The following are excerpts from Ikeda Sensei’s speech at the headquarters leaders meeting held at the Tokyo Makiguchi Memorial Hall, in Hachioji, Tokyo, on Dec. 16, 1996. Video footage of the speech was broadcast during the most recent Fifth Soka Gakkai Headquarters Leaders Meeting Toward Our Centennial, on Nov. 17, 2024. The excerpts were translated from the Dec. 1, 2024, issue of the Soka Gakkai’s daily newspaper, Seikyo Shimbun. The full speech can be found in the Feb. 14, 1997, World Tribune, pp. 8–10.
Mount Fuji reminds me of the novel Miyamoto Musashi. There is a passage that has always stayed with me. They are words that contain a deep truth, and I have mentioned them many times in my speeches:
Rather than worrying about your future, thinking, “Perhaps I should become this. Perhaps I should become that,” first be still and build a self that is as solid and unmoving as Mount Fuji.[1]
Never be shaken, no matter what happens or what others may say. Never panic; never lose confidence. This is the way we should strive to live our lives. Being able to do so is a sign of genuine character.
Once, during my youth division days, my mentor, Josei Toda, and I were alone, gazing up at Mount Fuji, when he said: “Daisaku, Mount Fuji seems to be still and serene, but its summit is buffeted by raging winds. Likewise, anyone who stands at the top must also brave raging winds.” I will never forget those words as long as I live.
In any event, I wanted to share that stirring passage from Miyamoto Musashi with all of you today.
Mr. Toda declared: “A new age will be created by the passion and power of youth.”
The Soka Gakkai has now entered a time of passing the baton, with the youth division taking full responsibility for the mission of kosen-rufu. The role of the youth division has become critically important. Times change. They must. Unless they do, a new age will never dawn.
In that spirit, I call upon our men’s and women’s division members to make every effort to support and train the youth so that they blaze a truly magnificent path as successors.
I hope the youth will also advance with that determination. And I hope that they will brilliantly carry on the mission of the Soka Gakkai—an unrivaled organization that has appeared in accord with the Buddha’s intent, a noble organization dedicated to making kosen-rufu a reality. I am also counting on the youth to open the way to a wonderful new age of Soka.
Recently, I received a book from Moscow, an autobiography of Natalya Sats (1903–93), who was renowned as the mother of the children’s arts movement in Russia and beloved by children around the world. She died three years ago, at age 90. Viktor Prokhorov, president of the Moscow Children’s Musical Theater, which Ms. Sats founded, sent me the book. In this posthumous work, Ms. Sats also writes of her memories of our meetings.
Ms. Sats once remarked that the Buddhist view of eternal life she had learned from me had given her boundless hope.
When Ms. Sats was a young woman, her husband, though innocent of any crime, was executed during one of Stalin’s purges. She herself was falsely accused of a crime and sentenced to five years in prison, a substantial part of which was spent in labor camps in Siberia.
There were several other innocent women in the cell where Ms. Sats was incarcerated. They were all numb with fear and sadness at their plight. Though Ms. Sats was in as much of a dismal predicament as the rest of them, she did not withdraw into her own sorrow. She immediately began to think of how she could raise the spirits of her despairing cellmates. By thinking of others, the sun of hope began to rise again in her own heart.
Ms. Sats wrote in her autobiography: “I should help them and myself to survive. I need to switch my thinking, try to believe that this present reality is by no means the end.”[2] Her resolve was that no matter how wretched her present circumstances appeared, her life was not over and she would fight on to the very end.
Mr. Toda once told me: “You can make a defeat the cause for future victory. You can also make victory the cause for future defeat.”
Nichiren Buddhism is the Buddhism of true cause, the Buddhism of the present and the future. We don’t dwell on the past. We are always challenging ourselves from the present toward the future. “The whole future lies ahead of us! We have only just begun!”—because we advance with this spirit, we will never be stuck.
When we change our state of mind, our environment also changes. Buddhism teaches this in the doctrines of “the oneness of life and its environment” and “three thousand realms in a single moment of life.”
