Since the demise of my previous career, a career that would have been the demise of me had I not left, my life has been serene in comparison. However something has been progressing recently which has reminded me what is truly important in my life as a Nichiren Buddhist.
An enormous corporate conglomerate-owned Reprographics Company from San Jose has been threatening to open a satellite office in our area.
Mine and my wife’s Business, Andrews Blueprint Inc. is an extremely successful and hard-working local printer in Salinas. While we provide a full range of printing services the bulk of our business is in the “blueprinting” field. Of course we don’t actually make blueprints; we create bond paper copies of plans on our high-speed and fully networked KIP state-of-the-art copiers.
I work, day in and day out, in true Buddhist Samurai spirit, to deliver plans to our customers ranging from Salinas through Monterey and into Carmel Valley. I work hard to meet our customer's dead-lines and business needs and sometimes I must drive through Monterey, back to Salinas, and back to Monterey again, in the same afternoon.
This other company, which was sold by it’s owners years ago to a giant “franchise” of sorts, which then requires (by the terms of it’s sale) the owners to continue to operate the company under pressure of increasing sales numbers (with a penalty if those numbers are not met) is much like a starving man infested with tapeworms. They simply can’t get enough work to truly prosper.
Previous to this our competition was insignificant, at best. My life and future, the future for my children, seemed to be carved in stone. Now I have doubts, and fears. We are a family business, with only four employees. Next to this repro-beast we are a lean mean fighting machine, providing a level of service that is truly disproportionate to our size. My customers are like family to me and I include their prosperity in my daimoku prayers.
This brings me to the real reason I am writing – fear. Through the last few months I have learned, by bits and pieces, of the status of this invasion and each time I receive new intelligence I have had to confront a fear, the fear of an unknown future, like an old enemy I thought had moved out of town long ago.
In fact not only is this clearly a benefit, but it is a reminder that my practice of Nichiren’s Buddhism is prone to laziness. It is fear, unfortunately, that drives many of us to chant in earnest. This recent challenge also serves as an opportunity to RE-learn an important reality in Buddhism:
Nothing is more important than to chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo throughout my life
And, equally as important, my life will provide me with a reason to chant, if I have forgotten – albeit momentarily – why it is that I should chant.
In light of what I have written, it is no wonder why many members whom experiences I have read on the internet experience such tremendous suffering, often of their own creation. We as Buddhists should be the most prosperous people in our respective worlds, and we actually are. We prosper because our lives make us chant. Superficial prosperity is unimportant, it seems, and security merely a safety net that weighs us down and keeps us stuck in one place.
I am lucky, I suppose, that I am able to respond to small portents occurring in my world. I am fortunate as well that I am able to practice in SGI which is where I received the training I am utilizing right now. Without understanding this Buddhism, IN OUR OWN LIVES, we run the risk of practicing Nichiren’s Buddhism like so many other Western religious consumers, as a luxurious hobby.
There are many whom, having discovered the cult in SGI, leave and are unable to return. There are many others whom, having never ventured onto the anti-Gakkai internet, practice in SGI blissfully unaware of it's darker side. There are only a few, it seems, who have journeyed into the dark world of Gakkai truth and returned.
In the end, all that matters is whether or not we can chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo throughout our lives.
Rev. Greg, Shidoshi
Posted by revgreg at June 14, 2004 10:33 AMGreat Blog - I'm facing my own fears, but thanks to you and my new found chanting and some new chanting beads that someone special in my life gave me, I'll manage to keep myself calm and focused.
As you can see John fixed the computer.
I'll also put you in my chants. You're a strong person and will certainly find you're way through this.
Thanks - Danna
Posted by: Danna at June 20, 2004 04:10 PMHi Greg
I spent a few years conquering fear and found chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo the supreme answer
For what its worth here are my copious "fear"notes
Nil carborundum illegitimo
Best
Barry
Overcoming Fear
Definition of fear “The instinctive emotion aroused by impending or seeming danger, pain or evil”
Longman
It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, Always do what you are afraid to do."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Fearlessness is the first requisite of spirituality. Cowards can never be moral."
Gandhi
A good way to overcome fear of ‘seeming’ danger is to recognise it as……
“False Evidence Appearing Real”
How much has our potential been limited by negative conditioning?
Can’t take action? Whilst the circus elephant has the power to lift a one ton load with his trunk he stands quietly being tied to a small wooden stake. Why ?- When he was a baby he was conditioned by being tied with a heavy chain to a strong iron stake which he could not move.
“Limited by a “Glass Ceiling” like a circus flea? They are conditioned to be only able to jump to a limited height by being trained in a glass dome. When the dome is removed they continue to restrict their jumping as if the dome was still there.
