How to Beat Fundamental Darkness and Achieve Victory in Life
Dr. Daisaku Ikeda Says:
“Fearing hardships and bemoaning and resenting our environment, is to live with the belief that the Law is outside our own life. So is losing confidence in our ability to overcome our circumstances and so is turning to others in the hope that they will save us. So is blaming others for our problems, or giving in to hopelessness and resignation. Irrespective of the obstacles we may encounter in the course of our practice, we must not retreat a single step. We must not be alarmed or startled by them. The power of the Mystic Law can triumph over anything. It’s important to be deeply confident in this.”
Do not moan OR whine.
Do not lose your self-confidence.
Never ever blame others for your failure / disappointments.
Never ever give up on yourself AND
Never Never Never RETREAT.
When we are engrossed in our Fundamental Darkness, this is exactly what we do. Every word mentioned in the above passage we do. Our fundamental darkness is an enemy worth knowing so that we can recognize its ways and actions. So that we can fight back more easily with our Buddhahood and create a beautiful life for ourselves and other around us and help people from all that negativity and sufferings. Our Fundamental Darkness is very powerful and is versatile in nature.
This is how our fundamental darkness attempts to defeat us in numerous ways, including:
By pretending that we’re useless and everyone else is amazing.
By pretending we’re amazing but everyone else is useless.
By activating our innate laziness.
By weakening our courage.
By creating negative emotions in our heart.
By draining our energy through useless thinking AND
By turning us into a victim or even worse, an angry victim.
And just at the moment when we think we have identified the real culprit, our fundamental darkness will suddenly change tack and take a different form by showering us with buckets of relative happiness or wrapping up in arms of consolation,
And change back again and:
Make us to complain, moan and whine.
Make us try and control other people.
Make us unwise in our actions .
Making us ungrateful.
Make us hide our sense of responsibility.
Make us think we will never win over our weaknesses.
AND the illusions seem like a whole unchanging truth.
And each of these feelings will seem to us, at that time, like the whole and unchanging truth. Like the only conceivable reality when it is happening. Amazingly versatile is our fundamental darkness, a highly resourceful enemy. A master illusionist. An astute swordsman. Sly, seductive, almost impossible to spot sometimes, let alone defeat. Like a shadow. A very smooth talker whose sole purpose is to destroy our faith in our greater self, in our Buddhahood.
And now the good news:
Because we are Buddha, we can beat our fundamental darkness and we can win.
Life is a constant struggle between light and darkness. This is a fact, so the only decision we have to make is whether we make this struggle a joyful combat or a painful ordeal. Whether we accept and enjoy it or refuse and endure it.
When faced with obstacles, learn to rejoice instead of retreating. Say YES when life is asking us to grow.
Face whatever it takes to fulfill your personal mission in life and to become the person you were born to become.
A mighty heart is forged only in the heat of battle with your own Fundamental Darkness. How, after all, can you fight for another’s happiness if you are not battling with your own demons first?
As Nichiren Daishonin wrote, you must develop deep determination, “as if you are trying to strike fire from damp wood or extract water from parched ground.”
There will be times when we will feel that all we have is our determination. And in the end, trust me, it is always enough.
My Buddhahood is, ultimately, more powerful than my Fundamental Darkness.
Thank You
