Trets Women¹s Division Leaders Training Course
Opening Lecture by Barbara Cahill October 2001
Discovering our Mission

Let me start by asking a question "Who are you?"
I want to suggest that we don¹t really know ourselves. "Who am I?" This is probably a mystery to most of us.

We may answer by saying "I am Gina and I am a district leader," "a mother," or "I am Pat and I am a secretary." But clearly these descriptions don¹t really answer the question, "who am I?" They are only part of the answer.

But this question is one of several questions that Sensei asks us to pose to ourselves. I¹ll tell you more of them in a minute, but let¹s keep looking at "who am I?"

This question has to do with our identity, with something deeper than names and labels ­ something deeper than the every day way we tend to think of ourselves. This is a question about our heart. "Who am I?" in the context of Buddhism, really means, "where is my heart?" What it implies, is that our initial reaction, when we are asking, "who am I?" is quite shallow, just a façade that we¹ve been wearing since childhood. Yet we often allow this façade to dictate our lives. We become very bound up with our past history, with what we were taught about ourselves in our own childhood. We may have been told, "You are so pretty" or "You¹re no good at anything" or "why don¹t you try harder?" or "You¹re such a love." These phrases influence our opinion of ourselves, we think of ourselves in those terms.

But our true self, our true identity is free of those limitations that we have been living with all this time. Probably you could say that unless in the past we have made an effort to discover our true identity, or our own true self, we do not yet really know ourselves.

Discovering our true self takes effort, both in front of Gohonzon and in the support and inspiration we give to others. Sensei describes this effort as creating new lives for ourselves. The key feature of such an undertaking is that we make the effort to change ourselves. We change from the old person with fears and limitations into a new person full of hope, courage and wisdom and especially compassion.

In this first quote by Sensei he talks of creating your life. In other words, making more of your life than just living in the way you always have, just putting up with negative traits or covering your weaknesses so you don¹t have to see them.

"You must not slacken in your efforts to build new lives for yourselves. Creativeness means pushing open the heavy door to life. This is not an easy struggle, indeed it may be the hardest task in the world. For opening the door to your own life is more difficult than opening the doors to the mysteries of the universe."

"But the act of opening your door vindicates your existence as a human being and makes life worth living. No one is lonelier or unhappier than the person who does not know the pure joy of creating a life for herself. To be human is not merely to stand erect and manifest reason and intellect ­ to be human in the full sense of the word is to lead a creative life."

"The fight to create a new life is a truly wonderful thing, revealing radiant wisdom, the light of intuition that leads to an understanding of the universe, the strong will of justice and a determination to challenge all attacking evils, the compassion that enables you to take upon yourself the sorrows of others and a sense of union with the energy of compassion gushing forth from the cosmic source of life and creating an ecstatic rhythm in the lives of all mankind. As you challenge adversity and polish the jewel that is life, you will learn to walk the supreme pathway of true humanity. One who leads a creative life from the present into the future will stand in the vanguard of history. I think of this flowering of the creative life as the human revolution that is your mission now and throughout your lives." (President Ikeda 1974)

If we look at his words carefully we will see that the results of creating new lives for ourselves are immense. This will enable us to "take on the sorrows of others," "walk the supreme pathway of true humanity," "challenge adversity", "challenge all attacking evils", and many more qualities will become available to us. Also, look again at the second paragraph, "the act of opening your door vindicates your existence as a human being and makes life worth living."

It may not surprise you to learn that many, many women find at some point that life for them is just nor worth living. This is rather common and this topic is of great concern to Sensei. He says that "opening the door to your own life" is difficult but also that doing it allows you to create a life of pure joy for yourself.

Clearly this creating a new life for ourselves is not a selfish, navel gazing exercise. It enables us to really be effective in society. I really want to clear this up now ­ using our practice to find the answers to "Who am I?" is not an exercise that makes us concentrate on ourselves to the exclusion of the well being of others.

