Miss the address from SGI Honorary Women’s Leader Kaneko Ikeda? We include an excerpt from the January–February Living Buddhism. To subscribe to the SGI-USA weekly newspaper World Tribune or the bimonthly study journal Living Buddhism online, click here!“In striving to fulfill your lofty mission, you may be extremely busy. The more seriously you devote yourselves to supporting your fellow members and advancing kosen-rufu, the more problems you are bound to encounter. However, as my husband and I often remark to each other, all trials and hardships are a source of growth and the seeds of great good fortune for us who practice Nichiren Buddhism.
Nichiren teaches that through the power of the Mystic Law, earthly desires or illusions can be transformed into enlightenment. The bigger the problems we have, the higher the state of life we can develop. The more deeply we pray to overcome our problems, the more profound the wisdom we can tap. The harder we challenge ourselves right to the end, the greater inner strength we can forge. Nothing is ever wasted in Buddhism.
Second Soka Gakkai president Josei Toda once gave the following guidance to the women’s division: “The deeper the swamp, the bigger and more beautiful the lotus blossoms that will emerge. It’s the same with human beings. Particularly, the greater the hardships we take on for the sake of kosen-rufu, the more beautiful the flowers of happiness that will bloom in our lives” (p. 16).
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