The World Tribune is publishing Ikeda Sensei’s encouragement every month for the SGI-USA women’s division’s America Victory Daimoku Group and Sophia Group meetings. The following excerpt is from The New Human Revolution, vol. 18, pp. 165–66.
Nichiren Daishonin writes, “Nichiren is like the plant, and my teacher, the earth” (“Flowering and Bearing Grain,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 909). Without the teacher or mentor, the student or disciple cannot exist. What, then, is the way to repay one’s debt of gratitude to one’s mentor? Nichiren concludes, “If one intends to repay these great debts of gratitude, one can hope to do so only if one learns and masters Buddhism, becoming a person of wisdom” (“On Repaying Debts of Gratitude,” WND-1, 690). We need to study Buddhism and strive to become people of wisdom who open the way to happiness and peace for all people—in other words, we must become great leaders of kosen-rufu.
It is crucial that disciples develop to the extent that they surpass their mentor, devoting themselves earnestly for the sake of the Law and working for the betterment of society. … In fact, it is through the actions of disciples that the mentor’s true worth is recognized and the mentor’s dreams and visions realized.
Nichiren declares: “It is said that, if a teacher has a good disciple, both will gain the fruit of Buddhahood, but if a teacher fosters a bad disciple, both will fall into hell. If teacher and disciple are of different minds, they will never accomplish anything” (“Flowering and Bearing Grain,” WND-1, 909).
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