Kelly hugged her, and said; “take care of yourself” and she told Kelly; “I am not looking well”. She was unusually pale and very quiet.
Understanding our true worth, and how precious we are, is the foundation of a wonderful life. I don’t think rushing yourself into making all that money, ” said Kelly. I don’t believe you are telling me this. Kelly hugged her and said; goodbye and take good care of yourself.
Kelly, your expression of hugging your friend and asking her to take care of herself is an expression of asking her to “triumph” and be victorious”.
These are words that are part of a vocabulary that is often used in Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism as well in SGI activities and in our own vocabulary as practitioners. In general, in society at present we are constantly confronted with these concepts related to a policy of consumerism.
To name just a few examples, phrases like; cars, houses, cigarettes, positions at work and even clothes are associated with success in one’s life.
However, me worried about my friend, refers exactly to our days. The truth is that although the average person of our modern industrialised country carries on a life that not even the kings and aristocrats from the past would have dreamed of, in relation to material progress, this has not been enough, of course, to determine “triumph” or “victory” in life.
Even me as a Buddhist can sometimes confuse the idea of “actual proof” with fantasy. We shouldn’t expect the triumph over ourselves, for example, to be so striking as to leave everybody shocked and hallucinated. In daily life, even when our basic needs to live are satisfied or when the idea of success is measured by our material satisfaction, whether or not imposed by the environment, it is extremely hard to relate it to a true sense of ‘triumph”.
The victory over oneself in Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism is related to winning over the fundamental darkness, that is, the ignorance inherent in human beings themselves.
This fundamental darkness has two aspects: on the one hand it can manifest itself as a feeling of resignation, a low opinion of oneself that leads to seeking happiness in an external power.
On the other hand, it manifests itself as a perverse pleasure in controlling others and exerting power over others. This last aspect is what Buddhism calls “the devil of the sixth heaven”
The Devil of the Sixth can be viewed as the fundamental tendency to use everything and everybody to attain one’s own goals. In a way, this is a natural tendency, common to all human beings, whereas developing our compassion, love for humankind, the spirit of serving others and of improving the environment are great qualities that are extremely difficult to develop.
Whatever the reality of our lives might be at this very moment, we will try and chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo in order to find solutions to our problems, to get stronger and able to see how our own map of the world can be. Thank you so much TSASI
