The Buddha in Your Mirror: Practical Buddhism and the Search for Self

It’s not what we do for a living but how we do it and whether we feel useful and find meaning in our work that make the difference.

We can overcome the suffering of sickness and in so doing even the experience of sickness enriches our lives and makes them more worthwhile, providing the material for a great drama of fulfillment that unfolds day after day.

The principle of karma, according to Nichiren, is absolutely precise. There is no escaping our past actions. The law of cause and effect permeates our lives throughout past, present and future existences. Nothing is forgotten, erased or missed.

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school…. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not theoretically, but practically. —Henry David Thoreau

Nichiren taught that sufferings arise from “looking outside of oneself” for the cause or the solution to problems. The fact that it is you who are suffering means it is your problem to solve, not someone else’s.

In Buddhism, one could never be separate from the wisdom of God, because the ultimate wisdom already exists in the heart of every person.

There’s no way out of this mess, except to become enlightened and then enjoy it. —Robert Thurman

In nature, the lotus plant flowers and fruits at the same time, thus symbolizing the simultaneity of cause and effect.

The lotus flower is also symbolically prized in Buddhism because it blossoms in a muddy swamp, thereby signifying the emergence of our Buddha nature from the “swamp” of everyday desires and problems.