Inconsistent practice

[markatex]

This has always been a big problem for me and I wonder if anyone else can relate. I often go for weeks or even months without doing any sort of formal practice at all. I tend to think that if I'm not going to commit to a perfect 30-minute long service twice a day, then I might as well not bother.

I'm also the kind of person who won't do "a little tidying up" if I can't do a full-scale deep cleaning of my house. It just feels like a waste of time. So it's certainly a personality flaw that isn't relegated to Buddhist practice.

I know that the merit of chanting the daimoku even once in your whole life with a distracted mind is incalculable, but I guess it's not something I can wrap my head around. I do this same dance year after year after year. I'll make a commitment to daily practice, and it will be fine for a couple of weeks or so, but then I'll miss a morning or an evening and then all motivation is gone, for weeks or even months. Then it starts all over again.

[Redfaery]

I'm not a Nichiren-shu practitioner, but the feelings you describe are very familiar to me. You're definitely not alone.

[Wayfarer]

I am sure many home-based practitioners under their own supervision have this problem, so you're not alone. That said, be aware of the way that you're thinking about it - you might be giving yourself a reason not to even try. You say that 'it' starts again, but there really is no 'it' - only practice or not practicing. So setting a high standard and then failing to observe it, is a self-defeating attitude. Might be better to set the bar a bit lower and clear it more often.

[Ayu]

This has always been a big problem for me and I wonder if anyone else can relate. I often go for weeks or even months without doing any sort of formal practice at all. I tend to think that if I'm not going to commit to a perfect 30-minute long service twice a day, then I might as well not bother.

I'm also the kind of person who won't do "a little tidying up" if I can't do a full-scale deep cleaning of my house. It just feels like a waste of time. So it's certainly a personality flaw that isn't relegated to Buddhist practice.

I know that the merit of chanting the daimoku even once in your whole life with a distracted mind is incalculable, but I guess it's not something I can wrap my head around. I do this same dance year after year after year. I'll make a commitment to daily practice, and it will be fine for a couple of weeks or so, but then I'll miss a morning or an evening and then all motivation is gone, for weeks or even months. Then it starts all over again.

As far as I know this problem from myself, this putting myself down is a destructive deed. It doesn't lead to anything good. One wants to push oneself up, but actually beats oneself down. You could call it unskillful means also.
I found out it is better to praise myself for the practice I do instead of beating myself up for not fulfilling a task.

Just yesterday I found this old list of advices while cleaning up my notes.
Since you thought it might be no buddhist problem but some psychological thing, I think it is worth posting this list here:

5 Habits of High Self-Esteem: Be Happier with Yourself and Your Life

“Stop beating yourself up. You are a work in progress; which means you get there a little at a time, not all at once.” ~Unknown

Ten years ago, when I was in my early twenties, I wasn’t really my own best friend. I was in college and although things were going okay with my studies, I wasn’t very happy.
When I made a mistake or failed I beat myself up for days or sometimes weeks.
I mostly focused on the negative and rarely took the time to appreciate the small and wonderful things about my life and myself. I compared how I looked, my results in school, and success while dating—or more accurately, the total lack of dates—to what other people had and their results.
I was stuck in a rut of negativity and low self-esteem. Not a good place to be in. But finally, after many years, I broke out of that rut.
It wasn’t easy. But step by small step I made changes in how I thought and how I viewed the world and myself. I stumbled along the way and many times I fell back into my old negative habits.
Today I’d like to share five habits that helped me to make that big change in my life, that I still rely on to this day and every day to maintain and build my self-esteem.

1. Compare yourself to yourself.

One of the first things I decided that I needed to stop doing was comparing myself and what I had to other people and what they had.
But what to do instead, since replacing a habit tends to be more successful than trying to just stop doing it?
I decided that I would compare myself to myself instead.
To look at how I had grown. How far I had come. How I had become more successful in small or bigger ways.

2. Be kinder toward other people.

One interesting thing I discovered was that when you are kinder toward other people in your life, you tend to think about and treat yourself in a kinder way, too.
And the other nice thing about this is that how you treat others is how they tend to treat you in the long run.
So I have found it very helpful to focus on being kind in my daily life.
This kindness doesn’t have to be about big things.
It can simply be to:
Just be there and listen fully for a few minutes as you let someone vent
Give a genuine compliment
Let someone into your lane while driving
Take a few minutes to help someone out in a practical way by giving advice, using Google to help them find something, lifting a heavy table, or making arrangements for a dinner at a restaurant.

