Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
Thursday, June 25, 2015
We live in an age where opportunities for profound life-to-life inspiration are all but nonexistent. Idle amusements bring only fleeting pleasure. They produce neither profound inspiration nor growth for one's life. By contrast, Buddhism exists to enable people to realize personal growth and to improve their lives. Buddhism is always rooted in the reality of life. It is the wellspring of wisdom for bringing harmony and happiness to our families, local communities and society at large.
From the Writing of Nichiren Daishonin
Thursday, June 25, 2015
There are trails in the sky where birds fly, but people cannot recognize them. There are paths in the sea along which fish swim, but people cannot perceive them. All people and things of the four continents are reflected in the moon without a single exception, but people cannot see them. But they are visible to the heavenly eye. In like manner, ordinary people cannot see that the "Treasure Tower" chapter exists within the body of Lady Nichinyo, but Shakyamuni, Many Treasures, and the Buddhas of the ten directions perceive it. I, Nichiren, also presume this to be the case.
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 915
An Outline of the "Entrustment" and Other Chapters
Written to Nichinyo on June 25, 1278
Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
Thursday, June 25, 2015
The first thing is to pray. From the moment we begin to pray, things start moving. The darker the night, the closer the dawn. From the moment we chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with a deep and powerful resolve, the sun begins to rise in our hearts. Hope - prayer is the sun of hope. To chant each time we face a problem, overcoming it and elevating our life condition as a result - this is the path of "changing earthly desires into enlightenment," taught in Nichiren Buddhism.
Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (09 April 1960) p.498
Myoho-renge-kyo - my mentor Josei Toda; let me live and fight with composure until the beginning of the sixth anniversary of my mentor's passing. I am thirty-two - too young.
On that anniversary of my mentor's death I will be thirty-six, beginning the thirty-seventh year of my life the same age at which Nikko Shonin succeeded the Daishonin.
Ah - is there no one else who can take leadership in place of my tired, worn-out self? Have no one to talk to. My wife quietly watches over me in agony.
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