This is a message from Ikeda Sensei to the Nationwide Young Men’s Division Meeting, commemorating the division’s 70th anniversary,[1] held at the Toda Memorial Auditorium in Sugamo, Tokyo, and broadcast live to 400 venues across Japan, on July 11, 2021. It was originally published in the July 13, 2021, issue of the Soka Gakkai’s daily newspaper, Seikyo Shimbun.
Congratulations on the 70th anniversary of the young men’s division, which you are celebrating with brilliant victories realized through your youthful passion and power!
I am firmly shaking hands with each of you in my heart, thanking and praising you for your noble efforts. Thank you all so much! On the eve of the young men’s division’s establishment, my mentor, second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda, said to me, “Start your struggle as a group leader on the front lines, and lead our organization toward the realization of kosen-rufu!”
“I’m counting on you!” he declared and then urged me: “Work for the happiness of all humanity! To achieve that, it is important that the Soka Gakkai continue to exert itself, generation after generation, for kosen-rufu and the establishment of the correct teaching for the peace of the land.”[2]
I have devoted the past seven decades to fulfilling this mission my mentor entrusted to me. And it gives me tremendous pride that my true disciples in the young men’s division have inherited this commitment and are now taking full responsibility for our movement.
When Shijo Kingo overcame adversity to demonstrate great actual proof of faith, Nichiren Daishonin expressed his delight, exclaiming: “I feel as relieved as if the day had finally broken after a long night, or as if I had returned home after a long journey. Buddhism primarily concerns itself with victory or defeat. … For this reason, a Buddha is looked up to as the Hero of the World” (“The Hero of the World,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 835).
My young friends, holding high the banner of “Winning based on Buddhism,” make your invincible spirit shine ever brighter! Continue to achieve one victory after another in your human revolution—in the spheres of your daily lives and endeavors in society—and share those experiences with others.
As Soka “heroes of the world,” may all of you, our young men—including newer members participating in the Young Men’s Division Academy—work together to build a solid and ever-growing network of successors embodying the principle “from the indigo, an even deeper blue.”[3]
Please usher in the dawn of a decade of human triumph as you forge ahead to realize Nichiren’s ideal of establishing the correct teaching for the peace of the land and the entire world.
I am praying for the health and growth of each of you, my treasured friends. Let’s joyfully win victory after victory together!
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