Celerity Works

Dealing with depression and hopelessness has always been my biggest challenge. As a child, I was surrounded by uncertainty. We moved to a different city every few years almost like clockwork. My older sister repeatedly ran away from home and my father was always drunk and losing his job and temper. I was afraid of almost everything.

I survived this turmoil by creating obsessive structure in my daily habits and by trying to make everyone laugh -- figuring anyone who thought I was funny wouldn’t harm me. But, this emotional Band Aid was far from a permanent fix.

I spent most of my teens in the 1960s taking too many drugs and unable to function at school. I kept losing jobs, hung out with equally dysfunctional friends and thought about ending my life. At 18 years old, I hit rock bottom and was desperate to change my life.

I was lucky, through a quirk of hippy fate, to have both my wife and a spiritual practice enter my life. I'm still somewhat amazed that everything has turned out the way it has.

When I first spied Trude at a high school dance, I wasn’t thinking about mating for life. I was more fixated on her attractive cheerleader legs and bright smile. A few dates later, I fell madly in love. But, it wasn’t until we ran away together in June of 1969 on the day of her high school graduation that I appreciated how committed she was to both our happiness.

However, the uncertainties of my own life and the turbulent world around me including the Viet Nam war still practically paralyzed me with fear. Fortunately, a young man invited us to a Buddhist discussion meeting in Santa Monica while we were waiting for our 1956 Chevy’s battery to be charged. We were planning on living in the back seat!

At the meeting we learned that the deepest prayer of Shakyamuni, the original historical Buddha in ancient India, as well as Nichiren Daishonin, the Japanese founder of our SGI Buddhist practice in the 13th century, was to relieve human suffering.

In other words, to give humans hope. This is one of the main reasons I was attracted to a Buddhist practice. I was suffering and had no hope.
At just eighteen and nineteen years old, Trude and I lacked vital communication skills. I struggled with depression and she struggled with me struggling with depression. Activities most people took for granted, like working an eight-hour day, were beyond my emotional grasp.

Also, I thought she was too judgmental and she was tired of me being so irresponsible. We definitely weren’t seeing the Buddha or enlightened nature in each other.

A senior in faith explained that as long as we blamed each other for our problems, we would never be happy. He also said that rather than facing each other, we should sit side by side as we chant Nam myoho renge kyo and face our enlightened selves, which are mirrored in the mandala, called a Gohonzon, Nichiren Buddhists chant to each day.

What followed has been a forty-six-year journey of chanting every day to polish our enlightened natures, overcoming numerous obstacles and consistently working to improve our relationship. The result has been an absolutely wonderful life together.

The emphasis on audible chanting as opposed to silent meditation reflects a core aspect of Nichiren's Buddhism. In addition to exploring our private inner life, our religious practice emphasizes the active practice of bringing forth our highest inner potential in relation to and for the benefit of our fellow humans and human society. Nichiren said, "The voice does the Buddha's work."

For Nichiren Buddhists, the daily of practice of chanting Nam myoho renge kyo is the engine that powers this active hope. It is how, in the words of Nichiren, “We become the master of our mind rather than let our mind master us.”

This awareness or consciousness represents our true, eternal self. The revolutionary aspect of Nichiren Buddhism is that it seeks to directly bring forth the energy of this consciousness -- the enlightened nature of a Buddha -- purifying the other, more superficial layers of our senses, our subconscious and our karma.

The word Nam roughly means to dedicate oneself. Myoho signifies the mystic or universal law. Renge symbolizes the Lotus Flower, which grows in a muddy swamp and becomes a beautiful flower. It also represents the simultaneity of cause and effect. Finally, kyo is sound -- a voiced teaching or sutra.
As described by SGI president, Daisaku Ikeda, Buddhism identifies a vast cosmos deep within human life. This cosmos contains a boundless treasure or goodness, reverently called the ‘Buddha Nature.’ This radiant nature is inherent in all living things. Each inner cosmos, each of our lives, is connected to the evolving greater external universe.

Since the self and all phenomena are one, all things are interrelated. In other words, all of us exist because of our relationship with other beings and phenomena, and nothing in either the human or the nonhuman world exists in isolation. It is because of this that treating others with respect and dignity is so important.

Because of the importance of taking responsibility for our own individual karma or the causes we have made in the past, it was tempting to merely blame myself for everything that was wrong with my circumstances. But, the liberating aspect of this concept is that since I shaped my environment, I also have the power to change it for the better.

It isn't intended to make me feel guilty for all that is wrong but to make me feel empowered to improve it. For the first time, I began to truly look inside myself for the solution to my problems.

Tolstoy said, "Death is more certain than the morrow, than night following day, than winter following summer. Why is it then that we prepare for the night and for the wintertime but do not prepare for death? We must prepare for death. But there is only one way to prepare for death - and that is to live well."
This quote summarizes a lot of my frustration growing up. I desperately wanted someone to tell me how to "live well." It seemed to me that everyone else had figured it out. It was a "got it" club that, for some unknown reason, I wasn't invited to join. Members of this group could take chances, travel to new places, be popular, go on sleepovers, and excel at sports. They got to live and sleep without fear.

Because there was no one around to tell me otherwise, I grew up with the mistaken impression that most human beings, including my friends and family, operated without worry. That it was only me who was screwed up.

My spiritual practice has helped me to embrace my fears. This has been a gradual process as opposed to a blinding flash of inspiration -- like peeling back one layer of onionskin at a time. I became aware of how often my mind fabricates “pretend” futures.

