Starting in this issue, the World Tribune will be publishing Ikeda Sensei’s encouragement every month for the SGI-USA women’s division’s America Victory Daimoku Group and Sophia Group meeting. The following excerpt of Sensei’s encouragement was originally published in the Jan. 19, 2018, World Tribune, p. 2.
My mentor, second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda, often used to say at New Year’s, “When we who embrace the Mystic Law align our lives with the fundamental rhythm of the universe and make a vow with a renewed determination that ‘This will be the year!’ we will definitely be able to show actual proof before the year is out.”
We are directly connected to Nichiren Daishonin, carrying on his spirit. Our prayers based on our vow for kosen-rufu will not fail to be answered.
Nichiren assures us, “Though one might point at the earth and miss it, though one might bind up the sky, though the tides might cease to ebb and flow and the sun rise in the west, it could never come about that the prayers of the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra would go unanswered” (“On Prayer,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 345).
Let’s make this a year of great development and victory, with the lion’s roar of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo resounding even more powerfully and with steady, positive progress in our human revolution.
New Women’s Division Column
by Naoko Leslie
SGI-USA Women’s Leader
Thank you to all the women’s leaders sponsoring and holding the America Victory Daimoku Group chanting sessions and the Sophia Group meetings (see below for more details) in your local organizations!
This new women’s division column will appear in the World Tribune once a month to provide powerful and timely guidance from Ikeda Sensei that you can incorporate into your words of encouragement at these meetings.
Above all, through these activities, let’s enjoy connecting with the Gohonzon and with Sensei’s spirit, soaring higher in our lives and for kosen-rufu in this coming year.
America Victory Daimoku Group
Based on Ikeda Sensei’s guideline for the women’s division “Everything Begins From Prayer!”—this activity is for all women to chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo for one hour together, either in person or simultaneously from their own homes with the following united prayers for:
•Dynamically advancing kosen-rufu with our mentor, Ikeda Sensei, lifetime after lifetime, based on his eternal leadership
•Mrs. Ikeda’s excellent health and longevity
•Planting seeds of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo to establish the peace of the land and a world free of nuclear weapons
•The happiness and growth of our future and youth division successors
•Welcoming one or more precious new youth into each district
•Personal breakthroughs and victories
In addition to chanting, powerful faith experiences, activity direction and encouragement by a leader can be included. Please contact your local women’s leader for more information.
Sophia Group
In 1990, Ikeda Sensei gave a group of women’s division members the name Sophia Group—Sophia meaning skill, intelligence and wisdom in Greek— with the intent that its members expand their intellect for the sake of the happiness of themselves and others and the protection of the kosen-rufu movement. The purpose of the Sophia Group is to develop leaders who are rooted in the oneness of mentor and disciple and who advance kosen-rufu on the front lines by creating victories in their personal lives and districts. The details are as follows:
•Sophia Group is open to all women’s division members and guests who subscribe to the SGI-USA publications and purchase their own copy of the study material.
•It is a one-year commitment to attend monthly meetings from January to December held at the chapter level.
•The study material is The New Human Revolution, volume 30. If most of the members have previously studied volume 30, any of the other volumes in the series may be selected.
The agenda consists of: gongyo and chanting; a presentation on the study material; small group discussions; and encouragement by the chapter women’s leader. Please contact your local women’s leader for more information.
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