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Q&A

Q: I moved to a new place thinking I would have a better life, but it’s just been one setback after another. How do I decide whether to leave?

Profile of man on UK coastline.
Dougal Waters / Getty Images

A. It must have been very hard for you. You must have really suffered. But you have the Gohonzon, haven’t you? Faith is the power to survive. …

Whether you [go back] is something that you must decide for yourself. However, as you already know, happiness will not necessarily be waiting for you there. Unless you change your karma, your problems will follow you wherever you go. The idea that happiness exists somewhere else resembles the thinking of the Nembutsu (Pure Land) school of Buddhism, which teaches the existence of a distant pure land located billions of Buddha lands to the west.

Nichiren Buddhism, however, enables us to transform the place where we are now into “a land of Eternally Tranquil Light” and there construct a palace of happiness. To that end, you have to change the karma that makes you suffer. …

There is no other way than to dramatically transform your own life condition. When you change your state of life, your environment will naturally start changing as well. This is the principle of the oneness of life and its environment. A grand palace of happiness exists within your own heart. Faith is the key that opens the door to that palace. (Ikeda Sensei, The New Human Revolution, vol. 1, p. 43)

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