Welcome back to Butability, a weekly interview series about the amazing ability we all have to change our lives and the world if we're brave enough to tap into it.

I'm your host, Jehi Jolly.

Today we're talking about how to tap into your potential, even when you can't see it,

and even when your circumstances make you feel incapable.

Our guest is Lance Powell of Georgia, who shares how he encountered Buddhism at a time when

hope for the future was hard to find.

And how, chanting Namyo Hōren Gae Kyo allowed him to finally tap into the potential he knew he had

but had never quite been able to access before.

I'll let Lance share the rest.

My name is Lance Powell. I live in Decatur, Georgia, quite literally right outside of Atlanta, maybe within a couple of

few blocks of the city limits officially.

So I am in Georgia.

I've lived here for the past 15 years.

And what do you do?

Yeah, I'm a middle school teacher, which I know a lot of people.

Immediately I just say, good luck, or I couldn't do that, or bless like, which I'm just like, oh, thank you.

And then I think the other thing that people ask is, do you like your job?

Yeah, and I'm always, I'm always happy to respond.

I love what I do.

I genuinely do.

I do. That's amazing. Yeah, I mean, yeah, teaching, but also that

age is important and difficult work. And I know that your journey into becoming an educator

...