Compassion Is the Way to Move People’s Hearts

Aesop’s fable “The Sun and the Wind” concerns a competition between the North Wind and the Sun to decide which of the two was stronger. The challenge was to make a passing traveler remove his cloak. However hard the North Wind blew, the traveler only wrapped his cloak tighter, but when the Sun shone, the traveler was overcome with warmth and naturally took off his cloak.

Ikeda Sensei writes of this: “It is not the bitter chill of the north wind that causes people to remove the cloaks from their hearts. Rather, this is only achieved by the warm, compassionate light of the sun, caring and all-embracing. For it is such warmth that gives rise to the melodies of true human empathy.” (The New Human Revolution, vol. 1, p. 211).