Changing my causes, reaping the effects

Recently, while rearranging my office space and cleaning up piles of accumulated writings, I came across journals that I kept from 1984 until 2001 spanning seventeen years of misery. Journaling served as a sounding board for my frustrations with my marriage, my job, my health, my financial condition, and my children. In them over and over again, I complained about my environment, set goals to change my attitude or change my situation. But what did I accomplish? Nothing ever changed. I wrote goals. I listened to motivation tapes. I read books to elevate my thinking. I asked God to help me. I tried to make amends for past misbehavior or negative thinking. Still nothing changed. I continued to write the same goals on a merry-go-round of dissatisfaction and desire.
Nichiren, a 13th century monk who studied all the Buddhist teachings and founded the sect of Buddhism that I encountered, said, “Only the ship of Myoho-renge-kyo enables one to cross the sea of the sufferings of birth and death” (“A Ship to Cross the Sea of Suffering.” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin vol.1. Tokyo: Soka Gakkai, 1999, p. 33). To me, this meant that by chanting "Nam-myoho-renge-kyo," I would finally change my life condition. In January 2000 I joined SGI-USA. I chanted for discernment. I chanted for courage. I chanted to change my life. By December 2001, I was fired from my job, my husband divorced me, I ran out of money, was invited to not join the family at Thanksgiving, and everything changed. Why?
I had stopped looking at effects and began focusing on causes. We practice the Buddhism of true cause. That means that when something blocks our forward movement, we look at the effects and determine what causes we made that resulted in those effects. Then if we want to change our effects, we change our causes. By making causes, I focus on the present and future instead of focusing on the past and my environment.
My environment reflects my life condition. By changing my life condition, my environment changes. Today I have a mission. I don’t have time to think about the miserable surroundings in my environment because I am too busy making causes for world peace. And when I focus on my causes, the conditions in my environment become opportunities for appreciation rather than complaint. Just like the leaf that floats on the surface of the rushing stream, the effects within my life condition merely flow past me.
I live alone. I write (one of my major goals in my journals). I am happy. I manage my money carefully, and I have enough to eat and pay the bills. In the winter, I keep the heat turned to sixty-eight degrees during the day and fifty-five degrees at night and snuggle under my down comforter to keep warm. In the summer, I wait until the heat approaches ninety before I turn on the air conditioner. I recycle; I freecycle; I exercise; I study; I call and encourage members; I chant; I teach; I learn; I laugh; I love.
Yes, I also have struggles. I support my eighty-eight year old mother who lives near me. I try to improve communication among my fellow chapter and area leaders. Sometimes I feel lonely, but when I reach out to others, the feeling passes. I walk and ride public transportation as much as possible to do my part to preserve energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I’m working to keep my publishing and writing business solvent. Just this year, by chanting “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” and taking an active role in my health, I overcame a twenty-year struggle with chronic diarrhea.
Today my causes make me like the tree rooted by the stream thrusting up my branches toward the universe. Like it says in the spiritual sung by Maya Angelou, “I will not, I will not be moved.”

True Happiness

A muddy pond covered with green slime attracts bugs that feed the frogs that live under the lily pads. The lily pad, a.k.a. lotus plant, anchored in the mud emerges through the green slime to bloom into a beautiful flower floating just above the slime. The stem is neither too short nor too long but just the right height for the flower to blossom above the water.

My life emerges like that flower amidst the muddy swamp of my obstacles. In the mud rests my enemies, my challenges, my financial insecurities, my fair-weather friends, my incompetent superiors, my flawed parents, my illnesses, my mental instability, and my sadness. Yet, even while I sink into the quicksand, my hopes and dreams, my loved ones, my inner strength, pushes up through the green slime like the lotus flower and bursts forth with joy, greeting the sun and the moon and the universe with appreciation for the quicksand pulling me downward as I thrust myself upward.

The power of the universe, once I align myself with it, provides opportunities that guide me in the direction of happiness. I stay above the green slime, pure and fragrant, showing my true self to the universe. My path is clear. Throughout each level of my life condition, my Buddha nature, like the lotus flower, emerges when I chant, “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.”

Trees for Life

The Palestinian farmers lost many olive orchards to Israeli-occupied land for settlements and a wall for protection and separation. Why do people fail to see the humanity in others? If one person’s olive trees can be bulldozed, what is the difference between their trees and ours? Do the bulldozer operators not use olives and olive products? The greedy, nihilistic military justifies aggressive actions out of its own fear and ignorance.

What can one person do?

Trees for Life provides three-year old saplings to farmers in Palestine to replace the trees lost to Israeli settlements and the wall that now separates many Palestinian farmers from their olive orchards. By purchasing Fair Trade products (olive oil and soap) we contribute to the distribution of these saplings. We can also make a donation to purchase trees for the Palestinians. When people have a livelihood, they have hope. You can find their website and local distributors of the olive products at http://www.zatoun.com/treesforlife.htm.

Join the ONE Campaign

Join the ONE Campaign at www.one.org. This campaign works to eradicate hunger, poverty, AIDS, and other diseases worldwide by making our leaders more accountable.

