Sensei's Daily Encouragement - July 3, 2024- Year of Fresh Departure for a Youthful Soka Gakkai Worldwide

    

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
July 3, 2024
 
Those who have a mentor in life are truly fortunate. The path of mentor and disciple is one that leads to personal development and growth. Those without a mentor may appear free and unbeholden to anyone, but without a solid standard or model on which to base themselves their lives will be aimless and wandering.
 
Events
Day of Mentor and Disciple
1945 President Josei Toda is released from Toyotama Prison.
1957 President Daisaku Ikeda is arrested in Osaka on false charges.
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From the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
July 3, 2024
 
Since the Lotus Sutra defines our body as the Dharma body of a Thus Come One, our mind as the reward body of a Thus Come One, and our actions as the manifested body of a Thus Come One, all who uphold and believe in even a single phrase or verse of this sutra will be endowed with the benefits of these three bodies.
 
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 922
The One Essential Phrase
Written to the lay nun Myoho on July 3, 1278
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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
July 3, 2024
 
A mentor is indispensable if we are to develop into people of outstanding character. Viewed on a deeper level, our relationship with our mentor can have an even greater significance for us than our relationship with our parents. In the mentor-disciple relationship, we can find the very essence for achieving victory in life.
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Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (08 June 1954) p.175
 
A cool dreary day. My finances are marginal – like today's weather. Felt uninspired all day. Scolded severely by Mr. Toda in the evening. The leaders closest to him were also scolded. A day that starts out wrong, ends up the same. Carp try again and again to climb a waterfall. Grass and flowers that have been trod upon, blossom again. Surmounting many adversities, people achieve greatness. Must youth be a time of such emotional turmoil?
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Sensei's Daily Encouragement - July 2, 2024- Year of Fresh Departure for a Youthful Soka Gakkai Worldwide

    

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
July 2, 2024
 
The writer Goethe was an unflagging optimist. How was he able to maintain such optimism? Because he was always active. He did not allow his life to stagnate. He writes: "It is better to do the smallest thing in the world than to hold half an hour to be too small a thing." Spending thirty minutes a day assiduously challenging some undertaking can completely change our lives.
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From the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
July 2, 2024
 
The sutra teaches that women, evil men, and those in the realms of animality and Hell in fact, all the beings of the Ten Worlds can attain Buddhahood in their present form. [This is an incomparably greater wonder than] fire being produced by a stone taken from the bottom of a river, or a lantern lighting up a place that has been dark for a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand years. If even the most ordinary things of this world are such wonders, then how much more wondrous is the power of the Buddhist Law!"
 
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 923
The One Essential Phrase
Written to the lay nun Myoho on July 3, 1278
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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
July 2, 2024
 
If we attain the state of Buddhahood in this lifetime, that state will forever pervade our lives. Throughout the cycle of birth and death, in each new lifetime, we are endowed with good health, wealth and intelligence, along with a supportive, comfortable environment, and lead lives that overflow with good fortune. Each of us will also possess a unique mission and be born in an appropriate form to fulfill it.
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Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (07 June 1954) p.174
 
Read Wind and Waves, a book that describes the life of Teisuke Akiyama. Though it seems his life was truly interesting, I cannot sympathize with his way of thinking. Each has his or her own way of living, so as not to have any regrets. Akiyama took his course and I shall take mine.
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Sensei's Daily Encouragement - July 1, 2024- Year of Fresh Departure for a Youthful Soka Gakkai Worldwide

    

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
July 1, 2024
 
"Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is like the roar of a lion," the Daishonin says (The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 119). It is by chanting powerful daimoku, like a lion's roar, that we can move the Buddhist deities, the protective forces of the universe. The voice is very important - it has profound power. While naturally being careful not to disturb your neighbours, I hope you will endeavour to chant cheerful and powerful daimoku that reaches all the Buddhist deities and Buddhas throughout the 10 directions.
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From the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
July 1, 2024
 
Though evils may be numerous, they cannot prevail over a single great truth, just as many raging fires are quenched by a single shower of rain. This principle also holds true with Nichiren and his followers.
 
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 618
Many in Body, One in Mind
Written to the lay priest Takahashi on August 6, year unknown
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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
July 1, 2024
 
If we cherish the spirit to repay our debt of gratitude in the depths of our hearts, then our good fortune will increase by leaps and bounds. No matter how much action people might seem to be taking outwardly, if they lack the spirit to repay their debt of gratitude, their arrogance will destroy their good fortune.
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 Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (27 May 1954) p.173
 
9:30 – a chapter leaders meeting at O.'s. This month resulted in 420 new families. Worried that the chapters may get too caught up in the propagation numbers alone. My hope is that we will advance steadily, amid warm bonds of unity, without one person discarding faith or disrespecting the Gohonzon. But can such a large-scale movement be free from a little overzealousness; can we help becoming result-oriented? As of now, I cannot answer these questions, even for myself.
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