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    Dancing In The Garden Of The Lotus Sutra: His Poems
    Dancing In The Garden Of The Lotus Sutra: His Poems
    Dancing In The Garden Of The Lotus Sutra: His Poems
    Ebook105 pages4 hours

    Dancing In The Garden Of The Lotus Sutra: His Poems

    By Margaret Cram-Howie

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    About this ebook

    You're in recovery. You're at a 12-step meeting. And you don't believe in a Judeo-Christian god. Now What?

    You are not alone. Author and meditation teacher, Margaret Cram-Howie, was in exactly that position. Now a practicing Nichiren Shu Buddhist, Margaret has written a book recounting the beautiful parables of The Lotus Sutra and offering an alternative framework on which to hang the principles of addiction recovery.

    The reader is guided through the Three Gates of Awareness, Introspection, and Dancing with Impermanence. The recovering addict will find insights, connections, and tools to try out on his or her own unique recovery journey.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGatekeeper Press
    Release dateOct 1, 2017
    ISBN9781619847903
    Dancing In The Garden Of The Lotus Sutra: His Poems

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      Book preview

      Dancing In The Garden Of The Lotus Sutra - Margaret Cram-Howie

      Dancing in the Garden of the Lotus Sutra

      THE THREE GATES TO FREEDOM FROM

      ALCOHOL ADDICTION

      Margaret Cram-Howie

      Foreword by Kanjin Cederman Shonin

      Columbus, Ohio

      Dancing in the Garden of the Lotus Sutra: THE THREE GATES TO FREEDOM FROM

      ALCOHOL ADDICTION

      Published by Gatekeeper Press

      3971 Hoover Rd. Suite 77

      Columbus, OH 43123-2839

      www.GatekeeperPress.com

      Copyright © 2017 by Margaret Cram-Howie

      All rights reserved. Neither this book, nor any parts within it may be sold or reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

      ISBN: 9781619847897

      eISBN: 9781619847903

      Printed in the United States of America

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      FOREWORD Foreword – by Kanjin Cederman Shonin

      PREFACE

      THE FIRST GATE AWARENESS

      CHAPTER ONE: LIFTING THE VEIL OF DELUSION

      CHAPTER TWO: DISCOVERING YOUR BUDDHA NATURE

      CHAPTER THREE: TAKING REFUGE

      THE SECOND GATEINTROSPECTION

      CHAPTER FOUR: THE PRECEPTS

      CHAPTER FIVE: PLANTING THE ROOTS OF VIRTUE

      CHAPTER SIX: ATONEMENT

      THE THIRD GATETHE DANCE OF LIFE

      CHAPTER SEVEN: FLOW

      CHAPTER EIGHT: PRAYER AND MEDITATION

      CHAPTER NINE: OPENING THE MIND AND HEART TO LOVE

      FOREWORD

      This book has been a great journey for Myosho Margaret Cram-Howie. When I first met Margaret, she was a soft-spoken quiet lady interested in Buddhism and how it could change people’s lives through the Lotus Sutra. Over the many years that we have learned and trained together, I was able to experience her immense strength and fortitude in pursuing the purpose of a good life and her sincere wish to help all suffering beings. Since then she has continued on the path and now shares her teaching with her readers in Dancing in the Garden of the Lotus Sutra. It is in the birth of a great Lotus Flower in the pond of the world of suffering beings that we are able to see strength and fortitude in the midst of suffering and that there is genuine hope for everyone.

      Through this journey of self-reflection, she imparts to the reader many great treasures of the Buddha’s teachings that she has received and implemented on her path. As of now, there has been no one that I feel has utilized and shared the Lotus Sutra in the scope of addiction recovery. This book seems to focus on the recovery from alcohol but it is too great a vehicle to be minimized to one subject because it can be applied to any imbalance in our lives and gifts us with tools to change. I know that a great many people will awaken from the world of delusion and leave the realm of suffering to enter the Pure Land of Mt. Sacred Eagle, which is right before us in our lives if we just put down the drink of delusion and choose enlightenment over death and suffering.

