Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
Sunday, May 25, 2014
The heart is most important of all. In his classic The Little Prince, the French author Antoine de Saint-Exupery writes: "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." It is just as he says. We cannot always tell whether something is genuine just with our eyes. Only by looking with the heart can we discern the true essence.
From the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
Sunday, May 25, 2014
If a spark as small as a bean is set to a single blade of grass in a spring field of a thousand square ri thick with grass, it becomes in an instant an immeasurable, boundless blaze. Such is also the case with this robe [you have offered]. Though only one robe, it has been offered to the Buddhas of all the characters of the Lotus Sutra. Be firmly convinced that the benefits from this will extend to your parents, your grandparents, nay, even to countless living beings, not to mention your own husband, whom you hold most dear.
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 533
The Offering of an Unlined Robe
Written to the lady of Sajiki on May 25, 1275
Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
Sunday, May 25, 2014
The Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore compares the function of evil to the banks of a river. The riverbanks are obstructions, but they are necessary for keeping the river on track and flowing steadily forward. Without banks, the river would overflow, causing destruction instead of creating value.
Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (26 July 1954) p.195
Today was the first summerlike day of the season. Worried if the low temperatures continue, the rice crops will suffer. Praying for an abundant harvest…
In this world, economic collapse means the end of everything – the nation, the individual and the family. Is this the way it should be? No, the ultimate problem lies in preventing the environment from sapping people's determination, in other words, their resolution to defeat devilish forces. Either our determination is destroyed by the environment or we develop a condition of life powerful enough to reconstruct the environment. Must ponder deeply the relationship between life and its environment.
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