This month's quote is very short, and comes from the Gosho The Actions of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra.
To give a little background, this Gosho was written in 1276 and addressed to the lay nun Kōnichi, a widow who lived in Awa, the Daishonin’s native province. Her son had earlier converted to the Daishonin’s
teachings, and through him she herself became a convert. Some time
after this, her son died. But she overcame her deep sorrow and
remained a sincere believer in the Daishonin’s Buddhism to the end of her life.
Here is a very little quote:
Nothing is more joyful to me than to have been born in the Latter Day of the Law and to suffer persecution because I propagate the five characters of Myoho-renge-kyo.
I really need to etch these words in my heart.
I have been to hell and back recently, and on top of that I have not been able to write literally anything as I am ridiculously busy with school and activities.
After a fairly long stay in the world of Hell, I am now much better and happier and am not staring at a black hole where my faith used to be. Also, which is completely unrelated, I am enjoying my dancing like never before.
I have several posts coming, mainly concerning my journey to Hell, the Grade 2 exam preparation, my Gratitude diary, my dancing and my recent redoubled efforts in studying the New Human Revolution.
But for now, bye September, you have really tried me, and I have won.
I just could not end the month of August without at least my quote post.
I have had a great Summer and I am looking forward to going back to work.
We just recently had our general Kayo Kai meeting, where the force of all my negativity slammed into me, leaving me in a sobbing pool of tears. Ah, well.
I am challenging the deepest of my deep-seated karma, my fundamental sense of worthlessness, which is at the core of my tendency to always experience bullying and aggressive behaviour in my environment. So, of course, the brown and sticky is hitting the fan. Hard.
One aspect of this karma is my pathological need for praise and external approval. I keep coming back to the Eight Winds Gosho for guidance and I try to read it with my life, even though sometimes it is really hard and painful.
After the most stressful three weeks to date, I am finally on holiday and in the island of the three promontories. This, for me, is the land of endless sleep and lazy days, of sirocco and drinking books one after the other, and, incidentally, the land of absolutely crap internet connection.
This is another study point I prepared for a Discussion meeting. I ended up not sharing it at the meeting, but I had made this text into a handout which I circulated at the end.
Enjoy!
Devil King of the Sixth Heaven (Jpn dairokuten-no-mao)
AKA, Devil King, Heavenly Devil, Demon of the Sixth Heaven.
The Devil King of the 6th Heaven is #19.
You can easily Google this map or you could look here.
To understand this concept we must talk about Fundamental Darkness, the negative aspect of life, which is bound to appear in some form when an ordinary person attains Buddhahood.
This negative aspect is often referred to as the 'three obstacles and four devils' (in Japanese, sansho shima).
This month, I once again left my quote until quite late in the day.
I have been studying a lot, mostly "The opening of the eyes", but for some reason when I started thinking about a suitable quote for this month, I could only think about that Gosho where Nichiren tells Shijo Kingo not to wear fancy clothes (yes, really). Only I could not remember what Gosho it was.
So, a bit of Google-fu later, I found The Three Kinds of Treasure. And reread it.
In recent times, I am really striving to put Nichiren at the centre of my life, and to strengthen my bond with my Mentor in order to reach the heart of Nichiren. And I am discovering Nichiren as a truly incredible guy. The wonderful thing about him is that he was a real person. He didn't pretend to be perfect, and since we can study what he actually wrote to his disciples, we can see what his heart was like. I strongly recommend reading this Gosho right now. I had a really hard time not copying the whole thing in here as my June quote. I love how there is so much practical advice in it. For example:
