Saturday, December 16, 2006

 

Moving Forward

It had been a heretic week with preparations for the SD Kenshu. Studied the NHR chapter on “Moving Forward” for this Kenshu.

General Plot:

Takao Okajima was a student division member who was highly resistant to the practice of religion until his poor health escalated and had a near death encounter. Friends from Soka Gakkai continued to encourage him and he finally realized that nothing is more important than living a noble life dedicated to the highest human ideals.

He worked hard to share his enlightenment and wrote courageously to encourage others of their mission just as Sensei did. He finally fulfilled his dream of becoming a teacher after he graduated.

Five months of teaching and touching lives, he passed away in an automobile accident. But his legacy lived on and countless continued to be inspired by his example.

Shizu suffered most of her life, losing two sons and a daughter. Her despair continued after her family incurred huge debts. But after she began practice of Buddhism, her life started to improve. Eventually, she overcame her grief and repaid all her debts.

With a deep sense of gratitude, she continues to seek out her mentor in life and studied diligently on Buddhism. At the advanced age of 72, she passed an examination and Buddhism with flying colors.

Extracts:

“I don’t think we’d be living up to our mission as genuine disciples if our reaction to the news of President Yamamoto’s upcoming visit was joy. We should welcome President Yamamoto with a victory. I’d like to suggest that we start an all-out campaign to increase Seikyo Shimbun readership, since that’s one of the best ways to promote understanding of the Soka Gakkai in our community.”

No challenge is more exhilarating or causes one’s fighting spirit to burn more brightly than a challenge that comes from one’s own initiative.

Those who strive the hardest savor true joy, vitality and fulfillment.

We all have 24 hours a day. How we use that time, though, can make a huge difference in the way the future unfolds. Still water stagnates and a stationary wheel rusts. Constantly moving forward is the key to a bright and hopeful future.

“I’ll fight my hardest, until my frail body collapses, I’ll do my best, until my bones crumble to dust. And I’ll continue, firmly believing that that day will arrive when the golden sun shining in the east will rise high and illuminate the entire sky.”

The Soka Gakkai’s real strength lies in the fact that it is a group of ordinary people joined in spiritual solidarity with Shin’ichi in the lead. The father of Ghanaian independence and the nation’s first president Kwame Nkrumah (1909—72) declared: “There is no force, however formidable, that I a united people cannot overcome.”

Ordinary people, so often consigned to the sidelines of society, had awakened to their role as the emissaries of the Buddha and stood up courageously to carry out their mission of bringing happiness to humanity, uniting firmly in their cause. That is the Soka Gakkai. The Soka Gakkai is not an alliance bound by self-interest; it is a network joined together by noble and joyous life-to-life connections. That’s why it is so strong and invincible.

In the Gakkai, everyone is the president as long as they have firm resolve and are committed to realizing kosen-rufu. That’s what Nichiren Daishonin means when he says that his disciples and lay supporters should transcend all differences among themselves. That spirit itself is the sources of the Gakkai strength.

We who embrace faith in the Mystic Law have nothing to fear. The most important thing is to summon forth the power of faith and practice. Making ‘Daimoku First!’ our byword, let us continue moving forward, living lives of tremendous victory that are centered on vigorous daimoku. In other words, even should we face aneroid in our lives of great misfortune, if we have faith in the Lotus Sutra (the Gohonzon); we have nothing to worry about.

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