To foster and raise the young people of today is to nurture the future itself. This was Ikeda Sensei’s unwavering belief, one that he dedicated his entire life to realizing.
Embodying this same spirit, SGI-USA members across the country are making heartfelt efforts to befriend, support and empower youth in their communities. With the motto “Creating a District With Many Youth Is Up to Me” as their guide, they are working to ensure that each young person receives the care and encouragement they need to stand up on their own and live a life of happiness.
This effort is not just about supporting individuals. It is the foundation for ensuring the lasting development of our kosen-rufu movement for generations to come.
Sensei wrote about how the efforts of the men’s and women’s members to create a warm environment for youth is the key to expanding our movement. In volume 18 of The New Human Revolution, he explains:
It is also vital, for the future of kosen-rufu, that the members of the men’s and women’s divisions cherish and support our young people and that they do their utmost to foster them. … The future of kosen-rufu depends entirely on our ability to foster youth who can succeed us in our noble endeavor. …
From the early days of the Soka Gakkai, the districts and chapters that experienced tremendous growth were those in which the men’s division and women’s division members treasured young people and created a warm Soka family atmosphere. Propagation activities were also carried out with all divisions uniting and working together harmoniously.
When men and women are broad-minded and supportive, young people feel comfortable and can participate in activities freely and confidently. With their rich life experience, the men and women can also offer helpful advice to the youth as they struggle with various problems. Such support enables the youth to develop their potential. (p. 265)
This month, Living Buddhism spent time speaking with four new youth members about their faith experiences and what being a part of the SGI community means to them.
‘I Feel Like I’m a Part of Something’
Matthew Kaase
City: Circle Pines, Minnesota // Joined: March 2025
Living Buddhism: How were you introduced to Buddhism?
Matthew Kaase: For most of my life, I was very quiet and kept to myself—watching movies, reading books, playing video games. In the past several years, I realized that I wasn’t interacting with the community or society at all. As a way to challenge my isolation, I began doing community service at a church.
I was having a conversation about my volunteer work with a co-worker one day when she told me she was Buddhist. I had learned a little about Buddhism in high school, when I was struggling to fit in. We started talking about the different kinds of Buddhism, and my co-worker invited me to check out an SGI meeting.
What was your first meeting like?
Matthew: I’d only really known about Tibetan Buddhism, so I imagined there would be monks and very strict rules I had to follow. When I showed up at the discussion meeting at someone’s house, I was surprised at how casual and friendly everyone was. When everyone started chanting, I remember knowing right away that it was something I was very interested in.
Did you start attending meetings after that?
Matthew: In the beginning, it was very difficult to attend meetings because I was working as a cook, and it was hard getting Sundays off. But I was committed to practicing and studying Buddhism. I chanted to get a new job with a better schedule, and I did, as a security guard. Now, I can go to meetings on Sundays, and I have been supporting as Soka Group every last Sunday of the month.
What do you enjoy the most about your Buddhist practice?
Matthew: I love the community and how welcoming and involved it is. It sounds sad, but these days, it’s hard to find good people. I think getting to be around kind people and having a community to learn from and discuss life with is refreshing. I love attending district meetings to catch up with the district members.
Every week, the person who introduced me and I get together at the center to chant, and on Sundays, we study together on Zoom. From the very beginning, I feel like she’s had my back. I recently introduced my cousin to Buddhism, and he’s been joining our study sessions. He’s going to become a member soon!
The young men’s leader in my area has also been supporting me a lot. Over the last few months, I’ve had a lot of changes in my life, including some medical challenges as well as dealing with my anxiety. Sometimes, I feel like everything is overwhelming, and I tell myself that I’ll chant later. But the support of the members has kept me on track.
My entire life, I’ve been a bit of a ghost to a lot of things. I might show up to something, but I never really interact with others. But with the SGI, I feel like I’m a part of something. It’s helped me become more comfortable socially.
What are the greatest benefits of Buddhist practice?
Matthew: I’ve started feeling like myself again. Goals that I’ve had in the past started manifesting around me, and it’s helped me get out of the assembly line mentality of life of just work, sleep, repeat. This practice has made me feel like I’ve woken up, and I’m looking forward to fulfilling my goals in life.
What kinds of goals and dreams do you have now?
Matthew: I’d like to become a security guard at a museum or zoo and have the free time and financial stability to spend more time with family and friends. I also want to do my part to introduce more people to Buddhism and pull my weight for kosen-rufu.
A Greater Reservoir of Resilience
Victoria Sánchez
City: Los Angeles // Joined: April 2024
Living Buddhism: How were you introduced to Buddhism?
