District News Letter August 2000
August District Meeting
Theme: “Changing Poison into Medicine”
Date & Time: August 31 (Thu) at 7:00pm
Place: at Davis’
Address: Shore Street #4
How are you?
Time flies. We are in August already.
How is your year 2000 determination going? Are you straggling? Please
do not rush; however, let’s re-determine in front of the Gohonzon every morning.
Everything starts from our prayers.
Please enjoy enclosed SGI President Ikeda's new poem "Soar -- Into
the Vast Skies of Freedom! Into the New Century!" This
poem is on World Tribune August 11 issue.
Please contact us any sickness, accidents or anything we need to chant about. We will
get together and chant |
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Change Poison into Medicine
Gosho:
“If one’s illness is caused by fixed karma, even excellent medicine will turn to
poison, but that, if one believes in the Lotus Sutra, poison will change into medicine.”(General
Stone Tiger / The Writing of Nichiren Daishonin Page 952)
Pres. Ikeda’s Guidance:
It is only natural that sometimes we fall sick. But we must see that as a sickness that
exists originally in life, based on the principle of the Mystic Law. In other words, there
is no reason to allow yourself to be controlled by illness, for it to fill your life with
suffering and distress. From the standpoint of eternal life through the three existences,
your fundamentally happy self is incontrovertibly established. (2/20/90 / Faith into Action Page 42)
The great American poet Walt Whitman writes in Leaves of Grass: “All comes by the body,
only health puts you rapport with the universe.” I am sure you are all very busy, but I
hope you will advance in good health and with optimism and enjoy the power of your faith,
which is what puts you in rhythm with the universe.
(2/7/96 / Faith into Action Page 43) |
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 Soka Spirit
“However great the good causes one may make, or even
if one reads and copies the entirety of the Lotus Sutra a thousand or ten thousand times,
or attains the way of perceiving three thousand realms in a single moment of life, if one
fails to denounce the enemies of the Lotus Sutra, it will be impossible to attain the way.”
(Encouragement to a sick person / The Writing of Nichiren Daishonin Page 78)
Related Guidance by Pre. Ikeda
“Even a tiny speck of evil that causes people to be unhappy should not be tolerated.
Attaining “peace and security in this life and good circumstances in the next” exists
precisely in carrying out such a struggle with faith and indomitable courage.” (Learning
from Gosho Page 243)
Excerpt from World Tribune 7/25/97 issue
The temple issue speaks to the essence of Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism. To understand
the issue challenges each of us to realize that taking full responsibility for our own
happiness is the path of correct faith and practice. The Daishonin writes, “Simply to
chant one four-phrase verse or the daimoku, and to protect those who do so, is called the
essential practice” (MW-3, 9). The best way to protect ourselves and our fellow members
from being misled is to arm ourselves with correct information and understanding. 
Our study of the temple issue will help us do this |