I was reading an article about a man who has been a Buddhist for 36 years and the effect the power of chanting had in his career. James started off the article by saying that he constantly chants “to be able to have a positive effect on my environment, to make some difference to this world and create value through my daily actions and particularly my work.” Feeling inspired, as I did morning gongyo I determined in front of my Gohonzon to embody those words.
It was a challenge to chant, because I felt I had to change my attitude towards my work environment and colleagues in order to meet this determination. I did well for the first three hours at work, but by lunch time I slipped back into not seeing their buddha nature and I lacked gratitude. When I became aware of my change in attitude, instead of redetermining, I was frustrated by myself and lost hope that I could change, that I could do my human revolution.
After work I decided to go to a Leaders’ meeting which if I’m honest, I had been dreading. Dreading because there were some things that needed to be addressed and I was worried how they’d be received. I feel I have the courage to speak up and the wisdom to know what to say and do, but sometimes I wonder if I am too direct for some people and need to tone down my delivery.
The power of chanting is incredible.
The 15 minutes of chanting (daimoku) I did in the morning gave me an enormous amount of life force to create value at the meeting. No one wanted to take charge, so by default I ended up steering the meeting. I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve had a platform to steer the agenda of a meeting between leaders and take our team forward in a positive direction. On my way home it dawned on me that I had in fact met the determination I set in front of my Gohonzon; I had a positive effect on my environment and created value through my actions.
Looking back to how my day developed, I was upset with myself because I thought I knew when my determination would manifest (at work), however the mystic law is just that, mystic. It is also a reminder for my bigger determinations that I should keep chanting, working on my human revolution and when the right conditions are in place, they will manifest.
Quotation taken from SGI-UK, Art of Living, Issue no. 222, pg. 28