Welcome to my Blog. I'm a practising member of SGI-UK a lay buddhist organisation practising the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin. It is often described as a practise of Active Humanism which I think reflects it perfectly. The basic practise is the chanting of 'Nam Myoho Renge Kyo' on a daily basis and putting the practise into use in our daily lives thereby making this a practical rather than esoteric form of Buddhism. For more information, please follow the Buddhist links on the right of this page


“Prayer is the courage to persevere. It is the struggle to overcome our own weakness and lack of confidence in ourselves. It is the act of impressing in the very depths of our being the conviction that we can change the situation without fail. Prayer is the way to destroy all fear. It is the way to banish sorrow, the way to light a torch of hope. It is the revolution that rewrites the scenario of our destiny... Believe in yourself! Don't sell yourself short! Devaluing yourself is contrary to Buddhism, because it denigrates the Buddha state of being within you.”.
Daisaku Ikeda.

Fraser's Big Southern Adventure

Well .. talk about Sansho Shima (buddhist obstacles) yesterday !!!
Up early in order to get an early start to Taplow as Fraser and Swampy were both receiving gohonzons.
As always I was a little late and the car with Alan, Robert and Swampy had left a few mins before us. As we drove off, Steve made a comment that Charmain wasn't coming (hen night the previous night) however I pointed out I'd had a text from her saying she was on her way so I called and she was back at Steve's so we had to turn back and pick her up .. thankfully we hadn't gone far at all.
Journey down was good and nice sunny weather though Charmain got in the car saying 'I'm tired .. going to sleep' and then proceeded to talk at 100mph ALL the way !!!!
We took the M40 and about an hour away from Taplow, we got a call from Alan that they'd broken down and were at Toddington. Unfortunately if we'd turned and gone back both Swampy AND Fraser would have missed the ceremony. Anyway to cut a long story short, phone calls were made and someone else collected them without going too far out of their way !
We also found out later that Swampy's mum had been unable to start her car and had borrowed her dads and it had blown a gasket too and she was towed to Taplow .. obviously not a good car day !!!
Anyway the ceremony went well (though Kazuo's chanting was REALLY hard to follow !) and the entertainment was ok though she sang 'what a wonderful world' which was the first song I heard in the hospital waiting room after my Dad had tied so that brought a few tears !!
After the ceremony (pics to follow when I get them), we did a tour of the stately home (bit dull to be honest) and had a walk around the grounds which are really nice. Finally got home around 5.30pm with no car problems !! Had a quick cuppa then headed into town to watch Beverly Knight perform in the New Market Square which was quite good, then had a couple of pints in the Bell with Charmain after.
All in all a nice day if a little full and Fraser actually got to travel down South (Yorkshire boys eh :-)

2 comments:

Sibri said...

Wow, what a day indeed... glad it went well in the end though...

You really need to put spell checker on Charlie hehehe

Chanting Buddha said...

duly spell checked :-)