Everyone's making a list so Anne and I sat down after our midnight gongyo and daimoku (*) and make a list.
Our resolution:
1. Create a harmonious family every single day
2. Chant 2 million daimoku in 2009 (*)
3. Have 20 encouraging conversations with people in a month. This is in line with the Soka Gakkai's 2009 mission of having 1-1 conversation with people about Buddhism.
4. Read 2 New Human Revolution books per month - one each.
5. Achieve one Gohonzon enshrinement per year - helped one person take up faith in Buddhism - there are people who chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo but they don't have a Gohonzon at home. So, our resolution is to have one person enshrine the Gohonzon in his/her home.
6. Be on time to all Buddhist meetings :)
Ultimately, the point of these resolutions is to strengthen our faith, The core of our faith is happiness for oneself and for others - so strengthene our faith also means bringing ultimate happiness to self and others. Also, not an easy task.
* gongyo is reciting two important chapters from Lotus Sutra. We do this twice a day - morning and evening gongyo. For the new year, we would do one at midnight - to herald the start of a new year. These two chapters are important because they document that every living being has Buddha nature and that it is possible to bring forth that Buddha nature.
daimoku is another term for Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo. We chant the daimoku every day. The more daimoku, the better. Daimoku can bring forth the Buddha nature from within us, thus giving us the Buddha courage, wisdom and compassion to win over our daily problems. Chanting daimoku is like establishing a ryhtm within our lives - a rythm that resonates with the rythm of the universe, the rythm of our cells, our bodies, our envirnment. Typically, we chant one daimoku per second.
20 minutes of chanting is equivalent to 1,000 daimoku. So, one hour of chanting per day is about 3,000 daimoku. One year of one hour chanting per day is about 1 million daimoku. NOT an easy task!
Our resolution:
1. Create a harmonious family every single day
2. Chant 2 million daimoku in 2009 (*)
3. Have 20 encouraging conversations with people in a month. This is in line with the Soka Gakkai's 2009 mission of having 1-1 conversation with people about Buddhism.
4. Read 2 New Human Revolution books per month - one each.
5. Achieve one Gohonzon enshrinement per year - helped one person take up faith in Buddhism - there are people who chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo but they don't have a Gohonzon at home. So, our resolution is to have one person enshrine the Gohonzon in his/her home.
6. Be on time to all Buddhist meetings :)
Ultimately, the point of these resolutions is to strengthen our faith, The core of our faith is happiness for oneself and for others - so strengthene our faith also means bringing ultimate happiness to self and others. Also, not an easy task.
* gongyo is reciting two important chapters from Lotus Sutra. We do this twice a day - morning and evening gongyo. For the new year, we would do one at midnight - to herald the start of a new year. These two chapters are important because they document that every living being has Buddha nature and that it is possible to bring forth that Buddha nature.
daimoku is another term for Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo. We chant the daimoku every day. The more daimoku, the better. Daimoku can bring forth the Buddha nature from within us, thus giving us the Buddha courage, wisdom and compassion to win over our daily problems. Chanting daimoku is like establishing a ryhtm within our lives - a rythm that resonates with the rythm of the universe, the rythm of our cells, our bodies, our envirnment. Typically, we chant one daimoku per second.
20 minutes of chanting is equivalent to 1,000 daimoku. So, one hour of chanting per day is about 3,000 daimoku. One year of one hour chanting per day is about 1 million daimoku. NOT an easy task!
Wow, baby buddhist , u r only a baby nia, yet u r chanting 2 millions this year liow, tat means 2 hrs per day, I am extremely impressed with you :) ....likewise, God is asking me to PRAY more this year, I really lepak, and can't even commit a consistent daily prayer time ....so ashamed of myself liow ..aiii
ReplyDeleteThat target is for two people - it's our target.. so I have only 1 million daimoiku as my target :) I hope I am able to keep this resolution!
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