3. When you stumble, be your own best friend.

Instead of beating yourself up when you make a mistake, fail, or stumble in some way, ask yourself: How would my best friend or parent support me and help me in this situation?
Then simply do things and talk to yourself like he or she would.
This simple change in perspective can help you to not fall down into a valley of depressed thoughts, but to be constructive and optimistic about what you do from here on out.

4. Leave perfectionism behind.

One of the biggest reasons why I beat myself up so much was that I often wanted things to be perfect.
And so I held myself to an inhuman standard, in school and whatever I did, really.
A big problem with this mindset was, of course, that I often did not do things at all because I was afraid that I could not do them perfectly. Or, I felt it would be too much work and quit before I had even gotten started.
Just realizing how this mindset was hurting me and people around me helped me to let go of it and adopt a healthier outlook.
Also, reminding myself that there is a thing called “good enough” and focusing on reaching that instead of perfection helped me not only to get better results, but also perform better in all areas of my life.
It also helped me to stop procrastinating so much and to take a lot more action to improve my life step by step.

5. Keep in mind why your self-esteem is so, so important.

Here is my experience with improving my own self-esteem in the past few years:

Life becomes simpler and lighter, because you will not make mountains out of molehills nearly as often anymore.
You’ll be less needy and more stable as a human being. When you like yourself more, when your opinion of yourself goes up, then you’ll stop trying so eagerly to get validation and attention from other people.
You sabotage yourself less. By raising and keeping your self-esteem up, you will feel more and more deserving of good things in all areas of your life. So you’ll go after these good things more often and with more motivation. And when you get them, then you’ll be a lot less likely to self-sabotage because you know that you deep down actually deserve to have them in your life.
You’ll be more attractive in any kind of relationship. With better self-esteem you’ll get the benefits listed above. And all of that is highly attractive in any kind of relationship. No matter if that relationships is with a friend, at work, in school, or with a partner.
All these huge benefits have also made my life happier. And as I move through my days I keep these very important reasons for keeping my self-esteem up and improving it in the forefront of my mind.

Doing this simple thing has done wonders for my own self-esteem and for my motivation to make it a top priority in my life.

Source: http://tinybuddha.com/blog/5-habits-hig ... your-life/

[jorden]

I do this same dance year after year after year. I'll make a commitment to daily practice, and it will be fine for a couple of weeks or so, but then I'll miss a morning or an evening and then all motivation is gone, for weeks or even months. Then it starts all over again.

I have this same experience, maybe it is this thing that they call samsara?

[gloriasteinem]

This has always been a big problem for me and I wonder if anyone else can relate. I often go for weeks or even months without doing any sort of formal practice at all. I tend to think that if I'm not going to commit to a perfect 30-minute long service twice a day, then I might as well not bother.

I'm also the kind of person who won't do "a little tidying up" if I can't do a full-scale deep cleaning of my house. It just feels like a waste of time. So it's certainly a personality flaw that isn't relegated to Buddhist practice.

I know that the merit of chanting the daimoku even once in your whole life with a distracted mind is incalculable, but I guess it's not something I can wrap my head around. I do this same dance year after year after year. I'll make a commitment to daily practice, and it will be fine for a couple of weeks or so, but then I'll miss a morning or an evening and then all motivation is gone, for weeks or even months. Then it starts all over again.

If it is fine with you not to practice for so long. For me not meditating and not praying significally decreases my health, in fact I rely entirely for my wellbeing to my practice, but then again to me talking about Buddhism and about practice is some sort of practicing or engaging, its not like you are reluctant of being adherent, so maybe you shouldn't bother that much.

[Simon E.]

This has always been a big problem for me and I wonder if anyone else can relate. I often go for weeks or even months without doing any sort of formal practice at all. I tend to think that if I'm not going to commit to a perfect 30-minute long service twice a day, then I might as well not bother.

I'm also the kind of person who won't do "a little tidying up" if I can't do a full-scale deep cleaning of my house. It just feels like a waste of time. So it's certainly a personality flaw that isn't relegated to Buddhist practice.

I know that the merit of chanting the daimoku even once in your whole life with a distracted mind is incalculable, but I guess it's not something I can wrap my head around. I do this same dance year after year after year. I'll make a commitment to daily practice, and it will be fine for a couple of weeks or so, but then I'll miss a morning or an evening and then all motivation is gone, for weeks or even months. Then it starts all over again.

I am not a Nichiren practitioner. I do know that it Buddhadharma, and in life in general, self discipline is essential.

A very wise and very experienced Buddhist said to me when I was young...' set the alarm 40 minutes earlier...when it rings put your feet on the floor and stand up. Do your practice whether you feel like it or not. Eventually you would not want it any other way '

Forget all admonitions to ' love yourself more ' and so on. Like the Nike ads say...Just do it.

