I quit smoking by tapping the power of "Ichinen Sanzen"

A Nichiren Buddhist concept meaning "a single life-moment can make impossible possible."

Shared at an SGI meeting in New York Culture Center on July 9, 2005

We learn in this Buddhism that in a single moment a person can make even an impossible change in his or her life and subsequently benefit the lives of others. This potential power of a single life-moment became a reality for me in 1993. I was quite new in this practice of chanting then. Reflecting back far on my past, I was never a very determined kind of person. Instead I had an impromptu/spontaneous nature and was extremely easy going. Beginning from my high school days, I had been chain-smoking for many years. I developed a serious addiction and loved smoking. In 1983, my father died of smoking related fatal illness. Even after this tragedy in life, I tried but couldn't give up smoking and basically failed countless times. My relationship with my smoking addiction had turned into a love-hate kind of a relationship. I loved smoking but felt captive, helpless, guilty, numb and defiant about it. About a year after I started chanting, I encountered one of the most trying moments of my life. Breaking up from a deep relationship, I felt truly suicidal. That day, walking on the streets of New York, I had completely lost any distinction between life and death. Chanting saved my life since it gave me a kind of profound unexplainable strength to continue and not give into this darkest life threatening tendencies that had surfaced from within me. That night I knew my life couldn’t go on unless I made a historic change in my life. As I chanted Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo that night desperate to change my life, my attention fell on my addiction with smoking. "That's it", I thought, " If I can change that, I will have a reason to go on and an undeniable proof of the power of chanting." I needed a new dawn, something truly different. So I chanted on and on through the night. My courage started welling forth and I mustered my determination to "not only quit smoking but even to not let the desire of it ever take-over me up until the last moment of my life". I struggled to keep that thought at the center of my mind as I chanted. Basically I was struggling with my doubts about making such a large shift in my life. As I continued chanting, the vision of my future came face to face as if I stood there and could touch it. I could clearly see both my possible future paths and their respective destinations– one was an utterly dark one and the other truly brilliant. My mind got focued on the great potential value of my life and how crucial it would be for me to be in good health without smoking. I sensed my father's suffering in his last days while he lay ill with smoking related illness and eventually died in the prime of his life - as if his suffering had become my own. It was a powerful experience and a vivid image from the depths of my life and I was gaining confidence in my determination. I don’t recall but I continued chanting until dawn. In the morning, I could sense the freshness of a new day .. a new life. I knew smoking was gone from my life. Since that day until now, I tell you I have not even had the desire of smoking just as I had determined that night. I also know that it would never ever come back in my life. Today I share this experience with you not to advise you on smoking, but to share my confidence that we possess the potential for an infinite life force that can change anything we desire. I'm also not here to boast of the power of my own will or determination .. as if I have some special capability. On the contrary, as I said before, most of my life I had been largely devoid of determinations until I learnt how to bring it out of my life with this amazing experience with chanting. This experience is also not exclusive to me nor does this practice work only for me. Anyone can experience the power of Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo in their life. It is universal and works in anyone's life on issues or struggles of importance to them. As years have gone by, I have on several occasions shared this life experience of mine with others and it has helped them significantly. The power of a single moment is indeed amazing. Come to think of it, a moment is briefer than a second but it contains the power, wisdom and compassion that may take billions of seconds or years .. or even very many lifetimes to come. This is what the founder of this Buddhism Nichiren Daishonin encourages us to become aware of.