Whenever Sensei has talked about the grand necessity of us finding our true selves he has never said that we should hole up somewhere away from the world and just concentrate on ourselves. We cannot find our true selves in a vacuum. If we are not concerned to care for others we cannot find our true selves.

I want to tell you my experience of this. Many of you have heard this, but it may help me to put across the point I am making, and please bear in mind the last sentence of Sensei¹s, "I think of this flowering of the creative life as the human revolution that is your mission now and throughout your lives."

In other words the experience I am talking about was just the beginning of creating a new life for myself. Setting out on this road is setting out on a never-ending joyous adventure.

In 1973 I fell in love with Eddie and he fell in love with me. I had been chanting to find the right husband for Kosen Rufu. Without expecting it in the slightest, I fell in love with Eddie whom I had known for 5 years. The trouble was that Eddie was married. He was separated from his wife but he was still married. We had guidance to chant for 3 months and then Eddie should tell Keiko. Of course when he did tell her, she was furious. By this time Eddie and I were living together, but not openly. Still, Keiko knew and was very upset.

I had been living my life at that time based on anger. One aspect of this anger was my inclination not to respect people and to want to get my own way. But fortunately I was completely involved in Buddhist activities and I wanted Kosen Rufu more than anything. Just about that time a senior leader from Japan, called Mr Izumi, came to the UK and I remember Ricky Baynes having the job of persuading me to go to see him and ask guidance about the situation. Well, Mr Izumi said that Eddie and I should separate and have no contact until we could change our karma.

I was very upset because I was still trying to control things myself and I couldn¹t do so. I remember Gicho Yamazaki sitting between Mr. Izumi and me in a taxi and Gicho was explaining to me that if Eddie and I kept living together, Keiko would feel she had no say in what was happening. But if we separated, Keiko would feel she had as much influence as we did.

So, we separated and it was very hard. But much later I learned that as soon as we did separate, Keiko began doing Ushitora gongyo about the situation. She had never practised strongly but this had got her to practise such a difficult discipline as Ushitora gongyo every night.

Meanwhile, I was chanting to change my karma, and on two separate occasions I chanted ten hours in one day. On both of these occasions I was angry from beginning to end. I still didn¹t see this anger as being my karma. But, on the second occasion, towards the end of the ten hours, I just got fed up with being angry ­ in other words, I turned my anger on my karma, I said ŒI will not have this anger any more!¹ and I kept chanting. And it worked. My anger just left me.

For about two weeks I felt so happy. My natural outlook of hating and criticising others just left me. There just was no need to react that way. I saw the world with different eyes. Then gradually my anger came back but I was strongly challenging it every day in my daimoku so it became possible to see my anger and step away from it and not let it dominate my life. So I wasn¹t in the grip of anger any more.

Strangely enough, I discovered later that the one thing calculated to put Eddie off was my getting angry. But, by the time I discovered this I had learned how to change it every time ­ after a while it just didn¹t occur to me to get angry, it no longer controlled me.

Five months after Eddie and I separated, Keiko decided she wanted a divorce. It wasn¹t an easy decision for her but by the time we got married nine months later, she rang and asked if she could come to the wedding. I feel that the key to this experience was that I learned respect. Eddie and I were definitely headed down a disrespectful path, pretty much determined for him to get a divorce regardless, and for us to marry regardless. What saved us was really our huge desire for Kosen Rufu. We were willing to ask for guidance and to act on it.

All the time that I was an angry young woman, inside myself was my true self with the qualities of compassion and respect. If I had not had such strict guidance and followed it, if I had not done so much daimoku, I might never have realised how to become happy.

I don¹t think we can become truly happy without challenging the deeply held views that our karma presents to us. If I had not challenged my anger it almost certainly would have ruined my marriage. But also I probably would not have got married in the first place if I could not have learned to respect Keiko. Also to show how, regardless how deeply ingrained our karma is, we can create new lives for ourselves.

I wanted to give that experience to show how very real our karma is on the one hand, and how real our true self is on the other.

