By Jim Girard 
(Excerpted from the World Tribune, Oct. 29, 1999, p. 2) 

The first thing John Cannella does upon awakening is unshackle his hands from splints. Then, with his right hand, he grabs the trapeze bar hanging over his bed, while lifting himself to a sitting position with his left. He removes the thermal socks he must wear during the night to prevent circulatory loss in his feet (they once turned black and nearly had to be amputated). 

He then backs up into a wheelchair and, with great difficulty, locks its swing-away footrest and wheels himself to the bathroom. The simple act of using the bathroom is an arduous feat for John. 

He returns to the bedroom to take a profusion of vitamins and herbs. He then cleans his altar and does gongyo. 

Mr. Cannella has a degenerative nerve condition that has paralyzed him from head to toe. He has limited use of his legs. He also has a heart condition, arteriosclerosis, carpel tunnel syndrome, dental problems, and arthritis. 

It would be easy for him to retreat into despair and feel like a helpless victim. In fact, he did feel this way before his illnesses. As early as childhood, John felt paralyzed with fear in the presence of his father's rage. He had no idea who he was or where he was going. 

After high school he enlisted in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division. He injured his back while parachuting and became addicted to painkillers. He would sometimes collapse while standing in formation. 

The Army doctor asked him if he wanted to see a psychiatrist. John asked: "Would it help?" The doc said: "No, not really." So John said: "Why waste our time?" The doctor wrote: "Patient refused psychiatric treatment." 

After his discharge, John experienced great pain — he took heroin for relief. He was arrested and lost his job. His legs got weaker. His condition was misdiagnosed by another doctor as a protruding disk. 

He married Gilda and they had two children together, but he was still using heroin. 

In 1972, John discovered Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism. He was living on the third floor of a municipal housing project. There were only two elevators and they were always broken. One of the first things that he chanted for was for the elevators to be fixed. One day after chanting, he rang for the elevator. A neighbor said: "The elevator is broken." But he stayed there and chanted anyway. Suddenly the elevator came. He got in. It went down. When he got out in the lobby, there were many people waiting for the elevator to be fixed and, as he says, "Boy! Did they ever look at me strangely!" It seemed as if he had his own private elevator. 

He continued chanting, challenging each obstacle. First, he kicked heroin. Then he started to feel his legs for the first time in years. He went to home visitations, study lectures and district meetings. 

Then he and his wife Gilda were divorced. 

Then, as he put it: "One day I was sitting in the lobby of the community center and it occurred to me: 'I know who I am now. I am a Buddhist, working for kosen-rufu.' And as I studied, I began to grasp that the way that I used to view the world wasn't true, that we weren't doomed after all, and I was elated. I felt, 'This is it; this is the solution.’" 

Inspired by this epiphany, John decided to repair his relationship with his father whom had not seen since his marriage. He realized that they were more similar than he had thought. He vowed to tell his father about Nam Myoho-renge-kyo. He chanted every day for three months and then called his father and got him to chant on the phone. Although his father refused to practice, this was still a major step. 

John admired a woman named Valerie who worked at the hospital, but he suffered from such low esteem he figured that she would never want to be with him. One day he invited her to a Buddhist meeting but she said that she was too busy to attend. Then his leaders agreed to host a special meeting just for her and this really touched her. 

Teaching someone gongyo hardly ranks with roses and champagne, but it became the foundation of John and Valerie's unconventional courtship. While stumbling through the jigage, Valerie took the time to reciprocate John's feelings for her and they were married.

During this time, X-rays revealed a dark spot on the back of John's neck, which was diagnosed as cancer that was metastasizing. He considered this news to be a death sentence. He vowed to face the end with repose. He read the "Dragon Gate" Gosho which states: 

"In the end, no one can escape death... you should be willing to offer your life to the Lotus Sutra. Think of this offering as a drop of dew rejoining the ocean or a speck of dust returning to the earth." (Major Writings, Vol. 1, p. 251). 

But John’s optimistic spirit shortly rebelled against this resignation and he recalled the end of the Gosho that says: "Our desire is to share this blessing equally with all people, and we together with them will attain Buddhahood." (ibid.) 

He then fought valiantly to overcome this obstacle so he could encourage other people. When Valerie became distraught at the diagnosis, he told her that his fight against cancer should be a joyful kosen-rufu activity. Wherever he went, he left people chuckling and encouraged with his jubilant confidence. He had the last laugh on the doctors when his “cancer” turned out to be arthritis. 

Despite his infirmities, John keeps his day-planner filled to the margins. His first wife, Gilda, who is the first person that he introduced Buddhism, is now a chapter chief. 

Mr. Cannella states: 

"So this is my dream: that the day will come when we've introduced so many people in the neighborhood to Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism that the news reporters will report that there's this area of downtown Manhattan where people have totally eliminated crime, and they'll ask us how this was done and we'll say, 'Ever since we started practicing Buddhism...' And I want to do this on my own two feet. I feel no doubt that this is definitely the stuff that your enlightenment is made of."