These are my own thoughts:
This practice is based on Ichinen. That is the most important point. If you truly want something it's important to put it in your ichinen and sit in front of the Gohonzon and say I want this. "I want it and I determine that I will get it based on my faith. I believe it will happen." With time I have realized that really all prayers do get answered (but not everything will happen according to our time frames).
Sometimes the answers are not exactly what we expected but as time goes by one is able to appreciate that these answers are in many ways better than our own. Sometimes there is something we need to change, undergo a human revolution for our lives to open up to those solutions/ benefits.
It is really important to believe 100% and to not make our own strategies during prayer. Just make a determination, an honest announcement to the universe saying I have made a determination!
Last year I made a new year resolution and prayed sincerely to the Gohonzon to overcome a bad addiction. I prayed resolutely for a few days and then as is with all New Year resolutions I forgot this one and went about tackling more urgent challenges.
In September I fell sick and many things collapsed in our circumstances. I was chanting for hours and while benefits were coming in for those problems I also ended up changing this bad habit - without even realizing or making an effort towards it!
But it had been my ichinen and the Universe remembers our determined prayers. And so just like that I was free from one of my nastiest addictions. No withdrawl symptoms, no pains, nothing!
For years I have struggled with many childhood issues and there are somethings that I have only now been able to put in my ichinen. Maybe I did not have enough courage or wisdom to tackle it before but since it went into my prayers I went through emotional upheavals like never before. I was sliding into depression all of last week and until yesterday but at the same time it was as if my eyes started opening to reality for the first time.
It has been a week of purging and cleansing and letting out a lot of bottled up issues. Gohonzon has been my guide through it and since yesterday I have started a process of healing. It was only when I told the Gohonzon that I want to heal and be alright that my mind and body started working towards it, for the very first time.
Now I have found the courage to look back at reality not with anger but with the objective of healing and moving on. As this is a deep seated issue, I do not expect it to get resolved quickly but now I am heading in the right direction and I want to achieve a human revolution so I can be everything that I am capable of - after all this is the year of capable people, isn't it?