Those Americans who believe that eradicating poverty and elevating all of humanity’s life condition will contribute to a better, safer, happier world for everyone are joining the One Campaign to make these results a reality. The One Campaign depends on every American to fight against the evil that causes poverty and win education, food, clean water, and health for everyone. Join the ONE Campaign at www.one.org.

Internship opportunity

Here’s something that came through my email that looks like a great opportunity for students proficient in web design, marketing, Internet research, legal research, editing, writing, grant writing, paralegal, communications and public relations, fundraising, and coalition building.

The Natah Education and Legal Defense Fund is currently seeking interns for the Spring 2008 semester. The fund represents Iraq war victims in various lawsuits. Natah v. Bush, our key case, is the only case to ever ask the President to pay damages to victims of war crimes. Other cases deal with civil rights abuses by U.S. contractors working in Iraq.

Legal action is currently one of the best hopes for remedying U.S. policy regarding Iraq and Iran. Senate filibuster delays legislative changes, and President Bush is likely to veto any limits on the Iraq war. Middle East peace is too important to wait for a new President, and legal action is currently the fastest route to get policy changes and prevent a war with Iran.

More information can be found at . We offer very substantive meaningful assignments tailored to each student's educational and vocational goals.

Call 703-698-0623 or e-mail antiwarattorney@yahoo.com, Michael Beattie, Attorney

I can dance!

I had a great time last night at the Fair Trade Festival benefit. The music, friends, acquaintances and others made it special. Even Travis, our server, did an excellent job of keeping us well supplied with food and drink.

For the past 20 years, I have suffered from a malady the doctor’s call irritable bowel syndrome. Even though they have performed two colonoscopies and a barium enema with air contrast, they don’t know how to help me. So I have been helping myself through keeping a food journal, fasting whenever I have diarrhea, and trusting doctors to help. But the best help came from a book written by James F. and Phyllis A. Balch – Prescription for Nutritional Healing.

Through their guidance and my charts and records, I have discovered that taking one acidophilus tablet every time I eat prevents the diarrhea. My suspicion is that the antibiotics I took as a child suffering from chronic ear infections cleaned out my digestive system of all the good bacteria, and that my best choice is to replace these bacteria every time I eat with the acidophilus.

Last night at the benefit, when Milo MacTavish got up to dance the jig in his kilt, I joined him and danced with no hazardous-waste spillage. What a liberating feeling. I can dance!

We have all the technology. Now learn to communicate.

We can text message, call from anywhere, anytime, email, blog, post messages; but can we communicate?

“I can’t hear you. I’m going through the tunnel. I’ll call you back in a few minutes. Send me a text message. No, never mind. It still won’t go through until I get out of the tunnel.”

“Okay. I’m back. What were you going to tell me?”

“Oh, never mind. It wasn’t important.

“Come on. I want to know. Tell me. If it wasn’t important, you wouldn’t have called. Well maybe, you would. You call me all the time and it’s not important. You just want to talk. Is that what you wanted? To talk?”

“I said, ‘Never mind.’ I don’t want to just talk. I did have something important, but the moment is gone. Forever lost. I was going to tell you about how I’m sitting on the beach watching the sun rise and wished you were here with me. That’s all.”

Oh. Sorry. I wish I was with you too. But I have to go to work. That’s life, I guess. Never the right time or place. Even with all our technology, a stupid tunnel cut us off and then I thought it wasn’t important. Will we ever learn to communicate?”

In memory of Virginia Tech fallen comrades

What is going on here? Why would a person kill others? What is preventing us from expressing our anger respectfully? What gives anyone the right to take another's life? What makes us think that we are better, more powerful, more righteous than others? What gives us the right to destroy hundreds of other lives, including the bereaved, just because we want to? What are we raising our children to believe? That they can throw a major temper tantrum because they don't get their way? When will we learn respect for life? When will we learn how to have dialogue with others when we're upset instead of shooting them in the face? When will we learn to graciously step aside when someone one else gets in the way? When will we learn that we are all connected and that what we do to one person, we also do to ourselves?

I don't have any answers, but I'm looking in certain directions:

1. Respect for life begins with our leaders. They set the example for us.
2. War, killing, profiteering, road rage, violence all lead to more violence.
3. Killing is easy; dialogue is only for those who want to make a better world for our children.

Nothing will replace the lives of those who died today. Only our efforts toward peace and nonviolent dialogue will help to steer our society in a new direction.

Taking the road less travelled

When do we get insight to move forward? To take action? To do a kind deed? When we are engaged in some other activity. Suddenly, an idea pops into our heads to deviate from the planned course and do something else. Most often, we dismiss this idea. We're too tired, too stressed, or our favorite show is about to begin. So we fail to take action.

We never know the joy we missed by not taking that sidetrack. We just go on, mechanically doing the same things we have always done.

The other day, after working all day, I went to a study meeting to learn more about my faith. In one way, I had to be there, as I was leading the discussion. In another way, I wanted to be there because I wanted to be part of the activity. When it was over, my plan was to take my friend home and go home myself.

But then a thought popped into my mind. This would be a good time to visit another friend who had called me earlier that day from the emergency room asking me to notify some relatives that he had been injured on the job. I wasn't even sure if he had been admitted, but I made a U-turn and headed toward the hospital.