Victoria Sánchez: My mother began practicing SGI Nichiren Buddhism over 15 years ago following her divorce from my dad. She encouraged my sister and me to explore the practice, but I wasn’t open to it back then. I was a classic science nerd who was driven by a belief in reason and evidence. I firmly distanced myself from both my mother’s Buddhist practice and my dad’s Catholic faith, thinking neither aligned with my views. Looking back, I realize that Buddhism aligned with me far more than I understood at the time.
A year and a half after moving to Los Angeles in 2022, I was navigating the aftermath of a challenging breakup and struggling to adjust to a new city. Feeling spiritually unmoored, I reached out to a healer in Los Angeles to help manage my growing anxiety and depression. During one of our sessions, she asked if I had heard of Nam-myoho-
renge-kyo.
I hadn’t heard those words in over 15 years. Initially, I resisted, but as my anxiety worsened, I found myself increasingly drawn to the practice. Attending my first Buddhist meeting in January 2024 confirmed what I had been missing—a spiritual community and practice that truly resonated with me. Within a week, I felt a sense of calmness. The more I chanted, the lighter I felt. I slept better. I wasn’t having as many panic attacks or nightmares. The benefits were immediate.
Those internal benefits are indeed the most important. How else did your life change?
Victoria: Shortly after I started chanting, I was laid off from the job that brought me to Los Angeles. I wrote down my goal of getting a new job, just as the members encouraged me to do, and I chanted. A month and a half later, the company that laid me off called me back to interview for a higher position within the company. Out of hundreds of people who were laid off, I was one of the few they hired back. This, for me, was great actual proof.
For SGI members, the community is one of the greatest benefits of Buddhist practice. What has your experience with the SGI community been like?
Victoria: The SGI community, especially my district, has been a profound source of encouragement. I have met so many incredible people who have opened their hearts and homes to me, truly sustaining my practice.
There have been two people in particular who I feel are my main sources of support, although I can name 15 others who have supported me.
The first is the person who introduced me. We are now district co-leaders. She has been a steadfast guide, and I deeply admire her leadership and dedication to our community. She has introduced countless young people to this practice, and I feel like it’s my mission to share Buddhism with as many young people as possible, too, so that they can also find a deeper well of resilience in their life.
The region young women’s division leader has also been a tremendous support. She feels like a sister to me. With her encouragement, I began participating in the Byakuren Group this year, supporting the members behind the scenes. She’s been incredibly generous, often driving me to meetings, teaching me gongyo and sharing Gosho passages that inspire my faith. We enjoy a lot of laughs together. I’m endlessly grateful for her support and leadership.
What would you say has been your biggest benefit of practicing Buddhism?
Victoria: The greatest benefit has been the sense of connection, both to myself and to a community of people who genuinely chant for my happiness as I do for theirs. Because of this warm, compassionate, driven group of people who are striving for goals themselves and genuinely interested in supporting the goals I have, I feel like I have gained solid footing in my life again. I still have challenges, but I have the tools that allow me to tap into a greater reservoir of resilience and strength.
This practice has opened me more deeply to self-love, self-worth and the ability to slow down and appreciate the present moment. My anxiety has significantly decreased, and in moments when it does resurface, I return to the Gohonzon, a powerful and invaluable source of strength, and chant through it. I needed a practice that could sustain me through life’s challenges without feeling constantly exhausted or defeated, and that’s what I found in my Buddhist practice.
My mother, who stopped practicing years ago, has responded to the change she’s seen in me and has started practicing Buddhism again with her local SGI community in Chicago!
What are your goals for the future?
Victoria: I’m currently learning Portuguese and hope to become fluent, go to Brazil and even connect with the SGI community there. I’m also an avid runner and have a goal of running all six of the Abbot World Marathon Majors in New York, Chicago, Boston, London, Tokyo and Berlin. I want to continue advancing in my career in the gaming and entertainment industry, contributing to more diverse and inclusive stories and characters in games and media. I hope to keep exploring my creative and academic pursuits at the intersection of technology and inclusion. I’m excited to keep pushing the conversation forward.
Finding My Purpose
Dragos Pinteliete
City: San Francisco // Joined: December 2023
Living Buddhism: How did you start your Buddhist practice?
Dragos Pinteliete: I was initially told about Buddhism in 2020. A regular customer at my workplace, who became a good friend, shared Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with me. I was kind of interested in the philosophy and wanted to learn more, but because meetings were only happening on Zoom, I didn’t pursue it. Plus, I didn’t have any major struggles or problems then.
In the next three years, my life hit rock bottom. I was struggling with substance abuse, I had problems at my job, and I got into trouble with the law. I had been asking myself, What is the purpose of life, why am I even living? The day after I got out of jail, this friend called me. “It’s time you start practicing Buddhism,” he said. At that point, I couldn’t deny it, and I embraced Buddhism.
