WHY WE SHOULD DO GONGYO CONSISTENTLY EVERY DAY, TWICE A DAY

WHY WE SHOULD DO GONGYO CONSISTENTLY EVERY DAY, TWICE A DAY 

"Because it's easy to practice, Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism is available to everyone. However, because it is hard to practice, it contains the power to lead people to enlightenment. The prime point of Buddhist practice is chanting daimoku and reciting gongyo twice a day. Anyone can learn to chant and pronounce gongyo. But it is difficult to do it every day, twice a day. The goal should be never to miss gongyo. That would mean doing gongyo 730 times a year. But if you do miss gongyo, it is not the end of the world. You may notice a little drag in your life condition that day. As Ikeda writes: 'If you miss gongyo, no matter what you attempt, your actions are like hacking at the air. No matter how sharp your sword, you can never sever the chains of destiny which imprison your life.' But you need not feel guilty. We lead busy lives. Sometimes it is impossible to take time out and make an effective prayer. Just redetermine to carve out the time to do an even more powerful gongyo at the next available opportunity. Ikeda adds: 

'On some occasions, you may be unable to do gongyo or you may be able only to just chant daimoku. Nevertheless, so long as you maintain faith you will not experience negative effects on account of your occasional failure to carry out a complete practice of gongyo. While you should not take advantage of this statement or misconstrue it as condoning a lax or lazy attitude, you do not have to be overly strict or inflexible in your practice.'

"Ikeda has often emphasized that the daily ritual of gongyo is really the only opportunity the human being has to connect to the macrocosm. We can worship nature all we like, hike to the highest mountaintops, but we never really connect to the universe as we do during gongyo. 'The powerful reverberations of your gongyo attune you to the pulsing wavelength of the macrocosmic life,' he writes. 'It is the cry of your ichinen summoning forth 'Buddha'—the ultimate reality of the life of the universe. When you face the Gohonzon and chant daimoku, you yourself become the entity of Buddha.' That is why it is important to make this connection consistently every day." 

—The Buddha In Your Rearview Mirror, Chapter 8: Tips on Practice, p. 230-231