Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
Thursday, August 13, 2015
An important thing is that you concentrate on developing yourself. Whatever others may say or do, those who have established their own solid sense of identity will triumph in the end. The great Japanese author Eiji Yoshikawa (1892-1962) wrote in his novel Miyamoto Musashi [an account of the seventeenth-century master swordsman of the same name]: "Rather than worrying about your future, thinking ' Perhaps I should become this or perhaps I should become that,' first be still and build a self that is as solid and unmoving as Mount Fuji."
From the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Could "enjoy themselves at ease" mean anything but that both our bodies and minds, lives and environments, are entities of three thousand realms in a single moment of life and Buddhas of limitless joy? There is no true happiness other than upholding faith in the Lotus Sutra. This is what is meant by "peace and security in their present existence and good circumstances in future existences."
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 681
Happiness in This World
Written to Shijo Kingo on June 27, 1276
Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Buddhism teaches that human life is endowed simultaneously with both good and evil. The human mind is interpreted as partaking of ten different conditions, or states, including, at one end of the scale, hell, which is filled with suffering; hunger, dominated by greed; and animality, characterized by fear of the strong and contempt for the weak. At the other end are the Bodhisattva and Buddha conditions - states of mind in which people strive to help others by eliminating suffering and imparting happiness. Buddhism further teaches that the nature of life is for good and evil to be essentially inseparable.
Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (02 January 1950 p.18)
Got up early at 4:40 a.m.. So cold!
New Year's pilgrimage to the head temple. Walked vigorously to Omori Station. The train leaves Tokyo at 6.00; I boarded from Shinagawa at 6:12.
Met the others there. Everyone in high spirits.
Remember to live confidently with dignity...
Morinata and I sat next to Mr Toda. He talked to us about Hall Caine's The Eternal City.
This year, I'm determined to live powerfully.
No comments:
Post a Comment