Become strong!

Become strong!

Become strong without fail!

We need strength to be happy,

To be victorious.

The strong can help others

Transform their lives

Into lives of value,

Dedicated to truth,

Leading to happiness and peace.

Weakness is a source of misery?

Weakness

Is to live in fear;

Weakness incurs people’s scorn

And abuse;

It has no power to fight back.

Weakness is a source of unhappiness?

It will make you a loser

And a coward.

The weak are bereft of good fortune;

The prayers of cowards are not answered.

What transforms such weakness

Into strength

Is faith,

Buddhist practice,

And struggle.

Cowards

Burn with jealousy,

Often resenting others’ happiness,

Maligning and attacking excellence.

They are losers in life,

Pathetic and base,

Possessing neither faith nor character.

Look down upon

The likes of such treacherous cowards;

They pay them no heed,

Advancing serenely

Toward the future,

As lions.

The brave-hearted

Rejoice in struggles,

Welcoming them with pleasure and joy.

The cowardly

Lose in every battle;

They are gloomy, cheerless

And pathetic.

Fear is hell;

Courage is joy.

Never forget

That devotion to faith,

Without begrudging our lives,

Forges, in the depths of our beings,

The heart of an indomitable hero,

The supreme state of life.

With an intrepid spirit

We solemnly adorn this existence