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.