Life with My Mentor, A Life Undefeated

By Lisa Kirk
January 1, 2008 World Tribute

Cancer. That's what the doctors told Rick Richards in August 2006 - non-Hodgkins lymphoma. All right, he thought, here's my obstacle, and I have to overcome it.

"It wasn't the worst thing I could imagine," he says. "The worst thing would have been if I were prevented from carrying out my pledge to wholeheartedly practice Nichiren Buddhism."

Rick received the Gohonzon in 1968. "After I started chanting," Rick says, "my life gradually changed from very, very angry to very very hopeful - to someone who cared about other people."

For the first four years, Rick thought, "I liked what SGI President Ikeda had to say, but I was leery of choosing him as a mentor - I didn't want anyone telling me what to do." After studying Buddhism and then meeting President Ikeda in 1972, however, he says, "I knew that I wanted this man as my teacher."

As a result, he says, "I learned early that I had the potential to overcome any problem." Rick built a successful and happy life, raising two children and developing his career as an actor. In 1990, he married Eva.

Then, in Januray 2006, he noticed a growing tiredness. "I thought it was nothing," he says, but it didn't go away.

Two small strokes led to surgery in May, when doctors also took tissue samples of some suspicious areas, but found no additional problem.

"We all thought that surgery would rejuvenate me, but it didn't," he says. Instead, "I went downhill from there."

By July, Rick could barely walk half a block. His doctor continued to do more tests.

"I could see, every day, that Rick was losing a little more energy," says Eva. Finally, early on July 26, 2006, Rick's body seemed to be completely giving out, and Eva and his children rushed him to the hospital. This time, doctors found a rare and deadly blood infection, listeriosis. In the next few days, Rick nearly died three times.

This time, tests also revealed the cancer that previous tests had missed. Eva explains, however, "We felt so much appreciation, because if doctors had discovered the cancer earlier, they would not have kept looking for an explanation for his exhaustion," and the blood infection would have gone undiscovered. "He would have died from the listeriosis."

They immediately started chanting at every spare moment. With Rick in the hospital, Eva invited members to their home to chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo every evening. During this time, she says "I learned to trust the power of the Mystic Law."

Even as Rick and Eva were reeling from the news of the diagnosis, they felt deep appreciation for their Buddhist practice and for the SGI-USA members who supported them with their prayers.

Within two days of the diagnosis, the September-October 2006 issue of Living Buddhism  arrived, carrying President Ikeda's lecture on Nichiren Daishonin's writing "On Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime."

"I was so excited to read it," Rick says. "It's as though it was written just for me. It gave me everything I needed. I realized I could not die - that would discourage the members."

In the article, SGI President Ikeda writes: "Buddhism is a teaching of unparalleled humanism that stresses the boundless potential within human beings. That's why it is called the 'internal way.'. To 'perceive the mystic truth that is originally inherent in all living beings' is to 'attain unsurpassed enlightenment'; it is the sole means for freeing oneself from 'the suffering of birth and death endured since time without beginning.' This is Shakyamuni's starting point and the entirety of Buddhist thought. The scripture that proclaims this philosophy of the 'internal way' is the Lotus Sutra, which teaches that all people can attain enlightenment. The Lotus Sutra could be said to embody the ultimate principle o respect for human dignity"

Rick's kidneys began to shut down, and his weight skyrockted from 168 to 199 pounds in 8 days. From August to November, he couldn't even sit up or walk because of bedsores that turned into ulcers. Doctors were not hopeful and many barely bothered to talk with him. Rick told one doctor, "Don't come back unless you're ready to listen to me."

"He came back the next day and apologized, and we became good friends," Rick says. One nurse, inspired by Rick's spirit, later received the Gohonzon.

"I saw, again and again, how important our SGI-USA publications are," he says. By the time Rick was discharged in late August, his heart was pumping at only 20 percent of its normal rate, and he had difficulty breathing. "The doctors told me I could die any time," Rick says, "But I didn't buy into that. President Ikeda, in my mind, was my doctor, my inspiration. Over the next few months, the poison in my body motivated me to chant even harder and this became the medicine I needed to overcome the cancer. President Ikeda's lecture taught me how to focus my prayer. Every Nam Myoho Renge Kyo I chanted was directed to manifesting my Buddha nature.

Rick went through two sesssions of chemotherapy and soon transferred to another hospital. Eventually, his chemotherapy sessions numbered 21, he says. "I always felt as though President Ikeda were right there with me every day. He never left my side." This fueled his motivation to prove the power of his Buddhist practice.

Rick lists three cornerstones of his practice that gave him hope when the doctors had little. One is the phrase, "Single-mindedly desiring to see the Buddha,/not hesitating even if it costs them their lives" (The Lotus Sutra, p 230)

The second: "At all times I think to myself: /How can I cause living beings/to gain entry into the unsurpassed way/and quickly acquire the body of a Buddha?" (The Lotus Sutra, p 232).

