Sensei's Daily Encouragement - January 01 2023 - Year of Youth and Triumph.



Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
January 1, 2023
 
Those who wake up each morning with work to accomplish and a mission to fulfill are the happiest people of all. SGI members are like this. For us each day is one of supreme purpose and satisfaction. For us each day is New Year's Day. Please exert yourselves vigorously with the determination to live each day to the fullest, so that you may compose a golden diary of life.
________________________________
 
From The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
January 1, 2023
 
I have received a hundred slabs of steamed rice cake and a basket of fruit. New Year's Day marks the first day, the first month, the beginning of the year, and the start of spring. A person who celebrates this day will accumulate virtue and be loved by all, just as the moon becomes full gradually, moving from west to east, and as the sun shines more brightly, traveling from east to west.
 
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 1137
New Year's Gosho
Written to wife of Omosu on January 5, year unknown
________________________________
 
Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
January 1, 2023
 
If the minds of living beings are impure, their land is also impure, but if their minds are pure, so is their land. There are not two lands, pure or impure in themselves. The difference lies solely in the good or evil of our minds. It is the same with a Buddha and an ordinary being. While deluded, one is called an ordinary being, but when enlightened, one is called a Buddha. This is similar to a tarnished mirror that will shine like a jewel when polished – Nichiren.
________________________________
 
Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (14 October 1957) p.343
 
Got my wife to help edit my manuscript. Worked until late. Moonlight glistens through the window. Ah! Youth's emotions and passion shine all the more brilliantly! And my wife's face is so beautiful. Both, so young. Will never forget our youth together.
         ________________________________