What did it feel like to chant for the first time?
Dragos: Chanting felt familiar. The pronunciation was similar to my language. Then, when I woke up the next morning, I realized how much it calmed me down. I felt like, OK, this is working somehow.
What has been your experience with the SGI community?
Dragos: For me, the most valuable thing that the SGI offers is the community. I don’t know if I’d be here if it weren’t for all the people who have supported me.
In the SGI, there are people constantly checking in with you. There were times when people would call or text, and I wouldn’t answer for two or three days, but I’ve never felt any judgment from anyone. In the beginning it was tricky to stick with chanting, but I’ve always been supported and encouraged to go beyond my comfort zone. And every time I was challenged, I was amazed at how good I felt after. For example, after sharing my experience, I was amazed at how telling my story helped me go beyond what my mind thinks I can do.
Honestly, in the beginning, I was wondering what everyone wanted from me. But over time, I realized their support gave me hope and the strength to fight for kosen-rufu. Imagine if the entire world looked like the SGI community—how we openly talk to, empower and want the best for one another. It feels like genuine humanity.
I think the fact that my friend called me right after I got out of jail to tell me I needed to practice Buddhism shows you what kind of people make up this community. I don’t know what my future would have looked like if he hadn’t reached out.
I received the Gohonzon in December 2023. Sometimes I feel like I’m progressing, and other days I feel like I’m falling behind. But then my friend calls and tells me that we are going to do it together, and I feel motivated to continue. Every step of the way, he and my young men’s leader have been there for me. It makes me want to be a stronger man so that I can support others.
What has been the greatest benefit of Buddhist practice?
Dragos: My life has changed a lot externally, but the most important change for me is that I am more in control of how I feel, how I act and how I speak. I love the idea of the Ten Worlds—that from the Buddhist perspective, you can be in hell or heaven in this lifetime because they are states of life, not places you go after you die. And that you can live beyond the world of heaven. Buddhism has empowered me to live my life at its highest potential at every moment.
You share in the beginning that you were looking for purpose. Have you found it?
Dragos: I don’t know exactly what my purpose is, but I have confidence I’ll find it. I know I have Ikeda Sensei and can live with his spirit. I’m striving to center my life on kosen-rufu and break the shell of selfishness so that I’m always thinking about others. I know I’ll be a great man if I live this way.
My Family Away From Home
Niranjanaa Jayakumar
City: Atlanta // Joined: November 2024
Living Buddhism: How did you start practicing Buddhism?
Niranjanaa Jayakumar: I’m an international student from India. I came to America at 17 to pursue my bachelor’s. It had always been a dream of mine to study in the U.S., but when I arrived, I had no support, and I was new to the culture so I struggled a lot—
emotionally, mentally, physically, financially and in relationships. Soon after I arrived, I connected with a professor who felt very familiar to me. She supported me a lot in the first couple of years and continues to be a great support even now. One day, she introduced me to her friend who told me about Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. My professor’s friend also wasn’t from the U.S. and told me that chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is what got her through the challenges of being in a foreign country.
You started chanting?
Niranjanaa: I went to my first meeting in 2021, but it took some time to become consistent in chanting. My professor’s friend became a great support. She would often check in on me, give me rides to discussion meetings, and sometimes we’d go out to eat or spend time cooking and watching movies together. We would also chant and talk about life. Now, we’ve grown so close that we are housemates, and I consider her like family.
What’s been your biggest benefit?
Niranjanaa: The community that I have now, the people around me, are my biggest benefit. Sometimes I don’t have the motivation to chant, but my district members help me so much. The loneliness that I was facing I don’t feel anymore. When
I hear experiences from members, I feel like I can keep going. It’s a very different space for me because there is no judgment. I can tell them all my flaws, all my mistakes. I can just be me, and that provides me with a lot of mental security.
Recently, I had been chanting for a car so that I could start driving myself and stop relying on members. After many hours of chanting and support from my district, I parked my very own car in my garage!
My district feels like family. Since I don’t have family here, it’s who I would call if I had an emergency. My parents used to worry a lot about me since I’m their only child in a foreign country. But now they don’t worry because I have the SGI.
How have these relationships changed you?
Niranjanaa: I think the biggest thing is that because I’ve been cared for so well, I in turn feel a responsibility to care for others and chant for their happiness.
Do you have any goals for the future?
Niranjanaa: I just graduated in May with my bachelor’s and got into a master’s program. My goals are to get a full-time job, finish my master’s and start a family here in the U.S.
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