Sensei's Daily Encouragement - 20 July 2021 - Year of Hope and Victory

                    

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
July 20, 2021

 Our lives are ruled by impermanence. But simply realizing that changes nothing. There is no value in bleak pessimism. The challenge is how to create something of enduring value within the context of our impermanent lives. The Lotus Sutra teaches us how to do this.
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 From the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
July 20, 2021

 To speak out without fearing others and without flinching before society this is what the sutra means when it says, "We care nothing for our bodies or lives but are anxious only for the unsurpassed way." It is not that one does not recall the calumny, the staves and stones that were suffered by Bodhisattva Never Disparaging. It is not that one is unafraid of the world. It is just that the censure of the Lotus Sutra is even more severe.

  The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 1017
Letter to Akimoto
Written to Akimoto Taro Hyo-no-jo on January 27, 1280
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 Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
July 20, 2021

 Although I and my disciples may encounter various difficulties, if we do not harbour doubts in our hearts, we will as a matter of course attain Buddhahood. Do not have doubts simply because heaven does not lend you protection. Do not be discouraged because you do not enjoy an easy and secure existence in this life. This is what I have taught my disciples morning and evening, and yet they begin to harbour doubts and abandon their faith – Nichiren
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Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (01July 1954) p. 185

 Tonight Mars shone with mysterious brilliance and clarity. Cannot help pondering the wonder of the universe and its heavenly bodies.
 Fluctuations, centripetal force, gravitation; light-years, atmosphere, distance, circular form; living beings, life and death – how mysterious! Must come to understand it by living my entire life based upon the Mystic Law. Never have I thought so seriously about life and death as I have tonight. Rather, I have never been so worried about it.
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