Well, last night was my SGI-USA district's annual Women's Division General Meeting, and a very cool one it was, too.
After gongyo, about 20 of us sat our chairs in a circle, and we had a wonderful experience by a friend of mine who is challenging some serious family health issues.
We had an interesting discussion of "powerful prayer", with a number of women chiming in with their own "recipes" for powerful prayer, and what the results were.
A couple of women talked about their experience in learning to "let go" of an issue and stop trying to force resolutions of their difficulties.
I gave an experience I had about a loved one who had struggled for many years with alcoholism. I had gotten angry with him, pitied him, done the whole gamut of emotions- sending him hour upon hour of daimoku. Then, one day, I honestly chanted for the best thing for him. I didn't know what that "best thing" would be, I only knew that I was at the end of my personal rope.
Well, he bounced around a bit, and ultimately ended up in a pilot program for recovering indigents - a sort of Rolls Royce of street person recovery programs. He has better health care than I do, all his medications, a place to live, and he has been sober for nearly a year, now. It truly was uncanny - I wanted "the best thing", even if that meant he would have to die and start all over again as an infant in Mongolia (and, as embarassing as this is, I was secretly sort of hoping he would die and start all over again as an infant in Mongolia). Instead, he got what was actually "the best thing" - the best program, the best doctors, the best counselors. Its was a wonderful experience in the power of prayer for me.
Other women gave their experiences "employing the strategy of the Lotus Sutra", many in regard to issues related to family and caregiving responsibilities. That really made me realize how many of us live our day-to-day lives under the stress of caring for sick loved ones, and how much we need each others' support. I'm glad that my women's division friends are there for me, and that I can be there for them.
At the end, the Zone-level guest leader gave a talk where she expressed a lot of enthusiasm about the 16th Chapter of the Lotus Sutra. She described driving up to Santa Barbara with another WD leader, who talked to her about the English meaning of Chapter 16. She then read aloud some notes she had made in her sutra book, and interpreted the Chapter's message about the eternity of the Buddha's life. She also made the point that Nichiren Buddhism is a "simple recipe", and that our vow (mai ji sa ze nen - "this is my constant thought") is how to introduce suffering people to the practice, not how to interpret it for them, or how to explain it to them, but how to simply "give them the recipe and get out of the way". I like discussing, but maybe that's just me.
I was very glad to see a Gakkai leader actually talking about the Lotus Sutra. I briefly considered raising my hand and mentioning that I read Chapter 16 aloud in English as part of my personal practice in front of the Gohonzon several times a week. I thought better of it, though, and didn't mention my non-uniform personal devotions.
Well, I hope you all had encouraging WD meetings. I would be interested in hearing about them, if you can share.
Byrd in LA