by Henry Leong Him Woh

My mother brought me to a discussion meeting when I was a few years old in the 1960s. After that, because my mother was very busy with her business as a street seller and because she didn’t understand much about the practice, we had lost contact with the law. 

Our family went through very difficult times — my father died when I was very young. All ten of us lived in a one-room rental flat: my mother, younger brother and sister, two older sisters and four nieces and nephews. The room was always burning hot because my mother used to cook all the food for her business. We were in constant conflict and my mother and sisters were suffering from serious karmic illnesses. We lived in poverty. 

As a boy, I kept playing soccer to escape from my family problems. In 1986, I met Eric Yeo and he brought me to his leader Richard Sim. I learned to practice Buddhism.

In Singapore our campaigns were home visitations and shakubuku, National Day Parade, numerous cultural shows, and offerings. I kept reading testimonials and various study material to begin to understand the practice and I kept trying to put everything I learned into practice. 

Things begin to improve: my mother used to give me $4 per day for helping her to run the stall. Her income then mystically increased to $13 a day on her own; previously she could not increase her income by even a dollar. 

As my faith strengthened, I prayed for better opportunities. One person asked me to join Singapore Press Holdings, which sponsored my National Trade Certificate II course in printing. I begin to pray for a bigger place to enshrine the Gohonzon. After two years of practice, I was able to buy a three room flat. This had previously seemed impossible. My mother kept objecting to me buying a house, but after I made some offerings, when I went back home, she mystically agreed. Next, after six years of practice, I was able to buy this private property. 

At Singapore Press, I was selected from among my coursemates to set the printing rollers — this job needed very high skills. I was also chosen to maintain the machine for the last six months of my course. All these years I had been chanting one hour per day. In my younger days, bicycles and football had been my constant companions, and morning till night I was outside of the house. Some of the skill that helped me solve the machinery problems even amazed myself. I was given the Best Suggestion Award and a token of appreciation and was featured in the company newsletter. I was also given the Printer of the Year Award. The company profits had multiplied five-fold during the time I was there. 

I left the company and started my own business. It was doing well until 1997 when I lost most of my money in investments and in getting married to a foreign wife. But, with the Gohonzon, there's no deadlock. My wife and some friends helped me out with the finance. During this difficult period, I went to Geylang Kaikan and chanted up to 7 hours of daimoku everyday. 

I went to work as a security man at Toyota. I transfered my knowledge of maintaining and overcoming machinery problems to the mechanic. While I worked there, the company profit multiplied a few times. In fact one of the Toyota claim advisors was asked by the management to buy and cook breakfast for me for free nearly every morning for a few years. 

Prior to my practice, I was featured in the newspaper due to my bike skill and ball juggling skill. One year after starting to practice, a TV broadcast also showed me doing some of these stunts. I was able to juggle a football three thousand times with all parts of my body (except my hands) for more than one hour non-stop, without letting the football drop. 

Through consistent practice, I am able to have a harmonious family and all my siblings are able to own their own properties. Most of them are practicing. My wife and her family members are also practicing, and we have two cute sons, which makes me overjoyed. I have had the good fortune to holiday in 18 countries. 

My mother and my three sisters have greatly reduced their karmic illnesses. 

Through struggling in our activities for kosen-rufu, we are able to live a life of happiness and complete fulfillment. 

My favorite Gosho was “Unseen Virtue and Visible Rewards.” I am always encouraged by Sensei’s words, that if you struggle very hard for kosen-rufu in your youth, in the future you will enjoy life more than anyone. 

When setting our goals we need to keep practicing hard and to make causes toward it. We should never give up trying to have our prayers answered.