For instance, worrying about whether one of our daughters or grandkids was okay. Or, whether I would win new business. Or, whether Trude would have another MS relapse. We all have the ability to create extra drama in our lives.

Every single time I get up in the morning and chant, I take concrete steps to overcome the internal fears that used to paralyze me. I find tremendous hope in this.

"If we cannot feel hope, it is time to create some. We can do this by digging deeper within, searching for even a glimmer of light, for the possibility of a way to begin to break through the impasse before us." - Daisaku Ikeda

A fundamental premise of Nichiren Buddhism is that the condition of Buddhahood or enlightenment exists within each human being. This is why we don’t focus on an external statue of the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni. That wasn’t his intention.

He all have the potential to be Buddhas, enlightened individuals who make a difference in the world regardless of our race, creed, sexual orientation or political persuasion. This is an ultimate source of hope for humanity.

Rather than exist in isolation by itself, this inner enlightenment manifests itself within our lives at the same time we are experiencing joy, anger, desire, tranquility, learning or the urge to help others.

Like a man suffering in prison might find the inner strength and hope to take college courses and inspire his fellow inmates. On the other hand, a successful professional living in a mansion might be racked with emotional pain and anxiety.

This realization had a tremendous impact on my attitude toward my life and the life of those around me. The act of polishing my Buddha nature everyday has enabled me to build a happy marriage, a loving family, emotional health and a rewarding career.

We were living in Virginia when my wife first got multiple sclerosis in 1996. She was paralyzed from the waist down. Our lives could have easily plunged into darkness. However, through our Buddhist practice and the support of a wonderful therapist, we began to experience tremendous joy, compassion and, ultimately, great victories including her being able to walk again. This journey back to better health began with hope and actually resulted in us being happier than ever.

Hope is akin to trust. If we could see it, there’d be no need for trust or hope. But, hope is not avoiding what is going on in the world. Instead, fostering hope involves looking directly at our reality and making the decision to improve it.

The kind of hope I am referring to is not grounded in wishful thinking. In fact, powerful hope—what’s been called ‘active hope’—may not be possible without going through despair. It is during the darkest days that we need to persevere—trusting that hope is ahead.

When confronted by cruel reality, we need to create hope. We can do this by digging deeper within, searching for even a small glimmer of light, for the possibility of a way to begin to break through the impasse before us. And our capacity for hope can actually be expanded and strengthened by these difficult circumstances. Hope begins from this challenge, this effort to strive toward an ideal, however distant it may seem.

I believe that the ultimate tragedy in life is not physical death. Rather, it is the spiritual death of losing hope, giving up on our own possibilities for growth.

The problems that face our world are daunting in their depth and complexity. Sometimes it may be hard to see where or how to begin. But let’s not be paralyzed by despair.

Instead, let’s each take action toward the goals we have set and in which we believe. Rather than passively accepting things as they are, we must embark on the challenge of creating a new reality. It is in that effort that true, undying hope is to be found.

Václav Havel, in his essay, “Orientation of the Heart,” describes hope as “a state of mind, not a state of the world.” Further, Havel says hope allows one to live with “dignity and meaning” in situations where both are in short supply, for example in his experience of Soviet suppression under seemingly impossible circumstances.

I recently turned 65 years old and found myself yet again pondering the meaning of life. A friend reminded me that age is not an excuse for giving up. Allowing ourselves to grow passive and draw back is a sign of personal defeat. There may or may not be a retirement age at work, but there is no retirement age in life.

There have been numerous times over the years that I have found myself at a crossroads. Sometimes I had to decide if I wanted to engage in an honest dialogue with a difficult colleague or to not get entangled in petty gossip and complaints about senior management. I had to choose to overcome my personal frustration or anger to move in a more positive direction.

Other times I had to accept a new responsibility that wasn't exactly the one I wanted. I had to redefine my goal to encompass the satisfaction of helping others. I haven't always succeeded, but fortunately, another Buddhist principle is that regardless of the past, we can make a new pledge each day to learn from our mistakes and contribute to a more harmonious and peaceful society. So, every morning I try to renew my own determination and to remember as Gandhi said, “Good travels at a snails pace.”

Another aspect of active hope is the importance of setting a course that benefits as many people in the world as possible. Daisaku Ikeda, the third president of the SGI, has said, "If you have wisdom alone and lack compassion, it will be a cold perverse wisdom. If you have compassion alone and lack wisdom, you cannot give happiness to others."

Lastly, just a few words about our entirely lay Buddhist organization. Over 12 million Soka Gakkai International members in 192 countries and territories develop their lives through daily chanting and by studying the teachings of Buddhism.

Members and guests share experiences of their practice and study together at monthly discussion meetings at members’ homes and gather to pray for world peace at larger monthly meetings at Buddhist Centers including over 100 in the United States. The SGI actively promotes peace, culture and education based on a belief in positive human potential and respect for the dignity of life. If you would like further information there is a flyer at the back of the hall. And, if you give me your email address, I’ll add you to my monthly Buddhist studygram.

I am so grateful to your wonderful co-ministers, Jaco and Barbara, for giving me the opportunity to share with you today. Hope is a promise that the worst thing is not the last thing. This promise, that there is always a way out of the muddy swamp of daily life, can give us the power to proceed. And is what we mean when we talk about hope as a resource deep within us that has the power to transform ourselves and the world around us.

Through a persistent daily spiritual practice, we can manifest our enlightened nature. The choice is ours. And that is why we should never lose hope!
- Michael Lisagor can be reached at