Follow your heart.

Do you follow the crowd? Or do you carve your own path?

Don't follow the crowd.
Follow your heart.
Follow your truth.
Reach out everyday and grab the power innate in your life.

You are a Buddha my friend.

You can transform any poison in to medicine.

You have the wisdom of the Buddha within you.

Take it.

NMRK

Bobby

What is the point of all this struggling?

Do you ever want to get in to a rocket and just fly away?

It's not about money.
It's not about winning.
It's not about the approval of others.
It's not about fame.

It's not about having the biggest house, or the biggest TV.

It's about living in the moment, and savouring your life, how ever long or short, with deep joy in your heart.

You are better then all of this stuff.

Reach down in to your life and call forth the limitless love and compassion that exists innately in you.

You can have unshakable happiness it lives within your life.

Money is great.
Winning can be a great reward.
Having the approval of your friends and family can feel so so good.
Fame, well... that is a whole different ball of cheese.

What is important is this moment. Right now. Ask your self, "Who am I?" "What do I want?", "What do I want from my life?", "How will I have an impact on the world around me?", "Where am I going?"

Money is not bad, money is not good. Money is neutral. If money is all you worry about, then I think your problem doesn't lie with money, its the fear that is your problem.

I have friends that often say, "I HATE MONEY!!"

I would love it if their small little pile of coins shouted back; "WE HATE YOU TOO!!!"

But it wont, because abundance is something that often comes, when we have already found a deeper happiness.

Now, abundance isnt just about money. It can be food, health, a home to live in. This is a quality of life that all human beings should have and enjoy in their lives on earth.

Sadly this isn't the case for millions of people every day, who have no food or clean water.

The point I am trying to make is one of gratitude. When ever you find your self complaining, look around you and realise how much you really do have.

No matter if you are a rich banker in London, or a young girl living in a shanty town in South Africa.

Each one of us has something to hold on to, some kind of hope.

You may think that its impossible for those in shanty towns in Africa and else where, but I do believe that with deep faith, we can move mountains.

Be you Christian, Buddhist, Muslim or Jewish. When we reach deep in to our lives and bring forth a faith, we are able to turn the most horrific situations around and summon the blinding light of our humanity.

Never forget how unique you are as a human being. Each precious moment is your chance to start your life over and be reborn in to a new perfect moment.

Walk away from that violent relationship, quite that job you hate, tell your parents you are gay, stand up to the bully at school... what ever you do, just do something.

At the moment, my life is in deadlock. What I mean by this is that I feel things have stagnated. My friendships have become difficult, my business is suffering, my Buddhist practice has taken a nose dive.

And in this hour of chaos and misfortune, it makes me stop and think. What am I doing? Is this the right direction?

Life has a funny way of showing you signs. It could be illness, it could be a death, it could be sudden loss of money, it could be a broken relationship. What ever it is life has a way of saying, STOP, this needs to be re-thought out.

Where ever you are right now, just remember that your troubles are there for a reason. They are fuel for you, to put in your rocket of life, to help drive you forward. This resistance or fundamental darkness is a natural part of the universe, simply expressing it's self in your life in one way or another.

It's time to stand up, wave your fist and shout at it.

GO AND JUMP IN THE RIVER, I REFUSE TO BE BEATEN.

Keep fighting the darkness.

Namaste
Bobby x

A Message of hope, in the face of violent riots in London.

What can you do to help improve our society and communities?

Dear  Members, 

 

I hope you are all well. I am writing to you all to share my thoughts and reflections with regard to the recent conflicts we are currently experiencing in London. I have been reading the 2006 Peace Proposal “A New Era of the People – Forging a Global Network of Robust Individuals” (D. Ikeda 2006).

 

Sensei at the beginning of the proposal gives an overview of the world wide crisis that we experienced in 2005.  This was an historic year marking the sixtieth anniversary of the end of World War II. Reading it retrospectively, I was shocked at the extent of natural disasters; tsunami, floods and earthquakes, also; poverty, economic crisis, famine, youth violence, increase in hate crimes in particular to the Muslim community. We all collectively experienced the impact of these conflicts and disasters. What shocked me even more with regard to 2011 is the acceleration of these conflicts and the overwhelming scale in which they keeping reoccurring. 

 

Sensei clearly states that these issues affect all of us either indirectly or directly and “in no instance can we afford to regard them as unrelated to us” (D. Ikeda, 2006). In the Peace Proposal he draws from the 19^th century author Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-81) in his classic book, The House of the Dead in which he chronicles his experiences during his four years of hard labour in Siberia. What he expresses in this work is the sympathy extended by residents of the town in Siberia to the criminals amongst them. What the residents were able to do was to possess a kind of sympathy/empathy that enabled them to imagine the context that the criminals came from.

 

From this position of empathy and understanding, heart to heart communication was able to open up between the residents and the criminals. Sensei goes on to say, “compare this to the pathology of contemporary society, of which youth crime represents only the proverbial tip of the iceberg; its chief symptom is the near-total absence of empathetic capacity”. As we listen to the radio and the news we are hearing a whole range of explanations as to why the young people have behaved in this way.

 

What I feel is crucial for us as members of the Soka Gakkai is to be the flag bearers of hope and to be exemplary in dialogue and compassion. Let’s strengthen our districts, the place in which we create peace, and further open up the path of dialogue within our communities and families. In the Peace Proposal, Sensei talks about “unleashing the vitality of ordinary citizens – one by one – [as] the only certain way to bring into sight the horizons of a new civilisation, a new era of the people.”

 

Over the next days and weeks, as a society, we will be reflecting upon and trying to find an explanation to the events we are currently experiencing. It is crucial for us to remain hopeful and support our communities in trying to keep hope and compassion for our young people, and to encourage us as adults to reflect upon and grapple with the notion of collective responsibility for our young people who are the future.

 

We have our summer courses this month. I am chanting that our youth division have an outstanding victory in their courses and I am determining to make the district the oasis of hope and compassion, and to work with the youth division to create champion districts in North East London.

 

Warm regards

 

Women’s Division HQ leader