Sensei's Daily Encouragement - 22 January 2020 - Year of Advancement and Capable People

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda

January 22, 2020 

Ultimately, happiness rests on how you establish a solid sense of self or being. Happiness does not lie in outward appearances nor in vanity. It is a matter of what you feel inside; it is a deep resonance in your life. To be filled each day with a rewarding sense of exhilaration and purpose, a sense of tasks accomplished and deep fulfillment - people who feel this way are happy. Those who have this sense of satisfaction even if they are extremely busy are much happier than those who have time on their hands but feel empty inside.

 

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From The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin

January 22, 2020 

A hundred years of practice in the land of Perfect Bliss cannot compare to the benefit gained from one day's practice in the impure world. Two thousand years of propagating Buddhism during the Former and Middle Days of the Law are inferior to an hour of propagation in the Latter Day of the Law. This is in no way because of Nichiren's wisdom, but simply because the time makes it so. In spring the blossoms open, in autumn the fruit appears. Summer is hot, winter is cold. The season makes it so, does it not?" 

The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 736

On Repaying Debts of Gratitude

Written to Joken-bo and Gijo-bo on July 21, 1276

 

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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda

January 22, 2020 

There is a saying that the earth upon which we fall is the same ground which enables us to push ourselves up again. There's another which maintains that barley grows better after it has been trampled on. Human relationships are sometimes painful, but there is no such pain from which we cannot recover. It is up to us to decide to live a life free from self-doubt and despair in spite of our failures. Indeed, it is during our most humbling moments that we should show greatest poise and grace. Then the dignity of our lives will truly shine.

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 Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (23 November 1957) p.357 

The YWD general meeting held at the Kawasaki Civic Auditorium… Sensei did not attend. A sad, forlorn general meeting. Is this evidence that the Gakkai has entered an important new stage?…

The general meeting centered on the theme of President Toda's "Declaration for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons." I also talked about the atomic bomb… 

An executive conference at F. until late in the evening. My wife went to Sensei's home in Meguro to check on him. His condition did not seem good, she told me. Greatly concerned. Deeply regret not having gone to Sensei's home to report. Extremely exhausted.