#shakubuku

[falseandrealultravival]

The evilest religion in Japan's Buddhism: Nichiren Sect (Essay)

Nichiren

Soka Gakkai, the parent body of Komei Pary, a partner of the Liberal Democratic Party that dominates Japan's current politics, was a group of believers of the Nichiren Shoshu sect but was excommunicated by the Nichiren Shoshu sect. I once befriended a Soka Gakkai member and received an introductory book on the doctrine. However, there was one point that was difficult to understand.

As well known, Nichiren said the Buddhist scripture ``Lotus Sutra'' is superior to any other sutra, and the Nichiren sect views it as absolute. Especially, ``Buddha's real desire for born into this world.'' I heard that the true reason why Buddha appeared in this world is explained in detail in the Lotus Sutra. As I read excitedly, it wrote, ``We don't understand.'' This kind of expression is called fraud. They kept pulling for this answer. Well, anyone not a Buddha cannot understand the Buddha's mind. In that case, it would be far more suitable to say that when the Zen Dharma Master was asked, ``Why did you come from India?'' he answered with only two letters, ``不識：I don't know.'' It's not unnecessarily long.

Furthermore, Nichiren was the one who took this ambiguous Lotus Sutra as absolute and rejected other sutras and the various schools of Buddhism that took them as their fundamental sutras. To begin with, the Lotus Sutra is a forgery created several centuries after the death of Buddha. There is nothing different from other sutras that Nichiren criticizes. This is Mahayana Buddhism’s junk that has nothing to do with Buddha. In later generations, Nichiren's successors devoted themselves to slandering and slandering other sects, calling it ``shakubuku (conversion by force)'' and committing violence. The Nichiren sect is the evilest sect of Buddhism in Japan.

Rei Morishita

日本の仏教髄一の邪教：日蓮宗（エッセイ）

日本の現在の政治を支配する自民党のパートナー：公明党の母体である創価学会は、日蓮宗の一派：日蓮正宗の信徒集団だったが、日蓮正宗に破門された。私は以前、その創価学会員と仲良くなり、教理の入門書をもらった。だが、そこには、理解に苦しむ一点があった。

仏典「法華経」が他のどんな経典よりも優越していて、それを絶対視する日蓮宗が挙げる根拠についてだ。「仏陀の出世の本懐」。仏陀がこの世に現れた真の理由が「法華経」で詳述されていると言う。わくわくしながら読んでいくと、「解らない」の一言で終わっていた。こういう表現を詐欺と言う。延々と引っ張ってきて、この答え。仏陀でない人には、仏陀の心は解るまい。それなら禅のダルマ大師が「インドから来た理由は？」と問われ「不識：知らぬ」と２文字だけ答えたというほうがずっと気が利いている。

さらにこのようなあやふやな「法華経」を絶対のものとして、他の経典と、それらを根本経典とする仏教諸派を排斥したのが日蓮だった。そもそも「法華経」は、仏陀の死後数世紀経って作られた偽作だ。日蓮が批判する他の経典と、何ら変わるところはない。仏陀とは無関係な大乗仏教のガラクタだ。後世、日蓮の後継者たちは他の宗派の誹謗・中傷に明け暮れ、「折伏」と称して暴力を振るった。日蓮宗は、日本の仏教随一の邪教だ。

[sureira]

Man, I never thought I’d be one of those people who talks about religion to people who didn’t initiate it, let alone talk about spreading religious values or converting others. I’m still on the fence about that last bit. This post shows, though, exactly why shakubuku is so important, and why it’s so important to have these dialogues. Business practices, ethics in technological advancements and applications, corruption, community services, welfare, equality, law, medicine, economic infrastructure— all of it is dependent on culture.

This is why it is so important that we cultivate a culture of mutual respect and compassion for ourselves and each other. We must develop a culture of respect for the dignity of all living beings.

It feels taboo as a childfree person to admit this but I actually do have concerns about who is going to take care of me when I'm old. The elder care system in our nation relies A LOT on the unpaid care labor of adult children. I just don't think that's a good reason to have kids.

