Back to list

My Favorite Gosho


"Suffer what there is to suffer, enjoy what there is to enjoy. Regard both suffering and joy as facts of life, and continue chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo no matter what happens. How could this be anything other than the boundless joy of the Law?"

Happiness in This World

Vinessa Shaw, USA

In the winter of 1996, I received a postcard containing only this passage. It was from my dad who was intent on encouraging me during my first year of college in New York. I was lonely and depressed, and I had so many questions about life. I called my dad every night crying, saying that I wanted to go home. This postcard came at the perfect time.

I was born into a family that practices Nichiren Buddhism. I had chanted Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and studied SGI President Ikeda's encouragement from the time I was 12, but I had never delved into The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin.

As I read my father's postcard, I felt something shift in my life. Until this point, I thought chanting was intended for accomplishing a goal, but it never occurred to me that it was the means to develop a happy life.

This passage gave me confidence, for the first time, that chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the key to happiness, no matter what was going on in my life.

I put the passage on my altar in my dorm room and chanted for an extended period to the Gohonzon for the first time in my life. From that day forward, I chanted abundantly with the determination that I was creating a life of "boundless joy." By the end of my first year of college, I had broken through my internal impasse. Although I had a long way to go in my practice before I experienced true joy, I definitely felt lighter.

Now I can say that I'm a truly happy person. Reading this passage on that postcard marked the beginning of my human revolution and building a Buddhist practice based on faith.

For years, I have kept the postcard in my prayer bead case and I still have it. It will always be a reminder that chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is happiness.

[Courtesy of World Tribune, SGI-USA, January 2008]

▲ Back to top