[Queequeg]

This has always been a big problem for me and I wonder if anyone else can relate. I often go for weeks or even months without doing any sort of formal practice at all. I tend to think that if I'm not going to commit to a perfect 30-minute long service twice a day, then I might as well not bother.

I'm also the kind of person who won't do "a little tidying up" if I can't do a full-scale deep cleaning of my house. It just feels like a waste of time. So it's certainly a personality flaw that isn't relegated to Buddhist practice.

I know that the merit of chanting the daimoku even once in your whole life with a distracted mind is incalculable, but I guess it's not something I can wrap my head around. I do this same dance year after year after year. I'll make a commitment to daily practice, and it will be fine for a couple of weeks or so, but then I'll miss a morning or an evening and then all motivation is gone, for weeks or even months. Then it starts all over again.

You seem to conceptualize your practice in a rather stark binary manner - Practice is This Way or it is nothing at all. You have a preconceived notion of how your practice must be, and so that sets you up for cycle of discouragement when you inevitably start missing it, that ends in you abandoning practice.

What does Buddhism say about preconceptions and attachment to them? You might want to take up a practice of understanding all the ways in which your conception of practice is unproductive, use this as a lens through which to examine yourself and understand the errors in your thought.

But all that is still going to be on an abstract level.

Have you ever put aside the formalities and structures and just concentrated on saying the daimoku constantly (vocally, or as appropriate, silently in your mind)? Let yourself become absorbed in the experience of doing that for a day, a few days, a few weeks, a few months. See what that does for you.

[rory]

Set a timer twice a day. Most of us have this problem and the only answer is discipline. Get a kitchen timer, set it, and then do gongyo.And don't move until it is finished!
I don't care how you feel, if there is a supermoon outside, or 'you really don't need it today.' Believe me; you need it, I need it, every normal Nichiren practitioner needs to do daily practice, whether you like it or not.
gassho
Rory

[Ryaner]

It doesn't have to be all or nothing either. Just do the LS recitations morning and night, and 5 minutes of daimoku morning and night if you're REALLY REALLY REALLY having one of those I can't stand doing this days... even a tiny bit is better than nothing.

Sometimes I'm downright resentful about doing it... I know that's when I really, really, really NEED to do it.

[markatex]

I keep meanng to come back to this thread. When I started it, I was in one of my "chanting every day" periods, and now I'm not.

I'm admittedly very undisciplined, and being told to just grit my teeth and do something is not very helpful, but I appreciate the sentiment. I find the advice to just not worry about it similarly unhelpful.

Have you ever put aside the formalities and structures and just concentrated on saying the daimoku constantly (vocally, or as appropriate, silently in your mind)? Let yourself become absorbed in the experience of doing that for a day, a few days, a few weeks, a few months. See what that does for you.

My sensei suggested something along those lines, and I sort of balked at the advice, which probably says a lot about how stubborn I can be. I've never really deeply considered this problem, and I suspect it goes a lot deeper than just being undisciplined.

[Myoho-Nameless]

My two cents on the subject based on my experience of the same issue is that it helps to spice up the relationship by doing something different. Recite different parts of the Sutra, more, less, or skip sutra recitation entirely. Change the language, recite in english, or some other language you can recite the sutra in. Switch between nam and namu, say it in chinese, sanskrit, wonder if anyone can put the daimoku in pali for us? I used to know the korean, nichiren shu of Korea says it in whatever system they have in korea to pronounce chinese letters I think. I have heard chinese recitations of "namo miaofa lienhua ching" (or however I should spell it). change the pace of recitation, or the order you do your practice in. different prayer format, by now I have my own one.

Skip the gohonzon, go outside and chant on a walk. Don't time yourself on a mobile, instead use the beads as they were used in ages past. I now have a more Himalayan style set of beads, and they are way less stiff than the juzu I was using before so the beads go through my fingers better, I like to go around at least twice because that roughly takes me 5 minutes which, unless I just don't have the time, is my self imposed minimum.

Study makes me more interested as well. When other things are using most of my intellectual energies the practice can become less interesting.

[rory]

markatex:My sensei suggested something along those lines, and I sort of balked at the advice, which probably says a lot about how stubborn I can be. I've never really deeply considered this problem, and I suspect it goes a lot deeper than just being undisciplined.

Essentially it's your ego, you are stubborn, don't want to take the advice of your sensei (which sounds sensible) or examine this issue deeply.

Practicing consistantly makes lots of stuff come up and then we have to face it and deal with it. So it's way easier to avoid.

You obviously know very well what is going on; no one can do the work for you, that's the great point of our practice.

gassho
Rory

[Queequeg]

Hey Mark,

I suggested examining your preconceptions about practice itself... let me expand on that.

