Those people with no place to live in wish they owned their own homes. Those who are poor wish they had money. Those without offspring may wish they had children. They all think that once their wishes are fulfilled, they’ll be happy. Happiness of this kind, however, is only relative. Happiness in the true sense of the word is absolute, a state of life in which you have sufficient life force to change any adverse circumstances whatsoever into causes for your own growth.

Everyone wants to be happy, but in reality one meets troubles and hardships. Often one blames other people or society for his difficulties. True, the immediate cause may lie in other people or society. But why is one person suffering from a particular problem and not someone else? Until one realizes that the fundamental cause of his trouble lies within himself, there can be no true solution.

Suppose someone makes an outstanding achievement in his profession. He is widely acclaimed for it and wins international fame. But does this mean that he has become truly happy? Not necessarily. Some celebrated people feel unhappy, for precisely because of their fame they have less freedom of action than before or are unable to devote themselves to their families as they might wish. True happiness is not a matter of fame but of one’s state of life.

You can judge the degree of someone’s happiness by the nature of his desires. Someone with a lofty goal is a happy person.

Suppose you are a lotus plant. At first you may resent the filthy muck in which you find yourself. But later you will realize it was because of that muck that you could bud and bear beautiful blossoms. Likewise, when you begin to consider your adverse circumstances as good influences, you are on the road to your human revolution.

As long as members of a family, an organization or a community each act out of egoistic motives, there will be gulfs between them. Only when one purifies his life to the point where he desires not only his own happiness but also others’ will a “spiritual Silk Road” be created. Soka Gakkai International President Ikeda, in a speech at Moscow State University on May 27, 1975, declared that there is a pressing need for a spiritual Silk Road connecting the minds and hearts of the peoples of the world. I think we also need a spiritual Silk Road on a smaller scale – one which connects us to our families, to our organization, and to our community.

Some members seem to believe that one who has faith should never get sick, have accidents or be robbed. They therefore begin to doubt their faith when some of their fellow members meet misfortune. They must realize that even those with faith are bound to encounter difficulties as long as they live in this world. Difficulties are like waves of the sea. Life is, as it were, a struggle against those waves. Will we be able to ride over them or will we be engulfed by them? This depends on the strength of our faith in the Gohonzon.

Buddhism teaches that both the past and the future are contained in the present moment. Each day, each moment, is precious, for our actions from moment to moment determine the course of our lives in that we are creating a new karma. Regard the present moment not only as the effect of the past but also as a cause for the future.

A person can suffer for any number of reasons – because of his or her children, parents, spouse, lack of money, sickness, bad human relations and so on. In light of the Buddhist law of causality, however, the cause for all such problems lies within that individual’s own life, although they become manifest in relation to his circumstances.

No matter how much you may thank your parents verbally for their efforts in raising you, they won’t be happy as long as you keep on bullying your brothers and sisters. They would rather see you taking good care of the younger children than hear mere words of gratitude. Similarly, no matter how much you may praise the Gohonzon, if you and your members do not get along harmoniously with one another, the Gohonzon, so to speak, will not be happy.

Some members say that because their spouses oppose their faith, they cannot fully devote themselves to activities, and there is constant discord in their homes. Instead of complaining, they should regard their mates as good influences and determine to strengthen their faith. A positive attitude of this kind will enable the seed of Buddhahood within their own lives to sprout.

Suppose your spouse opposes your faith. You must realize that he or she does so from lack of understanding. Earnestly pray to the Gohonzon that he or she will come to understand true Buddhism and take faith in it. Then you will find sufficient wisdom welling up within you to know exactly what you should do beyond mere expedient means. It is also important for you to show actual proof of your human revolution – in other words, to demonstrate that you are definitely changing in a positive way because of your faith. Don’t forget that it is your karma to be married to someone who does not understand your faith and practice. Also, remember that while it’s okay to hate a person’s acts of slander, you should not hate the person himself.

The Gosho teaches, “Buddhism is like the body and society like the shadow. When the body is crooked, so is the shadow.” In terms of our daily practice, this passage means that we should make faith the basis of everything. For example, our faith is the body, and all of our problems are the shadow. It is vital, therefore, that we devote ourselves night and day to our practice of faith in Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism. As we straighten up the “body” of our faith, so to speak, all aspects of our lives will gradually change for the better. As we advance along the correct path of faith, strengthening our life force, we are step by step approaching a state of life which is filled with benefit.

Nichiren Daishonin emphasizes the importance of the three types of actions – thoughts, words and deeds – in the practice of Buddhism. Strictly speaking, the Daishonin is the only person who read the Lotus Sutra in deed, in word and in mind. In our case, to carry out the three types of actions means to bar evil and do good in each action we take, each word we speak and each thought we think. This is a very important thing in our practice of Buddhism.

When we read a passage from the Gosho over and over and memorize it word by word, we feel as if we have read it in deed. Later, however, we discover that we understood it only in word and mind. No matter how deeply we may understand a principle, it remains a mere theory and therefore meaningless if we don’t apply it to everyday life.

The second president, Josei Toda, used to say, “To understand a theory is one thing, and to put it into practice is quite another. You know that sugar is sweet, but your knowledge won’t sweeten a cake which has no sugar in it. You also know that a hundred million yen is two times fifty million yen, ten times ten million yen, or a hundred times a million yen. Yet again, this knowledge alone won’t buy anything at a department store. Knowing or understanding something is quite different from actually possessing it. Just because you understand the teaching that life is eternal, it doesn’t follow that you have made that teaching part of your life”.

In most cases we mistakenly think that we have read some passage in deed when in fact we have done so only in word and mind. The question is whether we ourselves are living these teachings. More often than not we forget to straighten up “the body” – our own faith – and only try to unbend “the shadow.”

“A passage from the Rokuliaranzitsu Sutra states that one should become the master of his mind rather than let his mind master him.” Far from being the master of our minds, we often find ourselves being controlled by our earthly desires. Soka Gakkai International President Ikeda once emphasized the necessity of changing our ways of thinking. He said: “Most people look at things from the standpoint of the world in which they live. But it is no longer time to stand on the earth and gaze at the sun. We have entered an age in which we need to observe our planet from the standpoint of the sun. Now that the second phase of kosen-rufu has commenced, we must earnestly ponder what our individual missions are and what we should do to accomplish them.” Let’s ask ourselves whether we are doing as he advised us.

“If you try to treat someone’s illness without knowing what the cause of the illness is, you will only make the person sicker than before.” The Gosho, “Curing Karmic Disease,” states that there are six causes for illness, the sixth and most deeply rooted being the effects of evil karma. When we fall ill, however, we tend to consider only the immediate cause and influences and begin looking about frantically for some form of medical cure.

“If you propagate it [the doctrine of ichinen sanzen], devils will arise without fail. Were it not for these, there would be no way of knowing that this is the true teaching.” “‘As practice progresses and understanding grows, the three obstacles and four devils emerge, vying with one another to interfere. . . .‘ “ When devils emerge, they do not announce that they are devils. Remember that they lodge themselves in the weak spots in our faith. Not to be swayed by devils means not to be defeated by them but to muster sufficient courage and wisdom to overcome them.

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