Sensei's Daily Encouragement - August 16 2023 - Year of Youth and Triumph

    

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
August 16, 2023

Certainly there will be times when you wish you had more spending money, more time to sleep and more time for fun and recreation. You may feel restricted now, but you should consider your current situation as the perfect set of circumstances for your growth. Within the restrictions that define your present existence, the only thing to do is to discipline yourself and head in the direction of growth and self-improvement. In the process of exerting yourself in such endeavours, you will without a doubt build and strengthen your character.
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From the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
 August 16, 2023

A person's death is not determined by illness. In our own time, the people of Iki and Tsushima, though not suffering from illness, were slaughtered in an instant by the Mongols. It is not certain that, because one is ill, one will die. And could not this illness of your husband's be the Buddha's design, because the Vimalakirti and Nirvana sutras both teach that sick people will surely attain Buddhahood? Illness gives rise to the resolve to attain the way.

The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 937
The Good Medicine for All Ills
Written to the lay nun Myoshin on August 16, probably in 1278
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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
 August 16, 2023

As long as we are human, we are bound to make mistakes. We all fall prey to flawed beliefs and views. What distinguishes a forward-looking person from an intransigent one, a virtuous person from a dishonest one, however, is whether one can candidly admit to one's mistakes and take bold steps to redress them.
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Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (18 September 1954) p.200

there was a storm. I am twenty-six, the departure point for the journey of my life. Soon, this coming year, I will be twenty-seven. I end each year in the midst of a battle with myself. Sad – disappointing. Why can't I become a youth who is praised by his brilliant teacher? 
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