Practice is not a quid pro quo exchange - ie. you say the daimoku and .75 units of good karma are accumulated in your karma bank to be used on your next night out with the boys, or alternatively, saved up to be cashed in on some spiritual insights. Its also not all or nothing, in the sense that if you don't hit 1000 repetitions of the Daimoku in a sitting, it doesn't qualify.

Rather, consistency in practice is about habituating yourself to Buddhahood. Each repetition reinforces your devotional disposition (Namu) to the Sublime Dharma of the Lotus Blossom Teaching (Myohorengekyo). What you are aiming to do is to make this disposition adamantine, unbreakable, unshakeable, complete, and perfect, until in the place of practice, the goal is achieved - Full Blown Awakening in the Super-Knowledge of the True Aspect of Phenomena (jisso). The only way to achieve awakening is to always orient to it and strive toward it. As such, consistency is the key. Mt. Denali won't be summited by climbers who are not committed with single minded devotion.

When your consistency is broken, your disposition wanders and becomes subject to the vagaries of the currents coursing in samsara. You might successfully ply the currents of samsara for a time, but the odds are completely stacked against you and its just a matter of time before a wave of such magnitude overcomes you and tosses you about. Everything you build up is dissipated and lost. This is not the case if you are holding fast to the Daimoku. No matter how the waves toss you, by holding fast to the Daimoku you will never get lost. In Buddhist terms, you will always be in the presence of the Buddha.

Once established, you don't lose your connection to the Buddha, the daimoku has been tied around your neck since the remote past (kuon). But like the drunk man, you don't realize that the precious wish granting jewel has always been in your possession, and so you wander and get lost in samsara, sometimes prospering, sometimes suffering. The wish granting jewel is effective only when you treasure it and safeguard it with your life.

In the end, though, reconceptualizing is itself worthless.

There is no way around it: just do it.™

[Rita_Repulsa]

Allow me to insert more air (in-spiration!) into the insoles of this thread :

phpBB [video]

[RengeReciter]

This has always been a big problem for me and I wonder if anyone else can relate. I often go for weeks or even months without doing any sort of formal practice at all. I tend to think that if I'm not going to commit to a perfect 30-minute long service twice a day, then I might as well not bother.

I'm also the kind of person who won't do "a little tidying up" if I can't do a full-scale deep cleaning of my house. It just feels like a waste of time. So it's certainly a personality flaw that isn't relegated to Buddhist practice.

I know that the merit of chanting the daimoku even once in your whole life with a distracted mind is incalculable, but I guess it's not something I can wrap my head around. I do this same dance year after year after year. I'll make a commitment to daily practice, and it will be fine for a couple of weeks or so, but then I'll miss a morning or an evening and then all motivation is gone, for weeks or even months. Then it starts all over again.

I note the same inclination toward perfectionism in you that I've noticed in myself. If I can't perform gongyo (with a minimum of about 30 minutes of daimoku) to the precise standard that I've set for myself, then I will forgo the entire practice itself. If I know that I've awoken too late to do a full morning gongyo for example, I skip it. I then end up skipping evening gongyo as well because I always resolve to "start fresh" the following day. Worse, if I know I have to make adjustments to my gongyo (say, shortening some of the silent prayers in the interest of time) I will also stray away from practice as a whole with the same weak intention that I'll do better next time. The consequence of this attitude is that, like you, I end up not practicing far more frequently than I practice.

A secondary tendency I've noticed is that as my daimoku and gongyo decrease so too does my interest in other practices increase. I have a fascination with Tibetan Buddhism. If I am not consistently honoring the Lotus Sutra, then almost inevitably I find myself beginning to flirt with the practices of the figures in TB that I find interesting (Medicine Buddha mantra, Green Tara mantra, etc.).

I don't have much to offer you in the way of solutions. In fact, I think the advice to further discipline oneself is probably the best and most applicable. Just letting you know you aren't alone!

[illarraza]

This has always been a big problem for me and I wonder if anyone else can relate. I often go for weeks or even months without doing any sort of formal practice at all. I tend to think that if I'm not going to commit to a perfect 30-minute long service twice a day, then I might as well not bother.

I'm also the kind of person who won't do "a little tidying up" if I can't do a full-scale deep cleaning of my house. It just feels like a waste of time. So it's certainly a personality flaw that isn't relegated to Buddhist practice.

I know that the merit of chanting the daimoku even once in your whole life with a distracted mind is incalculable, but I guess it's not something I can wrap my head around. I do this same dance year after year after year. I'll make a commitment to daily practice, and it will be fine for a couple of weeks or so, but then I'll miss a morning or an evening and then all motivation is gone, for weeks or even months. Then it starts all over again.

