‘Five Guidelines for the SGI-USA Youth Division’

5) Be the youth of America who build an ideal society of peace in the world as pioneers of the Mystic Law!

May 29, 2011
Daisaku

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Advancing Along the Golden Path of Mentor and Disciple

Ikeda Sensei sent the following message to the SGI-USA Youth Leaders Meeting held on May 29, 2011, at the World Peace Ikeda Auditorium in Santa Monica, Calif., with representative youth leaders from throughout the United States. This message was printed in the June 10, 2011, World Tribune, p. 3.

I sincerely congratulate all of you, my most trusted SGI-USA Youth members, in whom I place my highest hopes, on your vibrant and spirited SGI-USA Youth Leaders Meeting. My wife, Kaneko, and I feel as though we were there with all of you in the auditorium that for us holds such dear memories. Your lively songs and dynamic performances, shining with the spirit of youth, resound powerfully in our hearts.

To the support staff working earnestly behind the scenes to conduct today’s meeting, I profoundly appreciate all your noble efforts.

The great Buddhist teaching to which you have been devoting yourselves in your youth through faith, practice and study is a source of limitless courage—courage that makes people strong and sets them on the correct path. Nichiren Daishonin states, “Those with the heart of a lion king are sure to attain Buddhahood” (“Letter From Sado,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 302). When you live to fulfill your great mission and actualize your belief in what is right and true, you will face any manner of trials. You may even experience unreasonable opposition or pressure. No matter what difficulties you meet, however, you can fearlessly and boldly resolve to face them head-on and overcome them without fail. The power of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo will surely lead you to bring forth the “heart of a lion king,” the invincible bravery of a Buddha.

Further, this great Buddhism is the light source of humanism; it can brighten people’s spirits and enable them to improve without limit. Nichiren further mentions, “If one lights a fire for others, one will brighten one’s own way” (“On the Three Virtues of Food,” WND-2, 1060). Youth is for everyone a time to grapple with problems and challenges. But if you become trapped by your own sufferings, your precious youthful days will pass by all too quickly. I ask that you live this most valuable period in a way that will leave you with no regrets.

Buddhism teaches that “earthly desires and sufferings are enlightenment.” It encourages us to step up and take action for the sake of others, for the Law and for society. It means that when we willingly take on greater sufferings and pains, we will, together with others, develop our life state and enlarge our capacity, and thereby create a brighter future.

Furthermore, this supreme Buddhist teaching constitutes the hope-filled rhythm of life that imparts infinite wisdom and joy to the people. A well-known passage from Nichiren’s writings says, “Those who believe in the Lotus Sutra are as if in winter, but winter always turns to spring” (“Winter Always Turns to Spring,” WND-1, 536).

Severe winters await us occasionally on the long road of life and in the course of our endeavors in society. Yet, these winter seasons are opportunities for youth to strengthen their character and polish their wisdom. As you change every poison into medicine, cheerfully and wisely call forth a springtime of victory. The drama of your experience will inspire hope in the next generation of youth who will face challenges in the future. This is what it means to live a youth of value creation, a youth of Soka, filled with inexhaustible joys, glory and fulfillment.

I have in recent years been engaging in dialogues with world-renowned thinkers, focusing on such pillars of the American Renaissance as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman, as well as on the prominent American philosopher John Dewey and such leaders of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement as Martin Luther King, Jr.

Through these dialogues, we have repeatedly confirmed that the highest aims of American spirituality accord exactly with those of Buddhism. I wholeheartedly ask you to forge ahead on this path with utmost pride, as you explore the boundless potential of human life, and shine as beautiful examples at home, at work, in school, and in your communities and society at large.

I have heard about your “Rock My District” movement, in which you have been focusing on your home districts, and that young new leaders have been “emerging from the earth” joyfully in many locations.

Thinking back, when my mentor, Josei Toda, was inaugurated as the second Soka Gakkai president and embarked on his campaign to spread the Great Law, I, though only 23 at the time, took full responsibility for one district, from which I worked wholeheartedly to create wave after wave of expansion for our kosen-rufu movement. The power to move the times always comes from achieving a transformation right where you are.

When I became the third Soka Gakkai president in 1960, at age 32, as a disciple at one with my mentor, President Toda, I marked my first step toward global kosen-rufu in America, forming the first Soka Gakkai district outside Japan. Our worldwide movement began with this district in the United States, and has now spread to 192 countries and territories.

Now, once again, the youth of America have been creating a groundswell of advancement and growth for our kosen-rufu movement in this new era. Knowing I can entrust this task to you, nothing could bring me greater joy.

The district is a castle of human cooperation and harmony.

The district is a castle of happiness, where ordinary people record their victories.

The district is a castle of peace for winning trust in the community.

The district is a castle of capable people in which youth are fostered.

Each of you has a noble and unique mission in your district. With joy and good cheer, please cause flowers of human revolution and value creation to blossom vividly from within your district.

The reformer and philosopher Jane Addams declared with passion: “What the world needs more than anything else at this moment is an outbreak of good-will and human understanding.” People around the world are now watching with highest expectations the splendid advancement and development of the SGI-USA youth.

The Daishonin clearly says in The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, “Now you must press forward diligently / so that together you may [all] reach the place where the treasure is” (p. 77). The way of the oneness of mentor and disciple in the realm of kosen-rufu is the “golden path” that enables individuals to reach without fail the place of the treasure of happiness.

I have been walking that path, while holding a dialogue every day in my heart with my mentor, Josei Toda. I am solely determined to advance on that golden path, always at one with all of you, my dearest SGI-USA youth members.

Together with my wife, Kaneko, I continue to pray earnestly that every precious SGI-USA youth member will remain in excellent health and high spirits, and live a triumphant life adorned with great fortune and virtue.

I close my message with the words of the eminent poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: “Act—act in the living Present!” Hurray to the SGI-USA youth! Hurray to my most beloved youth division members!

Daisaku Ikeda
SGI President
May 29, 2011