Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
Friday, May 27, 2016
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
Friday, May 27, 2016
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
Friday, May 27, 2016
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 (09 February 1954) p.156
Yesterday evening, President Toda had a bout of ill health. Heard that his condition is extremely poor. There is no excuse for my absence at such a crucial time. When I heard that he called out my name two or three times my heart ached. I wonder what he was thinking. He seems a little better today. My only hope is that he lives long. I am not the only one repeatedly amazed by his tremendous life force, which resurges like a great immortal Phoenix...
Met with Sensei in the president's office at 10:30. He is completely unshaken by yesterday's episode. My noble mentor! "Study! Study!" he told me.
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