It¹s not always easy to see our karma because we¹ve lived with such attitudes and prejudices all our lives. But if we are practising both for ourselves and others, and if we put Kosen Rufu in the centre of our lives we will probably get into a situation, which, because it¹s so important to us, demands that we change that karma. And we¹ll find that we can.

Now I want to emphasise again that it is our sacred duty and mission to fulfil our lives. However, something holds us back. I believe this to be a deep-seated lack of self-respect, a deep distrust of ourselves, perhaps an obliteration of ourselves. This has got to stop.

What is the use of our being taught by Nichiren Daishonin and Sensei that we all have the potential for Buddhahood, if we will not seek it out? Within each of our lives is good and bad. The bad tells us "You can¹t." "You won¹t", "You¹re no good". We settle into this kind of thinking in front of the Gohonzon. Our big enemy is our lethargy, our willingness to settle for less; settle for far less than we are capable of.

I think I speak for all of us when I say that our attendance on this course; 150 women leaders together at Trets in the 1st year of the new century, this is a major event for the UK women¹s Division. It is not by accident. We are ready to play a major role in the establishment of Nichiren Daishonin¹s teachings as a decisive force for the good of this planet, and the good of this country and our own neighbourhoods and SGI-UK HQ¹s and our own families and friends.

We are ready to become more than the limitations we place on ourselves ­ limitations which are strangling us and holding us back so much.

But how do we move beyond our limitations? I think we must consciously seek out our Buddhahood. I know this is easier said than done, but among the many guidelines that Sensei has given us there is this one, which seems to me to be very effective. He asks us to ask ourselves a series of questions while we are chanting. The first one is, "Who am I?" Then he says, "What is my mission in this life?" "How much can I develop my life condition?" "What kind of value and contribution can I make to society?"

These questions show us that Sensei expects us, and encourages us to become much more pro-active with regard to our lives. This means we are going to have to think more about ourselves. We have to put the focus on our own lives rather than always looking outward to others.

But let me be clear. As I said before, this focus on yourself should not be at the exclusion of your practice for others. Why do we so often see things as "either, "or"? "Either I concentrate on myself or I concentrate on the members." It¹s not like that. That is not a choice I¹m asking you to make. I want us to concentrate on both of these all the time. We cannot achieve what we want to achieve ­ our own Human Revolution and Kosen Rufu if we are focusing only on ourselves or only on others.

Now having said that, I feel it is very important now, on this course, to acknowledge that usually we do not take the time to look inside ourselves. We just live.

I realised when I had cancer, that I had just taken my body for granted. I had been pursuing my Buddhahood, my inner world; but I had just expected my body to get on with it, without any fuss and little or no attention. Well, I have changed that now. But I know for many of you the opposite is true. You spend hours in the gym or jogging or walking, and this is caring for your body, your health. But the other part, the inner, deeper part, which is Buddhahood, is neglected. It¹s just that when you are chanting you just do not feel right about spending so much time on your spiritual side.

But I¹m, urging you now to stop taking your spiritual development for granted. Stop thinking that when the time is right, and you¹ve done enough daimoku, your Buddhahood will just appear ­ as if in a dream.

Here is another serious matter. It¹s really part and parcel of our search for happiness. The way we feel about ourselves. This is actually a very serious matter. Because the way we feel about ourselves determines our life.

It must seem to the unhappy person that she had little or no control over that very illusive thing ­ how she feels about herself or about life. But this is just it. We can have as much influence over our spiritual well being as we have over the health and well being of our bodies.

It¹s sort of hard to talk about spiritual well being because many of us don¹t know what those words refer to. But in this talk I use the term "spiritual" to mean any aspect of our lives, which is not physical. So it refers to our hope and our courage and our love of life and our determination and compassion ­ it goes on and on, this list. But you see what I mean. For the person who thinks, "I don¹t have any hope or any courage or any love of life etc.," I would say that it¹s just that at this moment in time these very human qualities are not apparent. And without these qualities it¹s hard to look for anything more in your life.