Most of our fear is acquired by negative conditioning. It is said that the only fears of new born babies are bright lights, loud noises and falling. Our later fears are acquired from our environment and the choices we make.
We owe it to ourselves to break through our limitations and achieve our true potential.
Fight or flight? Faced with a threat we instinctively react by fighting it, fleeing from it, or, if possible trying to avoid it and then forget it. Facing it, overcoming it and learning from it is the only way to achieve success.
We must not be afraid to admit we were wrong. Admitting you were wrong is like saying that you are wiser today than you were yesterday.
“What you think in secret comes to pass. Your environment is your looking glass”
James Allen
Having Self Belief
What would I do if I knew for certain that I could not fail?
Have no doubt. “Our doubts make cowards of us all” . When we eliminate doubt anything is possible.
What have I got to lose by having strong faith?
I cannot achieve positive growth without changing. Is it my fear that the pain of change from my present comfort zone will be too much of a price to pay for what I hope to gain?
Is fear of failure holding me back? Let’s be bold and regard failure as a necessary learning experience and “just do it”.
Faith mustn’t be like a fire, flaring up one moment & burning out the next…should be like flowing water.
Building Confidence
Improve self respect by making a list of past achievements and regularly updating them. When in doubt look at them, think about them and appreciate them. Be grateful for them and realise if you’ve been successful before, you can be again!
Remember that most of the things that you have worried about never actually happened.
Taking Courage
Courage is the absolute condition for attaining Buddhahood. “Those with the heart of a lion will surely attain Buddhahood.”
Taking Action
Feel the fear and act anyway.
Do what you fear most - and you will conquer fear.
When we control our fear - we stop procrastinating and move forward.
“The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.”
Take action - praying alone will not cook rice – need to add water and heat.
Using Desire
When desire dies, fear is born.
Desire - not ability – determines success.
“Man is only truly great when he acts from his passions.”
The excitement of the big dream overcomes all fears.
Teach yourself to deserve wealth.
When the ‘why’ gets bigger the ‘how’ gets easier .
If you have enough reasons, you can do incredible things.
Achieving Inspiration through Compassion
We can respect the dignity of every person through firstly realising that we must learn to respect ourselves.
When we have compassion for all living things, we are able to think of how they have survived, or succeeded, or suffered. We can then use their experiences as positive examples for self motivation.
Hope in the Future
Our hope for personal fulfilment, kosen rufu, world peace and happiness, can best be realised by firstly achieving our own personal ‘human revolution’, which in turn, cannot be realised until we overcome our personal fears.
By sincerely and earnestly chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo to our Gohonzon within for ourselves and others, we are empowered to approach every experience in life with the certain expectation of achieving a positive outcome. We are then able to put our best foot forward with supreme confidence to achieve our true potential
And ……what if I fail? Keep trying - we can’t win them all!
Remember, great misfortune is always followed by good fortune. A springboard for happiness.
Turning “poison into medicine”. When we can see failures or setbacks as the present effects of past causes and look at them as Zenchishiki - a potentially good influence, we are then able to recognise such misfortunes as positive starting points for the future.
By not harbouring grudges and accepting responsibility instead of blaming others we are able to regard them as challenges to overcome and learning experiences. Then we can confidently practise our faith to remove negative karma and improve our destiny.
Our doubts are traitors and stop the good we might win by fearing to attempt.9
“Faith means to fear nothing. Faith means to achieve what you believe in.”
As President Ikeda encourages in his meeting with youth division leaders (Buddhism in Action, Vol.lp.163) “Advance courageously at times, persevere through your difficulties at other times, and convey your youthful joy at still other times. I hope you advance every day, because not a single day can be lived again. Faith means to fear nothing. Faith means to achieve what you believe in, for the Law, for the People and for Society”
De-activating Fear’s de-motivators:
Self Doubt, Fear of Failure, Loss of Security and Pain of Change (Loss of Comfort Zone)
If you do not risk, you cannot grow...
If you do not grow, you cannot be your best...
If you are not your best, you cannot be happy...
If you cannot be happy, what else matters?
Dr. David Viscott
Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.
Theodore Roosevelt
The ambitious climb high and perilous stairs, and never care how to come down; the desire of rising hath swallowed up their fear of a fall.
Thomas Adams
If Fear Alters Behaviour, You're Already Defeated.
Brenda Hammond
Keep Your Fears To Yourself, But Share Your Inspiration With Others.
Robert Louis Stevenson
Courage Is Not The Absence Of Fear, But Rather The Judgment That Something Else Is More Important Than Fear.
Ambrose Redmoon
Courage Is Doing What You Are Afraid To Do. There Can Be No Courage Unless You're Scared.
