To My Friends

Wednesday, August 22

"No prayers will go unanswered."*
First, let's chant daimoku earnestly and determinedly.
Then put all our prayers into action!
This is a fundamental principle for victory and success.

* When we chant daimoku just as the Daishonin instructs, our voices resonate throughout the entire universe. Just as a soft voice can be transformed into a booming voice through the use of a good megaphone, when we chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with heartfelt prayer, we can move the entire universe.
As Nichikan, the twenty-sixth high priest, says: "[If you have faith in this Gohonzon and chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo even for a short while] no prayer will go unanswered, no offence unexpiated, no good fortune unbestowed, and all righteousness proven."

Nichiren Daishonin says that it is not difficult for those who chant the daimoku of the Lotus Sutra to become Buddhas equal to Shakyamuni (WND, 1030). This statement is very significant. He says this because the Mystic Law is the origin of all Buddhas.

We must absolutely never give up on prayer. He declares: "Muster your faith, and pray to this Gohonzon. Then what is there that cannot be achieved?"
(WND, 412). We need to pray "as though to produce fire from damp wood or to obtain water from parched ground" (WND, 444).
- (The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra, Volume 5, page 152)

Each day, Sensei's daily poem "To My Friends" appears in the Soka Gakkai newspaper, the Seikyo Shimbun. To subscribe to a daily English translation, send an e-mail here.