Sensei's Daily Encouragement - April 28 2024 - Year of Fresh Departure for a Youthful Soka Gakkai Worldwide

    

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
April 28, 2024
 
How incredible it is to chant this wonderful daimoku each day! Nichiren Daishonin writes, "There is no greater happiness for human beings than chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. The sutra [Lotus Sutra] says, The people there [in my land] are happy and at ease.
Events
1253 Nichiren Daishonin chants Nam-myoho-renge-kyo for the first time.
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From The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
April 28, 2024
 
The greater the hardships befalling him, the greater the delight he feels, because of his strong faith. Doesn't a fire burn more briskly when logs are added? All rivers flow into the sea, but does the sea turn back their waters? The currents of hardship pour into the sea of the Lotus Sutra and rush against its votary. The river is not rejected by the ocean; nor does the votary reject suffering. Were it not for the flowing rivers, there would be no sea. Likewise, without tribulation there would be no votary of the Lotus Sutra.
 
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 33
A Ship to Cross the Sea of Suffering
Written to Shiji Shiro on April 28, 1261
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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
April 28, 2024
 
When deluded, one is called an ordinary being, but when enlightened, one is called a Buddha. This is similar to a tarnished mirror that will shine like a jewel when polished. A mind now clouded by the illusions of the innate darkness of life is like a tarnished mirror, but when polished, it is sure to become like a clear mirror, reflecting the essential nature of phenomena and the true aspect of reality. Arouse deep faith, and diligently polish your mirror day and night. How should you polish it? Only by chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo -Nichiren
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Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (17 June 1953) p.142
 
A corps meeting at M.'s in Koiwa. There were about a hundred participants. Pleased to see everyone in high spirits, filled with hope, determination and vitality... Soiled clothes, wrinkled shirts, unkempt hair – they have, however, the precious eyes of youth looking toward and living for the future. Furthermore, though not apparent on the surface theirs is a gathering of young pioneers of the Mystic Law.
Resolved deep in my heart to develop them into a group of a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand youth. Will take good care of my juniors. Must make them better than myself. This is the mission of a leader or senior in faith. 
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Sensei's Daily Encouragement - April 27 2024 - Year of Fresh Departure for a Youthful Soka Gakkai Worldwide

    

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
April 27, 2024
 
Age is not an excuse for giving up. If you allow yourself to grow passive and draw back, it's a sign of personal defeat. There may be a retirement age at work, but there is no retirement age in life. How then could there be any "going into retirement" in the world of faith? The Buddhist Law is eternal, extending across the three existences of past, present and future, and one of the benefits of faith is perennial youth and eternal life.
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From The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
April 27, 2024
 
The five characters of Myoho-renge-kyo, the heart of the essential teaching of the Lotus Sutra, contain the benefit amassed through the countless practices and meritorious deeds of all Buddhas throughout the three existences. Then, how can these five characters not include the benefits obtained by observing all of the Buddhas' precepts?
 
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 481
The Teaching, Practice, and Proof
Written to Sammi-bo on March 21, 1275
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 Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
April 27, 2024
 
We all long for things of beauty - beauty of nature, of appearance, of life, a beautiful family and so on. But these cannot be gained if we are withdrawn and isolated, just looking at ourselves. We must create better relationships with other people and interact with our community and society with an open heart. We must be kind to nature. It is only through this process that we really grow and cultivate our own beauty.
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Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (16 June 1953) p.141
 
Strictly reflected that I, alone, am responsible for Sensei's anger.
Faith will change everything. The power of faith is the only way to a solution and further advancement.
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Sensei's Daily Encouragement - April 26 2024 - Year of Fresh Departure for a Youthful Soka Gakkai Worldwide

    

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
April 26, 2024
 
What matters is winning in the end, the wins and losses along the way are of secondary significance. It's final victory in life that counts and that is the reason for our Buddhist practice. No matter how powerful or famous or privileged a person might be, Nichiren Daishonin says, from a Buddhist point of view it is all nothing more than a dream, an illusory pleasure; true happiness can only be attained by revealing the state of Buddhahood within our own life.
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From The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
April 26, 2024
 
There are two types of illness: minor and serious. Early treatment by a skilled physician can cure even serious illnesses, not to mention minor ones. Karma also may be divided into two categories: fixed and unfixed. Sincere repentance will eradicate even fixed karma, to say nothing of karma that is unfixed.
 
