Auspicious signs abound. On August 19th, a golden full moon coincided with the printing of my new book, Riding the Wheel to Wellness. The official release date of September 17th falls on the day before the full moon. On October 1st, I kick off my book tour at Transitions Bookplace, Chicago’s hottest bookstore. You can visit them at http://www.transitationsbookplace.com.
In mid-November, my wife and I will begin hosting a weekly FM radio show on healing, visualization, and all things metaphysical. In 2006, after my book tour, I will be conducting seminars and workshops on mantra-powered visualization. All of my efforts to bring effective spiritual healing tools to the people have been done at my own expense, without any consideration for profit. I gave away 2/3rds of the profit from Modern Buddhist Healing. Anyone who infers that I’m enriching myself on Buddhism is as clueless as Paris Hilton on acid.
There were a great many lessons learned in the process of bringing my first book to market. The new one will benefit from that experience. What did I learn?
Lesson One: Be in the present moment at all times. You can do this if you base your efforts on prayer. Write the book you want, and don’t be afraid to take on the status quo. The process of research, meditation, writing, and editing, is the fun stuff. The bitter travails of finding a publisher need not be revisited. Rejection either makes you stronger or breaks you. The example of Nichiren is the perfect model for perseverance. Finally, when the writing is done, the real work begins.
Lesson Two: The people who need your book the most, don’t know that it exists. Most of those people who need it and know that the book exists, are reluctant to chant because of fear that it goes against the Lord. You can only help people so much, and then they must help themselves.
Lesson Three: Controversy sells books better than good reviews in prestigious publications. I learned this lesson when Modern Buddhist Healing was denied coverage or advertising space in our publications. Who says the Buddhist gods don’t have a sense of humor - in a shard of irony, The Shambhala Sun gave it a decent review. When word spread to the members via the Internet, sales took off and continue to increase. As people used my method and overcame their illness, word spread throughout the world. Not bad for a book that was deemed heretical!
Riding the Wheel to Wellness will be controversial to sectarian purists of the various religions and to medical doctors steeped in materialistic methods that view the body as a biological machine and deny or abhor the possibility of the mind-body connection.
Why should this be controversial? Because mantra-powered visualization can be successfully used by anyone, of any faith, with any medical condition – no matter how serious - of any age, anywhere, with no intermediaries necessary. It’s threatening to some that a spiritual Law and viable therapy is so simple to use, requires no conditional dogma, and is absolutely free.
There are other controversies surrounding this book as well. Some of the ideas presented are drawn from Tantra, Yoga, and the Vedic tradition. I have stripped this book clean of dogmatic embellishment. To insist on faith or sectarian encumbrance is like fitting the boat anchor of a battleship on a cabin cruiser.
Ignoring political correctness, examples are drawn about visualization from my psychedelic experiences of the 60s. I have shown the reality of non-local consciousness and how it’s possible to induce a healing event in someone, anywhere in the world. I have gone even further to describe how it is possible to visit a loved one far away, while in their spirit body.
The more that sectarian purists and medical skeptics deny what I’ve taught, the greater the interest will be for my target audience – the sick, the suffering, and the forgotten. Mantra-powered visualization is irrefutable because it works for anyone who uses it. Just like a banned book, artist, recording, movie, or product, a peculiar interest swells in proportion to the controversy. One might also consider the fact that the intolerant silence of being quietly blacklisted also has the potential of creating insatiable interest - like what happened with Modern Buddhist Healing. I would say that official sanction could oft-times be the ruination of any original idea or work. It’s my pleasure to be an independent Buddhist writer, beholding to no group or official doctrine.
I never set out to write a book that would be controversial. I wrote a book that could reach the hearts and minds of non-Buddhists suffering from illness. I made the Lotus Sutra my guide. As Shakyamuni revealed a truth that eclipsed his earlier teachings, my intention was to take the wisdom that was awakened in me and make the dharma accessable to the widest swath of humanity. Nichiren is the ideal role model for expounding the truth in the face of the traditional order.
In preparation for marketing my new book, the publicist requested of me a list of ten questions that I would like to be asked in an interview. This request was also made in 2001. I have consolidated these questions and will present five of them for you today. These questions are very important in explaining healing visualization. I learned a great deal from the promotion of my first book. It’s interesting to note that the most probing queries did not come from print journalists or broadcasters, but from people that attended my book signings. I would like to share some of these questions and answers on healing with you.
