Nichiren Daishonin teaches us that there are three kinds of treasure.
The first kind of treasures are treasures of the storehouse which mainly relate to our
material possessions, wealth, things that we have in our possession like a car, nice
apartment, nice clothes.
There are also treasures of the body which refer to our health, our appearance, our skills
and abilities.
And we also have the treasures of the heart which refer to the richness of our character,
our courage, compassion, our inner joy, our wisdom and our hope.
Clinging on just simply to the treasures of the storehouse or the treasures of the body,
we cannot create a lasting happiness.
Because the lasting happiness is our life state that enables us to be happy regardless
of the age, of the circumstances that we find ourselves in.
So therefore, in the light of Buddhism, it is the treasures of the heart that are the
most important.
Before I met our practice I was really enjoying the treasures of the storehouse and the treasures
of the body.
I had a good job.
I was really pursuing my career.
I was healthy, I was 25 years of age.
I think many of my friends were seeing me as the person who was really enjoying life,
but deeply inside I was truly suffering.
I discovered in my life a tendency to really be overly stressed and I started to struggle
at work which led to insomnia and eating disorders.
Around the same time, I'm broke up with my girlfriend with whom I thought I would marry.
So within just a short period of time, even though I was enjoying all those treasures,
I found myself really in a state of deeply suffering.
This is when I started to really ask myself a question, "What are the real treasures that
could enable us to become truly happy?"
This is when I learn about Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
And this is when I first attended a Buddhist meeting, when I met my friends, that I started
to understand what treasures of the heart are, through their lives, I could really feel
that no matter how hard the situation might be, we can always be courageous, we can always
maintain hope, you can always have this conviction that we can overcome our challenges.
I could start to really, through my Buddhist practice, to start accumulating or
creating or discovering these treasures in my own heart.
And this is when I really started to discover that I have the ability to overcome my weaknesses,
that I can really try to go deeper and find in my life the courage to challenge my tendencies,
to challenge my problems and this is when I really started fight with my depression.
And over the course of time, through really attending Buddhist meetings and sharing my
struggles with my friends that I was really able to overcome my sufferings and, of course
it didn’t happen like within a week, but I can clearly remember that after sometime,
when I look back, I could see that its no longer there, that I no longer suffer, that
I regained joy and hope and it was the best feeling.