But this is where our regular practice is so important and where our going to meetings and working to care for others is so important. Because these activities and this daimoku works away in our lives to give us glimmers of how good life can be for us.

Then we should grab these glimmers with our hands. If, for instance, we¹ve had a huge, devastating suffering that has just suffused our lives with misery and then we are able to surface from that at a meeting maybe, or after a home visit, and we feel fine, we should not just let that glimmer of happiness pass by quickly. Rather, we should know from that glimmer that we can and do have that ability to rise above our suffering all the time. We can transform our lives so that we see life and see ourselves in a most positive way.

This being able to see ourselves positively is what allows us to see and to appreciate our Buddhahood. Otherwise we may just wall ourselves off from Buddhahood, and it would probably take a bulldozer and rock grinding equipment for Buddhahood to even get a look in. For Buddhahood to even say, "Hello . . . I¹m here!"

Did you read the article Sensei wrote in the September Art of Living about pessimism and optimism? He says in there:

"The mind is a wondrous thing. As Milton wrote (in Paradise Lost) Š ŒThe mind is its own place and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.¹ The quality of our lives ultimately depends upon our state of mind. Buddhism expounds this from various perspectives based on the concept of Œthe Mystic Functions of the Mind.¹ Buddhism is a psychology of hope and hope is my favourite word." (AoL Sept 01. p19)

In this article, Sensei recalls his meeting with Dr Martin Seligman and when he said those words to Dr Seligman, Dr Seligman responded with:

"Optimism is hope. It is not the absence of suffering. It is not always being happy and fulfilled. It is the conviction that though one may fail or have a painful experience somewhere, sometime, one can take action to change things." Seligman (AoL Sept 01 p 19)

I think this is a very important quote for us because it says that far more important and more realistic than always wanting to be happy and fulfilled is that we develop the conviction that we can take action to change things ­ the conviction that no matter what, we can always change things.

If we don¹t believe that our lives matter, that our lives count, then we probably can¹t believe that we can change. To the person who doesn¹t believe in herself, having faith that she can change any situation doesn¹t even figure. This must lead to a pleading kind of faith ­ "Gohonzon please change this situation, please make him love me, please let them give me the job." But surely we know by now that having that kind of pleading faith gets very little in the way of results. We really need a way to believe in ourselves, because it is we ourselves that bring about the changes we want.

I am really in favour of us looking at what we are telling ourselves as we chant. Because this is where old habits become more ingrained ­ such as "I don¹t like myself," "I¹m no good," but also it is where we can just as surely establish new ways of thinking, "I believe in myself", "I have confidence." These ways of thinking are just as valid and it is possible to change to such a positive outlook when we chant. Even if you feel a fraud while you say, "I believe in myself," this becomes true for you if you do it while you are chanting. If you do it every day while you are chanting, whatever you tell yourself about yourself becomes your life.

I have talked over the years to several women who each had the same problem. They had each had really dire struggles in their marriages, with their mothers, with careers, and by and large they had triumphed in ways that you might hardly have believed possible when they started out. But the trouble was that for each of them, all their very real accomplishments made them feel a sham. These outward triumphs seemed to have been accomplished by someone else, not they themselves. This was always down to just one thing. They had not changed their opinions of themselves. Each one of them felt that she was a really awful person inside.

This inside is the key isn¹t it? This is where the work needs to be done. We need to change how we feel about ourselves. We can¹t wait for a change to just happen. We can¹t wait till even more acknowledgement of our success comes our way. The successes won¹t change anything if we hate ourselves inside.

I feel that for us to really take our places as Bodhisattvas of the Earth establishing true Buddhism throughout the land of the UK, we need to have a genuine "clean out." Our lives need to be firing on all cylinders. We must be able to use the greatest resource that we possess. It¹s time to stop thinking that we can get by, by using the lower six worlds.

