The Art of listening with the eyes of a Buddha
When Sensei went to President Toda for his guidance, he was completely frustrated by the behavior of some leaders in the organization. President Toda was very strict with Sensei and told him that he needed to take the responsibility to create the kind of organization he wanted it to be. And then he said that; "Every pain, every hurt, every frustration you ever feel on account of another human being should be engraved in your heart. Never ever forget them. Then make sure you never, ever do the same to a single human being. We all want to grow and be happy and creative, but the point we most often miss, is that some people’s mission in our life is to teach us how to be a better human being through their negative example of how not to be. They are as powerful a teacher of how not to be, as the person who is the greatest example of how to be.” The issue here is; do we get the lesson or do we instead turn around and do the same thing to other people that we accuse others of doing to us?
He didn’t stop there, President Toda went on to say that we must understand that the reason we are here in this moment, in this lifetime, experiencing this problem, in this environment, with these people is because it is our mission, and our mission alone, to find the solution to the problem. The solution to the problem is never, ever waiting to see if the other person will change. Every time we wait for the other person to change we have missed our opportunity to do human revolution, to change and therefore to become happier. I too had to see the cause and effect connection with and within my life and my environment. There was a causal reason that my leader was in my life pulling out all my judgmental negativity. And so then, I started chanting with this thought: THIS IS MY MISSION, I HAVE TO FIND THE SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM.
It was clear that waiting for her to change was not the answer, it had been two years, so I was sure about it. I sincerely started chanting for the wisdom to see what it was that I needed to do to change this. And it put me on a journey towards serious self-reflection. What I saw was this: That even though I do my best, I’m not always proud of myself every day when I return home, in terms of the way I handle certain situations in my life. I also had to realize that although I had been doing my best but for two years, I had not been able to win over my judgmental self and my negativity towards this woman. When I could, I asked myself; “what makes me think that I have the right to hold another human being to certain standards?” I started to see that what I was observing in her was nothing other than a human being who, just like me, was battling with her own weaknesses, and again who, just like me had not yet been able to win over them because it is a process that takes time and it has to begin with self realisation, human revolution, challenge and change.
The moment I understood that.., really understood, not intellectually, but with my life,… a prayer came out of my life that I had never prayed before. That prayer was this… I decided that I would take total responsibility for her to have a victory over her weakness, and it meant that I was going to start sending daimoku to her life with the determination that through my daimoku alone, I was going to start battling that negativity in her. That weakness in her that I was judging so unmercifully, I was going to send daimoku to and I was going to battle within her life with my daimoku. With the determination that through my daimoku alone I would ensure that she had a breakthrough in her life. The minute I was able to chant that way, my relationship with her life changed just like that. What I realize now, is it was not her that had to change, it was me.
I chanted myself from a person of judgment, to a person of compassion for another human being’s life. When I judged her, that became my prayer and my expectation towards her, and she was my big movie screen that was projected back to me exactly what I expected of her. When I was able to take the responsibility to help her have a victory over her weakness, I found that I could have true compassion for her. My prayer and expectation towards her life became profoundly different because I had connected to another part of her life. I was able to open up to her for the first time. I then discovered that this type of sincere and deep prayer is a prayer that will allow us to speed up our human revolution and become strong powerful assets for Kosen Rufu. What I came to understand is that because there is no separation between myself and my environment, the weakness that we all experience in other people – carry the best possible messages for us to change.
Source: The Art of listening with the eyes of a Buddha, by Linda Johnson, SGI-USA WD Leader
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