Ikeda Sensei sent the following message to the 2023 Youth Training Course held in Tokyo from Aug. 31 to Sept. 5, 2023. The course was the first to be held in three years and the last to be held in Sensei’s lifetime. It was attended by representative youth leaders from 44 countries, including eight from the U.S. As such, this message is addressed to all SGI youth members throughout the world.
To our young leaders of the world: I applaud you for having traveled from afar to take part in the SGI Youth Training Course, doing so by resolutely challenging every difficulty you have faced! Thank you very much indeed!
Please know that I remain very close by as I follow every step forward you take, for our lives are inextricably bonded, you and I, our hands clasped firmly together. I ask you to make this [training] course the most meaningful and memorable of all as you engage your fellow members from around the world, with whom you share a mystic bond, in friendly, uplifting discourse.
This year [2023] marks the 65th anniversary of Kosen-rufu Day (March 16), when second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda wholeheartedly entrusted kosen-rufu to his young successors. And here we are now, all of you embracing my vow to advance kosen-rufu as your own and rising up in your respective countries and communities with fervid purpose as you expand among ordinary citizens our united and inestimably sublime network of Bodhisattvas of the Earth—how unimaginably profound is your mission, how copious your great good fortune.
Nichiren Daishonin writes:
This sutra is superior to all other sutras. It is like the lion king, the monarch of all the creatures that run on the ground, and like the eagle, the king of all the creatures that fly in the sky. (“The Sutra of True Requital,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, pp. 929–30)
In a world rife with turmoil and uncertainty, you uphold the philosophy of life’s fundamental dignity, propagating the Mystic Law as you strive to transform division into harmonious coexistence, angst into hope, destruction into creation. You are none other than the most worthy champions of justice, champions endowed with wisdom and fortune.
Although words may never do justice to the difficulties you face, I must ask this of you: Always stay true to the Soka Gakkai, our grand, indivisible movement of the people, and courageously forge on to victory in high spirits. Do so as you chant daimoku like the lion king’s roar, no matter what may happen, a veritable eagle soaring upon mighty wings of compassion and wisdom.
Let us set forth, then, toward the Soka Gakkai’s centennial, striding ever onward along the sublime path of kosen-rufu that leads our global human family to genuine happiness, for to advance kosen-rufu is to advance peace for the entire planet.
My wife, Kaneko, and I will always be offering our heartfelt prayers for you, leaders who bear the outcome of the 21st century on your shoulders. May each and every one of you enjoy the best of health and far-reaching progress as a person, may your families be blessed with loving harmony and may you lead lives of happiness and triumph.
Daisaku Ikeda
Aug. 31, 2023
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