August 2019 Living Buddhism

Enrique MaganBrooklyn, New York Living Buddhism: Thank you for sharing your experience with us, Enrique. What was your life like before you started practicing Buddhism? Enrique Magan: My family was very poor, so I decided to brave the journey to the United States to help support us financially. I moved to Brooklyn, New York, from

This monthly encouragement by SGI President Daisaku Ikeda was originally published in the July 2019 issue of the Daibyakurenge, the Soka Gakkai’s monthly study journal. Every realm of human activity requires practice. Those who engage earnestly in that practice and gain mastery in their chosen field are fulfilled and vibrant. “The heart of the practice

Installment 3

The Mentor-Disciple Relationship and the Journey of Kosen-rufu

The Ikeda Wisdom Academy is an SGI-USA youth division movement to engage youth leaders in advanced study. This month, academy members will study chapter 2 of The Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life: SGI President Ikeda’s Lecture Series. While the Ikeda Wisdom Academy is a youth leaders study program, all SGI-USA members are invited

by SGI Vice President Hiromasa Ikeda

Chapter Summary Three years had passed since Shin’ichi Yamamoto was inaugurated as the third Soka Gakkai president, and kosen-rufu was developing rapidly. Ahead of the 25th Headquarters General Meeting, he carefully considered his next steps, as the seventh memorial (sixth anniversary) of Josei Toda’s passing approached the following spring. He determined to pass on to

Chapter Summary On July 1, Shin’ichi Yamamoto, at a young men’s leaders meeting, announced that the seventh memorial (sixth anniversary) of Josei Toda’s death on April 2, 1964, would be the start of the essential phase of the Soka Gakkai’s development. By “essential phase,” Shin’ichi meant the time when the actual work of kosen-rufu would

Chapter Summary On July 28, Shin’ichi Yamamoto attended the first all-Japan Soka Gakkai Writers Department general meeting. He appealed to them that the mission of the Writers Department is to expose lies and malicious reporting that seek to agitate the people, and “to forge a fresh climate of public opinion in which true peace and

Chapter Summary On November 23, the news of U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s assassination shocked the world. Shin’ichi Yamamoto thought about the thousand days that Kennedy had struggled as president. He determined to work to bring an end to discrimination and to create eternal peace in the world. At the November Headquarters Leaders Meeting, it

This installment, published in the May 22, 2019, issue of the Seikyo Shimbun, focuses on passages from Nichiren Daishonin’s writings that SGI President Ikeda discussed in volume 8 of The New Human Revolution. Passage 1 “Buddhism primarily concerns itself with victory or defeat.” (“The Hero of the World,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1,

A: The bodhisattva practice is the essence of Nichiren Buddhism, which teaches that happiness at the exclusion of others is not genuine happiness. To be sure, the original purpose of Buddhism is to help those who are suffering and to enable as many people as possible to become happy. Founding Soka Gakkai President Tsunesaburo Makiguchi

“If we want to transform the community in which we live, we must ask ourselves: Does our heart burn with a fighting spirit and are we truly committed to spreading the Daishonin’s teachings?” —SGI President Ikeda The Amami Islands are located some 200 miles south of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands. Soka

Part 3: Kosen-rufu and World Peace—The Flowering of a New Humanism

The great demon of fundamental darkness can even enter the bodies of bodhisattvas who have reached near perfect enlightenment and prevent them from attaining the Lotus Sutra’s blessing of perfect enlightenment. How easily can he then obstruct those in any lower stage of practice! (“Letter to the Brothers,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1,

For Our Wonderful New Members—Part 4 [43]