Sensei's Daily Encouragement - 12 February 2021 - Year of Hope and Victory

    Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda

February 12, 2021

The important thing is to hold firm to your beliefs without being influenced or swayed by what others do or say. Those who live this way are strong and free of regret. What matters most is how you lead your life - not what those around you are doing.

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From The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin

February 12, 2021

Thus faith is the basic requirement for entering the way of the Buddha. In the fifty-two stages of bodhisattva practice, the first ten stages, dealing with faith are basic, and the first of these ten stages is that of arousing pure faith. Though lacking in knowledge of Buddhism, a person of faith, even if dull-witted, is to be reckoned as a person of correct views. But even though one has some knowledge of Buddhism, if one is without faith, then one is to be considered a slanderer and an icchantika, or person of incorrigible disbelief.

The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 141

The Daimoku of the Lotus Sutra

Recipient unknown; written on January 6, 1266

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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda

February 12, 2021

You may have fundamental questions about yourself and your identity: Who am I? What should I do with my life? It is quite natural to feel unsure about the best way to proceed. If you haven't yet decided on your future course, I feel the best thing is just to concentrate your energies on what you need to do right now, and gradually your full potential will emerge.

 

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Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (28 December 1957) p. 369

I will only be twenty-nine for a few more days. Soon I will be thirty. I can no longer go on being a spoiled child. Must study. Must develop my true ability. Must fight.

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With each year's passage, I feel my responsibility deepen. Another year of Sensei's lectures and of advancing my own study has ended. As I look back, I keenly sense my growth this year. Deeply, powerfully, toward revealing the actual proof of the inconspicuous benefit of Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism.

Will climb the coming year's new slope.