SGI President Ikeda’s New Year’s Message

Widening Our Network of Humanity and Philosophy As We Advance toward the Summit of Hope

My beloved and most esteemed friends around the world! Allow me to extend my sincerest felicitations to you as you embark on another new, hope-filled year.

            With the brilliant dawning of 2005, the curtain has finally risen on the SGI’s 30th anniversary year. Today, the SGI’s network of peace, culture, and education has grown to encompass an unprecedented 190 countries and territories. Our organization has won admiration and appreciation around the world, with many lauding it as a wonderful global family where people support each other in a spirit of friendship and mutual respect.

            The sun of humanism of Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism has begun to ascend brightly, dispelling the darkness of suffering and misery that threatens to engulf our planet, and illuminating people everywhere with the great light of hope. All of this is due to the dedicated efforts of each one of you, the noble members of the SGI. Each of you is striving energetically in the place where you have pledged to work for kosen-rufu, in order to fulfill your momentous mission from the distant past.

January 26, 1975—a date that shines brilliantly in the annals of Buddhism. On that day, proud pioneers of kosen-rufu from 51 countries and territories gathered together in Guam, where fierce fighting took place during World War II. I called out to them with a thousand emotions in my heart: “I hope that you will dedicate your whole lives to sowing the seeds of the Mystic Law for the sake of peace throughout the entire world. I shall do the same.”

            Thirty years have passed since then. In those decades, all of you, my precious fellow members, living true to your vow to realize worldwide kosen-rufu, have worked tirelessly together to sow the seeds of the Mystic Law, while weathering countless storms of obstacles. Not only Nichiren Daishonin but also Shakyamuni Buddha and the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai are surely praising and applauding you unreservedly.

            The Daishonin writes:

As first one person, then two persons, then a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand, and then all the people throughout the country come to chant the daimoku, before you know it, their blessings will accrue to you. Those blessings will be like the drops of dew that gather to form the great ocean, or the specks of dust that pile up to become Mount Sumeru. (WND, 672)

            All of you are opening the path of kosen-rufu, where none has existed before, into the limitless future of the Latter Day of the Law. You are accumulating untold benefit—like a vast ocean, infinite and immeasurable; like a mighty mountain, eternal and indestructible. This is clearly borne out in the Gosho and the Lotus Sutra.

Dr. Victor Sadovnichy, the rector of Moscow State University and a close friend, remarked that what the world yearns for today is a philosophy founded on the idea that government, business, science, and religion all exist for human beings, for the welfare of each person. I completely agree. Indeed, establishing the lofty, timeless goal of serving humanity and the individual as the foundation of all human endeavors could be said to be fundamental to the challenge of making the 21st century one of peace and hope.

            Buddhism, a philosophy of the sanctity of life, teaches that all people’s lives are inextricably linked and interconnected. In this teaching, we find unifying values for the realization of a global human community, as well as a great philosophy of coexistence that can serve as the source of a new global ethics.

            Goethe, an eminent writer of the West, also had a fascination with the East, which he expressed in his beautiful collection of poems, West-Eastern Divan:

It is worthwhile, I accept, to meaningfully

Go back and forth between both worlds;

Moving between East and West

Is therefore best![1]

            I, too, have traveled the world over—to the east, to the west, to the north, to the south. I have engaged in countless dialogues with people from different countries. I have done so out of my unshakable conviction that bringing people closer together ultimately brings cultures and civilizations closer together as well. 

            While working together with our fellow members around the globe to consolidate our ironclad unity, let us widen the network of humanity and philosophy based on Buddhist humanism, which is a vital seed for world peace.

            The indomitable French writer Hugo, cried out to the youth: “Courage! You belong to the generation which owns the future. You will do great things.”[2] Similarly, the indispensable requirement for reaching the summit of kosen-rufu, on which the destiny of humankind depends, is fearless courage—the resolute courage to stand alone.

            Please have the courage to reach out and talk to others, opening people’s closed hearts and helping them awaken to the wonderful palace of happiness that exists within their own lives. Please pray and take action with courage, so that you can intrepidly challenge any adversity without being daunted. Please wage a courageous struggle of words, refuting the erroneous and revealing the true, determined never to give an inch to those forces that seek to disrupt the unity and harmony of our noble gathering of Buddhas.

            It is also a well-known historical fact that Hugo waged a relentless spiritual struggle in denouncing the abuses of arrogant and decadent clergy.

Our theme for 2005 is “Year of Youth and Development.” My mentor, second Soka Gakkai president Josei Toda, loved the youth and had the highest expectations for them. He ardently asserted: “The new century will be built by the passion and energy of the youth.”

            The future of any organization or society hinges on the passionate commitment of youth. I wish to state emphatically that the sound development of kosen-rufu also depends solely on the growth of the youth in each country and region. I call on everyone to treasure the youth and foster them with care and attention. I hope you will make it your greatest pride to raise capable people who are even more talented than you yourselves and create a mighty river of successors for our movement.

            I would also like to say fervently to our youth: “My young friends who are the sun of the century of Soka, continue to grow without end, study with all your hearts, and thoroughly train yourselves! Be strong! Develop strength! Grow into people who, like towering trees, will never be toppled by even the most violent winds. My young friends, I entrust the mission of worldwide kosen-rufu to you in the 21st century!”

And to all of you, champions of worldwide kosen-rufu around the globe, let us together make a fresh departure—aiming toward the Soka Gakkai’s 80th anniversary in 2010 and 100th anniversary in 2030.

            I am strongly convinced that each one of you will be able to exclaim at the end of your days: “How happy and satisfying my life is!” “I have lived a life of supreme value!” “I have won!” This cry of victory from the depths of your beings will resound forever in history. Untold numbers of people will voice their praise and appreciation for you as the great pioneers of our movement.

            All of you are precious members of the Soka family. My wife and I will continue to pray day and night for your health and longevity, for your safety and well-being, throughout the challenging year that lies ahead of us.

            I will also be praying with all my heart that the communities and countries in which you live will be rigorously protected from harm and enjoy peace and prosperity. May each one of you, without exception, “gather fortune from ten thousand miles away” (WND, 1137), just as the Daishonin states, and lead lives of complete fulfillment and satisfaction. 

            Let us unite in vibrant harmony with “many in body, one in mind” as our motto, enjoying ourselves to the full as we boldly make our way toward the summit of hope, the highest summit of life.  

January 1, 2005

Daisaku Ikeda

President

Soka Gakkai International