Last month, I began to prepare for my semi-annual clinic visit. This comprehensive physical examination is part of my mandatory follow-up for the clinical trial I was involved in for the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG 7808). The results of this examination are compiled in a database with other trial members to ascertain the benefits of a specific treatment protocol. At my last clinic visit, I was asked to lose ten pounds. Because weight loss is such a difficult and important issue with people, I would like to share with you the results of that challenge.
My weight six months ago was 202 pounds. On my muscular six-one frame, it appeared that I had little fat. In fact, my body mass index was around 29, which isn’t too bad. I didn’t get serious about losing those ten pounds until after Thanksgiving. One of my obstacles was the deep-seated idea that for me, as a former cancer patient, having some extra weight was a good thing. I had gone through cycles of anorexia nineteen years ago and when I was finally diagnosed in 1987, I weighed only 165 pounds. After recovering, I allowed my weight to rise to 237 pounds. My doctors would gently admonish me and over the years, and over time, I managed to slim down.
This time, I had to drop ten pounds, when I wasn’t sure how or where that weight loss would come from. A plan was needed, so I went to the Gohonzon with a prayer to find a way to lose weight. While chanting, I realized that weight loss is nothing more than physics. It’s true that there are a lot more issues involved such as emotional issues, an individual’s metabolism, eating habits, and our environment. Considering all of this, it dawned on me that when you break it all down, the matter of weight loss is really about physics. The time-honored formula of lowering caloric intake, exercise, and due diligence are the fundamentals of weight loss. With those principles in mind, I added prayer and visualization.
From a practical standpoint, I ate two very small meals and a larger meal in the evening that was salmon, rice, and a fruit. My breakfast and lunch consisted of juice, granola, and fruit. I eliminated all snacks and especially soda pop, drinking nothing other than water. As for exercise, my job was enough, as during the course of a day, I walk at least two miles. From a spiritual standpoint, each time I chanted, I expressed my goal of 190 pounds, glucose under 100, cholesterol below 200, and all other blood work normal. What I did was program my brain to metabolize food with maximum efficiency by visualizing the numbers and seeing my body in its idealized form. I never hopped on the scale to see how I was doing, and I never cheated on my diet.
The results came last Wednesday (12-20). My weight was 186; my combined cholesterol was 126, and my glucose level dropped by 50 points to 68. All my other blood work came back perfect as well. I must admit that I was somewhat surprised to lose over fourteen pounds in three weeks. Can weight loss be achieved by a reasonable diet, modest exertion, and prayer? Yes, it can. I took no diet pills or weight loss formulas. I did not go to the gym and try to sweat off the pounds. And I didn’t sit before the Gohonzon pleading to lose the weight. All I did was make a plan, chant to make it happen, visualize my idealized form and the numbers desired. I determined to stick with the plan, move my body as much as possible, and never cheat.
My compassion for people with weight issues is very deep. I do understand that people have different metabolisms where their brain tells their body to store fat instead of burn it off. I know that people have deep-seated emotional issues where food is like a soothing narcotic and to break the cycle is not such a simple matter as telling yourself to stop snacking or to eat only certain foods. I understand that the stomach can begin to hurt and growl if snacks are not put into them, especially if we have fed that fire for years. And I do understand that eating right or healthy can be expensive. The media gives us contradictory messages of the joys of eating and super-sizing while showing images of skinny models and stars. Considering all those factors and the conditioning we are bombarded with, it’s no wonder that weight is such a confounding issue with people. Those who are large feel the scorn of others and are discriminated against in many subtle ways. I want to offer some encouragement and hope to those challenged by weight.
As simple minded as it may sound, weight loss boils down to physics. Prayer/visualization, reduced calories, deliberate exertion, due diligence, and no cheating on your plan will cause your weight to go down. I have repeated this process a number of times now and believe it works. I now challenge any of my readers who are looking to lose weight to try again with the principles I have just mentioned. Not only will you be able to lose weight and feel better about yourself, you will have regained control of your life and happiness.
This will be my last blog for a few weeks, as I am going on a much-needed vacation. I wish you all a happy holiday season. Peace be with you all.
As customary from my intensive training as a youth, I spend about one month each year studying “The Opening of the Eyes” Gosho (Kaimoku Sho). Each effort I make with this magnificent treatise sheds new light on the depth and breadth of Nichiren’s teachings, Buddhism in general, and world mythology as a whole. Adventure implies both risk and reward.
The Kaimoku Sho is like the trance inducing mythic soma of the Vedas. Each reading, I am like the Tarot’s Fool - that wanderer who dances on the precipice of enlightenment or ruin, without worry or expectation. My own eyes and mind are reopened annually, as if I were an orphan, separated from my family and at long last, finding my loved ones. Discipline is father to the adept, while faith is mother to the sage. Grandfather Wisdom lays its knurled hand upon my head. And Brother Practice boots me soundly in the rear.
