Sensei's Daily Encouragement -December 22 2024- Year of Fresh Departure for a Youthful Soka Gakkai Worldwide

    

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
December 22, 2024
 
Our lives are infinitely precious. To not attain a state of absolute happiness in this life time is a great loss. Our Buddhist practice exists so that we can attain indestructible happiness. We must fight to the fullest right now, not some time in the future.
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From The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
December 22, 2024
 
Since we are now living in the latter age when people are shallow in wisdom and puffed up with pride, it is unlikely that anyone will heed the points I have made in the discussion above. But when a sage or worthy appears, then the full truth of the matter will no doubt become clear. Because I care about you, I have written this letter as a guide. I hope you will study it when you have time.
 
Letter to Shomitsu-bo
This letter was written at Minobu 1277 and addressed to Shomitsu-bo, thought to be one of Nichiren Daishonin's disciples living at Seicho-ji temple in the province of Awa .
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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
December 22, 2024
 
Even if you are born into the most affluent of circumstances or enjoy a spectacular marriage that is the envy of others, there is no guarantee that you will be happy. Happiness does not depend on wealth or personal appearance, nor does it hinge on fame or recognition. If your heart is empty, you cannot build genuine happiness.
There is an expansive life-state of profound, secure happiness that transcends any material or social advantage. It is called faith; it is called the life-state of Buddhahood.
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Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (26 September 1957) p.336
 
Have now practice this faith for ten years. What will my destiny hold over the next ten years? Life is win or lose. Cannot help sensing the approach of new storm-driven waves of difficulty.
 
Attended an evening Bunkyo Chapter group chiefs meeting. Discussed:
1. Human relationships
2. Reading.
3. The spirit of offering.
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Sensei's Daily Encouragement -December 21 2024- Year of Fresh Departure for a Youthful Soka Gakkai Worldwide

    

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
December 21, 2024
 
Buddhism holds that everything is in a constant state of flux. Thus the question is whether we are to accept change passively and be swept away by it or whether we are to take the lead and create positive changes on our own initiative. While conservatism and self-protection might be likened to winter, night and death, the spirit of pioneering and attempting to realize ideals evokes images of spring, morning and birth.
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From The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
December 21, 2024
 
Likewise the people of Japan , by becoming enemies of the Lotus Sutra, have brought ruin on themselves and their country. And because I proclaim this, I am called arrogant by those of little understanding. But I do not speak out of arrogance. It is simply that if I did not speak out I would not be the votary of the Lotus Sutra. Moreover, when my words prove later to be true, people will be able to believe all the more readily. And because I write this down now, the people of the future will recognize my wisdom.
 
The Supremacy of the Law
Nichiren Daishonin wrote this letter at Minobu in 1275. It was addressed to Oto, the daughter of Nichimyo, an earnest believer living inKamakura .
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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
December 21, 2024
 
Even if today may seem to be a time of total darkness, it will not last forever. The dawn will surely come if you advance, ever forward, without being defeated. The day will definitely come when you can look back fondly and declare, "I am savoring this happiness because I struggled back then." It is those who know the bitterness of winter that can savor the true joy of spring.
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Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (25 September 1957) p.336
 
It's been a little more than two months since my release from jail.
Lately, keenly sense how profoundly important an experience it was.
Someday, I will record what happened for posterity. To do so, must jot down my memories.
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Sensei's Daily Encouragement -December 20 2024- Year of Fresh Departure for a Youthful Soka Gakkai Worldwide

    

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
 December 20, 2024
 
President Toda used to say: "Don't be impatient. Since you have embraced the Gohonzon, your situation will definitely improve. There's no need to worry. Sure there will be hard times, times when you feel like crying. But as long as you have the Gohonzon, your life will become bright and joyful." As long as we persevere in faith, we will become happy. We must never doubt this no matter what happens but always advance resolutely, staunchly enduring all hardships and obstacles along the way. This is what true faith is.
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From The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
 December 20, 2024
 
In the past, Virtue Victorious offered a mudpie to the Buddha, and was reborn as King Ashoka... A poor woman cut off her hair and sold it to buy oil [for the Buddha], and not even the winds sweeping down from Mount Sumeru could extinguish the flame of the lamp fed by this oil. Accordingly, your offerings of two and three strings of coins are far greater even than those of the ruler of Japan , who may offer the nation and build a pagoda adorned with the seven kinds of treasures that reaches to the heaven of the thirty-three gods.
 
