“Are you practising right now?”
Not many of us answer that straight away. In my 151st live broadcast, I sat with that question.
▲ Live 151, archived. The talk is in Japanese.
I will say it plainly. Daimoku did not come easily to me
Forty-five years in this trade. I can speak to anyone about the Gohonzon, about altars. And still, sitting down to chant was the hard part for me.
I went to the meetings. I held responsibility. From outside, I looked like a person who was practising. Only the time in front of the Gohonzon would not grow.
So this question is not somebody else’s question. Nobody around you decides the answer. You already know it.
I decided one thing only
It was not a grand vow. Ten thousand daimoku, today. That was all. Not tomorrow. Not this year. Today’s portion.
Ten million over three years. One million more in the three months after. I am now heading toward one hundred million. From a man who found it hard.
That is not talent, and it is not willpower. I began today’s sitting, today. The numbers are only what piled up.
The view changes
Here is what surprised me most. Alongside the world you can see, the world inside changes its scenery.
Same house. Same work. Same people. Nothing outside has moved, and yet it looks different. What angered me stops angering me. What looked like a dead end turns out to be the middle of the road. You cannot be told this. You find it by chanting.
So when someone asks whether I am practising, I ask myself one thing. Did I sit in front of the Gohonzon today? If yes, I am. If no, then I sit now. That is the whole of it.
Today is not too late
I started in earnest at sixty-six. Counting what you chanted in the past adds nothing to it. Only what you chant from here adds anything.
I post my morning daimoku every day on my channel. So that you shine, in your own way, at your very best. That is what daimoku is for.
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