This research is not about assimilation of knowledge, facts, or some feeble attempt at acquiring some obscure data coveted by Buddhist nerds to one-up each other. From this reunion of disciple, sage, the loving kick, and dharmanic jewels, I embark on a vision quest of sorts. Philosophical and faith-based dangers lurk everywhere along the treacherous path to the phantom city and beyond. There is sinkhole logic for the ketai mavens, dogmatic, mind-eating wolves for the kutai stoners, and there are ferocious historical tempests that can sweep away even the hardiest travelers with icy gales of contradiction to their artic wear of literal attachments – which offer scant protection from the north wind of reality.
In preparation for my arduous journey, I pull out all of my research tools such as cross reference tomes, a good dictionary, note pads, highlighters, and so forth. The internet has now become one of the most valuable new weapons in my arsenal. This year, I’ve added a nifty interactive quick reference tool called the Information Decoder: Guide & Subject Overview. This little gem is sold under the name “Buddhism: The Philosophy of Awakening,” by Dynamo House, Melbourne, Australia. It’s based on Tibetan Buddhism and covers all the major areas of Buddhism at a glance with informational wheels that instantly cross-reference vital concepts. There is even a comparative overview of the six great religions. For anyone interested in looking at such a wonderful gadget, the ISBN # is 1876100168 – it costs about $13.00. Just fabulous.
This year I have gone back to The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Volume Two, versus last year’s source The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin. I thought it might be interesting to share some of my observations during my forty days and nights in the desolate desert of yin-yang deliberation. No, this annual adventure is more like an old man climbing a mountain. Each year as I scaled that mountain, from its summit, I saw only more mountains. Descending with a modicum of illumination, I set off through the valley to the next mountain in hopes that it will yield a view of the phantom city, beyond the expansive range.
After a few days of exploring, it was time to find a place to rest and reflect on what I had thus far encountered. Sitting beneath a mighty spruce, I marveled at the rising crescent moon and looked longingly into the stars above. Nichiren’s words spoke to my mind:
"The first of the three mysteries is Being. This is the principle taught by the Duke of Chou and others. The second mystery is Non-Being, which is the mystery set forth by Chuang Tzu. Mystery denotes darkness. Some say that, if we ask what existed before our ancestors were born, we will find that life was born out of the primal force, while others declare that eminence and obscurity, joy and sorrow, right and wrong, gain and loss occur simply as part of the natural order.” Kaimoku Sho, The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin VolumeTwo, pg., 73.
In my second book, Riding the Wheel to Wellness, the concept of the primal force is explored. This primal force has been identified in many ways including God, Absolute Elsewhere, the ultimate spirituality reality behind and beyond the Universe, qi, Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, Om/Aum, the void, and so forth. All life and phenomena emerges from what seems to be nothingness and returns to this bosom at extinction from molecules, to major world systems. The primal force is intimately connected to all existence and potential. While pondering the primal force I came across an artist’s rendering that will be found in an upcoming issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters.
In my primal force samadhi, only days into my journey up the mountain, my eyes were opened to our world and its place in the cosmos. Thanks to artist’s conceptualization, I was able to see an overhead view of our Milky Way galaxy based on NASA’s Sptizer Space Telescope. I named that rendering “The Bigger Picture.” Looking at the actual glimmer of the Milky Way in the evening sky, the image brought the totality of our galaxy to mind. There, I beheld the newly found evidence of a massive bar of stars in the galaxy’s center, some 27,000 light years long which is made of relatively old and red stars angled some 45 degrees from a line that joins our sun and the center of the galaxy. As you astronomy buffs may recall, red stars are giants that have burned off most of their hydrogen. At the center of our galaxy is a black hole.
It was humbling indeed to see our sun amongst the hundreds of billions of other suns, married to mother ether on the third of five spiral arms. Our galaxy is more than 100,000 light-years across. Traveling at the speed of light of 186,000 miles per second, the vastness of space and our blue earth can put all arrogance to rest. Seeing our sun as a tiny spark in a spiraling conflagration puts our dust particle planet into some kind of perspective.
But there is more, much more. Our medium galaxy slowly turns in a dark sea filled with trillions of other galaxies. There is truth in the expression that space abhors a vacuum. For the observable asogi of stars illuminating the void, what we see makes up less than 10% of the mass. It is theorized that the 90% of the universe's mass is comprised of dark matter. It is further theorized that there are 10 dimensions. How much more mysterious it is that what we conceive as reality comes with myriad realms and spheres of consciousness. This mysterious virtually inconceivable abundance of possibility permeates space yet is unseen and unknown. The idea or expression that the entire universe can fit on the head of a pin is not that bizarre.
The primal force churns out new worlds and absorbs old ones as the gods regulate their breath in a cosmic pranayama. As the days and nights pass, I will tell the tale of my primal force samadhi, induced by the soma of the Kaimoku Sho. The realization then dawns on me that time is really one continuing moment. By all standards, describing the primal force is an exercise of futility as the Absolute defies all description. It is beyond the threshold of quiet emptiness between two thoughts. The astral sun is but a dying ray from some greater, boundless luminosity. Words, theories, concepts, abstractions, metaphors, analogies or similes are only a shadow’s shadow.
Perhaps the most accurate description is...
One explanation for understanding through "breaks" or bardos is offered up by the following idea ? !