Daily Encouragement: Quotes From my Buddhist Mentor
A daily dose of wisdom
Hope begets a youthful spirit. As long as one has hope, one can remain eternally young.
— Daisaku Ikeda (from Quotations by Daisaku Ikeda)
As a youth, Ikeda Sensei (1928–2023) suffered from tuberculosis and a weak constitution. The doctors didn’t expect him to live past the age of 30. “I was bitterly frustrated, wishing I could be healthy and strong,” he recalls.
At that time, he was making efforts to support second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda’s business and working tirelessly on the front lines of the kosen-rufu (world peace) movement.
One day, President Toda, President Ikeda’s mentor, scolded Ikeda, saying: “Daisaku! You haven’t got an ounce of life force! If your life force is weak, you’ll be defeated.” President Toda then sat Ikeda in front of the Gohonzon and “chanted Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with a force that literally seemed to batter the devil of illness into submission. His chanting truly was a lion’s roar.” Learning how to pray from his mentor, Daisaku summoned the life force of a charging lion and was able to defeat the devil of illness. He was able to accomplish his mission living to the age of 95 and dying peacefully at home.
Countless SGI members have also overcome health issues based on Nichiren’s conviction that “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is like the roar of a lion. What sickness can therefore be an obstacle?”
Life force is something we can summon from within through resolute prayer, chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, already having decided that we will be victorious.
Here is President Ikeda’s tip on how to pray to overcome health challenges in these terms:
“Pray with determination as to cause all the cells in our bodies to renew themselves; we need to spur all sixty trillion of them into action.”
Wishing you treasures of the storehouse, treasures of the body, but mostly — treasures of the heart — this season and all through 2024.