Hi Markatex. The practice is, above all, a practice of faith, not so much merely the mechanical chanting of Gongyo or even of Daiamoku. As Nichiren wrote in one of his earlier writings,

''Whether you chant the Buddha’s name, recite the sutra, or merely offer flowers and incense, all your virtuous acts will implant benefits and roots of goodness in your life. With this conviction you should strive in faith. The Vimalakīrti Sutra states that, when one seeks the Buddhas’ emancipation in the minds of ordinary beings, one finds that ordinary beings are the entities of enlightenment, and that the sufferings of birth and death are nirvana. It also states that, if the minds of living beings are impure, their land is also impure, but if their minds are pure, so is their land. There are not two lands, pure or impure in themselves. The difference lies solely in the good or evil of our minds.

It is the same with a Buddha and an ordinary being. When deluded, one is called an ordinary being, but when enlightened, one is called a Buddha. This is similar to a tarnished mirror that will shine like a jewel when polished. A mind now clouded by the illusions of the innate darkness of life is like a tarnished mirror, but when polished, it is sure to become like a clear mirror, reflecting the essential nature of phenomena and the true aspect of reality. Arouse deep faith, and diligently polish your mirror day and night. How should you polish it? Only by chanting Namu-myoho-renge-kyo.

What then does myō signify? It is simply the mysterious nature of our life from moment to moment, which the mind cannot comprehend or words express. When we look into our own mind at any moment, we perceive neither color nor form to verify that it exists. Yet we still cannot say it does not exist, for many differing thoughts continually occur. The mind cannot be considered either to exist or not to exist. Life is indeed an elusive reality that transcends both the words and concepts of existence and nonexistence. It is neither existence nor nonexistence, yet exhibits the qualities of both. It is the mystic entity of the Middle Way that is the ultimate reality. Myō is the name given to the mystic nature of life, and hō, to its manifestations. Renge, which means lotus flower, is used to symbolize the wonder of this Law. If we understand that our life at this moment is myō, then we will also understand that our life at other moments is the Mystic Law. This realization is the mystic kyō, or sutra. The Lotus Sutra is the king of sutras, the direct path to enlightenment, for it explains that the entity of our life, which manifests either good or evil at each moment, is in fact the entity of the Mystic Law.

If you chant Myoho-renge-kyo with deep faith in this principle, you are certain to attain Buddhahood in this lifetime. That is why the sutra states, “After I have passed into extinction, [one] should accept and uphold this sutra. Such a person assuredly and without doubt will attain the Buddha way.” Never doubt in the slightest.

Respectfully.
Maintain your faith and attain Buddhahood in this lifetime. Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, Namu-myoho-renge-kyo.

The Lotus Sutra Chapter 17 teaches,

If someone seeking the buddha wisdom
for a period of eight hundred thousand million
nayutas of kalpas
should practice the five paramitas,
during all those kalpas
distributing alms to the buddhas
p.279and to the cause-awakened ones and disciples
and the multitude of bodhisattvas,
rare delicacies of food and drink,
fine garments and articles of bedding,
or building religious retreats of sandalwood
adorned with gardens and groves;
if he should distribute alms
of many varieties, all refined and wonderful,
and do this for the entire number of kalpas
to express his devotion to the buddha way;
and if moreover he should keep the precepts,
in purity and without omission or outflow,
seeking the unsurpassed way,
praised by the buddhas;
and if he should practice forbearance,
remaining in a posture of submission and gentleness,
even when various evils are visited on him,
not allowing his mind to be roused or swayed;
when others, convinced they have gained the Law,
harbor thoughts of overbearing arrogance
and he is treated with contempt and vexed by them,
if he can still endure it with patience;
and if he is diligent and assiduous,
ever firm in intent and thought,
for immeasurable millions of kalpas
single-minded, never lax or neglectful,
for countless kalpas
dwelling in a deserted and quiet place;
and if he practices sitting and walking exercises,
banishing drowsiness, constantly regulating his mind,
and as a result of such actions
is able to produce states of meditation,
for eighty million ten thousand kalpas
remaining calm, his mind never deranged;
and if he holds to the blessing of this single-mindedness
and with it seeks the unsurpassed way,
p.280saying, “I will gain comprehensive wisdom
and exhaust all the states of meditation!”
If this person for a hundred, a thousand,
ten thousand, a million kalpas
should carry out these meritorious practices
as I have described above,
still those good men and women
who hear me describe my life span
and believe it for even a moment
win blessings that surpass those of such a person.
If a person is completely free
of all doubt and regret,
if in the depths of his mind he believes for one instant,
his blessings will be such as this.
These bodhisattvas
who have practiced the way for immeasurable kalpas
when they hear me describe my life span
are able to believe and accept what I say.
These people will
gratefully accept this sutra, saying,
“Our wish is that in future ages
we may use our long lives to save living beings.
Just as today the world-honored one,
king of the Shakyas,
roars like a lion in the place of enlightenment,
preaching the Law without fear,
so may we too in ages to come,
honored and revered by all,
when we sit in the place of enlightenment
describe our life spans in the same manner.”
If there are those profound in mind,
pure, honest, and upright,
who, hearing much, can retain it all,
who follow principle in understanding the Buddha’s words,
then people such as this
will have no doubts.