"But you'll have more money!" does not completely put this to rest for me. Neither does "Buy care insurance!" Even if I can afford direct personal care, who is going to advocate for me to get it? Who is going to navigate bureaucracy for me when I'm 80?

"If you do have kids, there's no GUARANTEE that they'll take care of you when your old!" That's true, but doesn't solve my problem.

I think childfree people get very defensive about this question because its used as a kind of "gotcha!" against us, but I actually do not feel we can afford to be in denial about this reality. Based on current trends of more people in their 30s stating they intend to be permanently childfree, we are going to see a huge wave of childfree adults hitting the eldercare system at once in a few decades. Childfree people in their 30s should be advocating around eldercare NOW.

[buddhiststudy-nmrk]

About Sharing Buddhism

[program-annihilator]

1986

[pastorigloss]

Ultracinquantenne, divorziata, con due figli grandi, Silvana non aveva avuto possibilità di coltivare un rapporto d’amore sincero. In passato ne aveva sperimentati tre importanti che, per quanto con esiti disastrosi, (il primo la tradì durante la gravidanza, il secondo la riempì di debiti, il terzo la pestò a sangue), l’avevano rafforzata in ricchezza interiore e profondità. Due figli ne rappresentavano l’aspetto positivo. Sapeva già come le sofferenze, combattute e vinte, facessero crescere e progressivamente migliorare. Una volta raggiunto lo status di single, non desiderando una impegnativa relazione esclusiva, si votò al poliamore, prendendo qua e là quegli elementi personali che più le aderivano. Era convinta che fosse impossibile reperire in un solo uomo tutti gli aspetti positivi. Da uno prendeva la bellezza, dall’altro l’intelligenza. Da un terzo, la cultura. Da un quarto il denaro. Dal quinto, lo stile. Il tutto senza pretendere esclusività, né garantire la propria. Necessitava sopire i propri demoni interiori con il sesso e donare amore a chicchessia. Spendeva tempo libero sui siti di dating, strumento efficace per incontri di natura carnale. Pur non rendendosi conto di quanto in realtà fosse poco selettivo il poliamore, pur nella convinzione di attuare scelte oculate, fu la sua fortuna perché la mise a conoscenza del Buddismo Soka. Tramite uno di questi siti incontrò un genovese, buddista e gruista, di una quindicina d’anni più giovane, che professava da nove anni e che le fece Shakubuku. Indimenticabile per lei l’ora e il luogo dell’inizio della pratica: il Kaikan di Milano, dove in appena dieci minuti avvertì la connessione tra sé, gli sconosciuti lì presenti e l’Universo. In quel periodo era una paziente oncologica. #stefipastorigloss #BIDELLUME #bullismo #buddismo #shakubuku #provaconcreta #amore #dating (notare i #piedini da #instagrammer, sia mio che di @fabriziomegna 😀) (presso Taormina IsolaBella) https://www.instagram.com/p/CiniH2-tjkx/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[adrianosilvarodrigues]

#budismonichiren #bsgi #bs #shakubuku #sgi #budas #budadosultimosdias https://www.instagram.com/p/B7mUlLRJKQq/?igshid=ksez6n8kmpgc

[samma-sambodhi]

— ON PRACTICING THE BUDDHAS TEACHINGS — (pt.11)

.

The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin

.

Now, in the Latter Day of the Law, who is carrying out the practice of shakubuku in strict accordance with the Lotus Sutra?

SUPPOSE SOMEONE, no matter who, SHOULD UNRELENTINGLY PROCLAIM THAT THE LOTUS SUTRA ALONE CAN LEAD PEOPLE TO BUDDHAHOOD, and that ALL OTHER SUTRAS, far from enabling them to attain the way, ONLY DRIVE THEM INTO HELL. Observe what happens should that person thus try to refute the teachers and the doctrines of all the other schools. The three powerful enemies will arise without fail.

.

