Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
Monday, May 27, 2013
Forward! Always forward! This is a basic spirit of Buddhism. Nichiren Daishonin's teaching is the Buddhism of true cause. We live with our gaze fixed on the future, not hung up on the past. To advance eternally - this is the essence of life and the essence of what it means to be a practitioner of the Daishonin's Buddhism.
From the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
Monday, May 27, 2013
To accept, uphold, read, recite, take delight in, and protect all the eight volumes and twenty-eight chapters of the Lotus Sutra is called the comprehensive practice. To accept, uphold, and protect the "Expedient Means" chapter and the "Life Span" chapter is called the abbreviated practice. And simply to chant one four-phrase verse or the daimoku, and to protect those who do so, is called the essential practice. Hence, among these three kinds of practice, comprehensive, abbreviated, and essential, the daimoku is defined as the essential practice.
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 143
The Daimoku of the Lotus Sutra
Recipient unknown; written on January 6, 1266
Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
Monday, May 27, 2013
Similar to the unifying and integrating self that Carl Jung perceived in the depths of the ego, the term greater self in Buddhism expresses the openness and expansiveness of character by which we can embrace all people's sufferings as our own. The greater self always seeks to alleviate pain and to augment the happiness of others here amid the realities of everyday life. Furthermore, the dynamic, vital awakening of the greater self enables each individual to experience both life and death with equal delight.
Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (25 October 1949) p.11/12
Cloudy skies in the morning. Later, the autumn rains. Gloomy day.
It was announced that we would stop publishing Boys' Japan. Utterly discouraged. Nothing to do all morning but deal with visitors in the editorial room or in the office.
If the Earth were to stop turning on its axis, the reaction would be overwhelming. If an engine suddenly broke down while a plane was in flight, the result would be tragic. Up until now, I poured my whole life into that magazine, and now it's been discontinued. Naturally, it's a shock.
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