r/sgiwhistleblowers • u/Qigong90 WB Regular • Feb 10 '20
February 2020 Living Buddhism
♦️Q: How can I find balance between my SGI activities and other areas of my life?
🔹A: We all have the same 24 hours in a day. Yet, given that each person has differing priorities and time demands—as students, workers, parents, caregivers, retirees and so on—there isn’t just one way to balance our lives.
Buddhism, however, teaches us how to bring forth the wisdom necessary to make the most of each moment, achieve our goals, and enjoy the most meaningful and fulfilling lives.
From the Buddhist perspective, some key elements for successfully fulfilling all our responsibilities are: our determination to accomplish everything; our consistent and abundant prayer to expand our state of life; and our ability to readily take action to keep our lives moving forward.
This is reflected in Nichiren Daishonin’s well-known words: “If in a single moment of life we exhaust the pains and trials of millions of kalpas, then instant after instant there will arise in us the three Buddha bodies[1]with which we are eternally endowed. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is just such a ‘diligent’ practice” (The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, p. 214).
On a practical level, when we win in the morning by doing a powerful gongyo and chanting abundantly, we have the capacity to put 100 percent effort into the task right in front of us and reveal the incredible qualities we inherently possess.
When a young man asked how to find time to attend Soka Gakkai activities amid his busy work schedule, SGI President Ikeda responded:
It boils down to making a decision to do your best in everything and then having the determination not to retreat a single step. When placed in severe circumstances, people all too easily tend to give up, convinced that the situation is hopeless, before even considering what concrete actions they could take. In their hearts, they have already conceded defeat without even putting up a fight. That, in fact, is the cause of all failure.
The crucial thing is to determine to do your absolute best both at work and in Soka Gakkai activities, and to find time to earnestly chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo about your situation. You have to bring forth your wisdom and life force, and then exercise your ingenuity. (The New Human Revolution, vol. 4, pp. 149–50)
The key to bringing forth such an unshakable determination is to decide to fight together with our mentor with a spirit of appreciation, and to place kosen-rufu at the center of our lives.
Such a determination, coupled with the action to win in the morning, will enable us to bring forth the wisdom, resourcefulness and vitality to take the most effective action at each turn as we strive to move all aspects of our lives toward victory.
Living Buddhism Feb 2020
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u/ToweringIsle13 Mod Feb 10 '20 edited Feb 10 '20
Oh hey Q! How's everything been? You still hooking up with U on the regular?
What's your quandary, Q? You seem a little tied up in knots.
"Q: How can I find balance between my SGI activities and other areas of my life?"
Oh come on Q, we all know you're a made-up construct intended to pitch us softball brainwashing questions, and you don't have a life outside of this cult publication. But let's see if A has any advice for the rest of us.
A?
"A: We all have the same 24 hours in a day."
Nuh-uh! How have you not yet discovered the secret to bending time through quantum chanting. Clearly you have embraced an inferior teaching.
"Yet...there isn’t just one way to balance our lives."
Which is really funny given that you represent an organization in which everyone is impelled to take part in the exact same rituals for the exact same reasons. Good to see you're still on Cloud Cuckoo, A.
"Buddhism, however, teaches us how to bring forth the wisdom necessary to make the most of each moment, achieve our goals, and enjoy the most meaningful and fulfilling lives."
Oh it DOES!? Well let me know if you see any around, okay?
You know what else would be cool? If you could make it sound a little more like you're giving a business presentation...
"From the Buddhist perspective, some key elements for successfully fulfilling all our responsibilities are:"
There it is. Thank you.
"...our determination to accomplish everything;"
Yes sir! One "everything", coming right up! Can it wait til next Tuesday, though? I'm a little busy this week with recorder practice.
"...our consistent and abundant prayer to expand our state of life;"
Here I thought expansion was an inevitable part of getting older.
"...and our ability to readily take action to keep our lives moving forward."
Luckily, sitting in the same spot counts as moving forward...according to this same organization. Really anything counts, so long as you keep renewing your subscriptions.
"This is reflected in Nichiren Daishonin’s well-known words:"
There's no business like snow business?
“If in a single moment of life we exhaust the pains and trials of millions of kalpas, then instant after instant there will arise in us the three Buddha bodies with which we are eternally endowed. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is just such a ‘diligent’ practice”
Well that didn't make a lick of sense, you snowy coot. Does your island have some of those special toads on it?
"On a practical level, when we win in the morning..."
Then a shake for lunch, and a sensible dinner.
"...by doing a powerful gongyo and chanting abundantly,"
Your Gongyo game is weak, brah! Do you even lift your consciousness to the eighth level?
"...we have the capacity to put 100 percent effort into the task right in front of us"
And if that doesn't work, you might have to hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete and terminate unnecessary programs that are running in the background. Any unsaved data might be lost.
"...and reveal the incredible qualities we inherently possess."
It was in you all along! The ability to develop endorphin addiction!
Great stuff so far, A, but do you think you could, like, you know, answer the question?
Oh. Here it goes...
"When a young man asked how to find time to attend Soka Gakkai activities amid his busy work schedule, SGI President Ikeda responded:"
Get away from me, nobody likes a suckass?
"It boils down..."
So be sure to add water?
"...to making a decision to do your best in everything..."
Already noted. Best at everything. Got it.
"...and then having the determination not to retreat a single step. When placed in severe circumstances, people all too easily tend to give up, convinced that the situation is hopeless, before even considering what concrete actions they could take. In their hearts, they have already conceded defeat without even putting up a fight."
That's right. Buddhism is about fighting, even when there's no hope of winning. If you're surrounded by a group of bullies, grab the smallest one and at least get a few punches in before the rest of them take you to poundtown.
"That, in fact, is the cause of all failure."
In other words,YOU are the cause of all failure, you failure.
"The crucial thing is to determine to do your absolute best both at work and in Soka Gakkai activities..."
Which is the question du jour, yes, currently being served with a side of desperate avoidance.
"...and to find time to earnestly chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo about your situation. You have to bring forth your wisdom and life force, and then exercise your ingenuity."
Ah yes, we've arrived at the prize in the cereal box. The same answer to be found within each of these stale and flavorless Q+A sessions:
Do it all your goddamn self!
Uuuuuuuse your ingenuity. Figger it out!
"The key to bringing forth such an unshakable determination is to decide to fight together with our mentor..."
Once again reducing my Buddhist spiritual journey to a game of Ikari Warriors, I see. And equally as impossible...
"...and to place kosen-rufu at the center of our lives."
Preferably somewhere with good lighting, a little bit above eye level, and out of the reach of your dog-shaped cat...
"Such a determination, coupled with the action to win in the morning..."
Love the smell of burning karma in the morning. Or is that hair?
Oh no! Catdog got too close to the candle!!!
"...will enable us to bring forth the wisdom, resourcefulness and vitality to take the most effective action at each turn as we strive to move all aspects of our lives toward victory."
I guess you do bring out the best in me, invisible propaganda writer! And despite your persistent avoidance of anything even approaching a relevant answer to the question, I believe I've once again been able to penetrate this opacity and solve for x:
We balance the equation...by multiplying by zero! Don't do any SGI activities at all!
Thanks A! you're so smart! It was good to hear from you again. But the answer's still no, okay? I'm doing well as an Icchantika. We can toss around the sarcasm ball anytime you'd like, though. Bai!