My progress with my Son Through Faith Alone experience by Ranjana Ramakrishnan
Thank you Aki and as your shakabuku parent I must say I am extremely thrilled at the way you and your mom are progressing with a seeking spirit. I on my part live Buddhism in my daily life and my daily life is always about WINNING!
Good morning to all and for a few of you who may not have met me I am Ranjana practicing this absolutely beautiful life changing philosophy for the past 14 years!
What started off on a very basic level of chanting for the mundane and materialistic rewards soon led to life changing victories.
Some of you may recall the very turbulent times I had been through before I reported my greatest victory to our mentor in Feb 2020. That victory of my son entering a rehab after 7 years of substance abuse and to come out completely a changed person was the most mystical protection and victory both he and I received.
Today's experience sharing is to reiterate that daily practice must continue no mater what. Post my earlier victory I admit that my Daimoku did come come down in the number of hours but baring 1-2 days in these last 2.5 years never have I ever missed my morning and evening practice. My Consistency in doing my kosenrufu activity, regularly studying and sharing and imbibing in my own life what I study , being there for my comrades anytime they need me is what continued to offer me and my son so much protection.
To expand on this, post his rehab I was aware that his body definitely would have suffered immensely over the 7 years of intense abuse he had subjected it to and healing was critical. It did not help that while he was now completely clean he was taking no steps to discipline his food intake or daily routines. His intake did not comprise of any fruit or vegetables and max consumption was of meat, high fatty foods, extremely high amount of sugars . Now, My family has a background history of severe diabetes with both my parents and brother being diabetic. I kept telling him the perils of such living but he would brush it aside telling me he was too young and therefore not in the bracket of succumbing to anything. I just continued to chant sending him as always daimoku of healing and for him to change and respect his body and to wake up to the unlimited Buddha potential that was still lying dormant in him.
End 2021 enveloped by immense fatigue he realized he was not as healthy as he thought he was. He was sleeping for close to 12 hours and would still feel extremely tired. On the advice of the Doctor we had some blood tests done and Sure enough the tests showed concerning signs of heading towards pre diabetes , a sluggish liver and overall not the best lipid profile.
I sat him down and explained what a diabetics life entailed and that if the liver had to function to full capacity it must be allowed to heal.
There is no prayer of a mother and more so that of one practicing the lotus sutra that will go unanswered and so it was that Roudra took some clear decisions to completely change his course of lifestyle.
He started with including a clean and healthy diet of plenty of vegetables and fruits, something he has not eaten in close to 9/10 years, started looking at YouTube videos on some basic cooking he could do on his own which, for someone who had never even made a boiled egg was a very big step. Sugars of all kinds was stopped and only one day a week was his cheat day.
Taking to running daily he soon moved from a very sluggish and breathless run to a pace that clearly showed his body was now beginning to respond. He lost 10 kgs of weight and today is absolutely lean and trim no concerns of fatigue and most importantly it is now his way of life. He is practicing to run the Marathon someday soon. However even more than this it was his smoking close to 20/30 plus cigarettes a day that used to worry me the most . And now my daimoku was directed to work on this accordingly. One fine day as part of his lifestyle change he completely stopped and is now 7 months smoke free and feels the ease with which he is able to breathe. NMRK had entered his body stream and was clearing the way for a Buddhaful life to emerge.
He also realized that the 5-7000 Rupees he was spending on buying cigarettes could now be invested in mutual funds and the value of saving money too emerged.
After his health it was time to bring the mysticism of daimoku to his workplace. The company he was working for wanted to send him to Africa, and that too to a country that was one of the poorest in the world. With absolutely no clear cut business plans and having Already spent the last one year in Delhi physically going to work daily but with nothing to do as All projects were on hold, the thought of going to this country and once again sitting in a strange land with no work was not exactly exciting. However practicing Buddhism means not to dwell on fears and anxieties but to chant for the best outcome. And where there is deep prayers and complete faith the Myo of NMRK will pervade. And so it was in the nth hour a sudden chance meeting with his school mate once again changed his entire course and within a 24 hour window he was offered a new job, here in Chennai. A great job, with vast amount of learning and growth prospects! He is of course very happy to be back with his grandma and is leading an extremely active life with a great work life balance.
Before I close the never ending but eternally grateful list of protection we enjoy I would like to share my own experience during my recent travel. I was headed on my first major trek to Kathmandu. My mind was buzzing with a zillions things that had to be done. Kathmandu and India have a no visa policy however for travel and to clear immigration etc a passport or a Voters ID is mandatory. The day of travel dawned and I was just about to leave when I took my first REAL look at my air tickets. To my shock it was in my maiden name. We all know that for travel the name on the ticket and that of your identification doc must be a clear match and I was quite zapped as both my passport and Voter ID was in my marital name and despite the legal separation 20 years ago I had just not bothered changing it. Invoking the protection of Daimoku I just left home. I will not go into great details except to say at every area whether the ticketing counter or the immigration officer this fact was not missed but they just mentioned both the names are different , stamped the document and sent me off! Not one question, no rebuke, no asking me to go back to the airline and getting the name changed nothing. It was just as though NMRK had enveloped me on all sides and I was all set for my journey! And the icing on this trip was a surprise visit to Lumbini the birthplace of the Buddha. To stand at the very spot where he was born, now a UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE site and just feel the blessed presence of the one who realized that true Happiness was beyond the karmic journey we all undergo and that we are all Buddhas with unlimited potential to be happy and we must share the happiness we feel with all who come in contact with was to me the most beautiful experience ever.
It is indeed true that the protection and the mysticism of this law works in ways we cannot fathom. Once we understand We are NMRK and this is not something outside of us we start activating all the protection. However we must also bear in mind that the law cannot work if we have this stop start method of practice reaching out to NMRK only when we desire something and after we achieve a temporary gain we stop our practice. Being consistent and understanding that to practice is part of daily life is when you will truly enjoy life long protection, inner transformation, genuineness of living life without fear, expanding our thinking etc.
Sharing this victory of mine I have realized that I too have to continue to set higher goals as a goalless life or just stagnating is equivalent to not practicing. We must forge our lives to grow and to reach out to more and more people as until and unless we have a philosophy that is global, happiness will always be an elusive state.
Sensei says and I quote and I hope to live up to this quote " Therefore I hope all of you will be victorious in your lives. Live your lives so you can declare; I have no regrets. I enjoyed my life. I encouraged many others and gave them hope. It was a good life'.
And on that note a heartfelt Thank you to every member of Egmore District who have been part of my many victories and will continue to support me in my journey. Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.
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