      In honor of this important occasion, I would like to offer a prayer for all who are fearless and take the next step to a beautiful life by contemplating this book:

      Honor be to the Buddha

      Honor be to our Founder Nichiren Shonin

      Honor be to the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Dharma

      Honor be to the protective deities of the Dharma

      Through this great work, we dedicate its merit to the countless suffering beings dealing with addiction. May they be able to realize their Buddha-nature and quickly become Buddhas in this life. May this offering benefit Beings of the ten directions and help them to fully realize their potential and strength through wisdom and compassion. May all that meet this teaching realize their original nature and be able to benefit others with their experience and teaching, to create a beautiful Pure Land here and now.

      Namu Myoho Renge Kyo

      With Gassho, Kanjin Cederman Shonin

      Head Priest of Seattle Choeizan Enkyoji Temple

      PREFACE

      This book will guide you along a path. The path begins with recovery from addiction and gently leads you into a life of joy where you learn, moment by moment, to dance with whatever is present in your life. This is the path I traveled.

      I first sobered up in the mid-seventies. My life changed quickly for the better. I returned to university, started my career, fell in love and started our family. But I wasn’t able to remain sober. When difficulties hit, as is normal in this human life, I did not have the necessary skills to deal with them. I felt confused and alone. I felt trapped and helpless. I turned once again to the bottle.

      One night, after a few drinks with a longtime friend, she surprised and shocked me and shook me out of my complacency. She told me it was clear that I had a problem and that drinking wasn’t going to help it. She encouraged me to get professional help for whatever was causing my sadness. Then she said that neither she, nor anyone else she knew, preferred me drunk to sober. She asked me to give up booze and become sober again.

      I am one of the lucky ones who returned to sobriety after a relapse. I am living proof that it is possible. I now have over thirty-two years of continuous sobriety. If you relapse during your recovery, learn from it and carry on. It is simply one of the steps along your path.

      The steps along the path in this book are loosely based on the principles I extracted from The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. I started my recovery journey in the rooms of AA. The primary difference between the twelve steps as presented in this book and the official twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is that there is no mention of a god of any understanding in the steps along the path presented in this book. I never believed in an external god of any description and this was problematic for me in making sense of the steps. I hear from many others in recovery that the issue of the word god in the twelve-step programs is a problem for them too. For some, this problem keeps them away from recovery programs. It is my hope that this book will be of help to those addicts who want the principles of recovery without committing to a god.

      I met several teachers/mentors along the way. I studied with Marshall Rosenberg and learned the gentleness and wisdom of Nonviolent Communication. I studied with Dr. Deepak Chopra and became a certified meditation teacher with The Chopra Center. I blossomed in the garden of the Lotus Sutra, studying and practicing with my Buddhist minister, my sensei Reverend Kanjin Cederman. It is in the beautiful stories, parables, and teachings of Nichiren Shu Buddhism that I find the fullness of life. It is my hope that by sharing my path, you may also find a passage out of addiction and into joyfulness.

      My life is woven with the texture of many teachings. It is interpreted from many different perspectives dependent on the role(s) I play at various stages of my life. At times I am influenced primarily by my role as mother, at others by my role as wife, at others by my role as teacher, and on and on. It shifts and morphs as I live my life.

      I now understand that everything in life is interconnected. One strand in the tapestry of life might emphasize a spiritual component, another a mental component, another a physical component, another an emotional component and yet another a social component. Each strand, each component, affects the completed tapestry. All have a role to play. The spiritual component for each step in this book is illustrated by telling a Buddhist story. Other components (mental, physical, emotional, social) are drawn from a variety of sources.

      The path, the journey out of addiction, is divided into three sections. Each section is entered through a gate. The first gate is the gate of awareness. The second gate is the gate of introspection. The third gate is the gate that leads you into the garden of the Lotus Sutra where you learn to dance with impermanence.

      THE FIRST GATE

      AWARENESS

      BUDDHA AND HELL

      Suppose we ask where the Buddha is and where hell is. Some sutras state that hell is below the earth, while others state

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