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Brief Guidances

Dedicating One’s Youth to a Lofty Ideal

Words of Encouragement From Ikeda Sensei

May 10, 2021

My wish is that all my disciples make a great vow.

“The Dragon Gate,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 1003

This letter is addressed to Nanjo Tokimitsu, who steadfastly followed the path of mentor and disciple from the time he was the age of today’s future division members.[1] As a young man of wisdom, he fought courageously to support and protect his fellow practitioners during the Atsuhara Persecution.[2]

None are nobler or stronger than those who dedicate their youth to the great vow for kosen-rufu. To be a successor of Soka means striving for the unsurpassed ideal of realizing peace and happiness for all humanity.

My young friends of the future division, the “torchbearers of justice,” may you grow dynamically and cheerfully, with hearts as vast as the earth and the ocean.

Translated from the May 5, 2021 Seikyo Shimbun, the Soka Gakkai’s daily newspaper.

References

  1. May 5 is celebrated as Soka Gakkai Successors Day. ↩︎
  2. Atsuhara Persecution: A series of threats and acts of violence against followers of the Daishonin in Atsuhara Village (in present-day central Shizuoka Prefecture), starting in around 1275 and continuing until around 1283. ↩︎

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