Nichiren also teaches,

"First of all, when it comes to the Lotus Sutra, you should understand that, whether one recites all eight volumes, or only one volume, one chapter, one verse, one phrase, or simply the daimoku, or title, the blessings are the same. It is like the water of the great ocean, a single drop of which contains water from all the countless streams and rivers, or like the wish-granting jewel, which, though only a single jewel, can shower all kinds of treasures upon the wisher. And the same is true of a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, or a million such drops of water or such jewels. A single character of the Lotus Sutra is like such a drop of water or such a jewel, and the hundred million characters are like a hundred million such drops or jewels."

and

"As for the Lotus Sutra, one may recite the entire sutra of twenty-eight chapters in eight volumes every day; or one may recite only one volume, or one chapter, or one verse, or one phrase, or one word; or one may simply chant the daimoku, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, only once a day, or chant it only once in the course of a lifetime; or hear someone else chant it only once in a lifetime and rejoice in the hearing, or rejoice in hearing the voice of someone else rejoice in the hearing, and so on in this manner to the fiftieth hearer. And if one were to be at the end, even if one’s faith were weak and one’s sense of rejoicing diluted like the frailty of a child of two or three, or the inability of a cow or horse to distinguish before from after, the blessings one would gain would be a hundred, thousand, ten thousand, million times greater than those gained by persons of keen faculties and superior wisdom who study other sutras, persons such as Shāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, Manjushrī, and Maitreya, who had committed to memory the entire texts of the various sutras."

I have been chanting off and mostly on since 1976. I have chanted a million Daimoku in two months [three hours a day] once, in three months [two hours a day] twice and in six months [one hour a day] four or five times. I also chanted seven hours a day for seven days and for five days. I have chanted several ten to twelve hour days. I have also gone six years straight without chanting [2001-2007] and two years straight without chanting [1987 -1989] but I always enshrined and protected the Gohonzon. Since 2008 I have not chanted for four or five days. Still, throughout, I never doubted the Lotus Sutra save for a passing thought. Nichiren has stated that he chanted one hundred and fifty thousand daimoku in one sitting [75 hours] in memorial for a deceased disciple and then he also proclaimed at one point that he was practicing the Lotus sutra 24/7...

"During the course of countless kalpas, while transmigrating through the six paths and the four forms of birth, I may at times have risen in revolt, committed theft, or broken into others’ homes at night and, on account of these offenses, been convicted by the ruler and condemned to exile or death. This time, however, it is because I am so firmly resolved to propagate the Lotus Sutra that people with evil karma have brought false charges against me; hence my exile. Surely this will work in my favor in future lifetimes. In this latter age, there cannot be anyone else who upholds the Lotus Sutra twenty-four hours of the day and night without making a deliberate effort to do so."

I have had periods in the last seven years where though I only chanted the Daimoku for fifteen minutes a day, I too was practicing the Lotus Sutra nearly twenty four hours a day [as Nichiren proclaimed for his beloved disciple Shijo Kingo], "If you continue living as you are now, there can be no doubt that you will be practicing the Lotus Sutra twenty-four hours a day. Regard your service to your lord as the practice of the Lotus Sutra. This is what is meant by 'No worldly affairs of life or work are ever contrary to the true reality.' I hope you will deeply consider the meaning of this passage."

Don't be too hard on yourself or too soft is my parting advice too you.

[illarraza]

This has always been a big problem for me and I wonder if anyone else can relate. I often go for weeks or even months without doing any sort of formal practice at all. I tend to think that if I'm not going to commit to a perfect 30-minute long service twice a day, then I might as well not bother.

I'm also the kind of person who won't do "a little tidying up" if I can't do a full-scale deep cleaning of my house. It just feels like a waste of time. So it's certainly a personality flaw that isn't relegated to Buddhist practice.

I know that the merit of chanting the daimoku even once in your whole life with a distracted mind is incalculable, but I guess it's not something I can wrap my head around. I do this same dance year after year after year. I'll make a commitment to daily practice, and it will be fine for a couple of weeks or so, but then I'll miss a morning or an evening and then all motivation is gone, for weeks or even months. Then it starts all over again.