OUR TEACHER, the THUS COME ONE SHAKYAMUNI, PRACTICED SHAKUBUKU DURING THE LAST EIGHT YEARS OF HIS LIFETIME, the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai for more than thirty years, and the Great Teacher Dengyo for more than twenty. I have been refuting the provisional doctrines for more than twenty years, and the great persecutions I have suffered during this period are beyond number.

.

I do not know whether they are equal to the nine great persecutions suffered by the Buddha, but surely neither T’ient’ai nor Dengyo ever faced persecutions as great as mine for the sake of the Lotus Sutra. They encountered only hatred, envy, and slander, whereas I twice incurred the wrath of the rulers and was exiled to remote provinces. Furthermore, I was nearly beheaded at Tatsunokuchi, wounded on the forehead [at Komatsubara], and slandered time and again. My disciples have also been exiled and thrown into prison, and my lay supporters have been evicted and had their fiefs confiscated. How can the persecutions faced by Nagarjuna, T’ien-t’ai, or Dengyo possibly compare with these?

.

Understand then that the votary who practices the Lotus Sutra exactly as the Buddha teaches will without fail be attacked by the three powerful enemies.

.

Photo by: Daniele Franchi

.

#Buddha #Buddhism #Buddhist #Dharma #meditation #meditator #wisdom #Knowledge #awakening #Enlightenment #mindfulness #consciousness #spiritual #loveandlight #lotussutra #lifeforce #truth #art #travelphotography #sky #stupa #om #yogalife #truebuddhism #nichiren #nammyohorengekyo #gohonzon #daimoku #fridayvibes #Love

[ryanlowrie]

shakubuku https://www.instagram.com/p/B_VZ6ydHjfw/?igshid=1vydxhgps17lb

[bodhisattvaterraterra]

COSA C’E’ SCRITTO SUL GOHONZON? 

Nella parte centrale è scritto : Nam-myoho-renge-kyo   

Al di sotto c’è la firma di Nichiren. Egli applicò la sua firma per affermare il principio buddista di ninpo ikka, inseparabilità fra persona e legge. 

Ai quattro angoli della Torre preziosa siedono i quattro Re celesti, i guardiani dei quattro continenti : in alto a destra si trova Jikoku-ten il guardiano dell’est, il re che porta pace al paese e protegge la società umana. Komoku-ten, in basso a destra, è il guardiano dell’ovest che discerne e punisce il male e incoraggia l’aspirazione all’illuminazione. In alto a sinistra troviamo il guardiano del nord, Bishamon-ten che ascolta gli insegnamenti del Budda e protegge il luogo dove egli predica. Infine Zocho-ten, in basso a sinistra, è il guardiano del sud, che libera gli esservi umani dalla sofferenza.

Nella prima fila in alto troviamo Shakyamuni (rappresenta la saggezza soggettiva che percepisce la natura di Budda), Taho (rappresenta la realtà oggettiva della grandezza dello stato di Budda con tutti i suoi meravigliosi tesori) e i quattro grandi Bodhisattva della Terra.

Nella seconda fila troviamo Fugen e Monju che rappresentano il mondo di Bodhisattva che si sperimenta quando facciamo shakubuku.

Sul margine destro e sinistro ci sono due caratteri sanscriti: Fudo e Aizen. Fudo (Acala, l’inamovibile) sconfigge i demoni e gli ostacoli che impediscono la pratica buddista e rappresenta il principio di shoji soku nehan (Le sofferenze di nascita e morte si trasformano in nirvana o felicità). Aizen (Ragaraja, re degli attaccamenti) libera gli uomini dai desideri terreni e dalle conseguenti sofferenze e rappresenta il principio di bonno soku bodai (Le passioni e illusioni terrene diventano illuminazione). 

[space-age-bachelor]

Shakubuku

Pre-Rhodestead

A swift, spiritual kick to the head that alters your reality forever

Part of what will hopefully become a bigger au

It was a stupid joke he and Maggie had come up with during a movie night. They were wine drunk, tucked into a cocoon of blankets on the floor, and gossiping about their coworkers. The plan had been to marathon some Mission Impossible, but they’d expected to end up here. They always did.