I saw that visiting hours ended at 8:30 and it was now 9 pm. But the automatic outside door opened, and someone inside triggered the switch to open the inside door. No one was at the desk to tell me if my friend had been admitted, so I proceeded to the emergency room to find out.

I walked in and a security guard asked me if he could help. I told him about my quest and he directed me to a clerk who told me my friend's room number. The security guard escorted me to the right room and showed me how to find my way out when I was ready to leave.

It was the right thing to do. My friend looked tired and gray because of two broken ribs and a collapsed lung, but he was happy to see me. We visited for about a half hour, and then I suggested that we chant for a few minutes. He agreed and as we chanted together, although he was in pain, his color improved as he breathed deeper from chanting.

Seeing the color return to his face was the best return on my investment of a little bit of time. I left my study materials with him, and when I arrived home, he called to tell me how much the first article he read encouraged him, and how much better he felt after my visit.

Getting out of my comfort zone

Creating peace and justice begins with me. I must move out of my comfort zone into an area where I know I would like to be, but have difficulty getting there. It's not life-threatening, just scary.

So how do I make the move? First, I decide on a goal. Say it's to attend two peace and justice activities in my community each month. Then I have to implement the goal by looking for those activities, figuring out where they are and how to get there, and then following through by attending and participating.

A great resource in southeastern Virginia is Hampton Roads Network for Nonviolence (HRNN). To get on their recipient list for bimonthly announcements of events in the area, just post a reply to this blog and say, "Add my address to your list."

Another thing I can do is invite someone to go with me. That doubles my effort and gives me someone to talk to on the way there and back. But when I get there, I have to make the effort to talk to people I don't know. It's too easy, and a cop-out, to just hang out with people I know and not make new connections. It is the new connections that create peace and justice, and enable us to grow beyond our own small universe.

Building the cathedral of peace

I'm going to let Ingmar Bergman speak for me because I think his wisdom applies to the topic of creating more peace and justice.

“People ask what are my intentions with my films — my aims. It is a difficult and dangerous question, and I usually give an evasive answer: I try to tell the truth about the human condition, the truth as I see it. This answer seems to satisfy everyone, but it is not quite correct. I prefer to describe what I would like my aim to be.
There is an old story of how the cathedral of Chartres was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. Then thousands of people came from all points of the compass, like a giant procession of ants, and together they began to rebuild the cathedral on its old site. They worked until the building was completed — master builders, artists, labourers, clowns, noblemen, priests, burghers. But they all remained anonymous, and no one knows to this day who built the cathedral of Chartres.
Regardless of my own beliefs and my own doubts, which are unimportant in this connection, it is my opinion that art lost its basic creative drive the moment it was separated from worship. It severed an umbilical cord and now lives its own sterile life, generating and degenerating itself.
In former days, the artist remained unknown and his work was to the glory of God. He lived and died without being more or less important than other artisans; 'eternal values,' 'immortality' and 'masterpiece' were terms not applicable in his case.
The ability to create was a gift. In such a world flourished invulnerable assurance and natural humility. Today the individual has become the highest form and the greatest bane of artistic creation.
The smallest wound or pain of the ego is examined under a microscope as if it were of eternal importance. The artist considers his isolation, his subjectivity, his individualism almost holy. Thus we finally gather in one large pen, where we stand and bleat about our loneliness without listening to each other and without realizing that we are smothering each other to death. The individualists stare into each other's eyes and yet deny the existence of each other. We walk in circles, so limited by our own anxieties that we can no longer distinguish between true and false, between the gangster's whim and the purest ideal.
Thus if I am asked what I would like the general purpose of my films to be, I would reply that I want to be one of the artists in the cathedral on the great plain. I want to make a dragon's head, an angel, a devil — or perhaps a saint — out of stone. It does not matter which; it is the sense of satisfaction that counts.
Regardless of whether I believe or not, whether I am a Christian or not, I would play my part in the collective building of the cathedral.”
from: Four Screenplays of Ingmar Bergman (1960)

Treasures of the Heart

I attended a meeting tonight and the the topic was three types of treasures: treasures of the storehouse, treasures of the body and treasures of the heart. We had a dialogue to decide which treasure was the most important. An eleven year old, Selena, spoke right up saying, "We can lose our material things or our lives, but we can't lose the treasures of our heart, so that's the most important."

Then she told a story of living in Texas with her mom and brothers in a big house, but they had very little money and it was Christmas. An aunt came and helped them pay their fuel bill so they could have heat. "It wasn't that cold," she said. Anyhow, on Christmas day, there weren't any presents, but the family was together and safe in the big house and it was the best holiday they ever had.

Her story reminded me of my grandmother. I was supposed to inherit her diamond ring, but while she was in a nursing home, she gave it to someone there. I felt disappointed until my mother told me that a few months before she died, my grandmother told her, "I will always remember Susan's kindness to me." That sentence meant more to me than a million diamond rings.

Just like Selena said, material things mean nothing, but friendship and caring for others will stay with us forever, through many, many lifetimes.