Introduction/Back Story: I recently decided to do a “test” and see what happens if I chant “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo” more instead of just doing my Buddhist practice without verbalizing this specific mantra. I have been consciously chanting and paying attention to any external signs or results. The following occured during this middle of this experiment. Coincidence or not? I'll let you decide.
I got a new car recently and thought it would be fun to get one of those personalized license plates. I wanted something clever or Buddhist or both, but everything I thought of was either already taken or voted down by my kids. I decided to save the money (personalized plates come with an annual fee) and just settle for whatever the California Department of Motor Vehicles sent me.
At the very least, I wanted the letters and numbers to be easy to remember, so I could pick my Toyota out of all the others in a crowded parking lot. At the very most, I hoped for something that might somehow feel a bit “personalized.” “Wouldn’t it be cool if I ended up with something that had some Buddhist meaning?” I said to my kids, knowing the odds of that were one in ten zillion.
Well, today I got my new license plate in the mail.
It has four numbers. And just three letters.
The letters are, in perfect order: NMR.
Good thing there isn’t a K at the end, or I just might have fainted. I mean, actual proof is one thing. Overkill is another.
hi i have read a number of your posts. you are really not emlightened wnough i think, you need to read more. for your own sake. to not read only buddhist stuffs, read outside it.
Posted by: goh kok ming at July 9, 2005 02:20 AMI just love it when that stuff happens. Just figure the odds...
Take care, Patty
Posted by: Patty at July 9, 2005 06:29 AMGoh Kok Ming, could you clarify?
Posted by: queen lolo at July 9, 2005 08:36 PM´I recently decided to do a “test” and see what happens if I chant “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo” more, instead of just doing my Buddhist practice without verbalizing this specific mantra. I have been consciously chanting and paying attention to any external signs or results. This license plate event occurred right in the middle of this experiment.´
Do you think that if you light a cigarette, and the bus arrives, that was because you lit the cigarette?
The notion of chanting "for" something is based on an errounous view of cause and effect.
Of course, one can chant. It is wonderful. See my Khrishnamurti quote. The notion that something specific happens is pure nonsense. It is idolatry and false prophecy. In the future, I will watch out for these false prophets which are disguised wolfs in sheepskin (see the bible).
Best regards
Peter
Peter,
If you said to yourself, "I am going to see if lighting a cigarette has any effect on the speed at which the bus arrives, and you waited ten minutes, lit the cigarette, and a bus pulled up with a huge billboard on the side that said, "CIGARETTE!" wouldn't that make you wonder a bit?
Frankly, I think the world is way too magical to assume any of us know what the heck is going on and why things happen as they do.
On the other hand, we can be pretty sure that cigarettes cause lung cancer. So if you need something to help a bus show up, try chanting instead. It may not work, but as least it won't kill you.
Posted by: queen lolo at July 11, 2005 05:07 PMQueen Lolo,
Yes, but, well, the point of the example of the cigarette, which is from a book on psychology, is that such superstition is a self-defeating behaviour. The leadership of SGI speaks of eradicating "doubt" when, in fact, what people need in healthy relationships are a healthy balance of "doubt" og "trust".
Anyway, I´m finished with my critique of SGI.
I only wish good for these people. Today when we in Europe face the threat of terrorism like you do in the US, I think it is sad that people feel a need to indulge in a collective phantasy such as SGI or the Unification Church but on the other hand the people engaged in such groups have never had a real choice. Naturally, if people hadn´t been severely victimized and had a spiritual alternative they would never in the first place have gotten involved with such groups.
Glad to read you Queen Lolo. I stopped in yesterday a found a completely blank web page.
Glad you like your new plate. I don’t believe in coincidence. Everything has meaning. There is order to the universe. It is not merely chaos, random occurrences.
In 1988 I had set a goal for myself to move from the burbs, back into Seattle, specifically the University District. This is a difficult area to find a rental house, and I had specific amenities that I desired—off street parking, small yard for my dog. My goal was to accomplish this by June 1st.
Memorial weekend I had Gajokai duties at the Community Center. After the nights activities I would spend the night there, a security function performed by Young Men’s Division members. Sunday night when I was chanting, May 29th, I realized that I had been so busy that I had forgotten my goal, June 1st was three days away, I was near flat broke, and that moving into the city was expensive and seemingly hopeless. I was ticked off at myself and was chanting about the situation.
