{"id":938,"date":"2016-09-10T10:24:44","date_gmt":"2016-09-10T10:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olioweb.me.uk\/wordpress_marcus\/?p=938"},"modified":"2024-08-19T15:58:32","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T15:58:32","slug":"poem-of-the-month-september-2016-nembutsu-affirmations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/?p=938","title":{"rendered":"Poem of the Month, September 2016: Nembutsu Affirmations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>NEMBUTSU AFFIRMATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Namo Amida Butsu, I am up and happy to be alive.<\/p>\n<p>Namo Amida Butsu, this day has wondrous things in store for me.<\/p>\n<p>Of one thing I am certain &#8211; the Buddha lives in me and I&#8217;m His man.<\/p>\n<p>Morning depression &#8211; it lasts for an hour or two and then it is gone.<\/p>\n<p>In a matter of moments my concept of reality improves.<\/p>\n<p>I listen to a pessimistic friend and take him with a pinch of salt.<\/p>\n<p>Namo Amida Butsu -a girl on a bicycle waves to me.<\/p>\n<p>Home again, I am at the table, happily saying nembutsu.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve ever seen so many good-looking figs on our tree.<\/p>\n<p>Namo Amida Butsu, I am grateful for the great day ahead.<\/p>\n<p>Gratitude is a state of mind that puts everything in a better light.<\/p>\n<p>Namo Amida Butsu &#8211; my challenge for today is to feel good.<\/p>\n<p>This can only be done by pressing the positive button inside.<\/p>\n<p>Namo Amida Butsu, I&#8217;m pleased with these morning exercises.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing will go wrong today. Everything will go according to plan &#8211;<br \/>\nAmida&#8217;s plan, I hasten to add: the less plans I make the better.<\/p>\n<p>Namo Amida Butsu. Enjoy the blessing of pure existence.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing bothers me, nothing worries me, nothing upsets me. Nothing<br \/>\ndisturbs my freedom or gets in the way of my nembutsu practice.<\/p>\n<p>Now is OK. It&#8217;s the only moment that matters. Yesterday&#8217;s gone.<\/p>\n<p>What have I got to complain about today, when I reflect upon<br \/>\nAmida&#8217;s innumerable lives of self-sacrifice for us all?<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s great to feel unexpected joy blossoming in the tortured heart.<\/p>\n<p>The fact is that we have all been saved by the inconceivable Vow.<\/p>\n<p>I look with love and wonder into the faces of my fellow-men.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEMBUTSU AFFIRMATIONS Namo Amida Butsu, I am up and happy to be alive. Namo Amida Butsu, this day has wondrous [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}