1. Can chanting really heal my body and mind?
Yes, it can. Before we discover why chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo takes mind-body healing to its highest level, it’s important to understand that all prayer or positive affirmations, performed twice daily, for ten minutes at a time, are capable of producing the scientifically measurable phenomena known as the “relaxation response.” This effect causes a cascade of healthful immunological benefits that foster wellness. Clinical trials have shown that the prayers, affirmations, mindfulness meditation, or closed-eye quiet contemplation of Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, and Shamanic people. are equal in producing this basic effect. This is also true for guided imagery and visualization practitioners, agnostics, irreligious people, and even atheists.
The thesis of my book is that Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is a mantra imbued with appropriate tonal qualities that naturally improve the flow of chi – or energy of life that circuits through us while communicating our intention to every cell and molecule in our body. Visualization enables us to reprogram our unconscious intention into a unified, whole-life move to wellness, or in some cases, a peaceful death. This healing method is a cosmic Law. Using mantra-powered visualization does not conflict with your past or current religion unless you block off your mind to other possibilities. I encourage people to have an open mind and a sincere heart.
2. Doesn’t visualization or guided imagery require special powers?
No, but practice does make perfect. Based on hundreds of testimonials and my own experience, a sincere heart and a seeking mind are the most special powers of all, and are even more important than practiced skill in visualization. The key to success using mantra-powered visualization is not esoteric knowledge or super human powers of concentration. Success comes from consistency in practice and sincerity.
3. If I have cancer and chant, will I live?
Yes, no, and maybe. Yes, you can overcome and live, but as with anything in life, there is no guarantee. No - we all must die of something at some time. Maybe you’ll survive and extend your life by 40 years. By having the strength of purpose to help others, all things are possible.
Cancer is a merciless killer. There is a saying that “faith can move mountains.” It has been my experience that if faith can move mountains, it can surely conquer cancer. I want to stress here that “faith” in the religious sense is not necessary to overcome illness with chanting daimoku. If religious faith were necessary to overcome illness through chanting, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo would not be a universal Law; it would be a prayer like the Twenty-Third Psalm. However, as one learns, there is no cessation of birth and death, no extinction. As the great Pando remarked, there only “is.”
4. Can my prayers actually help someone else?
Yes, your prayers can and do help others. In fact, the prayer researchers at Spindrift have demonstrated that with prayer, there is strength in numbers. The effectiveness of prayer is increased by the more people that pray for an objective. On an individual level, it feels good to pray for another person and the evidence clearly indicates that your prayer positively affects whatever you pray for.
5. What about God and Jesus? Isn’t chanting going against God?
I’m all for God and all for Jesus, just as I’m all for Buddha, love, and enlightenment. My Christian upbringing allows me to see things this way: If God created everything; He gave us Nam-myoho-renge-kyo to heal our body and spirit and to know Him, the Alpha and Omega. I watch in astonishment as TV evangelists do their theatrical healings in the name of Jesus. Healing in the name of Jesus and God is big business. What goes against God is deceit in His name.
I believe that if you asked Jesus how you could be healed, He would tell you to go to the doctor. I also believe that He would severely scold the TV evangelists as He did to the moneychangers in the Temple. Sincere prayer is what He taught, not theatrical deception of the cheesiest kind. I believe He would tell people it is okay to chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Why? Because it’s good medicine.
I would like to take this opportunity and thank all of you readers who have supported my efforts. These next four months will be challenging. Whatever help you can offer to spread the word will be deeply appreciated. It might be very difficult for me to write a weekly blog and promote my new book, but I’ll be giving it my best shot. My appreciation to you is boundless.
Recently, a reader sent me some important questions on life after death, what if anything survives, and the possibility of the soul.
“Dear Charles:
I’m interested in your experience of the in-between. Specifically, did your idea of yourself change? In other words, did your sense of what you were expand into something that contained many life times? And did you think it was possible to avoid rebirth? Also, if there is a self that continues, is there a progressive evolution over many life times, and can you speculate as to what the “goal” would be? I believe that you are an honest person who will state the truth. Whether or not there is a soul is an important question to me, and I have become convinced there is not, but, very possibly, you may convince me otherwise.”
How does one explain something that words or images cannot adequately describe? It’s not as if the great masters, priests, and adepts haven’t tried. There are volumes devoted to this subject, yet all fail to make the matter clear. The problem has always been that words, metaphors, similes, parables - even human conception, are incapable of describing an ultimate reality that transcends intellection, time, and space. What is needed for a better understanding of the mystery of life, afterlife, and rebirth, is a change in language, terminology, and imagery that reflects modern science (ke), evolution of human consciousness (ku), and the intrinsic spiritual essence of all phenomena (chu).
