When we try to help people gain an understanding of the greatness of Nichiren Buddhism, the first thing they look at is our daily behavior. How do we live our lives? Are we people of character and integrity? People observe us very closely. If we are careless about money matters or lack good judgment, if … …
When we try to help people gain an understanding of the greatness of Nichiren Buddhism, the first thing they look at is our daily behavior. How do we live our lives? Are we people of character and integrity? People observe us very closely. If we are careless about money matters or lack good judgment, if … …
By sharing this great life philosophy with others through one-to-one dialogue, haven’t we been constructing strong and unassailable defenses of peace in the heart of one individual after another? The road to our goal of kosen-rufu may seem incredibly long, but it is the most direct path to building lasting world peace. From The Wisdom … …
The formula for the eternal expansion of kosen-rufu is found in ceaseless, steady efforts to benefit others and engage in dialogue, efforts that spread from one person to another. From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 3, revised edition, p. 96
Martin Luther King Jr., the champion of the American Civil Rights Movement who inherited Gandhi’s legacy of nonviolence, often said that any religion that overlooks the real-life sufferings of the people is a “spiritually moribund religion.” These convictions of Gandhi and King resonate deeply with us. No matter how lofty the ideals it espouses, a … …
A young man once told Mr. Makiguchi that he thought it would be better to hold large-scale lectures rather than discussion meetings. “No, it wouldn’t,” Mr. Makiguchireplied without hesitation. “Dialogue is the only way to communicate with another about life’s problems. At a lecture, listeners inevitably feel uninvolved. Even the Daishonin’s treatise ‘On Establishing the … …
Buddhism doesn’t exist apart from the reality of society or from people and their lives. No matter how valid the teachings of Buddhism may be, just loudly proclaiming that fact will not persuade people. If anything, that approach is quite likely to drive them away from the path of Buddhism, and that would be going … …
To this day, I am constantly engaged in dialogue with my mentor. In my mind, I stand before him as the youth I was. Kosen-rufu was our shared aspiration, our great dream and adventure as mentor and disciple. From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 3, revised edition, p. 338
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. You, our young people, especially, must not lose sight of this tradition. From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 3, revised edition, p. … …
In the Soka Gakkai, when we speak of “the tradition of discussion meetings,” we’re not referring to our history of holding discussion meetings for many years. Rather, we’re talking about the Soka Gakkai tradition of valuing each individual, which is epitomized in our discussion meetings. From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 3, … …