Eddie Rickenbacher
If We Let Things Terrify Us, Life Will Not Be Worth Living.
Seneca, Epistles
It Often Requires More Courage To Dare To Do Right Than To Fear To Do Wrong.
Abraham Lincoln
Courage Is One Step Ahead Of Fear.
Coleman Young
If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you’d like to win but think you can’t,
It’s almost certain you won’t.
Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But sooner or later, the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can. Anon.
If You Have No Confidence In Self, You Are Twice Defeated In The Race Of Life. With Confidence, You Have Won Even Before You Have Started.
Marcus Garvey
The Only One Who Can Tell You "You Can't" Is You. And You Don't Have To Listen.
Nike Advertisement
They Can Because They Think They Can.
Virgil
If One Advances Confidently In The Direction Of His Dreams, And Endeavours To Live The Life Which He Has Imagined, He Will Meet With A Success Unexpected In Common Hours.
Henry David Thoreau
Think You Can, Think You Can't, You Are Right!!!
Rodolfo Tellez (Rudy)
Most Of The Important Things In The World Have Been Accomplished By People Who Have Kept On Trying When There Seemed To Be No Hope At All.
Dale Carnegie
Nothing In This World Can Take The Place Of Persistence. Talent Will Not; Nothing Is More Common Than Unsuccessful People With Talent. Genius Will Not; Unrewarded Genius Is Almost A Proverb. Education Will Not; The World Is Full Of Educated Derelicts. Persistence And Determination Alone Are Omnipotent. The Slogan "Press On" Has Solved And Always Will Solve The Problems Of The Human Race.
Calvin Coolidge
When Nothing Seems To Help, I Go And Look At A Stonecutter Hammering Away At His Rock Perhaps A Hundred Times Without As Much As A Crack Showing In It. Yet At The Hundred And First Blow It Will Split In Two, And I Know It Was Not That Blow That Did It, But All That Had Gone Before.
Jacob Riis
If You Get Up One More Time Than You Fall You Will Make It Through.
Chinese Proverb
It Is Not The Mountain We Conquer But Ourselves.
Edmund Hillary
Whatever You Can Do Or Dream You Can, Begin It.
Boldness Has Genius, Power, And Magic In It.
Goethe
Once You Replace Negative Thoughts With Positive Ones, You'll Start Having Positive Results.
Willie Nelson
Love & Fear - There are two energies in the world: love and fear. Every emotion we have is the result of one of these two energies. We can learn to break down our fear-based emotions by identifying what fear caused the emotion. Fear is more tangible than our emotions, which makes it easier for us to distinguish whether or not it has merit. To transmute my fears, I think of my fear in its worst conceivable scenario, then recognize that even the worst possibility wouldn’t be that bad. Brenda Ehrler
END OF NOtES
Well, as Frank Herbert said, "Fear is the mind killer." Carry on, my friend. Take no prisoners.
Cheers!
Andy
Posted by: Andy Hanlen at June 16, 2004 07:47 AMGreg,
I totally identify with your fear and doubts. I am in the midst of trying to salvage my business. The wolves have been at the door since January.
It has been quite the experience to see my business rapidly move from being successful and growing rapidly to a disaster.
I could very well lose my house, the savings are already gone. Bills have mounted and it is a daily juggle to keep everything going.
Despite all this chaos, I have finally developed to confidence to overcome these fears and doubts. After 16 years of Buddhist practice, it is starting to sink in. Chanting and acknowledging that the jewel has always been in the robe. Just have to break through the hem and find that sucker.
The fear in your head is far scarier than the reality.
Best,
Mimi
Hi, interestingly enough, I was just now reading your article on fear and facing my own fear as well, having just some abnormal blood tests that indicated possible leukemia, as I was reading your article, I got the call that my redone blood tests are now normal, no leukemia. So lifetime chanting and reading the Rev Greg's blogs we can overcome anything. Dave in KS, (big sigh of relief). Greg, having had to challenge severe poverty and several financial crises in my life I am sure that you will pull your family out of whatever downturn happens. Been there, done that, could happen again, after 31 years chanting still working. dave
Posted by: Dave at June 15, 2004 12:08 PMHaving been through bankruptcy twice, cancer, and a host of other fear provoking obstacles something amazing happened. Like you said, "In the end, all that matters is whether or not we can chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo."
What happened was this: when facing the Gohonzon, the fight or flight response was driven into latency and a voice emerged, saying: "I can't wait to see how this prayer is answered." Now, all things have become possible and all fear has been banished.
Break a ninja leg, Greg. Charles
Posted by: Charles at June 14, 2004 04:32 PM