How to Recover from Failure

Dr. Alex Lickerman provides us with these words of wisdom today on how to recover from failure with determination. These are teachings from the Pure Land tradition of Nichiren Buddhism. This form of Japanese Buddhist practices focuses on the Lotus Sutra and relies on the Gohonzon – the chanting of Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. The chanting goes on day and night in fully developed practitioners.

There is reference in this quote to Soka Gakki, which is the international organization of Nichiren Buddhism practitioners. Also, Nichiren Daishonin was the founder of the movement in the thirteenth century.

Alex Lickerman, from his website

“And when our response to failure is to summon an even greater determination to succeed, vowing to get back up after being knocked down not just once but again and again each day and with every obstacle that rises up to challenge us—attacking them, as Nichiren Daishonin wrote, like a “lion king who unleashes the same power whether he traps a tiny ant or attacks a fierce animal”—then we’ll have found a treasure even more valuable than any apparently foolproof plan to reach our goal: the determination necessary to seek a better one when it fails. For in demonstrating to ourselves that we can always summon more of it, our determination becomes to us like a good friend, its steady presence and our faith in its power imbuing us with confidence that no matter how many times we’ve failed, no matter how much we want to quit, victory can still be ours.

“When your determination changes,” Daisaku Ikeda, the third president of the Soka Gakki, writes, “everything will begin to move in the direction you desire. The moment you resolve to be victorious, every nerve and fiber in your being will immediately orient itself toward your success. On the other hand, if you think, ‘This is never going to work out,’ then at that instant every cell in your being will be deflated and give up the fight. Then everything really will move in the direction of failure.””
~ Alex Lickerman, MD from The Undefeated Mind: On the Science of Constructing an Indestructible Self

It surprised me to see a doctor writing about failure from the Nichiren tradition, but his word penetrated my mind and my experience in trying to get my new book, Healing with the Seven Principles of Mindfulness: How to Thrive and Succeed in a Complex Cancer System published. Non responses to emails to agents and publishers were added to my list of failures. In addition, when North Atlantic sent me a nice rejection letter, I knew it was time to take a different course. So I contracted with Balboa Press, a division of Hay House. To make this work, I am setting up an Indiegogo campaign to presell as many books as possible so that Hay House will notice me.

Are you willing to help me inspire people to learn how take charge of their own healthcare by reading my new book, Healing with the Seven Principles of Mindfulness: How to Thrive and Succeed in a Complex Cancer System? Please reply and become among the first people to learn about my Indiegogo campaign with an opportunity to receive extra bonuses.

Books by Alex Lickerman

The Undefeated Mind: On the Science of Constructing an Indestructible Self by Alex Lickerman MD Legions of self-help authors rightly urge personal development as the key to happiness, but they typically fail to focus on its most important objective: hardiness. Though that which doesn’t kill us can make us stronger, as Nietzsche tells us, few authors today offer any insight into just how to… [Read More…]