As a Nichiren Buddhist, you hear that you should chant for what you want. But what if you have a fear, or feel threatened by something. Shouldn’t you chant for what you want to change? The answer is no, not if you are looking at the problem.
Think about it carefully. If you are holding the fear in your mind’s eye, you are giving your attention to the problem, and the problem is what you are putting out to the universe.
Speech, Thought & Action Create Your Future
You want to envision what you want to have happen not what you fear. Why? Because according to the law of cause and effect and 3000 realms in a moment of life, our thought, speech and action, create causes for our future. In My Dear Friends in America, President Ikeda quotes Ghandhi saying, “Your minds determine your future, your lives.” He also quotes William Hazlitt, whom he felt was an acute observer of human nature. He said that the power of belief, the power of thought, will move reality in the direction of what we believe and how we conceive it.
Quantum Mechanics would support this. It says that at the source of all thought and matter is an ocean of pure vibrating energy and consciousness. When we have a thought or chant about a goal, we begin the process of attracting that vibrating energy into form. As you think that thought over and over it begins to show up more and more in your world. Think of all the times you started thinking about something and then found it everywhere. So you need to ask yourself. What do you want to create? Do you want to hold the thought of what you fear, or do you want to hold a thought of what you want?
When we sit to chant, we project our thoughts and state of mind on the mirror of the universe. Then it is reflected back to us as the results we receive. The Clear Mirror Guidance, pg. 10. As President Ikeda says, “ Life is a ‘visible’ manifestation of the ‘invisible’ workings of the mind.” MDFIA 253.
Shift Your Goal From The Problem to What You Want
Let’s look at an example. Let’s say you are you are afraid you won’t have enough money to pay the rent. While chanting, take the fear of not being able to pay the rent, and chant about what you want to see happen, having the money to comfortably write out the check. We attract whatever circumstances we chant about when we put something out to the universe.
When you chant about something, there is going to be a buffer of time between when you begin chanting and when the result shows up. This is sometimes the hardest period, because you’ve changed what you are doing but haven’t yet seen the results. Be patient, keep chanting for what you want, and expect you are going to get it.
A Personal Experience
My husband and I chanted for safety and protection before beginning a two-hour drive north to Portland, Oregon. Both of us had had the feeling there was potential for an accident. We were driving along the expressway in sync with the other cars going 75 miles an hour, when the cars ahead of us abruptly stopped dead, without warning. We were just able to stop, and when we looked around, the car behind us was by our left window. We were unhurt, our car untouched. To this day, I don’t take a car trip without chanting for protection and a safe trip first. I know this is a prosaic example but when you repeatedly have experiences where what you chant about comes to be, you know you are truly experiencing the mystic function of the mind.
Try an Experiment
To begin to master your mind, so you can focus what you want and won’t dwell upon fears. Try practicing the following steps.
1. Identify what you want to have happen in your area of interest and chant about it.
2. Don’t pay attention to what appears to be happening in the present, or to any fears you might have. If necessary, pull your attention fifty times a day away from those thoughts and back to what you want. Just get back on the horse and don’t linger on your fears.
3. If you don’t really believe you can have what you want, think about working towards it step by step, until you can believe what you are putting out to the universe. Chant for the first step with a thought that gives you hope.
4. When you think of your goal during the day, focus on what you want and expect it to happen.
5. Enjoy the results.
Thanks it is really a motivating post??????
This is such fantastic guidance. I am passing this to my son who is in such financial trouble, causing anxiety and him not being honest with his partner. He has only just come clean with us. He has started to chant and is taking action by consulting debt counsellors. He has just landed a new job with an increase in salary, it will still be a struggle but things are shifting. I have tried to explain about not chanting to the problem, your article puts it so clearly. Thank you. After 24 years of practice, I need to be reminded of this, chant from the point of victory. It’s so easy to be swamped by fear.
I’m delighted it’s been helpful. I’d be interested in hearing what happens.
Hi Margaret, I am so sorry not to have replied, I must have missed ticking the box to be alerted to comments:)
Well, I have to report that things came to a head in July. My husband and I refused him anymore money unless he told his wife to be the truth. I had just come back from a study meeting to be met with a distraught daughter in law to be, a very drunk and suicidal son and a scared four year old grandson. I told my daughter in law to be the whole truth, talked my son down, and was reassured my grandson was OK. I was in total control and calm. My darling husband bailed him out and cleared the debts. I pray that this doesn’t happen again. We are both coming up to retirement and am chanting not to have this fear or burden, that our son grows up etc.
Subsequently, I still get fearful but chant to overcome it, it’s like a bruise, a memory that returns.
My son was chanting, I sent him many documents about my experiences and pieces I’d used at discussion meetings. He wanted to read books by Sensei about space and eternal life, I bought him that. I also bought him David Hare’s book, ‘The Buddha in Me, the Buddha in You’. I don’t know if he has read them, or is still chanting. I was pressuring him by text or messages, he always made an excuse that his phone didn’t receive them. I am now chanting to just TRUST:) I am backing off.
Two weeks ago my son married. It was a totally joyous day. We also have another grandchild, a girl, on the way -not planned! But I am sure this life is determined to be here for a reason, like her brother.
All I can say is Margaret, I have deepened my faith, am developing my trust and helping others to do the same. Your blogs and vlogs are a continuous support to me. I pass it on to my friends, and they are taking inspiration too. Thank you so very much.xx
I am going to buy your book, Stepping Stones and start reading it with new people in our group.