July 17, 2020, World Tribune - World Tribune

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In this issue

Daily Life

The Conversation We Need to Transform Our Country

The German poet Johann Peter Eckermann once confessed to his longtime friend Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that, although he sought to harmonize with those like him, he had nothing to do with others beyond his circle. Goethe wrote in response: It is in conflict with natures opposed to his own that a man must collect his

What Can We Learn From Bodhisattva Never Disparaging?

Bodhisattva Never Disparaging appears in the 20th chapter of the Lotus Sutra and is highly regarded for deeply respecting everyone he encountered. Nichiren Daishonin expresses that Never Disparaging’s practice of revering everyone is the “heart of the Lotus Sutra” and is the essential behavior that we should strive to embody (see “The Three Kinds of

Experience

Turning My Weakness Into My Strength

Ikeda Sensei

Florence–A Capital of Culture

[Editors’ Note: This installment of the series “Unforgettable Journeys” features excerpts from Ikeda Sensei’s essay on Florence originally published in the Soka Gakkai-affiliated monthly magazine Pumpkin and later in book form in Japanese. Florence was the center of the Renaissance, the revival of humanistic culture in the 15th and 16th centuries. At this time when we are adjusting

News

Asking Questions Together

by Mitch BogenSpecial to the Tribune There was nothing simulated or “less than” about the conversations that took place on June 11, when 250 participants from 19 countries gathered online for the Ikeda Center’s virtual panel discussion “Asking Questions Together: What Is Our Path Forward?” Panelist Ceasar McDowell, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, shared thoughts

Buddhist Study

Fighting Devilish Functions

Overcoming adversity enables us to develop the courage, wisdom and resilience needed to achieve the ultimate aim of revealing our Buddhahood and establishing genuine and lasting happiness. Buddhism describes obstacles in various ways—namely as devilish functions, the three obstacles and four devils and the devil king of the sixth heaven. These negative functions are expressed

Brief Guidances

Imparting Hope and Courage With Our Confident Voices

Words of Encouragement From Ikeda Sensei

Brief Guidances

The Power of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo Is Truly Immense

Words of Encouragement From Ikeda Sensei

Profiles

I Am an Artist for Kosen-rufu

by Cameron WashingtonLos Angeles When I started chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo in 2008, I had just gone through a breakup, graduated from college and felt the mounting pressure and expectation to get a job. All the while, I was at a loss as to what my future would hold. I was searching aimlessly for some sense of purpose and

Daily Life

Sufferings Are the Fuel for Our Happiness

When we do gongyo and chant [Nam-myoho-renge-kyo] before the Gohonzon, the good and evil capacities of our lives begin to function as the exalted form of fundamental existence. Lives that are full of the pain of hell, lives that are in the state of hunger, lives warped by the state of anger—such lives, too, begin

Daily Life

Our Attitude Changes Everything

The following are excerpts from Ikeda Sensei’s book My Dear Friends in America, third edition, pp. 258–61. The Positive Life View Found Within a Single Moment of Life You are the playwright of your own victory. You are also the play’s hero. Shakespeare wrote: “All the world’s a stage, / And all the men and

New Releases

New Book Coming Soon

The Books of My Youth by Ikeda Sensei explores some of the world literature he read as a young man that, as he says, helped to form his life’s “spiritual framework.” Discussing such works as The Divine Comedy, The Eternal City, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Les Misérables, to name a few, Sensei shares about heroes and heroines, revolutionaries