Daisaku Ikeda - My Dear Friends in America: Collected Addresses to the Sgi-USA Since 1990

Published by World Tribune Press

606 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401

Third edition copyright 2012 Soka Gakkai

Second edition copyright 2008 Soka Gakkai

Hardcover copyright 2001 Soka Gakkai

ISBN 978-1-935523-18-5

Cover and interior design by Gopa & Ted2, Inc.

Cover photo by Daisaku Ikeda,

June 1996, Denver.

All rights reserved

Printed in the United states of America

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M Y D EAR F RIENDS IN A MERICA is the compilation of speeches and lectures by SGI President Daisaku Ikeda given in the United States since 1990.

This is the third edition, which includes a preface by President Ikeda, as well as his guidance to the SGI-USA on February 13, 2004.

The citations most commonly used in this book have been abbreviated as follows:

• GZ refers to the Gosho zenshu, the Japanese-language compilation of letters, treatises, essays and oral teachings of Nichiren Daishonin.
• LSOC refers to The Lotus Sutra and Its Opening and Closing Sutras, translated by Burton Watson (Tokyo: Soka Gakkai, 2009).
• OTT refers to The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, translated by Burton Watson (Tokyo: Soka Gakkai, 2004).
• WND refers to The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1 ( WND-1) (Tokyo: Soka Gakkai, 1999) and vol. 2 ( WND-2) (Tokyo: Soka Gakkai, 2006).

America, vast land of freedom and equality!

America, proud nation of solidarity among the worlds people!

America, utopia of hope and victory I long to see!

B ENJAMIN F RANKLIN, a member of the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence, the three hundredth anniversary of whose birth is celebrated this year (2006), loftily declared that ones birth is of no matter in America, where people do not inquire concerning a Stranger, What is he? but, What can he do? Surely, America has generously embraced a multiplicity of cultures and a diverse array of people who, sharing a common humanity, have spurred one another to greater challenges while fostering among themselves a broad-minded and magnanimous spirit. How best can I live as a human being? How can I best contribute to society? Such are the unclouded, straightforward and sensible standards by which Americans gauge a valuable way of life.

This open, free and egalitarian society, on the other hand, can also be a world of intense competition and serious win-or-lose struggles.

A distinguished young physician from Japan who had moved to the United States observed, In America, no matter how skillful your words, you can never win the trust of others without showing clear results.

Our fellow SGI members have sunk roots deep into their local communities throughout the great land of America. As good citizens, they have developed substantial bonds of trust and friendship on a broad scale. The tenacious, dedicated and persevering efforts they have made in doing so are beyond words to describe.

To the precious pioneers of the Mystic Law, mothers of kosen-rufu, who emigrated from Japan after World War II and opened a path in this land where no path had existed before; to all of you, my treasured comrades who have shouldered the advance of kosen-rufu in America, I express from the bottom of my heart my highest praise and admiration. My wish is to honor you eternally.

From 1990 through 1996, I visited America on six occasions, almost once each year. I leapt in among my circle of friends with the intent of packing a year or even ten years worth of effort into each day. In addition, I initiated dialogues with a number of scholars and leaders of society and delivered lectures at several universities.

Determined to lay the foundation for the next thousand years of the SGI organization in America an America reborn I moved, conversed, spoke out and strove with my beloved fellow members of the SGI-USA.

America is vast. It is a majestic land. For that reason, American kosen-rufu is something you must move forward steadily, firmly and sincerely, one step at a time, while gazing into the distant future, hundreds or even thousands of years ahead.

It is with this in mind that I have made every possible effort to prepare the way. Nichiren Daishonin writes, And now when Nichiren chants Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, he is enabling all living beings to attain Buddhahood in the ten thousand years of the Latter Day of the Law ( OTT, 41).

If we consider that ten-thousand-year journey, it is clear that we are still in the very groundbreaking stage. The time has come to pour all our heart and soul into fostering one person at a time, thereby steadily and carefully planting the seeds for future development. At times, the seeds we have taken such great pains to plant may not sprout. Should that happen, then we must plant more seeds. Or there may be times when, upon sprouting, those young plants become bent or twisted. If so, then we had better try again to raise them straight.

If you tirelessly continue to challenge yourselves in this way, then without doubt a great forest of kosen-rufu will unfold before you. This is the formula of the Mystic Law. In a well-known passage from The True Aspect of All Phenomena, Nichiren Daishonin declares, At first only Nichiren chanted Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, but then two, three, and a hundred followed, chanting and teaching others. Propagation will unfold this way in the future as well. Does this not signify emerging from the earth? ( WND-1, 385).

Whatever challenges you may face, you who live by the philosophy of the Mystic Law must always look toward the future, ablaze with hope, advancing forward, ever forward. These accord with the expression not to advance is to retreat.

This book contains the text of speeches I gave in the United States, poems I presented to my friends in America and lectures I delivered at American universities between 1990 and 1996. I would like to think of it as an enduring symphony of the soul, an eternal score of shared struggle on the level of life, that I have composed together with my precious comrades in faith. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than if this book could become a compass for the accomplishment of kosen-rufu in America as a leading example for the rest of the world, a guide that inspires courage and hope in our excellent friends who will be emerging in steady succession from here on.

Rosa Parks, the mother of the American Civil Rights Movement, shared the following with my wife and me while visiting the Soka University campus in Calabasas: We should build a place where people can live at ease, a place in which prosperity and equality exist in harmony.

And she said that she found among our American comrades of Soka the hope that can serve as a driving force to achieve this.

May true peace prevail and glory long endure in America, land that is so dear to me!

And may boundless happiness, joy and victory belong to all my honored fellow members here! Praying for these things from the bottom of my heart, I will conclude my comments by expressing my heartfelt appreciation to all who have worked so hard in editing and publishing this volume.