10 Factors of Life

1. 10 Factors of Life Making the Best of Everything Great Lakes RTC Chapel

5. Soka University of America

6. Introduction – 10 Factors • Life is dynamic • Describes the workings of our lives in context of the 10 Worlds and how we manifest change from one moment to the next • Clarifies the functions common to ALL life in any given condition or any given moment

7. NyoZe…

8. Review – 10 Worlds • Hell • Hunger • Animality • Anger • Humanity • Rapture – Heaven • Learning • Realization • Bodhisattva • Buddhahood

9. “Expedient Means” ChapterLotus Sutra “The true entity of all phenomena can only be understood and shared between Buddhas. This reality consists of appearance, nature, entity, power, influence, inherent cause, relation, latent effect, manifest effect, and their consistency from beginning to end.”

10. Reality of Life • Appearance • Facial expressions/behavior • Physical, material aspects of life • Nature • Inner quality/tendencies • Spiritual aspect of life • Entity • Life as a whole or essence of life. Manifests both appearance and nature, yet is neither

11. Workings of Life & Their Characteristics • Power – capability latent within life • Influence – when latent power becomes manifest • Inherent cause – our ‘karmic’ orientations or tendencies formed by our past actions (thoughts, words, deeds) - possibilities • Relation – our relationships with external circumstances – ‘external cause’ • Latent Effect – result implanted in life when an ‘inherent cause’ acts in ‘relation’ with an external event

12. Workings of Life & Their Characteristics • Manifest Effect – when latent effect becomes visible • Consistency from beginning to end – when life’s appearance, nature, entity, power, influence, inherent cause, relation, latent effect and manifest effect all consistently express the condition that life is at any particular moment

13. “What state or condition of being we manifest at any given moment determines how we experience our environment…” • Appearance • Nature • Entity • Power • Influence • Inherent cause • RELATION • Latent Effect • Manifest Effect • Consistency from beginning to end

14. Relationship On the deepest level, it is not our environment or external circumstances that determine our state of life but the nature of our ‘relationship’ with our environment • Hell • Hunger • Animality • Anger • Humanity or Tranquility • Rapture or Heaven • Learning • Realization or Absorption • Bodhisattva • Buddhahood

15. HELL Power – inherent capacity is usually weak Influence

16. The same event may cause different reactions in different people What state of life are you in now? 10 worlds are potentials within each of us – what we experience differs vastly from one person to another How we relate to our environment largely depends on how we have lived our lives, not only in this lifetime but perhaps from our past lives Past actions, life habits, constitute ‘inherent causes’ React automatically, positively or negatively to stimuli in our environment – sometimes beyond our conscious control or intellectual understanding Every Person is Unique

18. Review – 10 Worlds • Hell • Hunger • Animality • Anger • Humanity • Rapture – Heaven • Learning • Realization / ABSORPTION • Bodhisattva • Buddhahood

19. Forrest Gump • Appearance • Nature • Entity Relation Power Inherent cause Influence Latent effect Manifest effect Consistency from beginning to end

20. Forrest Gump Power – Does what he’s told - “OK” Influence

21. 10 x 10 Hell Hunger Animality Anger Humanity Rapture – Heaven Learning Realization Bodhisattva Buddhahood X 10

22. IchinenSanzen10 x 10 x 3 Realms = 3,000

23. Ten Factors • Teaches us importance of developing good karmic habits • Form positive ‘relations’ with events in our environment regardless of what they are • Through Bodhisattva or Buddhahood, we can transform every hardship into personal growth – inherent causes – solidifying our state of happiness