Reply to Onichi-nyo
This letter was written at Minobu in 1280 to a woman named Onichi-nyo
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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
 December 20, 2024
 
Creation is quite different from mere ideas. Even ideas require fundamental and extensive speculative accumulation. It goes without saying that creation in learning demands an incomparably greater fundamental ability. The task of creation is like a lofty mountain whose summit is formed only when there exist vast slopes and a solid foundation. Likewise, the fruitful work of creation can only be attained when it is based on the extensive knowledge of learning and profound speculation.
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Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (18 July 1957) p.335/36
 
Listened to Sensei's lecture for the first time in a while. Worry alone about how long Sensei will live.
Sensei! Sensei! My only wish is that you survive in good health until kosen-rufu is achieved.
I thought seriously about Sensei and about the Gakkai headquarters. I am willing to sacrifice myself. The prosecutors' interrogation was laden with schemes. Angry feelings are growing steadily stronger. We will by all means create a time when truth will win over all. Must accurately record the facts.
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Sensei's Daily Encouragement -December 19 2024- Year of Fresh Departure for a Youthful Soka Gakkai Worldwide

    

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
December 19, 2024
 
Encouragement - offering encouraging words -is important. Nichiren Daishonin states, "The voice does the Buddha's work" (Gosho Zenshu, p. 708). Sincere words of encouragement have the power to give people hope and courage to go on living.
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From The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
December 19, 2024
 
Great evil portends the arrival of great good. If all of Jambudvipa were to be thrown into chaos, there could be no doubt that [this sutra would] "be widely propagated throughout Jambudvipa."
 
The Kalpa of Decrease
Neither the date nor addressee of this letter is known.
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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
December 19, 2024
 
Relationship problems are opportunities to grow and mature. Such problems can be character building if you don't let them defeat you. That's why it's important not to isolate yourself. No one can exist apart from others. Remaining aloof from others cultivates selfishness, which accomplishes nothing.
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Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (17 July 1957) p.335
 
I was released today 17th, at 12:10 p.m. Several hundred Osaka members greeted me. Overjoyed. The Gakkai is strong. The Gakkai is right. The Gakkai is the most beautiful of organizations.
For the rest of my life, I shall never forget my friends from Tokyo who rushed to Osaka out of concern for me…
At 1:30p.m. went to Itami Airport to greet Sensei. Shed tears deep in my heart at my mentor's profound compassion. Aware that the concern and worry Sensei has felt for me on this occasion have been deeper than the ocean. Must, by all means, spend the rest of my life repaying my great debt of gratitude to him.
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Sensei's Daily Encouragement -December 18 2024- Year of Fresh Departure for a Youthful Soka Gakkai Worldwide

    

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
December 18, 2024
 
We SGI members devote ourselves to serving the Law, serving humanity. Ours is not an egocentric life. That is why we are busier than others and perhaps don't have as much opportunity for relaxation with our families. Nevertheless, we continue to devote ourselves to others. Ours is the most noble way of life. We must make sure our children can understand and respect our beliefs, our way of life and our dedication. We must make conscious efforts to verbalize and communicate our thoughts and feelings to them. Finding the wisdom for this task is an expression of our faith.
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From the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
December 18, 2024
 
In commenting on this passage, I have this to say: Shakyamuni taught that the shallow is easy to embrace, but the profound is difficult. To discard the shallow and seek the profound is the way of a person of courage.
 