The Lotus Sutra gives us key clues to the reality of life and death in the Expedient Means with its Ten Factors, and the Life Span chapter of secrets more numerous than the Ganges sands. However, the interpretations that are presented through the various schools, including the Nichiren sects have, in my opinion, failed to unlock the mysteries. The images of peaceful and wrathful deities belong to another era. We need a new language of terms and images. Thanks to a new generation of Buddhist writers, scientists, and other progressive spiritual adepts, this is now happening.
“I’m interested in your experience of the in-between. Specifically, did your idea of yourself change?”
The metaphorical description of my journey into the interim existence has been well documented – but, beyond good reading, it’s as useless as Revelations as a literal text. I wrote about my experience in Modern Buddhist Healing, in my novel Mokuren, and elsewhere on Phantom City. The subject is compelling and of great import to people, because we will all face death at some point and what lies beyond is unknown.
No matter what is written or believed, as Carl Jung described after his own near-death experience, the (afterlife) ultimate reality is more astounding than words or images. When the Zen master encourages an “I don’t know mind,” he’s closer to the truth than the Lama who has successfully invoked and traversed the bardos through the long days of complete darkness in meditation. Why? The ultimate reality of life and death is more fabulous and vast than ordinary conception. This perfect knowledge of totality is one of the criteria that separate a Buddha from a common mortal. We can, however, discover this awareness in stages - and it has been within us all along.
“In other words, did your sense of what you were, expand into something that contained many life times?”
Yes and no. Beyond the abyss of what the Cabbala terms the Daath, into the realm of knowledge, the entire akashic field reveals all that has been, is, and will be in the eternal moment. Indra’s net of mutual arising and dependent origination is the ancient image for what might be seen in modern terminology as a quantum matrix of energy that is the basis of all phenomena.
Yes, all knowledge was there originally and it was nonlocal, meaning that consciousness exists beyond the brain, body, and human mind. This truth was the only real coherent treasure that remained.
And no - that supernova of spectral light, energy, and knowledge left me blinded to 99% of the details that were so perfectly obvious the instant before.
“And did you think it was possible to avoid rebirth?”
No, I do not, but that doesn’t make my opinion correct. Because the Buddha appears inclines me to believe that cessation of rebirth is an expedient means. In the Lotus Sutra, in the Life Span chapter, page 226, Shakyamuni states: “The Thus Come One perceives the true aspect of the world exactly as it is. There is no ebb or flow of birth and death, and there is no existing in this world and later entering extinction. It is neither substantial nor empty, neither consistent nor diverse.”
My understanding of this is that our life, is life – all of it. I enjoy the Vedic idea that the “soul” judges time in terms of uncountable aeons while we sentient beings measure it in years, hours or even minutes. There is really nothing to be reborn – only form changes.
"Also, if there is a self that continues, is there a progressive evolution over many life times, and can you speculate as to what the “goal” would be?
Whether or not there is a soul is an important question to me, and I have become convinced there is not, but, very possibly, you may convince me otherwise.
Ramana Maharshi has built his teachings on the idea that to deny the self is an illusion, while the Buddhists have built a philosophy that teaches that the self is an ephemeral illusion that only leads to attachment and ultimately suffering.
When a Christian thinks of the soul, they conceive of a created body of light that contains the personality of that individual. The Hindu conceives of the Atman of accrued karmic imprints that labors through samsara seeking extinction, but never fully able to get off the wheel. The Buddhists deny the soul, refute the Atman, and provide a sea of ambiguity of what survives death. The conventional Buddhist idea of death and rebirth is perhaps more chilling than eternal heaven and hell because it alludes to the annihilation of consciousness – there is no surviving self, no transcendental soul – not even a witness.
This is the reason that a new vocabulary of the samsaric experience is being developed. Distinctions are very important. We are beings of experience – we are empirical entities with empirical lives and empirical body’s of karma, energy, and awareness.
Is there a soul? Words cannot convince. Images are illusory. There is no soul with personality, ego, or self that survives; there is no Atman tied to the wheel; there is no extinction of consciousness. What then, is there after life? I would say all of this, none of it, and more. Once we get beyond the opposites and the gross limitations of semantics, awareness comes of its own. “Thou art that!” You are more than a soul, more than the Atman, more than surviving imprints. “You’re it!”