To My Friends (Feb. 11)

A translation of SGI President Ikeda's "To My Friends" published in the Seikyo Shimbun and more.

—TO MY FRIENDS—
My dear friends of the youth division:
develop your expertise and become first rate in something!
If you really consider yourself to be a true disciple,
then it is important to be passionate and earnest in all of your endeavours,
pursuing them with the ferocity of an advancing lion*,
and ensuring a succession of victories that people will know and remember you by.*

*"Reply to Kyo'o", WND-1, Page 412, "The lion king is said to advance three steps, then gather himself to spring, unleashing the same power whether he traps a tiny ant or attacks a fierce animal. In inscribing this Gohonzon for her protection, Nichiren was like the lion king. This is what the sutra means by "the power [of the Buddhas] that has the lion's ferocity."

* "Earthly Desires are Enlightenment," WND-1, Page 31, "Carry through with your faith in the Lotus Sutra. You cannot strike fire from flint if you stop halfway. Bring forth the great power of faith, and be spoken of by all the people of Kamakura, both high and low, or by all the people of Japan, as "Shijo Kingo, Shijo Kingo of the Lotus school!" Even a bad reputation will spread far and wide. A good reputation will spread even farther, particularly if it is a reputation for devotion to the Lotus Sutra."

—DAILY GOSHO—
"And yet, though one might point at the earth and miss it, though one might bind up the sky, though the tides might cease to ebb and flow and the sun rise in the west, it could never come about that the prayers of the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra would go unanswered." (On Prayer—The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 1, page 345) Selection source: "Kyo No Hosshin", Seikyo Shimbun, February 11.