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Always a Byakuren by Gloria Ng 12/12/13 On New Year's Day 2014, I will be graduating into the Women's Division as well

as graduating from byakuren.1 I began byakuren in 2005, a few months after I received Gohonzon,2 because a Women's Division member told me that byakuren was just one more way to make causes for my life to create fortune. I defined fortune then by earthly desires. I wanted to have my own business. I wanted my own place. I wanted a mate who was ready to commit. At the time, I was living with my parents, paying sub-market rent, and part-time employed with no health benefits. I commuted everywhere by bus and arrived sometimes only in the nick of time on time to work. I was in a dead-end relationship because I had a closed heart, too many insecurities to count, and had only a couple of friendships that dated back to high school. Needless to say, I felt miserable and stuck in my life and wanted the extra boost of fortune. Because I needed all the fortune I could get, I signed up. The very month I joined byakuren, I met the person who was a catalyst for me to go through my human revolution. Two months into byakuren duties, I got out of the dead-end relationship only to jump in with both feet into a similar relationship that relocated me to the East Bay eight months later. Since I was not ever formally inducted into byakuren before or after the move, I got to stay in byakuren longer than I originally intended and was grateful for this circumstancefor I got to build more fortune! Although that second relationship eventually ended and I suffered a year and a half of heartbreak, I became grateful for the human revolution that followed. Not only did I become a sole homeowner of a kosen-rufu house I chanted for in the East Bay and needed to earn five thousand dollars a month to get by, despite the odds, I also completed a teaching credential program and furthered my healing arts training. I got very fit on my bicycle commute. I budgeted my commute time, my finances, and still made as many SGI activities, byakuren shifts, leadership responsibilities, and study commitments as I could. If I had any time to rest, it was because I was too sick to move. Sometimes, I would still work even with a full-blown fever to make the bills and save enough money for SGI publications and study materials. Many days I worked to exhaustion and all that strengthened me enough to get by was Buddhist practice and study. Through my hardships, I became a more compassionate person who cherished a farewell present of six pairs of socks. I was so busy maintaining up to seventy hours of work a week that I had little time to even buy groceries, much less sew all the socks I had with holes in them. My undergarments were either thinned out or had sported holes in them, too. So when I got the socks, I was so happy. One summer I scraped by without having to buy groceries for seven weeks! The occasional clothing swap I could attend near the East Bay Community Center was on my way and replenished clothes that wore thin on my bike seat. With my time, energy and financial constraints, I learned to quickly weed out toxic and disastrous relationshipson or even before a first date. I learned so much about myself and the woman I needed to be to have a quality mate for life. Not only did I do my human revolution to step into the capable
1 Byakuren is a behind the scenes group activity for young women between the ages of 18 and 35 in the U.S. branch of a Nichiren Buddhist organization called Soka Gakkai International (SGI, for short). 2 Gohonzon is a scroll that acts as a mandala or mirror for our lives. For more information about this and other Buddhist terminologies, visit www.sgi-usa.org.

woman within me and changed my karmic relationships with men to claim one as my kosen-rufu mate, I now have two young children and am pregnant with my third child. The fortune I built during my tenure as byakuren included being able to save my house from foreclosure, upgrade my house with insulation and dual-paned windows so that I wouldn't see my breath in a house I couldn't afford to warm up on a cold winter's day, and free solar panels installed that have saved my family at least fifty dollars a month on utility bills! As a full-time stay-at-home mother now, I no longer have to work. I structure my day according to my plans, not a boss's schedule or a rigid work schedule. Although I do not work, I have health insurance coverage. In addition, when my kids go to sleep, I have been able to return to my first passion of creative writing. Realizing that authorship is my mission has actually fueled me even though being with young kids can be very emotionally draining and exhausting. I look forward now to creating a livelihood with my writing and contributing to my family's welfare. Each day, I still battle to create the most value that I can and to keep my life condition high. Every day is a struggle for self-improvement to serve humanity, spread humanism, and raise successors. As the byakuren who have come before me say, Once a byakuren, always a byakuren. I hope that I maintain this spirit throughout my life and continue to respond to sensei. Copyright Gloria Ng All rights reserved. http://www.gloriang.com

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