Our karma has locked each one of us into one of these worlds ­ is it hell, or hunger or animality or anger? Or, do we perhaps mistake tranquillity and rapture for Buddhahood? It is a battle to determine that what you want is Buddhahood and it is a longer battle to hold fast to that determination. Perhaps for many of us this will be the first time we¹ve set this task for ourselves. Why not set out on this journey determined to change your karma? After all it is that karma of relying on the anger state, or on hunger, or whatever, that keeps you from turning to your Buddhahood and relying on that. Really trusting that. Trusting Buddhahood.

There are many, many ways that you can approach this finding of your Buddhahood. And I know that most of us have tried, sometimes in a really dedicated way, for a period of time. But perhaps you can acknowledge that you tend to give up after a bit when nothing seems to happen. You might think, "Well, I did try." And then you go on to some other concern and forget to chant for yourself.

Why do we do this? Why don¹t we pursue our Buddhahood as if it were the most important thing we could ever do with our life? I think it must be that we don¹t hold our lives in very much esteem. We think we¹re not worth it. Or perhaps we feel we might not succeed and we don¹t want to test it and find that it doesn¹t work because then we¹d have no faith left. Whereas, now our faith is perhaps shaky sometimes, but it¹s THERE.

Well this is just not good enough. I¹m urging us to be brave enough to put our own life at the centre of our practice. I certainly do not mean that we should become egocentric, only thinking of ourselves in a selfish way. Chanting and thinking about our Buddhahood is very far from a selfish pursuit. I think this quote from President Ikeda tells us how to go about our pursuit of our Buddhahood:

"Simply stated, to Œsettle one¹s mind on enlightenment¹ means Œfaith¹ in Buddhism. In other words, it means one¹s resolute determination to attain enlightenment by forging oneself towards perfection as a human being, as one challenges constantly the following vital questions with a seeking spirit:

Who am I?
What is my mission?
What is my life, which lasts for all eternity?
How much can I develop my life condition?
What kind of value and contribution can I make to society?"

I have tried this, asking these questions of myself. They certainly don¹t foster self-centredness. Don¹t you agree that deeply considering these questions would lead us to see our live differently? Instead of suffering perhaps a very deep sense of loss, or perhaps resignation, or maybe hating ourselves, or our life, or getting very angry at a colleague, if we really question our lives in this way, we can see that we are so precious, so valuable to the universe. We have so much to give and we have lived eternal lives, which manifest just now at this time and place to make our great contribution to Kosen Rufu. This surely is not selfish.

Then in this same quote Sensei continues:

"In all likelihood, newer members took faith in the Gohonzon in hopes of alleviating their sufferings and fulfilling their desires, but if you read the Gosho of Nichiren Daishonin carefully, you will realise they have not yet settled their minds on enlightenment in the true and complete sense of the word. Nevertheless, they are doubtless still able to receive great benefit and advantages thanks to the unlimited beneficial power of the Gohonzon.

"But if you are to bathe yourself in the true, immeasurable benefit of the Gohonzon, it is vital for you to settle your mind on enlightenment, to resolutely stand up for the cause of Kosen Rufu as disciples of the Daishonin and to carry out your mission as Bodhisattvas of the Earth." (Buddhism in Action, Vol. 1 p. 296)

"If you are to bathe yourself in the true immeasurable benefit of the Gohonzon it is vital for you to settle your mind on enlightenment." How can we, as Women¹s leaders of SGI-UK settle for anything less than immeasurable benefit? Then surely we should attempt to answer the questions that Sensei poses.

For instance, "What is my mission in this life?" Each of us has an individual mission that has been in our hearts for many, many lifetimes. I¹ll talk about this in a moment but in general you could say that each of our lives is meant for more, so much more than we imagine. It is our mission that helps us find how much more our lives are capable of.

