This section features Ikeda Sensei’s seminal guidance to the members of the United States. The following is an excerpt of his speech given at the World Peace Ikeda Auditorium, Santa Monica, California, January 31, 1993. The full speech can be found in My Dear Friends in America, fourth edition, pp. 240–45.
Lighting the Path for Others
Some Japanese diplomats stationed here in the United States recently said to me that there is no place where the volunteer spirit to help others is more firmly rooted than in America. I agree. Moreover, all of you are exerting yourselves tirelessly every day for others, for society and for the Law.
Nichiren Daishonin writes, “If one lights a fire for others, one will brighten one’s own way” (“On the Three Virtues of Food,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 2, p. 1060). Please be confident that the higher your flame of altruistic action burns, the more its light will suffuse your life with happiness. Those who possess an altruistic spirit are the happiest people of all.
Faith Is the Secret of Happiness
We are currently facing a serious worldwide recession. The Daishonin teaches that those who embrace faith in the Lotus Sutra can change calamities into good fortune (see “How the Gods Protect the Place of Practice,” WND-2, 669).
Faith is the secret of happiness for all people. When you truly forge your mind of faith, you will become an eternal victor throughout the three existences of life—past, present and future. Strong faith enables you to display your wisdom appropriately so that you can take advantage of change and move forward in the direction of victory and hope. You can definitely show actual proof and benefit in accord with the passage “Those who now believe in the Lotus Sutra will gather fortune from ten thousand miles away” (“New Year’s Gosho,” WND-1, 1137). …
Those Free of Complaint Possess Wisdom and Abundant Good Fortune
In another writing, the Daishonin states: “Do not go around lamenting to others how hard it is for you to live in this world. To do so is an act utterly unbecoming to a worthy man” (“The Three Kinds of Treasure,” WND-1, 850).
If you practice faith yet have an attitude of complaint, you will destroy your good fortune in direct proportion. Those who are full of complaint are not respected by others. From both Buddhist and secular perspectives, their behavior does not befit a wise or worthy person.
Everything is determined by oneself, by one’s inner resolution. Let us assume, for example, that after exerting yourself diligently in your practice of faith, you have finally accumulated a solid store of good fortune. But then you start complaining, “I’m sick of being so busy” or “I really wanted to watch that TV program today [instead of doing activities]” or something similar. The moment you start grumbling or complaining or harboring ill feelings toward your fellow members, you immediately forfeit a substantial portion of all the good fortune you have worked so hard to attain!
You erase more good fortune when you allow yourself to become discouraged over, for example, losing an argument with your spouse. But when you resolve to challenge the situation by chanting daimoku, you add a hefty increase to your accumulated store of fortune. The sum of all these additions and subtractions, gains and losses, represents the final balance of your happiness.
Therefore, if you are practicing faith, you stand to gain far more when you do so willingly, joyously and with a sense of gratitude.
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The SGI—an Organization of Boundless Benefit
To emerge victorious, it is important never to cut ourselves off from the SGI, the organization dedicated to the achievement of kosen-rufu. No one who has left our organization has achieved happiness.
The mind of faith is invisible. So, too, are radio waves. TV broadcasts are electromagnetic waves that travel through space to reach their destinations. The communications between NASA and space shuttles are highly sophisticated and impressive. If the receiver is broken or turned off, however, radio waves from even the most powerful transmitter will not be picked up.
The SGI is the sole organization directly connected to Nichiren Daishonin. It is a wondrous gathering that has “emerged from the earth,” carrying out activities in accord with the Buddha’s decree. Those who link up and advance together with this organization dedicated to kosen-rufu and pervaded by benefit will evolve the correct mind of faith that matches the time. With this mind of faith, they can fill the canvas of their lives with portraits of happiness in which all their wishes are fulfilled.
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Bringing Happiness to All Humankind
Second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda called on the Soka Gakkai members to “bring an inexhaustible wellspring of happiness to the people of the world.” He did so because it was also Nichiren’s desire.
The Nichiren Shoshu priests, in contrast, have not even a fragment of such compassion. Rather than praying for the happiness of humankind, they exploit the Daishonin and the faith of the believers to satisfy their cravings for lavish feasts and sumptuous lifestyles in a most base and despicable manner, like so many hungry demons. Theirs is a world rampant with devilish forces—one that is poles apart from the pure world of the Daishonin.
Be that as it may, the future of the sacred task of accomplishing worldwide kosen-rufu rests on the shoulders of you members of the new SGI-USA.
Each day I fervently pray for the health, longevity, safety and good fortune of all of you who are so dear to my heart. Wishing that you, my friends, enjoy glory and happiness and always be full of good cheer, I conclude my speech of thanks today. Thank you very much for everything.
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