It was depressing. I decided to just chant and while so doing a quote attributed to Ikeda came to mind: “Never allow yourself to be defeated.” I thought, “Sure, the situation is hopeless. What the hell good does that do me?” None the less I keep chanting for several hours that night thinking “ ‘Never allow yourself to be defeated’, yeah, right, but it’s hopeless, ‘Never allow yourself to be defeated’, I’m broke, ‘Never allow yourself to be defeated’, but there is no way, ‘Never allow yourself to be defeated’…. “. In this way my conflicting thoughts frustrated me as I chanted though the night.
Morning came, it was the holiday, I had no work, no plans and nothing to do, feeling down and feeling defeated, I decided to waste a couple of hours at a card room before going home to feed my dog. I bought Twenty Dollars in poker chips at 10am, and when I left at 5:30pm I cashed out One thousand eight hundred seventy-five dollars.
I bought a newspaper; looked at the ads, saw a listing for a three-bedroom house, University District, parking, yard, pets ok with deposit, available June 1st. I drove there. The landlord was working on the house. I paid cash for the first months rent, security and pet deposit. The landlord’s request? $1,875.00.
Coincidence?
Never allow yourself to be defeated. The life force and the universe work in strange ways. There is such a thing as being in rhythm with the universe—whether we understand it or not.
Chikushonin, you wrote "There is such a thing as being in rhythm with the universe." That is exactly how I perceive such things. When I am "in the flow," life works more easily. Coincidences happen more readily. No explanation for this, but it's a REAL thing.
For instance, last year, I was getting ready to go to an SGI meeting. I hadn't been to one in ages, but the topic, "Finding Your Purpose," interested me. An hour or so before I left, I happened to glance down at a stack of magazines next to my bed. I picked up the first one I found, and immediately opened to an article on "finding your purpose!"
In a state of "wow-ness," I decided to make enough copies of the article, in case it seemed appropriate at the meeting. When I got there,I sat next to a woman named Sandy. As we greeted one another, I looked down and there, on her lap, was the very same issue of LB! I opened my folder and showed her the copies I'd made, and she was speechless, as was I!
"I brought this magazine because of that article, and I didn't have a chance to xerox the article," she told me. "Well, looks like I did it for you!" I said. She gave her talk on the article, and then I handed out copies to anyone who wanted it. No one could believe that Sandy and I hadn't coordinated this. It happened completely by "accident!"
I could go on and on about these types of events. Certainly they are not the point of Buddhist practice, but they are fun. And they do seem to point to some type of order and creative intelligence in the universe. And they seem to occur much more frequently when I am in a certain state of mind.
Posted by: queen lolo at July 12, 2005 12:42 AMIn regard to the issue about cigarettes and buses - everyone knows that if you go to the bathroom, your food will come, or if you go to the snack bar the movie will start. In fact, many people will actually go to the snack bar or the bathroom for no other real purpose than to hasten the food or the movie. Nothing mystical about it, it's a well-known fact. Byrd in LA
Posted by: Byrd in LA at July 12, 2005 09:40 AMByrd,
LOL!
Actually, my cousin spent a year behind the scenes of a very well-known and high-priced restaurant in New York and wrote a book about it. In restaurants of this level, the staff watches the guests and will NEVER bring out food when someone is away from the table. Likewise, they time the delivery of all orders carefully so everyone at the same table is served at the same time. As a result, working as a chef or anything else in the kitchen is considered among the most stressful of all occupations, even more so than air traffic controllers.
On the other hand, it seems that in all other restaurants, the staff is instructed to watch and serve only when the guest is AWAY from the table so the meal will be slightly cold.
More than you wanted to know about restaurants?
Posted by: queen lolo at July 12, 2005 10:24 AMBack in the day, my dad would always light a cigarette if the meal was taking a long time to appear. Invariably he would get one or two puffs then have to put it out as the food arrived.
How life has changed........
Namaste, Engyo Mike Barrett
Posted by: Engyo Mike Barrett at July 12, 2005 01:17 PMDear Lolo, Peter, Et Al....
Oh, come on, nobody knows anything and we all know everything: therefore, we are all right and wrong at the same time, neither of which have any meaning beyond what the Ku makes of it.
KuKu Pando
Posted by: Pando at July 15, 2005 04:54 PM