Sensei's Daily Encouragement - January 5 2024 - Year of Fresh Departure for a Youthful Soka Gakkai Worldwide

    

Daily Encouragement by Daisaku Ikeda
January 5, 2024
 
Faith is light. The hearts of those with strong faith are filled with light. A radiance envelops their lives. People with unshakable conviction in faith enjoy a happiness that is as luminous as the full moon on a dark night, as dazzling as the sun on a clear day.
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From The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
January 5, 2024
 
First of all, as to the question of where exactly hell and the Buddha exist, one sutra states that hell exists underground, and another sutra says that the Buddha is in the west. Closer examination, however, reveals that both exist in our five-foot body. This must be true because hell is in the heart of a person who inwardly despises his father and disregards his mother. It is like the lotus seed, which contains both blossom and fruit. In the same way, the Buddha dwells within our hearts.
 
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 1137
New Year's Gosho
Written to the wife of Omosu on January 5, year unknown
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Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku Ikeda
January 5, 2024
 
One of the epithets of a Buddha is, "Hero of the World." A Buddha is a valiant and noble champion who has conquered the sufferings of life in the real world. Nichiren writes: "Buddhism is like the body, and society like the shadow when the body bends, so does the shadow." People can not live apart from society. But to be constantly at the mercy of society's ups and downs is a miserable existence. It is crucial for us to be strong and wise. The "body" Nichiren refers to is, on the personal level, our faith.
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Excerpt from Daisaku Ikeda - A Youthful Diary (22 October 1957) p.345
 
In the evening, Sensei explained that the "Expedient Means" chapter of the Lotus Sutra is like a child's castle built upon sand (when compared to the true teaching hidden in the "Life Span" chapter) and clarified the benefit of the character ge of renge in terms of attaining Buddhahood. He deeply elucidated the difference between Shakyamuni's Buddhism, its history and ideas, and the Daishonin's supreme philosophy of Nam-myo-renge-kyo.
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