Nichiren Daishonin said, “Learn to master your mind and don’t let it master you.”
What does mastering the mind mean and why is it important?
Our practice, and it isn’t called practice for nothing, teaches us through different experiences, how to strengthen our faith, which then allows us to embody Buddhahood.
When we chant for a goal, the results can lead to self-reflection. Are you maintaining your faith or are you focusing on doubts, worries and problems?
What Am I Projecting?
Today we are going to discuss one aspect of practice which leads in the direction of mastering the mind.
In the Clear Mirror guidance, Ikeda says:
“The gohonzon is a clear mirror. It perfectly reveals our state of faith and projects this out into the universe. He also says, “One’s mind of faith has a subtle and far reaching influence.”
If you aren’t getting results from chanting, self-reflect and ask yourself, “What am I projecting to the universe?”
Oneness of Self and Environment
Daisaku Ikeda says in his book Faith into Action that:
“3000 realms in a moment of life completely elucidates the true aspect of life’s inner workings.” It encompasses the simultaneity of cause and effect.
This means that every thought we have simultaneously sets a seed in our lives, a cause that will manifest in the future when the time is right, the effect. Our outer life today is the “visible” manifestation of the “invisible” workings of the mind of yesterday. This is the expression of the Buddhist concept, Oneness of Life and Its Environment. The thought seeds we set today are the causes that produce the effect, our environment in the future.The thoughts we dwell upon the most create our life in the future. As Bill Aiken, former, SGI-USA Vice General Director says in the World Tribune, November 21, 2003:
“Rather than there being one static environment that we living beings are all born into, every environment is uniquely customized, tailored to suit each of us according to the state of our inner lives. It begins with the parents to whom we were born and extends through time and sspace to include all of the circumstances of our lives. So, in a sense, we’re all going around with our personal universe, one that extends from the inner depths of our hearts outward to all of the phenomena of our surroundings.”
We can look at the different aspects of our lives, to get feedback on what we are creating.
This principle doesn’t apply to an isolated thought here and there, but does apply if we are thinking consistently one way or another.
Why Our Thoughts are Important
Many of us were taught that our thoughts don’t really matter unless we act on them, but nothing could be further from the truth. We are one with the creative force in the universe at the core of our lives so our minds have the same creative capacity as the life force itself. Daisaku Ikeda says in My Dear Friends in America, that belief and thought alter reality. This capacity of our minds is truly miraculous. Most of the time we are unaware of what we have, and take it for granted, or doubt qwe really have it. We not only project our thoughts out to the universe while we are chanting but we do it all day long. Since the universe reflects our thoughts back to us, it’s important to be aware of what we project.
Until we learn about this, we just let any old thoughts and beliefs run through our minds, unaware that we are, in fact, creating our future life circumstances. The beauty of this is we possess the ability to consciously change what we are doing to get better future results.
When we set a goal, I think of it as creating an invisible architectural drawing which, at some point, will show up in the material world.
This principle becomes particularly important when you are chanting to overcome an obstacle or major challenge and a negative result might happen if you don’t achieve it. For example, let’s say you need to get a mortgage refinanced or you could lose your home. If the challenge isn’t resolved quickly, it becomes easy to focus on the fear of losing your home. When fear starts to dominate your thoughts, then it’s time to ask the questions, “What do I want to create?” Do I want to create what I fear, or do I want to manifest my desired outcome?” As Ikeda says in Faith into Action
Pessimistic Feelings Produce Pessimistic Results
“In accordance with the principle of 3,000 realms in a single moment of life, pessimistic thoughts or feelings take form, just as they are in reality, producing negative results. People who have negative thoughts create effects for themselves that perfectly match their thinking. So it’s important to be positive.”
Let’s say you are in front of the Gohonzon chanting for a goal. As Ikeda says in Faith into Action,
“When you decide to be victorious, every nerve and cell will orient itself towards your success. But when you think, this is never going to work out, then every cell is defeated and gives up the fight.”
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He continues with this concept in The Clear Mirror Guidance In My Dear Friends in America. He says, “If you practice faith while doubting its effects, you will get results that are at best unsatisfactory.” On the other hand, when you stand up with strong confidence, you will accrue limitless blessings.”
As you can see, the two attitudes produce very different possibilities.
My Experience
I discovered years ago you can set a cause for a future effect without realizing what you are doing.
I had a supervisor who was disorganized. He would change the schedules of us social workers the day before a twelve hour shift in the Emergency room. It drove me crazy and I began to think negatively about him. One day I realized that my relationship with him was going downhill. I didn’t want that to hap9pen. I needed that job. Having recently learned something about the power of thought, I decided to try an experiment. I deliberately started to think in a positive way about him without telling anyone. To my utter amazement, within 24 hours, I was on his golden girl list.
You Can Create Your Life Thru Deliberate Intent
Once you start paying attention to what you are thinking, you give yourself a major advantage. This awareness will allow you to create the future life you want, through deliberate intent, rather than by accident.
This principle shows us how we crate the causes for future effects in our lives. Then we can consciously set causes to create the kind of effects we want in the future. If we want positive eff4ects, we must think positively.
In the morning while you are chanting, envision your tasks progressing exactly as you want them to. You will find everything moves more smoothly.
It can be a challenge to notice the subliminal thoughts that fly by so quickly. But once you develop the habit of noticing, you will catch yourself when you are thinking about negative results, negative feelings, worries and problems. Then you can deliberately change those negative thoughts to reflect what you want to have happen and radiate that to the universe. The results will be quite different.
Our chanting practice isn’t called a practice for nothing.
Summary: We talked about the fact that mastering the mind is important to being able to maintain your awareness of being connecg3d to the Mystic Law and not be diverted by the ups and downs and negativity of the lower worlds or fundamental darkness.
Today we discussed one aspect of mastering the mind, becoming aware of whether you are focus8ing on your goal, chanting for what you want, or focusing on the problems to achieving it.
In order to create a positive future we must set the seeds of positive causes today.
Other Related URL’s
Know why Your Attitude is Important While chanting? https://wp.me/p3V1J9-16f
Do You Know How We Set Up Barriers to What We Want? https://wp.me/p3V1J9-XK
Do You Know why You Should Be grateful for Adversity? https://wp.me/p3V1J9-YS
Transcript download: Master Your Mind 1a
Comments:
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