because my friend posted

Since Cliff, who rarely posts anymore, posted, I feel compelled to also write about my recent doings.  It's been quite a tumultuous past month.  I began a relationship with a long-time friend that I am enjoying so much.  It's been two years since dating, but for various reasons, I feel so confident and comfortable in this relationship.  But I'll save this story for another time.

Starbucks Green tea latte (soy milk), no syrup.  The closest thing you'll get to a genuine japanese maccha.

Other than that, I was busy with a lot of May Contribution activities.  Since last year, I've made it a commitment to do participate in special contribution with a deeper sense of purpose and appreciation.  As a result, I've received a lot of benefits.  In fact, toward the end of the month, because I my life felt scrambled with job searching, activities, work, and other things, I had to sit myself down in front of the Gohonzon to chant about it all.  About the success of my relationships, finding a job, and finishing out my current stint with my judge in the best way possible.  Most of all, I was chanting for better financial fortune.  

I did a 久しぶりの 10-hour toso two weekends ago and I made some difficult decisions regarding my job search.  Without going too much in detail, I decided that I don't want to compromise what I wanted to do with my career.  I found myself getting so desperate to find a job that I came closer and closer to thinking that I would simply take whatever I could find.  After my daimoku, though, I made a firm decision to forego applying to a non-profit that I was confident i would get if I applied.  Ironically, a few days after I made that decision, the position was filled.  However, a few days after that, I received a [informal] offer from a place that I interviewed with 4 months ago. Out of the blue.  Now, I will be signing the papers on Tuesday, starting my new job in a month.  Daimoku!

Recently I've been learning the importance of appreciation.  Buddhism teaches reverence for the dignity of life, all life - regardless of how that life is manifested.  So, even the life of someone who is causing you problems  is deserving of this kind of respect (which, of course, doesn't mean that his/her actions are acceptable).  Buddhism also teaches that these problems in your environment that you may confront are opportunities to find/develop your own Buddha nature, the inherent condition that we all possess and which is also the reason for the respect we have for all life.  Anyway, I've realized that I wasn't appreciating this buddha nature in everybody, and instead, taking problems that I associated with them as insurmountable and as fact. When I started appreciating though, I came to realize that I was ignorant to the fact that this was an opportunity to reach down deeper in my life to bring out the best possible conditions of my life and challenge the situation.   

Anyway, in other news, I reached nana-kyuu in Karate!