The Importance of Suffering

Suffering is sometimes part of our transformation. 

If you do not like something about your society, change it.

If you feel you have no courage to change it, embody what it is you wish to see in others. You really only have power if you are within the system. This is vital.

For most of us, it is easy to complain, to moan, about our struggles but what this does is denegate our Buddha-nature. We have to have a fighting spirit to stand tall and speak with conviction about our ideals.

I believe with all my heart and body that the mystic law is the secret to happiness for all humanity, the simply idea that you are 'it', is all you need. The daily practice of self realisation is the key to freeing your self and your community from the confines of fear.

Fear is what paralyses our society, it is the overriding force which holds back the progression of what we wish to become.

Sensi Ikeda often says "Prayer is battle" and those words couldn't be more true. Every-time we sit down and face the Gohonzon we are battling it out with the internal forces that exist to hold us back.

But naturally without them we would not be the people we are today, so they do serve a purpose. As awful as the negative forces in our lives can sometimes be, they have a function.

I remember a story from when I was a child about a man who saw a butterfly struggling to get out of its cocoon, he sat and watched at the butterfly struggled and squirm.

Overwhelmed with compassion for the poor insect he produced a blade and cut open the cocoon, to allow the butterfly to be free.

But instead of being free, it flopped to the ground and slowly dragged itself along on its tiny black legs, quivering in the wind.

What the young man did not realise is that the actual painful process of bursting through the chrysalis does for the butterfly is to force fluids in to the wings which gives it its incredible ability of flight.

Unbeknown to him, he had removed the butterflys struggle and it was unable to fly, it soon died.

This simply story illustrates the importance of struggle in our lives to purify our spirit in such a way that we live lives of real gratitude.

Every day I learn more and more about the importance of this gratitude to really see the benefit in every situation and try to transform negativity in to value.