"How can I use my life for Kosen Rufu?" Finding the answer to this ­ and the answer can change over time ­ finding the mission that you want to pursue gives your living such impetus, such power. The power it gives you is the power to overcome hardships and obstacles. This is such an important aspect of happiness ­ the ability not to fear the future, not to fear the worst. This overcoming of fear is inherent in the mission we have. When we can see that our life is in our own hands because of the mission we have chosen for ourselves, we can feel the importance of what we are doing. Daily life has so much more meaning and we begin to have so much more confidence. The mission you decide on should not be something you can imagine easily accomplishing. It needs to be big enough to awaken your life. It needs to be something that will involve you that will focus your daimoku.

We need not, in fact we can¹t, think constantly and only of our mission. But once it is in your life and you have made a commitment to it you need to remind yourself each day and renew the pledge that you make to yourself to accomplish your mission. People often think mission has to do with the work we do, with the career we have. But work and career are only a part of it. "What do I want to do with my life?" This is what mission is. It implies a broad direction. And it implies a direction that must include; must be based upon, "What do I want to do for Kosen Rufu?" Once we have this mission clear so many other decisions become clear too.

I strongly suggest that before we leave Trets we undertake to find our own mission for Kosen Rufu. Don¹t worry if you are still chanting and wondering what it is after you leave Trets. You will find it. The mission you can commit your life to. Sensei points out that:

"Only when you live up to your own individual mission to devote yourself to the practice of chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo while encouraging others to do the same will your Œself¹ be filled with the Mystic Law merging with the realm of Buddhahood in the Universe that pervades the 3 existences of past, present and future. In this condition you will enjoy absolute security and total freedom." (SGI Hong Kong General Meeting, Jan 30, 1998)

Clearly, mission can have an enormous importance in our lives. At another time Sensei answered a question from a Swiss member by saying:

"When a person is truly awakened to his mission, he can achieve 100 times more in everything he does. In this respect the most important quality to develop is courage."

We can achieve one hundred times more in everything we do. How wonderful. But why courage? It takes courage to look into our lives to find our mission and to find our true self, the self of our Buddhahood. We don¹t easily create new lives for ourselves. We don¹t easily commit to the mission we believe in.

In all the lifetimes that we have lived, we have never before been alive at the time of the worldwide propagation of True Buddhism. So here we are with this lifetime to respond to Sensei and with this lifetime to choose what goals and desires shall govern our lives. We cannot afford to let ourselves down on this account. That is why all the points I¹ve been talking about today are so important:

Create a new life for yourself
Stop running yourself down
Find your mission and commit to it.
Let your true self show you how to rise above sorrow, and despair, and resignation.

Sometimes we find it very difficult to chant to find our Buddhahood. Buddhahood can be so indefinable. But I have heard of several women who chant instead to support and protect Sensei, or to have the same heart as Sensei. This allows them to believe in themselves and this helps them believe in their Buddhahood. If the word Buddhahood is too vague, or maybe idealistic, then try chanting to have Sensei¹s spirit: To be a real disciple of Sensei.

Let¹s focus for a moment on the relationship of Master and Disciple, the oneness of Master and Disciples. This relationship is the absolute key feature of Nichiren Daishonin¹s Buddhism. Without it we surely would not be here at Trets now and we would not have the Gohonzon or the organization. However, there is so much more that we would not have. This concerns our heart and this is what Sensei teaches us. Although we may react with intense excitement at the prospect of seeing Sensei, we need to curb our desire to treat him like a celebrity, a pop star, and a movie star.

Sensei is one of the most famous people in the world but this is not because he has pursued fame. He has simply made it his mission to establish the teachings of Nichiren Daishonin throughout the world. Our response to him, whether or not we ever meet him, needs to be something deeper than the celebrity factor. Our response must be our own Human Revolution, our own
discipleship: where we take on board and deeply ingrain in our lives the teachings he is promoting. We need to make these teachings our own. Our lives have to change to do so. Sensei says about this:

"Once a path is opened, those who follow can travel with composure and ease. Nichiren Daishonin, the Buddha of the Latter Day, possessing the virtues of sovereign, teacher and parent, opened a path to enlightenment for all people. For this we owe him our eternal gratitude. To extend and expand the path that the mentor has graciously opened is the disciple¹s mission." (Faith into Action
p. 231/231)

