Sensei's Daily Encouragement - 21 May 2021 - Year of Hope and Victory

                    
        

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
May 22, 2021
 
We need to cultivate a state of life where we can thoroughly enjoy ourselves at all times. We should have such joy that even at the time of death we can declare with a happy smile: "That was wonderful! Where shall I go next?" This is the state of mind of a person with strong faith. Such individuals will be reborn without delay and in a form and in a place exactly according with their desires. Faith enables us to attain the kind of generous and all-embracing state of mind where we can enjoy everything in our lives.
 
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From the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
May 22, 2021
 
When one has had the rare good fortune to be born a human being, and the further good fortune to encounter the teachings of Buddhism, how can one waste this opportunity? If one is going to take faith at all, then among all the various teachings of the Mahayana and the Hinayana, provisional and true doctrines, one should believe in the one vehicle, the true purpose for which the Buddhas come into this world and the direct path to attaining enlightenment for all living beings.
 
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 60
Questions and Answers about Embracing the Lotus Sutra
Recipient unknown; written in March 1263
 
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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
May 22, 2021
 
Only within the open space created by dialogue, whether conducted with our neighbours, with history, with nature or the cosmos, can human wholeness be sustained. We are not born human in any but a biological sense; we can only learn to know ourselves and others and thus be trained in the ways of being human. We do this by immersion in the ocean of language and dialogue fed by the springs of cultural tradition.
 
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Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (9 January 1954) p.153
 
Worked on the second Gosho proofreading in Hatake, under the direction of Nichijun*, the retired high priest. A noble task. A sublime and important undertaking.
Must deepen my study of Buddhism. Must likewise strengthen my understanding of philosophy.
 
(*ref: p136-138 The Untold History of the Fuji School)
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