In the constant flux of human history, power is an illusion. So are gold, fame and even blood ties. Only through the legacy of mentor and disciple is an eternal history born, leaving the names of ordinary people to shine for 10,000 generations and more.
My mentor loved castles. Therefore, he named himself Jogai, which means “outside the castle,” and later Josei, “sage of the castle.” He also once gave me the formal name Daijo “great castle”—words that appear in the Lotus Sutra.
My mentor used to say, “Let’s build an impregnable castle!” “The Soka Gakkai must build a great castle of capable people!” His voice still rings in my ears.
With like-minded friends, I poured my heart and soul into building the “Castle of Kansai.” My eternal mentor was watching over my efforts, and I wanted to make him happy and proud. The Soka Gakkai in Kansai is a castle of the people that I built with my youthful passion and power. …
The base of Osaka Castle is made of half a million stones, large and small, fit together with not a gap between them. The same holds true of our castle of capable people in Kansai; it is unshakable.
We must not create rifts among people, nor allow discrimination or barriers. Nothing in this world is stronger than the solidarity of people joined by mutual love and friendship. Such unity is more solid than granite.
Nichiren Daishonin states, “‘The great city gate’[1] is the two elements of body and mind that we possess.”[2]
Our life itself, then, is like “a great city gate,” a “great castle.”
“Castles of arrogance” in this world will eventually fall like rotten fruit from a tree. The great castles of Buddhahood that we are building within our lives, on the other hand, will endure for eternity. The work of building such an inner castle is called “human revolution.”
Winds blow, scattering and driving away clouds. In the words of Nichiren, “[Chanting] Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, [is] like the blowing of a great wind.”[3] So long as there is a dauntless outcry of the Kansai spirit, all dark clouds before us will be swept away, and our magnificent golden castles of victory shall stand even taller!
This is how we have triumphed until today, and so shall we for all eternity.
Our blue sky is high and clear today and ever victorious.
Adapted from an essay in Our Beautiful Earth: Photos and Essays of My Travels, by Daisaku Ikeda, April 2, 2000, Seikyo Press, Tokyo, Japan.
You are reading {{ meterCount }} of {{ meterMax }} free premium articles