“So since, Natalie’s dating your brother now, what are you going to do?” Maggie smirked at him over her glass. He had a hard time remembering when she’d declared herself his personal wingman, but she had truly dedicated herself to the role; and as happy as he was being single, it was also nice to have someone wholeheartedly believe him when he said Nat had nothing to do with his break up.

He shrugged, leaning into the couch. The cushions were soft against his cheek, but they would never be as comfortable as the floor. “I’m not gonna date anyone at Gaffney, that’s for sure.” 

Her raised eyebrows caused him to elaborate with more energy than he thought he had. “Everyone in the ED is out. I mean, the other attendings are,” he shivered dramatically, “and I’m not dating a resident. It’ll lead to too many problems. Honestly, the only new person is that Ava chick that Connor’s trying not to complain about, and she’s-”

She started giggling, looking everywhere but at him.

“What?”

“Nothing! Nothing,” she did her best to stop, “when was the last time you and Connor went out for drinks?”

He felt himself freeze once he understood what she was implying, “No, Connor and I, we’re not.” He huffed and took another sip, anything to buy him enough time to think of an answer. “Connor’s like that,” He gestured to the screen where Tom Cruise was parkouring across skyscrapers. 

“He’s Ethan Hunt?” She sounded doubtful, and rightfully so. Will loved these movies and knew them well enough to recognize how ridiculous the comparison was.

He had a point though, “No, he’s not Ethan. I could get with Ethan. Connor’s like James Bond. The guy speaks every language, goes to parties in suits, and could probably bench press me if he wanted to. He’s unattainable and perfect. He has to be a spy or something.”

He expected Maggie to laugh. This wasn’t the first time he’d said something stupid about one of the coworkers while drunk. He knows for a fact he said Ethan had the ass to be Captain America, and there were probably worse things he didn’t remember. The routine for these situations was that Maggie would laugh and take his wine away, but she didn’t laugh.

She got quiet and thought for a moment. “How long was Connor out of the country?”

Her tone brought him part way out of his fog. They were being serious for a second, “About ten years.” He’d done the math when Connor had forgotten the word stethoscope while telling a story. It was easy to forget that the last time he lived in the States was before he started med school.

“And he didn’t talk to anyone from home?”

Will’s eyebrows shot up, “Connor’s not actually a spy. Come on, he can’t be. He’s a Rhodes; why would he be a spy?”

“Could disappear without anyone noticing, had a good reason for being abroad, fluent in multiple languages, can handle himself with rich people, incredibly smart, good under pressure, super attractive but can blend in easily.” The list didn’t end there and he knew it. He just didn’t want to admit that she had a point. 

Connor couldn’t be a spy. Will had been the one to make the joke in the first place; but if Connor was a spy, he would be completely out of Will’s league. Not that anything was ever going to happen, he just liked having the illusion of a chance.

“You’re the one who watches all those TV shows and movies,” she was smirking again, “Tell me you wouldn’t propose on the spot if he burst through that door all ruffled, wearing a tux, saying ‘come with me if you want to live.’” 

She barely made it to the end of the sentence before they both burst out laughing, and that had been the end of the conversation during their movie night. Will thought it would be the end of it, period; but Maggie had different plans. 

During their next shift together, she leaned over and whispered to him, “Do you think he has a high-tech base in the basement of his apartment building?”

“Please, it’s in the false wall behind his bed. The basement’s where he keeps his vintage sports cars.”

Somehow this became their thing. They didn’t do it every time Connor walked by; but often enough that within a month, they had invented this whole second life for him. Dr. Bekker was part of his old team and they didn’t get along because there had been an accident during a mission; he didn’t work for any well-known agency, more a Man From U.N.C.L.E. thing; and he couldn’t tell Claire because it was the only way to keep her safe. 

Every once in a while, he’d feel bad. Connor was his friend and even though this was rooted in making fun of Will’s crush, he hated to think that Connor would be hurt by their jokes. But something kept him from telling him. Mainly, the risk of this exposing the fact that Will thought he was hot and had made a direct comparison between him and James Bond; arguably the hottest movie spy (behind Gal Gadot).

