

Meanwhile, here is a useful document that shows the meaning of the characters on the scroll.

As I was looking for it I found countless pictures of Gohonzon scrolls, and I wanted to use this post to point out something. A Gohonzon is an object of devotion. When we are not chanting, it should be protected by the Butsudan and it should not, for any reason, be reproduced on picture or film. It's just not respectful. 

This map refers to the Nichikan Shonin Gohonzon, the one that was generously donated to the Soka Gakkai.

Disclaimer. I did not create this wonderful handout. If you happen to know who is the Bodhisattva of the Earth who made it, please give them my thanks and let me know, so I can credit them.

Below is the embedded PDF file and a link to download it.

Gohonzon Map

A short glossary of Japanese terms used in SGI

As I promised, here is a short glossary of Japanese terms used in everyday Buddhism. 
This list is by no means comprehensive (basically I put in here everything that popped into my mind, but there's surely more that slipped through :))

Ichinen

A couple of years ago, I spent six months in Romania for a European project. It was a very interesting experience and I'm glad I did it, but it was also very challenging. During most of the six months the weather was really rubbish, alternating snow and rain, and the temperature ranged between -12º and -25º.

The worst part was not having Buddhist meetings. At the time there were only a handful of members in Romania and I couldn't manage to contact any of them. Furthermore, I was living in this very small town up north and my Romanian was very basic, so there was really nothing to do. At all.

Luckily I had my mom's Omamori Gohonzon with me, (not being able to carry a Butsudan made it impossible to take my Gohonzon with me), and that made it a bit better. I went home for Christmas and forgot my Gongyo book there, so from January till May I had to chant from memory, which to be fair was great. It meant I had to really focus on what I was doing and couldn't let my mind wander on trivial things, otherwise I would lose the thread and had to start again. The first days I found myself starting Gongyo again five times, then I found my focus.

To make a long story short, I wasn't doing any activity and I was missing it terribly. I missed the discussion meetings, I missed chanting with other people, and most of all, of course, I missed doing lilac. On the plus side, I had loads of free time so I could chant more, but I was longing for something to do.