"I wanted to be that person - that disciple - who could do these things, " Rick says. "I want to help other to feel joy in their practice, to feel the power of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo."

The third is his pledge "To never ever be swayed from the mentor-disciple relationship," the essence, he says, of Buddhism. "The Law of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo has existed eternally, but it was a human being who revealed it and put it into practice."

At one point, when it seemed there was no further treatment available to him. Rick was accepted into an experimental program that involved harvesting his own stem cells.

He was in the hospital the entire month of July "and I felt flatter than a pancake" he says. Eva came everyday and together they chanted Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. "It was as if the sunshine walked into my room every time she arrived," Rick says.

The experimental program was the medical turning point. From then on, Rick grew stronger everyday. On Nov 1 2007, a screening found no trace of cancer.

"All of this has been an absolute benefit. There's not one aspect that I would consider to be a waste of time or energy," Rick says. "It all led both of us, Eva and me, eternally closer to the Gohonzon and President Ikeda.

Overcoming Multiple Health Problems

by Mr Quek HH
Source: Breakthroughs - A Compilation of SSA Men Division Experiences

"No matter what happens in the course of our lives, we can be certain of ultimate victory because of the wondrous power of the Mystic Law to "change poison into medicine." Therefore, no matter how painful your situation might be right now, or how sick you might be, or how others might be bullying or tormenting you, you can win in the end. You can be a victor without fail. This is the heart of the Daishonin's Buddhism. It is the purpose of our Buddhist practice." - SGI President Ikeda 

Embracing a religion was never important to me in my adolescent years. As I could not relate to any form of religious practice, chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo was not the most natural thing for me to do. Even in bad times when ill health seemed to dominate my life, it had never occurred to me that chanting could help me in any way. I had supposed that medical treatment alone could put me on the road to recovery, but I was wrong. Fortunately, my wife later convinced me that Nichiren Buddhism could release me from the  shackles of poor health.

The history of my heart ailment went as far back as 1972 when I first enlisted for National Service. I constantly suffered severe chest pains, symptoms similar to that of a heart attack. Eventually, doctors diagnosed me with Congenital Bicuspid Aortic Valve, a congenital heart defect. While a normal person has three leaflets or cusps in the aortic valve, mine has only two. This led to another complication: enlargement of the artery (blood vessel) from the heart (aneurysmal dilation of aortic root). The normal size of this blood vessel is between 1.4mm and 1.8mm. Mine was 6.2mm and I had lived with this condition for more than 18 years. The aorta is the largest artery that carries blood from the heart to other parts of the body. I was told that very little could be done to improve this situation.

"Nam Myoho Renge Kyo is like the roar of a lion. What sickness can therefore be an obstacle?" - Reply to Kyo'o. Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p 412. Gosho

Some time later, the same symptoms reappeared and I had to be hospitalized again. Through the years, I had been warded so many times it came to a point where the hospital was like a second home. By the time I got married in 1979, I had almost forgotten what it was like to be in good health.

I had often thought that obstacles were life's unusual ways of testing our strengths. But when a person is forced to contend with an endless stream of difficulties, life does not seem so benevolent to him anymore.

Three years later, in 1981, my life was dealt another blow when my kidneys began to malfunction. My urine was first stained with blood before finally turning black. This disorder kept me in hospital for several months. Even after my condition had stabilized somewhat, I had to watch what I ate and drank, as my urine would become heavily stained after a "wrong" meal.

In 1985, my wife first chanted "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo" on the advice of a colleague. Facing east, she would kneel down and chant for my good health everyday. I understood her good intentions and decided to keep mum about my skepticism in the practice. When my condition deteriorated, the senior cardiologist recommended open-heart surgery. By then, I was so tired of going in and out of the hospital that I actually welcomed the idea. In fact, I wanted desperately to get well and live like a normal person again. But knowing my wife had persisted in her chanting made me wonder if her chanting had worsened my condition. Venting my bottled up emotions, I lashed out at her and blamed her for the predicament I was in. My wife did not retaliate and continued to chant without my knowledge because there was only one week left before the operation.

Then, something unusual happened on the eve of the operation. Soon after I had completed all the necessary medical tests, the senior cardiologist and the heart surgeon came to tell me they had cancelled the operation and that I could go home. I was to return to the hospital the following week for another review. I was dumbfounded. Except for the fact that my pulse had improved a little, everything else was the same. I was bewildered. I was told to avoid stress of any form for as long as possible. Upon hearing this news, my wife was overjoyed as she saw this as a positive sign from the Gohonzon. She later disclosed to me that she had chanted very hard and was convinced it was the Mystic Law at work.

To be continued....