CategoryEncouragement

Ascending a New Summit of Kosen-rufu Together

Ascending a New Summit of Kosen-rufu Together

Ikeda Sensei’s Lecture Series—Installment 77

“Start anew with a fresh spirit!”—that’s the message I imparted to our Soka Gakkai Sports Division members. Whatever your present condition, the key is to always start anew and tackle the next challenge with a fresh spirit. We have the writings of Nichiren Daishonin, who teaches that it is our heart or spirit that is

The first point I wish to convey to you is “Please put your health first.”  I hope you’ll use your wisdom and creativity to find ways to improve and maintain your health. Our Buddhist faith and practice are the driving force for good health. But that doesn’t mean we should be complacent about our health.

First, allow me to congratulate the new women’s division in Japan on the great success of their first district-level general meetings being held this month. Tonight will be a full moon. Whether or not it is visible, I hope you will applaud and commend one another with smiles as bright as the beaming moon.  As

Ikeda Sensei’s Lecture Series—Installment 76: “On the Treasure Tower”—Awaken to Your Inner Treasure!

In “The Parable of the Medicinal Herbs,” the fifth chapter of the Lotus Sutra, we find the beautiful expression “human flowers” (The Lotus Sutra and Its Opening and Closing Sutras, p. 142). I recall my conversation with South Africa’s great humanitarian leader Nelson Mandela, after welcoming him with 500 youth. I told him about this

As the anniversary of the death of our mentor, second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda,  approaches [on April 2], I hear his voice in my mind—words spoken during an interview for a Tohoku Broadcasting radio program in 1955. I was present at the recording.   “Our aim,” he said, “is to join hands and advance

The energy of the February Campaign also inspired the development of our organization in Kansai, which grew into a great people’s movement heralding the dawn of the effort to realize Nichiren Daishonin’s vision of building a better society.  There was a book that my fellow Kansai members and I cherished as an unforgettable treasure. It

Ikeda Sensei’s Lecture Series—Installment 75: ‘Letter to the Brothers’—The Soka Gakkai Tradition of ‘Faith for Overcoming Obstacles’

As human beings, we cannot be more than human beings, nor do we need to be. Nichiren Daishonin opened the way for all human beings, just as they are, to shine their brightest, with supreme nobility, dignity and humanity. Praising Sage Nichimyo, a disciple and single mother who, amid troubled times, sincerely supported her fellow

It was here in Kanagawa, a place with which I share a deep connection, that I inscribed the two calligraphic works “Justice” and “Shared Struggle” in May 1979 [immediately after stepping down as third Soka Gakkai president]. Who were the first people I showed them to? It was the youth, my beloved young disciples.  We

This has been a particularly harsh and snowy winter in Japan. Nichiren Daishonin writes, “I feel the eight cold hells in my life now” (“Aspiration for the Buddha Land,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 213). Having endured many bitter winters himself, he understood the difficulties his disciples faced.  Praising the seeking spirit

The following are excerpts from Ikeda Sensei’s speech at the 20th SGI General Meeting, held jointly with the 21st Century Hyogo Hope General Meeting, at the Hyogo Ikeda Culture Center in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, on Oct. 17, 1995, nine months after the devastating Kobe earthquake of Jan. 17. They were translated from the Feb. 16,

Ikeda Sensei sent the following message to the Seventh Soka Gakkai Headquarters Leaders Meeting Toward Our Centennial on Feb. 6, 2022, held in conjunction with the Hyogo General Meeting, at the Hyogo Ikeda Culture Center in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, in the Kansai region. Soka Gakkai members throughout Hyogo Prefecture also attended the meeting remotely at

In the light of the Buddha’s prophecy, “the last five-hundred-year period” has already begun. I say that without fail Buddhism will arise and flow forth from the east, from the land of Japan. (“On the Buddha’s Prophecy,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 401) February marks the birthdays of both Nichiren Daishonin (Feb.

I am reminded of a passage from Nichiren Daishonin’s writings that my mentor, second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda, and I spoke about as we walked along the street one chilly winter night, gazing up at the luminous full moon: The moon shines more brightly around dawn than it does in the early evening, and

Ikeda Sensei’s Lecture Series—Installment 74

We only become truly human by connecting with the people. It is indeed among the people that we develop ourselves and discover true joy. … There are various degrees of human relationships, such as people we know by sight and others with whom we just exchange greetings. The most admirable association we can form, however,