Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
Saturday, June 15, 2013
The Daishonin teaches the meaning of true happiness and the true purpose of life. Fame and momentary glories are no more than illusions. True happiness lies in cultivating the great state of Buddhahood within one's life. This is life's true purpose. By chanting daimoku, we can change all of our sufferings into the ingredients for attaining a Buddha's lofty state of life.
From the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Furthermore, human beings have two heavenly gods who always accompany them, just as a shadow follows the body. One is named Same Birth and the other Same Name. Perched on one's left and right shoulders, they protect one [by reporting all of one's deeds to heaven]. Therefore, heaven never punishes those who have committed no error, let alone people of merit. That is why the Great Teacher Miao-lo stated, "The stronger one's faith, the greater the protection of the gods." So long as one maintains firm faith, one is certain to receive the great protection of the gods.
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 614
The Supremacy of the Law
Written to Oto and her mother, Nichimyo, on August 4, 1275
Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
Saturday, June 15, 2013
The joy of heaven is ephemeral like a mirage or a dream. A life spent in pursuit of a mirage is itself a mirage. The purpose of Buddhist practice is to establish an eternally indestructible state of happiness, not a fleeting happiness that perishes like a flower but an internal palace of happiness that will last throughout all time.
Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (17 May 1950) p.22
Do society's brutal conflicts spring from the instinctive struggle to survive? Are they inevitable if one is to live and prosper? How base it all seems! It saddens me.
But with us it is different. Ultimately we must discern the nature and essence of such conflicts and discover the laws in operation there. Great thought and great statesmanship will spring from that understanding.
Clearly, a supreme philosophy will resolve the dissension.
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