Kicking off the Year of Advancement and Capable People, SGI Women’s Leader Yumiko Kasanuki and SGI Vice Women’s Leader Kayo Maeta traveled from Jan. 22–28 to the U.S., attending meetings in New York and Los Angeles, as well as a women’s conference at the Florida Nature and Culture Center in Weston, Florida (see pp. 5, 8–9).
In the Feb. 7 issue of the Seikyo Shimbun, the Soka Gakkai’s daily newspaper, SGI President Ikeda wrote an essay in which he said that he and Mrs. Ikeda viewed video footage “of the bright faces of the women at these gatherings.” President Ikeda then wrote about a women’s leader who flew to Florida for the women’s conference all the way from Guam, the place of the SGI’s founding 45 years ago. He also commented how happy he and his wife were to see the successive women’s and young women’s leaders gathered at this conference. As Mrs. Ikeda viewed the video, President Ikeda said that she continued applauding the women, who wonderfully reflect Nichiren Daishonin’s words “You will grow younger, and your good fortune will accumulate” (“The Unity of Husband and Wife,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 464).
In their message to the SGI-USA Women’s Leaders Conference, held at the FNCC and, in a historic first, attended by women’s leaders from every region in the country, President and Mrs. Ikeda applauded the women as “the bright suns of kosen-rufu illuminating America.”
They continued:
My wife, Kaneko, and I are thinking of you as we send daimoku [Nam-myoho-renge-kyo] for this to be the most meaningful gathering brimming with the hope and joy of faith.
… The Mystic Law is the light that can bring forth the brilliance of Buddhahood in each person.
The Mystic Law has the power to change all poison, no matter how bitter, into medicine and lead every person who encounters it to happiness, peace and harmony.
Please chant daimoku infused with your vow for kosen-rufu, while encouraging one friend after another, nurturing successors in the youth and future divisions, and calling forth capable, new Bodhisattvas of the Earth.
… Our mentor, second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda, once said: “Those who endure hardships while continuing to battle through to the end always become happy. We are already Buddhas. While enveloped in the light of the Mystic Law, stand up in faith based on the oneness of mentor and disciple, and triumph with the power of the Buddha.”
In this year commemorating 60 years of kosen-rufu in America, we ask you, the women of the SGI-USA who are models for the rest of the world, to become the suns of solid unity, advancing ever more brightly, cheerfully and harmoniously.
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