He didn’t know if he regretted keeping it to himself. If he’d told Connor, maybe none of this would have happened. They could have laughed about how stupid Will was being and gone about their lives; but he wasn’t sure this was a situation in which he’d rather not know. Though maybe this would have still happened and the only difference would be that Connor wouldn’t be staring at him with so much fear in his eyes.

“I can explain,” He started, but Will wasn’t sure he’d remember anything said to him in the next ten minutes or so.

“Don’t, just tell me what to do.” He took a few cautious steps closer. This was Connor; there was no reason to be scared. “We don’t have much time. Dr. Latham is looking for you.”

If Connor was confused by how easily he was accepting this, he knew better than to question it. They’d talk later. Will wasn’t foolish enough to think that either of them would be able to just let this go, but they had more important things to deal with right now. 

“Okay, grab his legs.”

[farfa-giulia]

A very special day #Birthday #shakubuku #kosenrufu #brillantirealizzazioni #friendship #lifeisimmense #lotusflower #lotusutra (presso Piazza Navona)

[jobbynho]

É uma grande alegria apresentar, explicar e dialogar sobre a filosofia budista com uma amiga. Maior ainda, é o sentimento quando ela decide com toda convicção abraçar essa filosofia e escolhe percorrer por esse caminho. #TrêsdeMaio #MestreDiscípulo #BSGI #SokaGakkai #BudismoNichiren #NichirenDaishonin #RevoluçãoHumana #KoseRufu #NMRK #DaisakuIkeda #Shakubuku (em 608 Sul Centro Cultural Da BSGI)

[thunderheadfred]

Mirror, Mirror

Sincere apologies to everyone who is waiting for updates on my Mass Effect stories, but I’ve needed a bit of shakubuku. I know I’ve gone totally off the rails with this Arcana stuff (and out of nowhere, too) but it’s been so long since I’ve felt this fired up about a writing project. I’d forgotten how it feels, to actually be in love with a dumb, wreckless idea, to write something that is purely for personal satisfaction, to get high on the unrelenting challenges of the creative process. 

While this Arcana fic is obviously... Arcana fic... I’ve taken enormous liberties with it and I feel like I’m digging into my own original ideas for the first time in a good long while. I’ve been so stuck in sci-fi and ME-specific themes for so long that breaking into completely foreign territory is like mfdgalnga;lbnalkbnlsaf. Feels good, man. It’s just fanfic but it’s really not just fanfic, you know?

I have no idea where this fic is going, yet, but I’m excited about a story for the first time in a longggg time, and that’s good enough for me, even if I never publish a single stupid chapter.

Please stand by. If you’re sticking around but want to avoid this random-ass Arcana stuff, go ahead and blacklist “mirror mirror” (the name of the fic) or just block out my entire “the arcana game” tag, ha ha. 

[lucianolmsantos]

•°``°• •°``•.¸¸.• °•°``°• •°``•.¸¸.•

*Budismo de Nichiren*

•°``°• •°``•.¸¸.• °•°``°• •°``•.¸¸.•

Chama-se budismo de Nichiren a escola budista que segue o ensinamento de Nichiren Daishonin, monge budista que viveu no Japão no século XIII. Nichiren nasceu em 16 de fevereiro de 1222. Essa linhagem afirma que o Sutra do Lótus torna os demais sutras budistas verdades parciais: os ensinamentos anteriores teriam sido proferidos por Sidarta Gautama em caráter provisório, de acordo com a capacidade dos ouvintes, enquanto que, no Sutra do Lótus, Buda profere seus ensinos a partir de um ponto absoluto, definitivo. O Budismo Nichiren é o único ensinamento que revela a forma de conexão com a Lei Mística, Lei Universal que significa fonte de vida, sabedoria e conhecimento universal. Através dessa conexão todos os seres podem atingir a sua iluminação estabelecendo a sua harmonia com a Lei do Universo.

O Budismo de Nichiren é a utilização de um único mantra, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, que significa *"Devoto-me à lei mística do Sutra da lei maravilhosa da flor do Lótus"* , mas cujas sílabas desdobram-se em outros significados.