Looking around her in prison, Ms. Sats saw women with all kinds of diverse and wonderful talents. There was no use in regretting her situation. She thought: Let’s make this an opportunity to learn from one another, each sharing our special talents. Let’s start a school. This one can lecture on science, and that one can teach us medicine. Ms. Sats had a beautiful voice. On one occasion, she recited a poem by Alexander Pushkin. Her fellow prisoners were deeply moved and encouraged.
The prison was dark and shut off from the rest of the world. That made it an ideal place for quiet study. It also became a stage where they could enjoy performances. A change in one’s state of mind can change everything. Ms. Sats decided to try to make each day as enjoyable and meaningful as possible. Truly wise individuals can create value under any circumstances.
Ms. Sats’ cell was small, but a great history was created there.
Small gatherings are important. Small, inconspicuous gatherings—discussion meetings, home visits and personal guidance—are what really matter.
Truly capable leaders are those who can engage others, on a one-to-one basis, in inspiring dialogue and move them with warmhearted encouragement to set forth with renewed determination in faith. Determination inspired in this way tends to last. It becomes a catalyst, causing a ripple effect that spreads out to touch many, many others.
Only steady efforts to visit one member after another and to conduct sincere heart-to-heart dialogue can produce such ripples. Such efforts have been the secret to the Soka Gakkai’s development to this day. So, if we resolve to redouble our commitment to these efforts, we can create another powerful ripple effect. It is along this path that the eternal development of kosen-rufu lies.
Ms. Sats decided with her fellow prisoners that no one should be left sad and alone. Being alone only intensifies our sadness and makes it harder to relieve.
People are social beings. Our interactions with one another are what make us fully human; they mutually enrich us. We achieve growth through interacting with our fellow human beings, sharing one another’s ups and downs, joys and sufferings, in a lively human world.
One need not profess lofty theories to be a humanist. All that is required is to truly believe in people and strive to bring them together. This is true humanism. It is none other than forging friendships.
Friendship is strong. The underlying strength of the Soka Gakkai is also friendship, fellowship and solid unity in faith. The organizational structure comes after that. The organization is a means for deepening friendship, fellowship and faith.
Through Soka Gakkai activities that spread friendship in our communities and in society, we are accumulating treasures in life day after day.
We are practitioners of Nichiren Buddhism. Let’s strive to live in a way that inspires others to admire and want to emulate us, and enact our own personal dramas of human revolution in life in our own unique way.
There is no better life than one spent creating our own unique drama of human revolution, in our own unique way, day after day. The growth we display in the process is itself a wonderful way to communicate the greatness of Nichiren Buddhism to others.
Allow me to share with you a familiar passage from Nichiren Daishonin’s writing “The Opening of the Eyes”:
Although I and my disciples may encounter various difficulties, if we do not harbor doubts in our hearts, we will as a matter of course attain Buddhahood. Do not have doubts [about the benefit of upholding the Lotus Sutra] simply because heaven does not lend you protection. Do not be discouraged because you do not enjoy an easy and secure existence in this life. This is what I have taught my disciples morning and evening, and yet they begin to harbor doubts and abandon their faith.
Foolish men are likely to forget the promises they have made when the crucial moment comes. (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 283)
Nichiren assures us that if we keep striving in faith throughout our lives, we are certain to attain Buddhahood, and he therefore urges us to do so no matter what difficulties we may encounter along the way.
“Do not have doubts simply because heaven does not lend you protection,” writes the Daishonin. From the long-term perspective, benefit will definitely be forthcoming. Though the situation may seem bad, we are certain to be able to change poison into medicine.
“Do not be discouraged because you do not enjoy an easy and secure existence in this life,” the Daishonin says. An easy and secure existence does not make us stronger.
Buddhist practice is filled with difficult challenges, but it enables us to experience the great joy of human revolution, which would never be possible from a life of complete ease. That’s why Nichiren sternly warns us not to forget at a crucial moment the promises we have made in faith.
Together, let us make the coming year another year of great victory!
December 20, 2024, World Tribune, pp. 2–3
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