“As youth, you face all sorts of difficulties, and wrestle each day with worries and problems. Precisely for this reason, it is crucial that you stand up with a great vow and strive to achieve a fundamental goal. Once you decide what is fundamental, nothing that happens will sway you, and you can grow by leaps and bounds.”[1]—Daisaku Ikeda
On January 26, 2013, the 200 SGI-USA youth who had gathered at the Florida Nature and Culture Center launched the Ikeda Wisdom Academy, a study program for district through national youth leaders.
With the motto “Protecting the Mentor and the Teachings,” the academy serves to cultivate youth with a correct understanding of Buddhism who can put the teachings into practice and lead lives of unparalleled victory based on a great vow.
In the decade and more since the academy’s founding, many of the youth who have studied in the academy and affirmed their understanding through taking Ikeda Wisdom Academy exams have become capable frontrunners of our kosen-rufu movement in the United States.
On February 1, 2025, academy members took the Sixth Class Ikeda Wisdom Academy Exam, concluding their study of the first three volumes of the six-volume Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra study dialogue series.
Starting in March, they will embark on the academy’s seventh class, focusing on the study series’ last three volumes, in which Ikeda Sensei discusses the Lotus Sutra’s 16th chapter, “Life Span of the Thus Come One,” through its final chapter, “Encouragements of the Bodhisattva Universal Worthy.”
—SGI-USA Study Department
Guidance
Bring the Lotus Sutra’s Wisdom to Life
The following guidances by Ikeda Sensei highlight a key idea from volumes 4, 5 and 6 of The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra.
Volume 4: Bring Forth the Buddha’s Great, Eternal Life Force From Within
It is important to live with great vitality. The “Life Span” chapter reveals the boundlessness of life, which is eternal and as vast as the universe. And the practice of the “Life Span” chapter is to manifest that immense life in the reality of our own lives. The unabbreviated title of the chapter means “fathom the life span of the Thus Come One.” The practice, in other words, is to cause the great and eternal life force of the Buddha to well forth in one’s own being. (The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra, vol. 4, pp. 10–11)
Volume 5: Advancing in the ‘Age of Widespread Transmission’
When people’s hearts are vacant, democracy is imperiled, and the devilish potential of power can set in. That is when the dark shadow of nationalism begins to spread.
President Toda said that individual happiness and social prosperity must go hand in hand. It is a grave mistake for society to neglect the well-being of the individual while striving only for economic growth. Individual happiness is not self-centered; rather, it is the process of solidifying one’s humanity, of developing wisdom and compassion in both oneself and others. …
In short, it is our efforts to pray for and help other people become happy that are the hallmark of the foremost popular movement and that directly contribute to the creation of a truly democratic society. We are engaged in transmitting joy from one person to another. No matter how long or broad the chain of transmission, the amount of fulfillment each person feels does not wane nor is anyone made to suffer. The propagation of Nichiren Daishonin’s philosophy continues as each person becomes indestructibly happy. (The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra, vol. 5, pp. 39–40)
Volume 6: ‘This Is What I Heard’: To Practice Exactly as the Mentor Teaches
“Whatever your position, always protect the Soka Gakkai.” I have endeavored to put my whole life into living my mentor’s instructions. The oneness of mentor and disciple exists when one practices exactly as the mentor teaches. This is the Lotus Sutra. This is what it means to practice the Buddha’s teaching. This is the true meaning of “This is what I heard.”
The word thus that starts the Lotus Sutra expounds the oneness of mentor and disciple. When we start to take action with the goal of realizing this state of oneness, we can “depart” from the fundamental darkness in our own lives.
We “depart” from the sickness of earthly desires and delusions, and the sun of Buddhahood brilliantly rises within us. This is the significance of the final word of the Lotus Sutra, departed.
The twenty-eight chapters of the Lotus Sutra passionately call on us to take action based on the oneness of mentor and disciple. (The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra, vol. 6, p. 237)
Ikeda Wisdom Academy members should:
• be district through national youth leaders.
• have their own copy of The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra, vols. 4, 5 and 6.
• read the assigned material prior to each meeting.
March Syllabus:
The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra, vol. 4, pp. 3–54
• Part One: “The Life Span of the Thus Come One”: To Learn About Death Is to Learn How to Live”
• An Irrepressible Zest for Life—the Spirit of the “Life Span” Chapter
• The Supreme Dignity of the Human Being
From the February 2025 Living Buddhism
References
- February 15, 2013, World Tribune, p. 2. ↩︎
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