O daimoku (como é chamado o mantra), é a lei do universo e desperta a natureza de Buda em quem recitasse. Portanto, outro pilar da fé nos ensinamentos de Nichiren seria o poder de atingir o estado de Buda na existência atual e, através da propagação dos ensinos (Shakubuku), buscar a paz mundial (kosen-rufu).

Dentre a prática tem a realização de duas cerimônias de oração diárias, denominadas Gongyô, em que são recitados trechos do Sutra do Lótus na versão em japonês.

•°``°• •°``•.¸¸.• °•°``°• •°``•.¸¸.

[thedanceofrelationship-blog]

The Long Road to a Redemption Story

Identity is a story that comes in three basic parts.  First is communion – who we are connected to, who we love; second is agency – what we have done and contributed in our lives; and third, redemption – how we have transformed the bad things that happened to us into something good.  Most of us can site many times we have created happy endings from nasty situations.  This is one of mine.  It takes a long and winding road with a cast of characters (many who shall remain nameless) and extraordinary experiences, each adding a major milestone.  Redemption would take well over a decade to be revealed to me.

OK, here’s the bad thing. My best friend betrayed me by having an affair with my husband which I didn’t find out about until two years after my divorce. 

When I met her, I was 29, divorced with two kids, and commuting from a NY suburb to my Manhattan job on the Penn Central Railroad.  My neighbor Fred introduced us saying she had a good weed connection.  Our friendship began just as I was beginning to date the man who, within three years, would become my second husband.  My BFF danced at our wedding.  She became the sister I never had.  

In the second year of my new marriage, my family moved from NY to Texas.  Dallas launched my princess career.  He had a great job, making lots of money.  We got a great house.  My kids were enrolled in a great private school. And, no longer needing to work, I built an art studio in the house and put my National Academy of Design training to work as a portrait sculptor.  Life was full of carpool, art, tennis, jogging, and socializing.  

My long, lost sister was a constant presence, no matter where we were.  Our first Dallas summer of 100+ degree days, we rented a house for a month on the beach in Long Island.  BFF arrived to visit with a surprising new practice – Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism, a sect that believes we can unlock the limitless potential of our inner lives and achieve Buddhahood in this lifetime.  While she was locked away in her room chanting, nam myoho renge kyo for long periods of time, we were snarkily chuckling that she sounded like a buzzing bee.  She tried to get me interested. “Herbie Hancock and Tina Turner are Buddhists” she said. I would have none of it.

The following year, during one of her regular visits to Dallas, I was suffering a highly unusual and excruciating migraine headache.  BFF knew just the cure – chant nam myo ho renge kyo.  I was desperate.  After about 20 minutes, my headache was gone. And thus began what the Buddhists call, shakubuku, the initiation process into the Buddhist practice.  She connected me to a local chapter where I could meet people and learn to recite the gongyo, the morning and evening prayers.  From my first meeting, I was captivated by the sound, the harmony, the vibration, and the joy of these people chanting together.  

Through my regular practice with this chapter I came to know the family of TV star from the show DALLAS. While they were residents of California, they spent each of their summers in Dallas for location shooting of the show.  Seeing my work, they commissioned me to sculpt a portrait of their two boys, who were about eight and three years old at the time.  As summer turned to fall and they prepared to travel west, they asked me to shakubuku a woman named Carolyn, the ex-girlfriend of a doctor who had rented them their house the previous year.  Happy to oblige, I arranged for a meeting in which I taught her to chant.

Carolyn was the most dazzling, free spirit I’d ever met.  She was a model, a dancer, an actress, and a pothead. I would regularly go to her house where we would chant for a while, then smoke a joint, and go to one of Dallas’s luxury watering holes for champagne.   

Carolyn introduced me to her friends, a husband and wife who owned  a resort in Mexico and were purveyors of the drug Ecstasy, or MDMA, which, at the time, was still unknown and unclassified by the Drug Enforcement Agency. In other words, legal.  Ecstasy was a life-altering experience.  I’d had a commonly reported reaction – I felt my heart opening in a way that I can feel to this day, so many years later.   

