CategoryTo My Friends

It’s perfectly fine for you to speak about Buddhism from the heart, in your own words, in a very natural way, just as you are. The purpose of faith is not to make yourself look good in the eyes of others. To have compassion for others means sincerely praying and working for others’ happiness, no

My mentor, Josei Toda, declared, “Smile amid the raging winds and fight on until your final day!” From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 1, revised edition, p. 299

Showing how you have grown as a human being is the best way to communicate the truth of Buddhism to those around you. From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 2, revised edition, p. 70

The aim of Buddhism is the happiness of the individual. It is the same with our organization for kosen-rufu. People do not exist for the sake of the organization; the organization exists to benefit people. From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 3, revised edition, p. 136

To live is to be active, to be engaged in something. And a good life is the result of good actions. A wonderful life is realized through steady right action day after day. That’s why those who keep making effort, who always press on under any circumstances, are victors. From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate Albert Schweitzer is reported to have said: “I have no intention of dying so long as I can do things. And if I do things, there is no need to die. So, I will live a long, long time.” He in fact lived to the age of ninety. From The

No matter how much wealth or power one may possess, such things vanish like a fleeting dream in the face of the unrelenting reality of old age and death. What is crucial, then, is the philosophy one upholds and the life one has lived. From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 1, revised

We of the Soka Gakkai, however, are able to exert ourselves fully today, confident that our movement for kosen-rufu will show wonderful development thirty or fifty years from now. Why? Because we have successors, our future division members. From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 3, revised edition, p. 408

When we cannot say thank you, our personal growth has stopped. When we are growing, we can see how wonderful others are too. When we stop growing, all we see are other people’s faults. From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 2, revised edition, p. 67

All of you who make your way together with the Soka Gakkai are naturally leading the most admirable and fulfilling of lives. The Daishonin assures Nichigen-nyo, the wife of Shijo Kingo, “You will grow younger, and your good fortune will accumulate” (WND-1, 464). From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 1, revised edition,

Life is an explosion and burning of the stored-up energy that had been in a resting state. Eventually that life brings its story to a close and it drifts back into death. It merges with the universe, is recharged by the power of the life of the universe as a whole, and awaits its next

Treasuring each day of our lives, aware how precious it is, is a way of living that accords with the true spirit of Buddhism. From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 2, revised edition, p. 164

Our founding president, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, used to say, “Unless you have the courage to be an enemy of those who are evil, you cannot be a friend to the good.” Unless we have the courage to combat injustice, we contribute to it. From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 3, revised edition, p.

The more you suffer, the more sadness you experience, and the more daimoku you chant, the more profound a life you will lead. All will serve to nourish your growth into leaders of the twenty-first century. From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 2, revised edition, pp. 346-47

I believe that any revolution that is genuine—that truly serves the needs of the people—will also clearly manifest itself in the family. Such a family-based revolution is the most fundamental and lasting kind of revolution; it will create an enduring groundswell and become the tide of the times that no one can hold back. From

Valuing each individual—this is an unbroken tradition of the Soka Gakkai. We focus on one suffering person, wholeheartedly engage them in dialogue, and do everything we can to encourage them. From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 3, revised edition, p. 95

In Europe, there is an old saying: “A joyful heart is good medicine.” The German philosopher Immanuel Kant also noted that laughter has a positive effect on our health, functioning like a physician. From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 1, revised edition, p. 295

In life and in the struggle for kosen-rufu, all our sufferings and earthly desires are fuel for our enlightenment. The tougher the challenges we face, the greater the joy and benefit and the higher the life condition we will ultimately savor. From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 3, revised edition, p. 199

As we do our best for the welfare of others, we break out of our narrow lesser self that is focused only on personal concerns and gradually expand and elevate our life state. The commitment to others’ well-being is what propels us to transform our life state and carry out our human revolution. From The

Soka Gakkai discussion meetings are oases where ordinary people gather; they reverberate with a spirit of fresh resolve and gratitude, where suffering is transformed into courage, and exhaustion into a satisfying sense of fulfillment. These small gatherings are microcosms of human harmony. From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 3, revised edition, pp.