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 954
On Prolonging One's Life Span
Written to the lay nun Myojo in 1279
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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
April 26, 2024
 
As globalization proceeds, we enter an age in which everybody's actions strongly influence everybody else. When we realize this, we can then alter our mindset and strive to build a global society of mutual coexistence and mutual prosperity. This will be done by going beyond devotion to the interests of the nation-state and devoting ourselves to the interests of all humanity. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. The key to the solution is the imagination to care for others. It is the empathizing heart or what Buddhists refer to when they talk about mercy.
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Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (16 June 1953) p.141
 
The Suiko Group met in the evening. Sensei was furious. We were at fault. Reflected on our complete lack of spirit and fortitude. Sensei left the meeting after only an hour or so. We stayed and went over our attitude and behavior until 10:00. My heart is like a dark cloud.
 
1. Take care to be on time.
2. Unity among the corps chiefs.
3. The Suiko Group's purpose, determination and passion

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Sensei's Daily Encouragement - April 25 2024 - Year of Fresh Departure for a Youthful Soka Gakkai Worldwide

    

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
April 25, 2024
 
 Adversity gives birth to greatness. The greater the challenges and difficulties we face, the greater opportunity we have to grow and develop as people. A life without adversity, a life of ease and comfort, produces nothing and leaves us with nothing. This is one of the indisputable facts of life.
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From The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
April 25, 2024
 
 Buddhahood is the most difficult to demonstrate. But since you possess the other nine worlds, you should believe that you have Buddhahood as well. Do not permit yourself to have doubts. Expounding on the human world, the Lotus Sutra says, "The Buddhas wish to open the door of Buddha wisdom to all living beings." . . . That ordinary people born in the latter age can believe in the Lotus Sutra is due to the fact that the world of Buddhahood is present in the human world.
 
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 358
The Object of Devotion for Observing the mind Established in the Fifth Five-Hundred-Year Period after the Thus Come One's Passing
Written to Toki Jonin on April 25, 1273 
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 Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
April 25, 2024
 
 If you think about it, although we may not be destined to die five minutes from now, we are all, without exception, going to die at some point. We can count on it 100 percent. There is nothing surer than this. Victor Hugo says, "We are all under sentence of death, but with a sort of indefinite reprieve." Ideally, we should live every minute of our lives valuably, as if it were the last moment of our lives. Those who live aimlessly are left with a sense of emptiness at the end of their lives, but those who live all-out, striving right to the end, will die peacefully. Leonardo da Vinci says, "As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death." One aware that death could come at any time will live each day to the fullest.
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Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (15 June 1953) p.141
 
Completely exhausted, both physically and spiritually…
In the evening, attended Musashino District's general meeting. No spirit whatsoever. It's a shame.
Lately I feel my mind becoming dull. No other fundamental solution than to "substitute faith for wisdom."
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Sensei's Daily Encouragement - April 24 2024 - Year of Fresh Departure for a Youthful Soka Gakkai Worldwide

    

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
April 24, 2024
 
When youth are awakened to a sense of mission, their power is limitless. Ultimately, we have to entrust our hopes and visions for the future to the youth. This is a golden rule. Youth is pure. Youth will rise up to fulfill their ideals without calculation or self-interest. The fundamental spirit of a leader must be to reach out to such young people, work with them and bring out their capabilities and direct their youthful energies in a positive direction.
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From The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
April 24, 2024
 
What matters most is that we honour the Buddha's words. As a rule, people in the world value what is distant and despise what is near, but this is the conduct of the ignorant. Even the distant should be repudiated if it is wrong, while what is near should not be discarded if it accords with the truth. Even though people may revere [their predecessors' doctrines], if those doctrines are in error, how can we employ them today?"
 