The Selection of the Time
This treatise, counted among Nichiren Daishonin's five major writings and written at Minobu in the first year of Kenji (1275)
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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
December 18, 2024
 
Live with a dancing spirit. The stars in the heavens are dancing through space, the Earth never ceases to spin. All life is dancing: the trees with the wind, the waves on the sea, the birds, the fish, all are performing their own dance of life. Every living thing is dancing, and you must keep dancing too, for the rest of your life!
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Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (17 July 1957) p.335
 
It is clear the charges are groundless. Yet, I had no choice but to take responsibility for the actions of those under my charge. But I am outraged at the vote-buying activities of N. and the others from K. Chapter and the irresponsible attitude of the chapter leaders. They have forgotten Sensei's spirit and the Gakkai's lofty tradition. It's deplorable.
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Sensei's Daily Encouragement -December 17 2024- Year of Fresh Departure for a Youthful Soka Gakkai Worldwide

    

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
December 17, 2024
 
We are all human beings; in that regard, we are all the same. The only real difference lies in people's life-conditions. Our life-condition continues beyond death, into eternity. Therefore, as the Daishonin says, "Faith alone is what really matters."
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 From the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
December 17, 2024
 
The Buddha's utterances have become the works that compose the entire body of sutras and bring benefit to all living beings. And among the sutras, the Lotus Sutra is a manifestation in writing of the Thus Come One Shakyamuni's intent; it is his voice set down in written words. Thus the Buddha's heart is embodied in these written words. To illustrate, it is like seeds that sprout, grow into plants, and produce rice. Though the form of the rice changes, its essence remains the same.
 
The Pure and Far-Reaching Voice
This letter was written at Ichinosawa on Sado Island in 1272 and addressed to Shijo Kingo 
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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
December 17, 2024
 
There is no self-improvement without effort. Without taking action, happiness will never come, no matter how long you wait. A life without peaks and valleys is a fairy tale. Reality is strict, because it is a win or lose struggle. This is the way it is for human beings. Therefore, you should not allow yourselves to be battered about by reality but rather willingly rise to its challenges and use them as opportunities to train and strengthen yourselves.
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Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (17 July 1957) p.335
 
July 3 was the anniversary of President Toda's release from prison.
At 4:00 p.m. on this very significant anniversary, I entered the Osaka Prefectural police headquarters. The charge: door-to-door vote solicitation. I was held for fifteen days for interrogation by the prosecutors – the first few days in various cells at the police headquarters, then for ten days at the detention centre.
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Sensei's Daily Encouragement -December 16 2024- Year of Fresh Departure for a Youthful Soka Gakkai Worldwide

    

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
December 16, 2024
 
Outward appearance is not important -- what counts is what is inside our hearts. Are there heart-to-heart bonds? Some families may always be together physically but are estranged at heart. Some families can only get together for brief periods but manage to enjoy concentrated and lively heart-to-heart communication when they do meet. Families that share bonds of closeness based on day-to-day efforts are ones in which the members feel comfortable and at ease with each other, no matter where they are or what they're doing.
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From the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
December 16, 2024
 
The scripture known as the Nirvana Sutra lists the beings that have been able to attain the way through the Lotus Sutra, and the list includes such filthy creatures as dung beetles, vipers, and scorpions. To express the wonderful power of the Lotus Sutra, Bodhisattva Nagarjuna says that it enables even such creatures as dung beetles to attain Buddhahood.
 
Great Bodhisattva Hachiman
This letter was written at Minobu 1280 to Nichigen-nyo, the wife of Shijo Kingo, but its contents suggest that it was intended for them both.
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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
December 16, 2024
 
A society that has sacrificed so much to material wealth that it has forgotten the human heart and the better human aspirations degenerates into something compassionless, doctrinaire, ignorant and ultraconservative. When this happens, fundamental solutions to calamities become impossible. If we protect the truth and are resolute, we are capable of creating peace and prosperity. And the truth we must protect ought to be high and great. Our great truth --- the thing that we must protect to the utmost -- involves ethics and the best of human nature. But more basic than anything else is our duty to guard the truth of life, the truth that we and the universe are one, and that a single ordinary human thought contains the entirety of universal life.
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Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (15 May 1957) p.333
 
In the afternoon, Z., Hiromasa and I went to see the Japan International Trade Fair. Surprised at the large number of people. Science is rapidly increasing its importance in society. People must not fall behind. To know the times, to live with the times and to create the times – forgetting this will lead to grave problems. Sense the arrival of the "Age of Automation" more keenly than ever before. Reported what we saw at the fair to Sensei. A scientist himself, he listened with apparent interest. "We must think about science and religion" were his only words of guidance.
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