Buddhahood-tinted spectacles

Not all my experiences have to be about deep, life changing stuff.

Nichiren Buddhism is real life, and real life is about little things as well as big and profound things.

Sure, with this Buddhism a chinwag with some girlfriends ends up being about transmigration and how to escape the endless cycle of birth and death, but it's not all philosophy.

So, let's talk about this little thing that happened to me today.

Sokas and Lilacs

I have recently gone through quite a dry spell in my blogging. In Italian we call it "blocco dello scrittore", or writer's block. 

Then the other day an anonymous made the following comment:

I'm interested in how the Lilac role that the women plays differs from the Soka role that the men play. I'd love to hear more about this if you'd consider writing something.

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 :)

A new start to my Human Revolution: Dedicated Lilac

On the 2nd of June I attended the Dedicated Lilac Graduation ceremony.

Becoming a Dedicated Lilac has been a goal of mine since 2009.

But let's start from the beginning :)

In 1998 I started practising Nichiren Buddhism regularly. I was twelve at the time, and this meant my practice had several limitations. One, I had to wait my 18th birthday to receive Gohonzon (or in my case, become a member). Another one was that I could not take up any responsibility, again until my 18th birthday. But the biggest one, for me, was that I could not do lilac.

Courses and songs

This post should have been another of my descriptive, "everyday Buddhism" posts to talk about Buddhist courses, and it has shifted into one of my biggest experiences so far.

Because my HQ course has been the first time I had to sneak out a lilac shift to cry. And also the second time.

But let’s start from the beginning. Or, well, from the point where my memories started creeping back and creeping me out.