Our mission ­ the general one that belongs to all of us ­ is to "extend and expand the path that the mentor has graciously opened." Then within this grand mission we find our own individual missions. We need to find what we can do, because without this individual commitment, the grand mission stays as theory and we don¹t benefit from it. The role of the Master is to open the path. Our role is to extend and expand the path. I want us to read the next quote, which explains Mr Toda¹s awakening to his own mission while in prison and it explains how important his mission is to all of us 57 years later. In a sense I am hope that by understanding the importance of what Mr Toda accomplished, we can understand the great effect that we could have when we begin to live our missions. This is from the Conversations on the Lotus Sutra No. 2:

"President Ikeda: Very simply Mr Toda¹s enlightenment was the landmark moment when the Soka Gakkai was revealed as the true heir to Nichiren Daishonin¹s Buddhism. That was the starting point of all propagation activities and our development today, and I firmly believe that Mr Toda revived Buddhism. It was an epoch making event in the annals of Buddhism in contemporary times and made it accessible to all.

"When I was younger, Mr Toda told me about his profound experience in prison. His words left me convinced that his realisation formed the religious and philosophical core of the Soka Gakkai. The truth to which Mr Toda became enlightened is identical to the ultimate teaching of Nichiren Daishonin¹s Buddhism. I believe that Mr Toda¹s realisation opened a path out of the deadlock facing humanity. It is our mission as his disciples to extend that path in all directions and on all planes." (Conversations on the Lotus Sutra No. 2 p.2)

"At the time that Mr Toda was imprisoned no sect of Buddhism was promoting the major teaching of Shakyamuni and Nichiren Daishonin: that every life has Buddhahood and the way to realise this truth. When Mr Toda challenged himself to understand a certain passage of the Lotus Sutra, he knew that the passage referred to Buddhahood, but Mr Toda wanted to understand what is Buddhahood. After many, many days of chanting and pondering this, challenging himself not to move on until he could understand, he suddenly realised Œthe Buddha is life itself¹. (Conversations on the Lotus Sutra No. 2. p.2)"

Sensei says of this realisation, "That was the moment when Buddhism was revived in the 20th Century" (Conversations on the Lotus Sutra Vol. 2, p.2)

It is incredible what Mr Toda did. As Sensei says, he "revived Buddhism in contemporary times and made it accessible to all." And, "he opened a path out of the deadlock facing humanity."

It is up to us to take up this path. Our great Master is President Ikeda, and he has led us to see the importance of Nichiren Daishonin and Mr Toda. As we follow them and feel gratitude to them, and as we develop and commit to our own way of extending the path of Kosen Rufu, our own lives will brighten enormously. Before we make the commitment of placing Kosen Rufu in the centre of our lives we might feel that it would be impossible to commit our lives in such a way. But I guarantee you that living a life where you put your own Human Revolution and Kosen Rufu at the very centre ­ living such a life will give you everything you need for your absolute happiness.

Let¹s read the next quote by Sensei because as always he puts all of this so well:

"Our task is to establish a firm inner world, a robust sense of self that will not be swayed or shaken by the most trying circumstances or pressing adversity. Only when efforts to reform society have as their point of departure the reformation of the inner life ­ human revolution ­ will they lead us with certainty to a world of lasting peace and true human security. It is my firm conviction that a fundamental revolution in the life of a single individual can give rise to the kind of consciousness and solidarity that will free humanity from its millennial cycles of warfare and violence." (Sensei ­ East-West Centre, Hawaii Jan 26, 1995)

This to me is talking about our missions. Sensei begins by talking about how important it is to establish a "firm inner world", and he says only when our efforts to reform society have as their starting point "the reformation of the inner life" or Human Revolution ­ can we expect to bring about "lasting peace and true human security." Then in case we don¹t think that big ­ the reformation of society ­ he says that a fundamental revolution in a single life can give rise to what is needed to free humanity from cycles of warfare and violence. The individual can be immensely important because of the change that she brings about in her heart ­ or inner world.

