Sensei's Daily Encouragement - 18 July 2012 - The Year of Developing a Youthful SGI

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda Wednesday, July 18, 2012   There is no need to seek impatiently for greatness, fame or wealth. The earth and sun do not hurry, they follow their own path at their own pace. If the earth were to accelerate and complete one rotation in three hours instead of twenty-four, we would be in big trouble! The most important thing in life, too, is to find a sure and certain path and confidently advance along it.     From the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Wednesday, July 18, 2012   The ten directions are the "environment" and living beings are "life." To illustrate, environment is like the shadow, and life, the body. Without the body no shadow can exist, and without life, no environment. In the same way, life is shaped by its environment.   The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 644 On Omens Written to Shijo Kingo in 1275       Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda Wednesday, July 18, 2012   People of conviction, who stand alone, who pursue their chosen path - not only are such people good and trustworthy friends themselves, but they can make genuine friends of others. The bamboo groves of autumn are gorgeous. Each bamboo tree stands independently, growing straight and tall toward the sky. Yet in the ground, out of sight, their roots are interconnected. In the same way, true friendship is not a relationship of dependence, but of independence. It is the enduring bond that connects self-reliant individuals, comrades who share the same commitment, on a spiritual dimension.     Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (1956) p.316/317   Sensei talked about deductive and inductive reasoning.  Consciousness as viewed by the Western philosopher Heinrich Rickert of the new Kantian school and the theory of consciousness espoused in Eastern philosophy are diametrically opposed.  Western philosophy posits that consciousness begins with the six senses and then arrives at what Buddhism refers to as the seventh, eighth and ninth levels of consciousness.   Buddhism, on the other hand, teaches that consciousness arises out of the "Palace of the Ninth Consciousness of Essential Truth" and permeates the eighth, seventh, and first six levels of consciousness.  There are deductive civilizations and inductive civilizations.  Which surpasses the other?  It is important to strike a balance between these two.  What will the future hold?