A Morning That Came Back to Me | Morning Daimoku #1,155 | Trust at the Root, One Year On | Oubaitori.com

Good morning. How are you today? This is Shima, of Oubaitori. Morning daimoku, ten thousand times. This is experience number 1,155. This morning I entered my chanting as always, beginning with the prayer for the transformation of my life. And in the middle of it, something came back to me.

Exactly One Year Ago — September 8th and 9th

Last year, on the 8th and 9th of September, I was away on a business trip. What happened there was a great turning point in my life as a specialist in Soka Gakkai Buddhist altars. And looking at the reality in front of me, at how much things have changed, I came away with this: unless you hold trust and credibility at the very root, it will go badly wrong. That was the experience I was given.

A Year On — How Far Have I Actually Come?

It came back all at once, sharp and clear. What a thing, I thought. That happened. A year has gone by, and I found myself asking: taking that day as my starting point, how much revolution have I made here — in this business, and in myself as a human being? The ten thousand morning daimoku had already begun back then, so what returned with it was the feeling of that morning’s chanting, in a business hotel room.

We Say We Will Never Forget — And Then We Forget

Have you had an experience like this?

We say we will never forget such a thing as long as we live — and in truth it slips quietly away. Then something brings it back.

This time it was the date: the same day, one year on. It returned to me vividly, and I made a fresh determination for the transformation of my own life.

In Closing

In that sense — we keep accumulating daimoku.

Life and daimoku are the same. Because we keep accumulating, we can have an experience in faith every single day. I am grateful for that.

Let’s Daimoku!

I look forward to today with you.