Another point I want to make concerns this 21st Century. Sensei has called it the Century of Women. We can¹t imagine now how very different this century will be in 2090. I recently saw a documentary about Queen Victoria showing people in 1901 at the very beginning of the last century, going about in horse-drawn carriages, wearing the clothes we associate with the Victorian era. What great changes came about in the 20th Century! Not all of them were good of course. But so much has changed for the better, not least the change in women¹s rights. Without this change, Sensei could never have imagined that this century would be the Century of Women.

But here is our great responsibility. We need to stand up in our practice, in our convictions, and take a big part in guiding the developments in this 21st Century. Also, I think many of us feel the urgency of taking up our Human Revolution sincerely and becoming committed to our role in Kosen Rufu before Sensei dies. We want to be the disciples who can stand alone and continue all the good work and good resolutions we made while we were with Sensei. We have the good fortune to be alive with Sensei. We must polish our faith and our commitment so that we can link others to him strongly after he dies. Part of the practice of Kosen Rufu is that we establish the spirit of Sensei strongly in ourselves so that we can pass this on to others.

This is the key to everything, becoming the disciple who so deeply transforms her heart and her convictions, that she can stand alone and continue to establish Nichiren Daishonin¹s Buddhism for her whole lifetime.

In everything I have been saying about creating a new life, or finding your true self, what I feel is at the basis of it is that we learn to expand our horizons. That may seem like I¹m saying, look outside, but I really mean, expand what you want to do with your life, expand what you expect of yourself.

The whole universe is absolutely crowded with benefit. This benefit is infinite. But we must expand our lives to allow this benefit into our own lives. Buddhism is about the heart, about expanding our hearts so that we can care about, and have compassion for, others and for ourselves. So often we misguidedly try to care for others without expanding our capacity. Often leaders and members get completely worn out doing this. We become so used to pretending to care that we don¹t realise that Buddhism offers us the way to transform our lives so that we really care. But we have to challenge ourselves to transform our lives. This may seem hard to do but it probably won¹t take any more effort than the effort we now spend pretending.

Expand the heart, prize it open and let your heart connect with Sensei¹s heart. His heart is big enough to encompass the whole world and everything in it. By making your connection with his heart and keeping it strong every day, you begin to sense the immense richness of your life.

When I was thinking about how to express the way we are inclined to negate our lives, I realised how we are tempted to express this in the language we use. When I first came to the UK in 1960, I used to say, "You¹re welcome" when someone thanked me. But I realised that English people didn¹t say this. What the English say is, "don¹t mention it", or "it¹s nothing."

There is quite a difference in these expressions. The American, when thanked, acknowledges that she has done something to help; but the English person in her response sort of negates what she¹s done, even perhaps negates herself; "It¹s nothing" becomes "I¹ve done nothing," "I¹m not important," "Please don¹t thank me."

I¹m not suggesting that we all run around saying, "You¹re welcome" when it is clearly so out of step or un-English. But what I want us to do is look at the person who has done the giving ­ YOU, and start to think differently about yourself. Give yourself credit where it is due, a pat on the back, a glass of wine at the end of the day.

We, the UK Women¹s division, are accomplishing great things. You are among the very most caring people in the world and sincere. You are genuinely sincere women with fortitude and resilience and a natural passion for justice. Please take this to heart. Open the gateway to your heart. I¹ll close with the last quote by Sensei. He quotes the gosho first:

"To chant Nam myoho renge kyo is to enter the palace of one¹s own life." (Gosho Zenshu 787)

The he says,

"Everyone has a vast and unsurpassed palace within ­ a personal hall of fame¹ resplendent with infinite treasure of the universe. When we open the door to that palace, wherever we are ­ right there ­ we can find happiness. Consequently there is nothing to fear and no reason to envy others for anything." (Sensei, Bulletin 16.4.99 p.6)

This page was last modified on Sunday, August 20, 2006.