One evening during a small cocktail party at my house with Carolyn and her friends, our doorbell was rung by a young family.  Enter Blair and Stephen, and their 18-month old son, Seraphim.  They had been on their way to their home in Austin and had stopped by to meet the resort owners just to say “hello” and give them thanks for the wonderful time they had had at their resort.  With our hearts Ecstasy-wide open, we invited them to stay, which they did, for three days.

Blair and Stephen were the personification of The New Age. During our time together, they taught me how to rebirth, a type of breath work invented by the therapist Leonard Orr. The basic idea is that you can heal whatever ails you by re-experiencing the trauma surrounding your birth.  It’s really just conscious, circular, yogic breathing that can be done lying flat or under water with a snorkel.  Traditional psychologists have voted to discredit it. But, for me, it was extraordinarily powerful.

Blair and Stephen were aspiring breatharians.  (If you’ve never heard of breatharians, think “vegetarian,” only substitute breath for veggies.)  I know. But stay with me. They believed that it is possible for a person to live without consuming food, purely on prana, Sanskrit for life force, IF you could eliminate all toxins from your body, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  Go ahead and Google this.  There have been many articles written on breatharians and breathariansim.  At that particular moment in time, they were subsisting as fruitarians and followers of Baba Muktananda and Siddha yoga, working to scrub their souls clean.

Blair was a practicing medium.  She channeled a Canadian Catholic priest from the 1800’s named “Father Andre.”  This was the first time I had ever encountered a channeled being.  Blair would go into a meditation, and with her eyes closed, a new voice sprang from her lips, with wisdom and guidance for those in her audience.  Father Andre told me that I was like the sands of the desert, beautiful but frequently shifting, and failing to give solid ground to my children.  I could see it.  This harsh counsel came with a strong recommendation, “You need to do the est Training.”  Naturally, I picked up the phone and enrolled in the next program.  

Est, an 80-hour two-weekend training, was developed by Werner Erhard in the 1970’s.  Est promised “to transform one’s ability to experience living so that the situations one had been trying to change or had been putting up with, clear up just in the process of life itself.”  In truth, the training stopped my self-doubt and striving to be someone I was not, and actually produced a sense of perfection and responsibility.  I came away from est feeling as though my life had taken a dramatic turn.  I stopped drinking and drugging and encouraged my husband, whose drinking I was always working to keep up with, along with several of my closest friends, to do the training also. 

As an enthusiastic and tremendously appreciative participant, I became a holy roller advocate for the training and guest seminar leader, leading evenings about the training to enroll newcomers.  That’s where I met Lisa, my newest best friend and certainly the smartest and funniest woman I’ve ever known.  Lisa was 11 years younger than I and 11 years older than my oldest daughter.  We became so close that my husband had suggested that she could support my spiritual needs while he supported my financial ones. This didn’t work out so well.  I was living a sober life with my husband, with whom I could find little in common, and simultaneously falling in love with Lisa.  We divorced one year after the training. 

Lisa moved in the day after he moved out.  Her brilliance transported me from my desolation and fear to excitement about the blank canvas that I was.  It would take a couple of years before I could come to terms with the failure of my marriage.

With no husband to support me, finance instantaneously became a priority in my life again.  The job title, ‘princess/sculptor’ did not seem promising for generating anywhere near the income I needed to maintain the lifestyle to which I had become accustomed. I had to come up with a new career, and fast. Forced to examine what I had done in my life, I was completely stymied at how to combine my experience in visual art, sales, business analysis, and mother, and articulate it in the form of a new offer.  And to whom would I make this invaluable offer? 

Lisa connected me to a program on entrepreneurship that was being given by a Werner Erhard connection, Fernando Flores.  Some background on Flores: At 29, he was the youngest minister in the Salvador Allende presidency.  Remember the American-backed coup in Chile in 1973?  Allende died and Flores was isolated in a political prison at the hands of Augusto Pinochet.  After three years, Flores was released through the efforts of Amnesty International and went to Stanford to do his Ph.D.  His doctoral thesis “Communication in the Office of the Future” provided important distinctions that Erhard used in his training.   

