What represents genuine victory in life? Ikeda Sensei in his guidance to young people recalled a passage he had engraved in his heart as a youth, “If you want to conquer the world, conquer your despair.”[1] In Buddhism, the first step is to win over ourselves. For that reason, everything begins with prayer.
On Jan. 26, 2025, SGI-USA training course participants took part in a Q&A session with SGI General Director Yoshiki Tanigawa, held in Tumon, Guam. He opened the session by speaking about the power of prayer.
Mr. Tanigawa first emphasized that all the answers to our questions can be found in The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin and Ikeda Sensei’s The Human Revolution and The New Human Revolution. “Our challenge, therefore, is to become the kind of individuals who can seek the answers in the Gosho and Sensei’s guidance,” he said.
The following is adapted from his guidance on the significance of prayer.
1. Prayer is the most fundamental and essential struggle for kosen-rufu.
From his youth, each time Sensei embarked on a struggle, he stressed the importance of starting with prayer. In the pioneering days of the Soka Gakkai, when Sensei launched the Kamata Campaign[2]—a campaign in which he broke through all limitations—the first thing he stressed to the members was to start with prayer.
Also, when Sensei took the lead in the Osaka Campaign,[3] which made the impossible possible and astounded the people of Japan, Sensei started the campaign by calling out to the members to begin with the power of prayer.
And the first of the “Five Eternal Guidelines for the Women’s Division” is: “Everything begins with prayer.”[4]
During a gongyo meeting with representatives in New York on June 15, 1996, Sensei said of facing various problems and obstacles:
The first thing is to pray. From the moment we begin to pray, things start moving. The darker the night, the closer the dawn.
From the moment we chant daimoku with a deep and powerful resolve, the sun begins to rise in our hearts.
Hope—prayer is the sun of hope. To chant daimoku each time we face a problem, overcoming it, and elevating our life condition as a result—this is the path of “earthly desires are enlightenment” taught in Nichiren Buddhism.
Suffering and undergoing hardships for the sake of friends and for spreading the Law are manifestations of the great sense of responsibility of a genuine leader and the behavior of a bodhisattva.
There is no suffering or hardship that a Bodhisattva of the Earth cannot surmount. So no matter what happens, I would like you to advance steadily, one step at a time, always chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with a vibrant voice.[5]
2. Prayer based on conviction opens the doors to victory.
Mr. Tanigawa continued that our fundamental struggle is to solidify our single-minded resolve that we will win, no matter what happens. “What’s most important is to chant with strong conviction that all our prayers will be answered without fail,” he said.
For instance, Nichiren Daishonin writes:
Kyo’o’s misfortune will change into fortune. Muster your faith and pray to this Gohonzon. Then what is there that cannot be achieved?[6]
When Sensei was a youth and his mentor, Josei Toda, faced severe business difficulties, Sensei cited the following Gosho passage from “Reply to Lay Nun Nichigon”:
Whether or not your prayer is answered will depend on your faith; [if it is not] I will in no way be to blame.
When water is clear, the moon is reflected. When the wind blows, the trees shake. Our minds are like the water. Faith that is weak is like muddy water, while faith that is brave is like clear water. Understand that the trees are like principles, and the wind that shakes them is like the recitation of the sutra.[7]
Mr. Tanigawa shared that the passage “Whether or not your prayer is answered will depend on your faith” expresses an unshakable conviction that the Gohonzon and the Daishonin’s teachings are absolute. “It is essential that leaders have this absolute conviction pulsating their hearts,” he said. “Prayer based on conviction is the key to opening up everything else.”
In volume 23 of The New Human Revolution, Sensei elaborates:
When we pray, it’s important to have a firm conviction that all our prayers will be answered and to pray with intensity. Mentors and disciples, Bodhisattvas of the Earth striving together for kosen-rufu, unite their hearts in prayer, so their prayers are certain to come true. When we truly pledge to achieve kosen-rufu as we chant, then our prayer is a prayer of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth. At that moment, our lives open and expand to that of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth.[8]
And in volume 25 of The New Human Revolution, Sensei says the following:
Put your complete faith in the Gohonzon and pray with all your being. To realize your prayers and transform your karma, it’s vital to have firm conviction in faith. The power of the Gohonzon is absolute. The purpose of Buddhism is to enable all people to become happy.[9]
“As SGI leaders,” Mr. Tanigawa said, “let us engrave in our hearts that it is prayer based on our conviction and prayer based on our vow that is the driving force for kosen-rufu and the happiness of the members.”
3. Daimoku based on a vow is a life-to-life exchange between mentor and
disciple, spanning the three existences.
In a Gosho passage from “A Conversation between a Sage and an Unenlightened Man,” Nichiren writes:
[T]he Buddha nature that all these beings possess is called by the name Myoho-renge-kyo. Therefore, if you recite these words of the daimoku once, then the Buddha nature of all living beings will be summoned and gather around you. At that time the three bodies of the Dharma nature within you—the Dharma body, the reward body, and the manifested body—will be drawn forth and become manifest. This is called attaining Buddhahood. To illustrate, when a caged bird sings, the many birds flying in the sky all gather around it at once; seeing this, the bird in the cage strives to get out.[10]
When we chant daimoku, we can fuse our lives with the Mystic Law and draw out the Buddhahood in all living beings. “Chanting daimoku is the fundamental source for the expansion of kosen-rufu and the driving force for our human revolution,” he said.
Sensei once addressed members in San Diego just before leaving that city, as follows:
You are always in my heart. We are linked through Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. As long as you continue to strive for kosen-rufu with the same determination as I have, we will be connected. That’s the unity of mentor and disciple. And the mentor-disciple relationship in Buddhism is eternal and everlasting, which means that we’ll be together not just in this existence but in the next, too.[11]
Our daimoku based on the vow for kosen-rufu is a life-to-life exchange between mentor and disciple spanning the three existences of past, present and future. Said Mr. Tanigawa: “Let’s engrave this heartfelt guidance from Sensei in our hearts and make a vigorous advance, always firmly based on prayer.”
—Prepared by the World Tribune staff
February 21, 2025, World Tribune, pp. 6–7
References
- Jan. 8, 2021, Future Division insert, p. H. ↩︎
- Kamata Campaign: The 24-year-old Daisaku Ikeda initiated a historic propagation campaign as advisor of Kamata Chapter in Tokyo. As a chapter, Kamata introduced 201 households to Nichiren Buddhism in the single month of February 1952—a crucial breakthrough in achieving second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda’s lifetime goal of lighting the torch of happiness for 750,000 families amid the chaos of a war-torn Japan. ↩︎
- Osaka Campaign: In May 1956, the Kansai members, uniting around the young Daisaku Ikeda, who had been dispatched by second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda to support them, introduced 11,111 households to the practice of Nichiren Buddhism. In elections held two months later, the Soka Gakkai-backed candidate in Kansai won a seat in the Upper House, an accomplishment that was thought all but impossible at the time. This victory became a blueprint for making the impossible possible through faith. ↩︎
- Shine Like the Morning Sun, p. ix. ↩︎
- My Dear Friends in America, fourth edition, p. 470. ↩︎
- “Reply to Kyo’o,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 412. ↩︎
- “Reply to the Lay Nun Nichigon,” WND-1, 1079. ↩︎
- The New Human Revolution, vol. 23, p. 315. ↩︎
- NHR-25, 247. ↩︎
- WND-1, 131. ↩︎
- NHR-19, 224–25. ↩︎
You are reading {{ meterCount }} of {{ meterMax }} free premium articles