Happy New Year! In this new year of 2008, I would like to keep sharing the Buddha Dharma to make our lives better together with you.

In this issue, I would like to share with you one of the bodhisattva's six Buddhist practices. We have learned so far the practice of charity, practice of precepts and practice of endurance.

The Buddhist way to practicing charity is not "give and take" but "give and give". If you keep giving away, naturally you will be able to acquire something much greater than what you have given even though you do not expect anything back.

The Nichiren Buddhist way to practice of precepts is to chant Namu-myo-ho-ren-ge-kyo. Then, you will naturally know what is right and what is wrong.

The practice of endurance is to change yourself rather than trying to change others. Your real enemy is inside of you, not anywhere else.

These are what we have learned so far.

This time's practice is "endeavor". In other word, "try". The opposite word is "lazy". You may think that, because the Buddha says to you to try hard, you must try harder, harder and harder. But, don't try too hard. Hang Loose, like we say in Hawaii. Trying too hard is one of two extremes with being lazy.

There was a scholar who studied insects. When he was observing the ants' nest, he found an amazing fact. At a glance, all ants look as if they are hard workers. However, in fact, approximately 80 % of ants are hard workers and the other 20% are lazy. The patient scholar picked the 20 % lazy ants so that only the 80 % diligent ants were left in the nest. Then, everyone thought the nest would be filled with hard workers. But, 20 % of ants out of the 80 % became lazy. On the other hand, when he gathered the 20 % of lazy ants from some of these nests and put these "lazy" ants together into a single nest, surprisingly, the result was that 80 % of these lazy ants became diligent hard workers. Our world needs both types of beings. Therefore, don't try too hard. But, you should make reasonable small steps to try constantly rather than trying hard all at once.

Your faith in the Buddha should be like this, too. If you try hard to have a faith like a flaming fire, it's good, but the fire doesn't last long. Our Founder Nichiren Shonin says that, "rather than having faith like fire, you should have faith like water which flows constantly although water is not conspicuous like fire".

It is hard trying to keep practicing the Buddha Dharma.

It is hard trying to keep acting according to the Buddha Dharma in your daily life.

It is hard trying to keep from getting angry. It is hard trying to keep from being greedy.

It is hard trying to keep from being ignorant.

It is hard trying to be consistently compassionate.

It is hard trying to keep being respectful.

It is hard trying to keep coming to the church every Sunday.

It is hard trying to keep chanting Namu-myo-ho-ren-ge-kyo everyday.

However, if you try to do a little bit a day and keep doing this, you will surely be able to pile up your merits little by little. Don't try too hard. Let it keep flowing like water. Then, you will be closer to the Buddha's enlightenment gradually.