Hi Markatex. The practice is, above all, a practice of faith, not so much merely the mechanical chanting of Gongyo or even of Daiamoku. As Nichiren wrote in one of his earlier writings,

''Whether you chant the Buddha’s name, recite the sutra, or merely offer flowers and incense, all your virtuous acts will implant benefits and roots of goodness in your life. With this conviction you should strive in faith. The Vimalakīrti Sutra states that, when one seeks the Buddhas’ emancipation in the minds of ordinary beings, one finds that ordinary beings are the entities of enlightenment, and that the sufferings of birth and death are nirvana. It also states that, if the minds of living beings are impure, their land is also impure, but if their minds are pure, so is their land. There are not two lands, pure or impure in themselves. The difference lies solely in the good or evil of our minds.

It is the same with a Buddha and an ordinary being. When deluded, one is called an ordinary being, but when enlightened, one is called a Buddha. This is similar to a tarnished mirror that will shine like a jewel when polished. A mind now clouded by the illusions of the innate darkness of life is like a tarnished mirror, but when polished, it is sure to become like a clear mirror, reflecting the essential nature of phenomena and the true aspect of reality. Arouse deep faith, and diligently polish your mirror day and night. How should you polish it? Only by chanting Namu-myoho-renge-kyo.

What then does myō signify? It is simply the mysterious nature of our life from moment to moment, which the mind cannot comprehend or words express. When we look into our own mind at any moment, we perceive neither color nor form to verify that it exists. Yet we still cannot say it does not exist, for many differing thoughts continually occur. The mind cannot be considered either to exist or not to exist. Life is indeed an elusive reality that transcends both the words and concepts of existence and nonexistence. It is neither existence nor nonexistence, yet exhibits the qualities of both. It is the mystic entity of the Middle Way that is the ultimate reality. Myō is the name given to the mystic nature of life, and hō, to its manifestations. Renge, which means lotus flower, is used to symbolize the wonder of this Law. If we understand that our life at this moment is myō, then we will also understand that our life at other moments is the Mystic Law. This realization is the mystic kyō, or sutra. The Lotus Sutra is the king of sutras, the direct path to enlightenment, for it explains that the entity of our life, which manifests either good or evil at each moment, is in fact the entity of the Mystic Law.

If you chant Myoho-renge-kyo with deep faith in this principle, you are certain to attain Buddhahood in this lifetime. That is why the sutra states, “After I have passed into extinction, [one] should accept and uphold this sutra. Such a person assuredly and without doubt will attain the Buddha way.” Never doubt in the slightest.

Respectfully.
Maintain your faith and attain Buddhahood in this lifetime. Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, Namu-myoho-renge-kyo.

The Lotus Sutra Chapter 17 teaches,

If someone seeking the buddha wisdom
for a period of eight hundred thousand million
nayutas of kalpas
should practice the five paramitas,
during all those kalpas
distributing alms to the buddhas
p.279and to the cause-awakened ones and disciples
and the multitude of bodhisattvas,
rare delicacies of food and drink,
fine garments and articles of bedding,
or building religious retreats of sandalwood
adorned with gardens and groves;
if he should distribute alms
of many varieties, all refined and wonderful,
and do this for the entire number of kalpas
to express his devotion to the buddha way;
and if moreover he should keep the precepts,
in purity and without omission or outflow,
seeking the unsurpassed way,
praised by the buddhas;
and if he should practice forbearance,
remaining in a posture of submission and gentleness,
even when various evils are visited on him,
not allowing his mind to be roused or swayed;
when others, convinced they have gained the Law,
harbor thoughts of overbearing arrogance
and he is treated with contempt and vexed by them,
if he can still endure it with patience;
and if he is diligent and assiduous,
ever firm in intent and thought,
for immeasurable millions of kalpas
single-minded, never lax or neglectful,
for countless kalpas
dwelling in a deserted and quiet place;
and if he practices sitting and walking exercises,
banishing drowsiness, constantly regulating his mind,
and as a result of such actions
is able to produce states of meditation,
for eighty million ten thousand kalpas
remaining calm, his mind never deranged;
and if he holds to the blessing of this single-mindedness
and with it seeks the unsurpassed way,
p.280saying, “I will gain comprehensive wisdom
and exhaust all the states of meditation!”
If this person for a hundred, a thousand,
ten thousand, a million kalpas
should carry out these meritorious practices
as I have described above,
still those good men and women
who hear me describe my life span
and believe it for even a moment
win blessings that surpass those of such a person.
If a person is completely free
of all doubt and regret,
if in the depths of his mind he believes for one instant,
his blessings will be such as this.
These bodhisattvas
who have practiced the way for immeasurable kalpas
when they hear me describe my life span
are able to believe and accept what I say.
These people will
gratefully accept this sutra, saying,
“Our wish is that in future ages
we may use our long lives to save living beings.
Just as today the world-honored one,
king of the Shakyas,
roars like a lion in the place of enlightenment,
preaching the Law without fear,
so may we too in ages to come,
honored and revered by all,
when we sit in the place of enlightenment
describe our life spans in the same manner.”
If there are those profound in mind,
pure, honest, and upright,
who, hearing much, can retain it all,
who follow principle in understanding the Buddha’s words,
then people such as this
will have no doubts.

