SGI Canada Newsletter, No. 61 - September 16, 2022
SGI Canada Newsletter
Issue no. 61
September 16, 2022
Welcome to the 61st issue of the SGI Canada Newsletter, a bi-weekly summary of news, upcoming events and encouragement. If you are not subscribing to the SGI Canada Newsletter, you may do so by clicking on the button below. Subscriptions are free of charge, and the SGI Canada Newsletter will be emailed directly to you.
ENCOURAGEMENT
SGI President Daisaku Ikeda’s message to 10th Headquarters Leaders Meeting: “Spreading the Supreme Philosophy of Respect for the Dignity of Life”
In his message to the 10th Soka Gakkai Headquarters Leaders Meeting toward Centennial 2030, held in Tokyo on August 27, 2022, SGI President Ikeda writes of the importance of the collection of Nichiren Daishonin’s teachings entitled The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings :
The founder of our Soka movement, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, often said that if you hit a dead end, go back to your starting point. What is the starting point to which humanity must now return? It is life itself.
The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, which elucidates the heart of the Lotus Sutra and the essence of Nichiren Buddhism, is a compilation of teachings that illuminates life with the light of the most fundamental wisdom.
United as mentor and disciple, Mr. Toda and I deeply took to heart and put into practice each phrase and passage of that work in the spirit of directly receiving oral instruction from Nichiren Daishonin himself.
This August marks 60 years since I began my lectures on The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings for members of the student division. It is truly heartening to see today’s student and youth division members carrying on the spirit of those eager, bright-eyed student division members of six decades ago as they strive earnestly in the “two ways of practice and study” (WND-1, 386).
The view of existence, life and death, and society and the universe presented in The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings is incredibly profound and vast. For example, the passage: “If we examine the nature of Myoho-renge-kyo, we see that the treasure towers are none other than all living beings, and all living beings are none other than the complete entities of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” (OTT, 230).
As a result, when we as followers of Nichiren Daishonin chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, we are filled with “the greatest of all joys, realizing that “our mind [or life] from the very beginning has been a Buddha” (cf. OTT, 212). And through engaging in dialogue with respect for all people, let us help “two, three, and a hundred” (WND-1, 385) and countless more shine as precious treasure towers embodying the supreme dignity of life.
The entire message will be available in the November edition of New Century.
NEWS
Have you set up your online account yet?
SGI Canada members now have access to an online portal in which they can create their own personal SGI Canada accounts, subscribe to publications and make secure online donations.
Members can also use their online account to read the English and French-language publications to which they subscribe, and access their tax receipts and personal information.
How to set up your online account:
- Go to the SGI Canada website at sgicanada.org and click on the Online Portal button near the top right corner of your screen.
- Click on I have not created an online account and then Submit
- Fill out the personal information fields and click on Submit
- You will receive an email from accounting@sgicinfo.org . The email will confirm your username and password (which you can change once you log into the site the first time). For assistance with setting up your account, please contact support@sgicinfo.org.
- Once your username and password have been confirmed, you will be able to log into the online portal from the SGI Canada website at any time.
Many SGI Canada members have already registered. We hope you will also take advantage of this convenient method of making online donations, subscribing to SGI Canada publications, and reading them online.
Third SGI Online Study Lecture now available
SGI Canada members and friends are now able to watch the third SGI Online Study Lecture given by SGI Vice-President Hiromasa Ikeda in two 29-minute segments.
Mr. Ikeda’s lecture is entitled “Learning from The New Human Revolution” and is based on passages from several volumes of The New Human Revolution. It is not necessary to have read these volumes recently in order to get full benefit from Mr. Ikeda’s lecture.
The online lecture is open to SGI Canada members and their friends and family.
The lecture and study materials are also available in French, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Thai and Indonesian. Local leaders can organize showings of the lecture in these languages and supply the study materials in response to requests.
District level and up leaders can show the online lecture in district meetings and at additional meetings and showings at all levels.
The lecture will be available for viewing until November 21 (11.59pm Japan Time). We encourage leaders to make as many opportunities as possible for members and guests to view the online lecture and to have discussions together after viewings.
Please consult your local leaders to see when the lecture will be shown in your location.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Nationwide Korean-language meeting on September 18
All Korean-speaking members and guests are invited to a nationwide Korean-language meeting on Sunday September 18. The theme is “Let us be the protagonists for Canadian kosen-rufu toward 2030” and the meeting will feature experiences from across the country, study and a question and answer session with SGI Canada Women’s leader Helen Izumi-Choi.
The meeting will begin at 10.00am Pacific, 11.00am Mountain, 12.00pm Central, 1.00pm Eastern, 2.00pm Atlantic and 2.30 Newfoundland.
For more information, please contact your regional leaders or email contact@sgicanada.org.
We hope you found this newsletter beneficial. Please email your questions or comments to contact@sgicanada.org. Please note that the next SGI Canada Newsletter will appear on September 30, 2022. See you then!