Dreaming
I am not sure if you can remember back to your childhood or to high school and recall what your dreams or aspirations were. I know that I can not. Some of my oldest memories of hopes and dreams are from the time both shortly before and after I became Buddhist.
“I never dreamed of having this store of treasures myself. It has come to me unexpectedly.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter IV)
My dreams before I ran into an active Sangha were merely to survive the Marine Corps and Vietnam and to somehow find a way to put the philosophy of Buddhism into practice. That wish was fulfilled one evening while I was stationed in Memphis, TN way back in 1969. Sometime after that I recall having the dream or hope to become a priest. It took much longer to realize my goal of becoming a priest.
I can recall my first night when I received my Omandala. I felt so excited, so happy, so a peace, and so confident that my life would be one of joy. Of course I didn’t really understand what I had just done, receiving my Omandala, but it connected with me in a very profound way.
I think what I didn’t realize is that the desire for enlightenment had been aroused within my life. I did know that there was something that had happened when I first began learning about the Lotus Sutra.
A few years ago I was talking with a Japanese priest and he asked me if I thought that the Lotus Sutra was strange to Americans. I wasn’t sure how to answer this, as I knew from my own experience that it just seemed natural. He went on to ask if religions like Mormon or Jehovah’s Witness or some of the Pentecostal religions were strange? I said that to some people they are considered strange. He said that what I felt when I was first exposed to the Lotus Sutra was an awakening within my life to a connection to this great teaching. He said that what we need to realize when we propagate Nichiren Buddhism is that we are not really asking people to change their beliefs so much as awaken them to the truth, to the Lotus Sutra that exists at the core of their lives.
“I attained the truth of the reality of all things. I am now in deep dhyana-concentration. I see the Buddhas of the worlds of the ten quarters.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter XIV)
As you think about your dreams, your goals, your aspirations consider the role the Lotus Sutra can and does play in your life even if you are at times unaware. Consider the fundamental truths of things like cause and effect, 10 Worlds, equality of all beings and so forth. Faith in the Lotus Sutra isn’t so much a belief in what isn’t apparent, as it is an awakening to the truths taught.
“I have already expounded to you the truth of the reality of all things.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter II)
Remember our fundamental dream or aspiration is for enlightenment.