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 155
Reply to Hoshina Goro Taro
Written to Hoshina Boro Taro on December 5, 1267
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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
April 24, 2024
 
The Buddhas, the World-Honoured Ones, wish to open the door of Buddha wisdom to all living beings, to allow them to attain purity. That is why they appear in the world. They wish to show the Buddha wisdom to living beings, and therefore they appear in the world. They wish to cause living beings to awaken to the Buddha wisdom, and therefore they appear in the world. They wish to induce living beings to enter the path of Buddha wisdom, and therefore they appear in the world. -The Lotus Sutra.
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Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (15 June 1953) p.141
 
Completely exhausted, both physically and spiritually. Slept until 10:30. Totally disgusted with K. The rain grew harder. it is as if my entire being were in pain. Don't they speak of "a sound mind in a sound body"? Rather, both body and mind must be healthy simultaneously. This is an ultimate principle of faith.
Must complete the following:
1. Accomplish my chapter's goal.
2. Accomplish my mission at work.
3. Pursue the study of Buddhism.
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Sensei's Daily Encouragement - April 23 2024 - Year of Fresh Departure for a Youthful Soka Gakkai Worldwide

    

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
April 23, 2024
 
Our fellow members are all family with whom we are linked by deep bonds. If we support and protect this family, they will act as protective forces in our environment, supporting and keeping us from harm in lifetime after lifetime. This is a profound principle of Buddhism.
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From The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
April 23, 2024
 
As I have often mentioned before, it is said that, where there is unseen virtue, there will be visible reward. Your fellow samurai all slandered you to your lord, and he also has wondered if it was true, but because you have for some years now honestly maintained a strong desire for your lord's welfare in his next life, you received a blessing like this. This is just the beginning, be confident that the great reward also is sure to come.
 
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 907
Unseen Virtue and Visible Reward
Written to Shijo Kingo on April 23, 1278
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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
April 23, 2024
 
When we are aware that each moment of each day, each gesture and step we take, is truly mystical and full of wonder, we will live our lives with greater thought and care. We will also have greater respect and appreciation for the lives of others.
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Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (14 June 1953) p.140
 
I am already twenty five. When the first president, Mr. Makiguchi, was thirty two, he wrote his innovative work, Human Geography, which is known worldwide. And, beginning with Guidelines to Math, Mr. Toda, my revered teacher, while still in his thirties, published many books popular throughout Japan. What will I have accomplished when I am that age?
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Sensei's Daily Encouragement - April 22 2024 - Year of Fresh Departure for a Youthful Soka Gakkai Worldwide

    

 Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
April 22, 2024 

I hope you will always have the spirit to learn with a lively curiosity and interest. When leaders are enthusiastic to keep on learning and growing, they inspire others. New ideas emerge and spread. Fresh energy to advance surges forth. Instead of pretending to know all the answers, assuming an air of wisdom, let us always strive for greater understanding and insight into all manner of things, so that we can continue learning together and spur one another to grow. This is the kind of spirit I want to cherish.
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From The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
April 22, 2024
 
In the Latter Day of the Law, no treasure tower exists other than the figures of the men and women who embrace the Lotus Sutra. It follows, therefore, that whether eminent or humble, high or low, those who chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo are themselves the treasure tower, and likewise, are themselves the Thus Come One Many Treasures.
 
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 299
On the Treasure Tower
Written to Abutsu-bo Nittoku on March 13, 1272
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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
April 22, 2024
 
Do not compare yourselves to others. Be true to who you are and continue to learn with all your might. Even if you are ridiculed, even if you suffer disappointments and setbacks, continue to advance and do not be defeated.
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Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (12 June 1953) p.140
 
To listen to Mr. Toda's excellent lecture and hear his conviction makes me truly happy.
My health steadily gets worse. It's really pitiful. Met over dinner with K. and some associates at the I. restaurant at 9:00. I have no vitality. It's agonizing.
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