The course on entrepreneurship created a huge opening for my career.  I was introduced me to the fundamentals of the philosophy of language and the inevitability of the coming boom in the personal computer industry.  From my years in the corporate world, I could readily see an offer to business.  I returned to Dallas, a complete novice in the computer world but ready to start a company with Lisa where we sold grey market computers loaded with modems, floppy drives, and communication software.

Our first big break came with a contract with a global software company in Dallas.  We were doing so well that we interested an investor in our business.  Needing a staff, the first person I thought of was my old BFF who had been trying to find a job in Dallas for years.

The business venture was a disaster.  We naively gave away 51% to the man with the money.  Within a year, he had fired us and left us holding a $100K debt on a line of credit with which we had bought computers that our partner had sold and collected on.  And while Lisa and I were fired, my BFF stayed on.  It seemed that she had conspired against us, something we could hardly understand.  Until the following summer when my ex-husband confessed his affair with her.

I called her immediately. At first, she denied it.  When I told her that the information came from my ex-husband, she deflected by saying, “it was another time.”  I offered her the opportunity to clean it up with me.  She declined.  I fell into a rage which turned into a righteous obsession that I couldn’t shake without several months of therapy and deep work on the nature of forgiveness.

No longer living together, Lisa and I bootstrapped a new business.  Recognizing a substantial need for greater competence than our customers in communication, I immersed myself in a long-term program with Flores in the philosophy of language.  Flores committed that if I would give him three years, he would teach me how to think.

In my third year of the program, a group of students went out for a night of salsa dancing.  There I met Cristián, a Chilean man who studied with and worked for Flores.  The moment I saw him, I knew I had to dance with him.  Within two years we married.  

Our highest priority was to live together authentically.  One of our first commitments was to tell each other everything we didn’t want to tell the other.  And in so doing, we delved into the depths of our humanity, discovering more and more of ourselves and each other, healing our shames and traumas, and continually expanded the limits of what is possible in an intimate relationship. 

We have been together for almost 30 years.  During this time, I developed the agency aspect of my identity.  Building on my education, I created a program called Mindful Collaboration.  I  have become known as a virtuoso coach and team developer, working with the leadership of Fortune 100 companies. 

Another significant connection came from my relationship with Flores.  I coached a man named David who was struggling to create a new business. We became friends.  I introduced him to a training called Avatar that was conducted at my friends’ resort in Mexico.  There he fell in love with a woman who moved him to Mexico where he encountered Huichol shamans who completely changed his life.  A few years later, David offered me the gift of vision quest, a traditional indigenous ritual where one goes alone to the mountain, fasting for days, sitting in a small corn circle with nothing to do and nowhere to go, praying for a vision.  The mountain showed me the intricate, sacred, interconnectedness of all life.  This great gift answered the question I didn’t know that I had, but was the force that had been driving me, “why am I here?” 

The portrait of my life is drawn by connecting the dots of these remarkable encounters. Meeting the mountain was a dot that forms the heart of my portrait, like a keystone holding it all together.

Bringing the sacred into our lives has given our couple a palpable resonance, one that has had people constantly asking what it is we know.  Ten years ago, we began to offer a course together called The Dance of Relationship that shows that love is a dance everyone can learn.  We share our most significant commitments and provide practices for mastering the moves of the dance.  The course awakens the heart of all who come. 

We have become great learners, Cristián and I.  This is the secret to redemption – find the gift in those failures and pain, use them to become masterful in life.  I sit in great gratitude to my old BFF for putting me on the path of learning and finding my amazing partner.  Without her, I wouldn’t be who I am today.

[hanacalmon-blog]

Diálogos maravilhosos! Sonhos e realizações. Partiu vencer! #SeédaDEtemquevencer #DE #visitas #RP #seikyopost #serfeliz #dialogo #BlocoSãoMarcos #Shakubukus