Daimoku is therefore the fundamental energy for realizing victory in the struggle for human rights

President Ikeda's Daily Encouragement November 19, 2011

 

The innate power of humanity is the driving force that breaks down all barriers of discrimination. The ultimate expression of this humanity is Buddhahood; it is the power of the Mystic Law. Daimoku is therefore the fundamental energy for realizing victory in the struggle for human rights.

Please do not spend your youth avoiding hardship and taking the path of least resistance. Please seek out difficult challenges and hard work. And if you are going to take on hardships, let it be for the sake of high ideal. Do no stay closed up in your own tiny shell, pursue your studies with the high ideals of helping your friends and contributing to society and humanity. This is where the true significance of the pursuit of learning lies.

GOSHO PASSAGE

In this age, it is as natural for a woman to change her fixed karma by practicing the Lotus Sutra as it is for rice to ripen in fall or chrysanthemums to bloom in winter. When I prayed for my mother, not only was her illness cured, but her life was prolonged by four years. Now you too have fallen ill, and as a woman, it is all the more timely for you to establish steadfast faith in the Lotus Sutra and see what it will do for you.

(WND 955) On Prolonging One's Life Span
Written to the lay nun Myojo in 1279

BUDDHISM DAY BY DAY - WISDOM FOR MODERN LIFE

To be concerned only with one's own happiness is egoism. To claim you care only about the happiness of others is hypocrisy. Genuine happiness is becoming happy together with others. Josei Toda said: "Just becoming happy oneself—there's nothing difficult to that. It's easy. Helping others become happy is the foundation of our faith."

A YOUTHFUL DIARY - Friday, March 4 (1960) Cloudy

   Had dinner at Azabu with F. and some others. They remind me of the passage, "To discard the shallow and seek the profound is the way of a person of courage" (WND, 402).
  Intensively discussed Japan's future, world trends and politics.
  Until midnight, talked about our vision for the next ten, twenty, thirty years and preparations to achieve it.
  It seems there are two types, or, more broadly, four types of young people. Those of knowledge, those of effort, those of faith and those of emotion.
  Some are serious but get carried away, and others are quiet but have a strong backbone. There are those who are eloquent but lack backbone, and those who are reticent but have deep faith.
  Returned on a full stomach. Ah, my home. What a quiet, happy home.