Act now. Save biodiversity.

Watch how this monkey soaks in the hot spring, notice how he/she playfully tries to pop the bubbles on the water.

You can't help but notice the human like qualities of the these animals.

People who can not see the line between us and our cousins the apes are quite simply blind.

The beauty of our natural world is beyond words.

I long for the day when more of humanity awakens to the beauty that is all around us.

Yes the Earth will outlive us, but the myriad of beautiful creatures that the Earth has created will not outlive us.

For thousands of them are slipping through our fingers, every single day, because of what we are becoming.




ACT NOW. ACT TODAY: http://www.earthday.org/takeaction/

Generalisations and why they are wrong.

Who can you trust?

Early this week I discovered someone online, making wild and negative accusations about the SGI as an organisation, lumping us all in to one big negative category.

SGI is made up of millions of people worldwide, 12 million to be exact, we truly are a slice of society. Many cultures, races and ethnic backgrounds.

Making wild and negative generalisations about people based on ethnicity, or religion is lazy thinking, and often the sign of an inability to perceive complexity.

Generalisations can sometimes have some truth to them though, but are almost always superficial and don't take into account complex nature of causation. However, we sentient beings do make sense of the world largely through pattern recognition, so one often can't help but make generalisations.

Just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons: is it possible that getting offended on the behalf of an organisation, or religion one identifies with, although natural, is ultimately just another division in society? Is it possible that my reaction itself is part of the problem?

“When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else [a Buddhist?], you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.” - Jiddu Krishnamurti

What are your thoughts?

EARTH DAY 2014

Happy Earth Day 

Life is a chain. All things are related. When any link is harmed, the other links are affected. We should think of the environment as our mother. There is no crime worse than harming one’s mother.

- Daisaku Ikeda -

HOW CAN YOU TAKE ACTION & MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE TODAY: 

http://www.earthday.org/takeaction/

What is the correct way to practice Nichiren Buddhism?

What is the correct way to practice Nichiren Buddhism?

What is the correct way to practice Nichiren Buddhism? 
Practicing Nichiren Buddhism correctly consists of three things: Faith - which is faith in your humanity, faith in your own being, faith in your potential and faith in your own life.

Secondly: Study: Study consistants of furthering your mind, understanding the Buddhist teachings, mainly the Lotus Sutra, the writings of Nichiren Daishonin, and other teachers like Daisaku Ikeda, Josei Toda and many more great men and women who teach this wonderful practice, but also understanding other religions, reading and educating yourself, as education is the key to your understanding of the world and becoming a better, happier more rounded person. (see footnote for links to study)

Finally; Practice: This is the daily practice of chanting nam myoho renge kyo which we believe unlocks an innate quality in all human beings. A wellspring of compassion. But these qualities have to be nurtured, if they are not nurtured from a young age within  us, they will not blossom.

And if a person has lived a life without these qualities present it will take time for the flowers of this compassion to bloom.

All three aspects work together; if one is missing there is no Buddhism.

You are practicing correctly when all three function in beautiful harmony with one another.

But this takes effort, and a solid practice is not easy. Because if it was easy then it would not be worth doing.

Nothing worth doing came easily, to anyone.

Life is a wonderful adventure, it helps knowing we have a guiding light to help us unravel the mysteries of life and death.

Nam myoho renge kyo
Nam myoho renge kyo
Nam myoho renge kyo

Robbie

Further reading:

Study the Gosho (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin: http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/)

Read quotes and articles by Daisaku Ikeda: http://www.ikedaquotes.org/

Study Buddhist Concepts: http://www.sgi.org/buddhism/buddhist-concepts/

You create the rainbow. Fact!

Click to view large.

Consider that you can see less than 1% of the electromagnetic spectrum and hear less than 1% of the acoustic spectrum. As you read this, you are traveling at 220 km/sec across the galaxy. 90% of the cells in your body carry their own microbial DNA and are not “you.” The atoms in your body are 99.9999999999999999% empty space and none of them are the ones you were born with, but they all originated in the belly of a star. Human beings have 46 chromosomes, 2 less than the common potato.
The existence of the rainbow depends on the conical photoreceptors in your eyes; to animals without cones, the rainbow does not exist. So you don’t just look at a rainbow, you create it. This is pretty amazing, especially considering that all the beautiful colors you see represent less than 1% of the electromagnetic spectrum.
—
NASA Lunar Science Institute, We Originated in the Belly of a Star (2012)