You are correct in that “chanting for stuff” is not Buddhist practice. In “Earthly Desires are Enlightenment”, Nichiren pointed to a skillful device used by Shakyamuni that encouraged students to use Buddhist meditation or chanting as a way to overcome obstacles in our daily lives. What he meant was that we should view our Buddhist practice as an essential component of our daily life. Nichiren also wrote, as is written in many Sutras and commentaries, that it is essential to get our mind determined and strongly committed to communion with the Buddha (mind). So as profoundly defined in the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras of Nāgārjuna and in the Lotus Sutras, it is the determined focus of chanting meditation to awaken the Buddha mind or consciousness. The more we study teachings, the more we learn to perceive the actual nature of all things and the nature of life in its process. That sentence alone may provide key words to have the mundane human mind seek with greater purpose the foundational realization that every-thing is Buddha and cement our awareness on the equanimity of things. “Things” are all phenomena, from rocks to thoughts. Everything arises and dissipates in turn. All things do this. Our lives are a super rapid continuum of moments that arise and dissipate, project itself through “time”. Our perceptions are everything, literally. So if our perception changes, so to does our world change. This is the process to Buddha. Chanting with these thoughts in mind may help to open your path to the Buddha mind. Be assured however, that your Buddha mind is already there. It is everywhere. In seeking it, it becomes revealed to you and becomes slowly integrated into your Samsaric human mind. After some dedicated time chanting in front of Gohonzon, you will find as you turn away, that all physical things seem to float free of your “opinions” or feelings or personal identifications. All this may be subtle, but it will come to you that your world has an independent existence from you and you will be experiencing detachment in a calm unity of separated-ness. It feels light, airy and deeply wonderful. This is a peek at the Buddha mind.
I hope some of these words help you to focus on your realization of Buddha in your meditation. Sometimes we can be so emotionally controlled that our motivations become very self-centered and possession oriented, and that is okay too. As Nichiren says, if we chant about earthly desires, we unwittingly chant to open our Buddha mind in the process. But to know this is to transcend those very delusions much more quickly, even if our original motivations are selfish.
NaMuMyoHoRenGeKyo