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.

Mens' Regional Course

Had our regional Mens course on saturday at the DeafBlind centre in Peterborough .. nice venue, though shame about the location which was in the middle of a building site ! I have to confess that I went with a certain amount of trepidation as the topic was the Mentor and Disciple relationship which is a concept I've struggled with over the years. Interestingly, as it turns out, so had pretty much everyone else and many still were. The course really did help to clarify it though and it wasn't rammed down our throats as I feared it might be. I suppose, in a nutshell, it is to practise with the same mind and determination as Nichiren Daishonin and in a more modern context, Daisaku Ikeda ... and certainly not to be like him or to hero worship him.

Anyway ... I took a few notes which I've summarised below:
  1. Each encounter in our life is important. An initial encounter could just be that, or it could be the start of a friendship/relationship or something very long term and important. Therefore it's important to consider this when meeting someone for the first time
  2. Struggles are just that, struggles, unless we have a mission and use our struggles to grow.
  3. The Mentor/Disciple relationship is probably better described as the 'Oneness of Mentor and Disciple' . ie we are no better or worse than our mentor.
  4. Do NOT harbour doubts. Doubts are natural in life but it's important not to let them dominate and take over us. We need to develop the type of faith to be able to deal with doubts when they arrive. We must confront and challenge our doubts not let them fester.
  5. Chant with an 'attitude of gratitude'
  6. Chant with the same attitude as Nichiren ie 'fighting' daimoku chant with the strong determination to fight and defeat our doubts, weaknesses and inner negativity.
  7. Buddhism isn't simply chanting and attending meetings etc but is determined by the INTENT which we have when we do these things. We can be chanting with teh same attitude as Niuchiren or not .. need to continuously check ourselves whether we are doing this or not .. check what the quality is.
  8. There are three keys to the above:
    1) Stand alone spirit - ie to take action irrespective of whether others do
    2) Never give up - chanllenge and win over our doubts/negativity
    3) Have 'fighting' spirit - determine and re-determine until it becomes our predominant attitude

Think that's the main gist of it anyway .. came back quite inspired if knackered !!


A few pics from the day







































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