From July to November, the SGI-USA women are studying Ikeda Sensei’s lecture series The Five Eternal Guidelines of the Soka Gakkai at our America Victory Daimoku Group chanting sessions. The study passage for August follows.
What kind of happiness do we seek through our Buddhist practice?
Ikeda Sensei explained: “Happiness is not something given to us by others. It is not something we wait for to suddenly appear in our lives, unrelated to our own will and effort. Ultimately, each of us has to achieve happiness for ourselves. Faith in Nichiren Buddhism guarantees that we can do so.”[1]
He then relayed the two points for happiness summarized by second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda:
1. There is a difference between relative happiness and absolute happiness. While Nichiren Buddhism does not reject relative happiness, Sensei explained that the ultimate aim of our Buddhist practice is “to attain a state of absolute happiness that nothing can destroy.”[2]
2. We were born into this world to enjoy life. “Life Span of the Thus Come One,” the 16th chapter of the Lotus Sutra, teaches that the world is a place “where living beings enjoy themselves at ease.”[3]
Sensei writes that “in this saha world filled with suffering, we cannot enjoy ourselves if our life force is weak. … With a strong life force, we can calmly and enjoyably ascend the hilly path of life. The countless hardships and challenges we experience will be transformed into something that adds to our joy in life, like a pinch of salt that enhances the flavor of sweets.[4]
The foundation of the steady efforts we take toward achieving absolute happiness for ourselves and others is our daily practice of chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
The Essence of Happiness
Ikeda Sensei’s Guidance: Happiness is something that we each must achieve for ourselves and experience in our own lives. But at the same time, one’s own happiness alone is not true happiness. Being content just with one’s own welfare with no concern for others is selfish. By the same token, brushing aside one’s own happiness and caring only about the happiness of others is not sufficient either. True happiness is a condition when both we ourselves and others are happy.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) also identified the essence of happiness as existing in the expansive spirit of shared happiness. He wrote: “Remove exclusiveness from the pleasures. The more you leave them to [people] in common, the more you will always taste them pure.” Happiness only exists when it is shared.
When something good happens, we want to share it with others—our family, friends, fellow members, our mentor. Happiness expands and grows within this web of relationships where we share our joys and sorrows.[5]
Click here to access an editable study template for August.
July 10, 2026 World Tribune, p. 11
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