Nichiren also teaches,

"First of all, when it comes to the Lotus Sutra, you should understand that, whether one recites all eight volumes, or only one volume, one chapter, one verse, one phrase, or simply the daimoku, or title, the blessings are the same. It is like the water of the great ocean, a single drop of which contains water from all the countless streams and rivers, or like the wish-granting jewel, which, though only a single jewel, can shower all kinds of treasures upon the wisher. And the same is true of a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, or a million such drops of water or such jewels. A single character of the Lotus Sutra is like such a drop of water or such a jewel, and the hundred million characters are like a hundred million such drops or jewels."

and

"As for the Lotus Sutra, one may recite the entire sutra of twenty-eight chapters in eight volumes every day; or one may recite only one volume, or one chapter, or one verse, or one phrase, or one word; or one may simply chant the daimoku, Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, only once a day, or chant it only once in the course of a lifetime; or hear someone else chant it only once in a lifetime and rejoice in the hearing, or rejoice in hearing the voice of someone else rejoice in the hearing, and so on in this manner to the fiftieth hearer. And if one were to be at the end, even if one’s faith were weak and one’s sense of rejoicing diluted like the frailty of a child of two or three, or the inability of a cow or horse to distinguish before from after, the blessings one would gain would be a hundred, thousand, ten thousand, million times greater than those gained by persons of keen faculties and superior wisdom who study other sutras, persons such as Shāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, Manjushrī, and Maitreya, who had committed to memory the entire texts of the various sutras."

I have been chanting off and mostly on since 1976. I have chanted a million Daimoku in two months [three hours a day] once, in three months [two hours a day] twice and in six months [one hour a day] four or five times. I also chanted seven hours a day for seven days and for five days. I have chanted several ten to twelve hour days. I have also gone six years straight without chanting [2001-2007] and two years straight without chanting [1987 -1989] but I always enshrined and protected the Gohonzon. Since 2008 I have not chanted for four or five days. Still, throughout, I never doubted the Lotus Sutra save for a passing thought. Nichiren has stated that he chanted one hundred and fifty thousand daimoku in one sitting [75 hours] in memorial for a deceased disciple and then he also proclaimed at one point that he was practicing the Lotus sutra 24/7...

"During the course of countless kalpas, while transmigrating through the six paths and the four forms of birth, I may at times have risen in revolt, committed theft, or broken into others’ homes at night and, on account of these offenses, been convicted by the ruler and condemned to exile or death. This time, however, it is because I am so firmly resolved to propagate the Lotus Sutra that people with evil karma have brought false charges against me; hence my exile. Surely this will work in my favor in future lifetimes. In this latter age, there cannot be anyone else who upholds the Lotus Sutra twenty-four hours of the day and night without making a deliberate effort to do so."

I have had periods in the last seven years where though I only chanted the Daimoku for fifteen minutes a day, I too was practicing the Lotus Sutra nearly twenty four hours a day [as Nichiren proclaimed for his beloved disciple Shijo Kingo], "If you continue living as you are now, there can be no doubt that you will be practicing the Lotus Sutra twenty-four hours a day. Regard your service to your lord as the practice of the Lotus Sutra. This is what is meant by 'No worldly affairs of life or work are ever contrary to the true reality.' I hope you will deeply consider the meaning of this passage."

Don't be too hard on yourself nor too soft is my parting advice too you.

[dharmagoat]

Forget about discipline... unless that approach works for you.

How do you feel when you haven't practiced for a while? I don't mean "what do you think about it?", I mean "how does it feel?". If it feels bad, then there is your motivation. Practice because you dislike not practicing. Focus on that and forget about what you "should" be doing. The worst thing we can do is torment ourselves with notions of "should" and "should not" when it comes to something as personal and idiosyncratic as our own practice. Practice from the heart, not the head... or not at all.

[dharmagoat]

Here is another angle:

This present moment is all that is real, it is all that we have. Are we truly experiencing it? Or does it slip away unnoticed?