by Adin Strauss
SGI-USA General Director
Congratulations to all SGI-USA members on the 60th anniversary of the World Tribune!
Thinking of this milestone in our people’s movement reminded me of another, which took place within Nichiren Daishonin’s lifetime.
In October 1279, Nichiren wrote to his disciples: “The Buddha fulfilled the purpose of his advent in a little over forty years, the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai took about thirty years, and the Great Teacher Dengyo, some twenty years. … For me it took twenty-seven years, and the great persecutions I faced during this period are well known to you all.”[1]
What was this purpose? And how did the Daishonin know that it had been achieved?
A month earlier, military police had arrested 20 disciples, all farmers, in Atsuhara Village on false charges, pressuring them with threats and torture to recant their faith. Not one of them yielded, however, and three were executed.
These events were reported swiftly to the Daishonin, who replied: “I learned that when the accused were subjected to the wrath of the officials, they chanted Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. This was no ordinary matter!”[2]
These extraordinary farmers had never met Nichiren Daishonin. And yet, having been warmly supported by Nikko, who exemplified rock-solid faith and a warm, embracing character, they stood their ground.
Ikeda Sensei elaborates: “It had been 27 years since the Daishonin had single-handedly initiated his momentous struggle to break through the darkness of ignorance, a struggle that began the very day that he proclaimed his teaching. The practitioners of the Daishonin’s Buddhism then stood up with the realization that it is the people who are Buddhas. These brave, ordinary people were prepared to fight for their beliefs and were making substantial progress in opening the way for others to join them on the path to attaining Buddhahood.”[3]
November will mark one year since Sensei’s passing. As we learned from his relentless, decades-long example of seeking his own mentor, Josei Toda, the bonds of mentor and disciple are indestructible and without end. Speaking of this to the members in Bunkyo Ward, Sensei said: “There are those who have never spoken with me or met me who are wholeheartedly supporting the Soka Gakkai and striving their hardest. As far as I’m concerned, they have genuine faith.”[4]
When we think of kosen-rufu 50, 100, 500 years from now, it’s impossible to overstate the significance of the written word. Indeed, in the era to come, the only way that people can come to declare themselves to be Sensei’s disciples is to come into contact with his written words.
Nichiren writes: “It is through the use of words and letters that the Buddha saves living beings. …
“If one rejects the use of words and letters, how can the Buddha’s work be done?”[5]
In an era devoid of a reliable philosophy, the World Tribune provides such a philosophy.
In an era where, literally and figuratively, “truth and error stand shoulder to shoulder,”[6] the World Tribune provides unshakable truth.
And in an era devoid of hope, in which Sensei has called on each of us—Bodhisattvas of the Earth and proud members of the global SGI community—to be “dealers in hope,” the pages of the World Tribune are filled with amazing stories of transforming poison into medicine, and karma into mission.
Onward, then, to the next 60 years!
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