SGI Canada Newsletter, No. 71 - January 27, 2023
SGI Canada Newsletter
Issue no. 71
January 27, 2023
Welcome to the 71st 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 editorial: “Painting a Vision for Brilliant Victory in Our Communities”
In his January editorial in the Daibyakurenge study magazine, SGI President Ikeda explains the significance of the environment in which we live:
Our Buddhist faith provides the most fundamental answer to the question of why we live where we do in terms of our vow for kosen-rufu.
My travels around the world, with my mentor’s photo in my breast pocket, began with speaking with and encouraging our members who had migrated to places like the United States and Brazil and were struggling to adapt to their new and unfamiliar homelands.
Thanking them for their efforts to pioneer our movement while struggling with indescribable hardships, I said: “You haven’t come here by chance; you have been called forth by Nichiren Daishonin as Bodhisattvas of the Earth to lead the people of this country to happiness and to create an eternal realm of happiness and peace here.”
When you dedicate your life to the Mystic Law with the firm conviction that where you are now is the place of your mission that the Daishonin has entrusted you with, that place is transformed into the magnificent stage for your human revolution. You can bring forth power surpassing that of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions and three existences and expand our network of “friends in the orchid room” (cf. WND-1, 23). A drama of revitalization begins that can eventually transform even the karma of the land itself.
The Daishonin writes: “By observing a single flower in bloom, one can predict the advent of spring” (WND-1, 268). Today, the human flowers of Soka blooming everywhere around the world, devoted to the happiness of others and serving their communities, are a source of hope for the advent of a great springtime of peace for the global family.
The entire editorial appears in the February edition of New Century.
SGI President Daisaku Ikeda’s message: “Let Us Spread the Warm Encouragement of Soka!”
SGI President Ikeda sent a message to the 12th Soka Gakkai Headquarters Leaders Meeting toward Centennial 2030, kicking off the 10th anniversary year of the Hall of the Great Vow for Kosen-rufu, held at the Toda Memorial Auditorium in Sugamo, Tokyo, on January 7, 2023. In this excerpt, President Ikeda illustrates the importance of personal encouragement:
The start of the Soka Gakkai’s movement for peace, culture, and education that has today spread around the globe can be traced back to 1955, the year when our members embarked on their first full-fledged campaign of grassroots dialogue to create a better society based on the Daishonin’s ideal of “establishing the correct teaching for the peace of the land.” On New Year’s Day of that year, my mentor, second Soka Gakkai president Josei Toda, composed the following poem:
The journey to propagate
the Mystic Law
is long;
let us encourage each other
and advance together.
Encouragement is a hope-filled driving force for peace, culture and education.
From the start of that year, in the days of my youth, I took the lead even more energetically in encouraging my fellow members, as Mr. Toda had called out in his poem, filling them with passion and energy.
At the time, I was acting chapter leader of Tokyo’s Bunkyo Chapter, so I especially focused my attention on our dedicated men’s and women’s district leaders who strove alongside me, sharing hardships and joys, on the frontlines of our movement. This is because the district is a garden of equality and harmony, an oasis of unity in diversity, and the power source for the forward momentum of kosen-rufu.
The complete text of the message will be published in the March issue of New Century.
News
New SGI-USA centre opens in Guam
On January 21, SGI-USA opened the SGI Guam Ikeda Peace and Culture Centre in Tamuning, Guam. A delegation led by Soka Gakkai President Minoru Harada and Soka Gakkai Senior Vice President Yoshiki Tanigawa attended the opening ceremony to which President Daisaku Ikeda sent a congratulatory message.
To mark the opening, the Guam Legislature presented a resolution recognizing the 48th anniversary of the January 26 founding of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) and commending President and Mrs. Ikeda’s contributions to peace. At a separate event, the governor of Guam, Lou Leon Guerrero, signed a proclamation in recognition of the contributions that local Soka Gakkai members make to the community.
We’d like to see you!
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Have you been having visits with other members recently? We’d love to see your photos of your visits with individual members or small numbers of members (in keeping with the SGI Canada recommendations published in Newsletter #69 on October 14).
If you submit your photos to SGI Canada, your photos may be used in upcoming editions of our magazines. Your photos should be:
- High-resolution (at least 1 MB in size)
- Sent as attachments to an email (rather than copied into the body of the email)
- Emailed to publications@sgicanada.org
We look forward to seeing your faces!
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 February 10, 2023. See you then!