SGI Canada Newsletter, No. 115 -October 4, 2024
SGI Canada Newsletter
Issue no. 115
October 4, 2024
Welcome to the 115th issue of the SGI Canada Newsletter, a bi-weekly summary of news, upcoming events and encouragement. If you are not subscribing to the SGI Canada Newsletter, you may do so by clicking on the button below. Subscriptions are free of charge, and the SGI Canada Newsletter will be emailed directly to you.
Encouragement
“Changing the World Starts with Inspiring One Individual”
In his October 2024 editorial in Daibyakurenge, Soka Gakkai President Harada writes about the importance of encouragement:
President Ikeda was always seeking out those individuals who were suffering and in need of encouragement, thinking deeply about what he could do to help others, and that’s why he would go first to the most difficult place or to the person who was suffering the most.
This was true during the Ise Bay typhoon in 1959, 65 years ago. As general administrator of the Soka Gakkai at that time, he visited Aichi and Mie Prefectures in the Chubu Region and encouraged the members affected by the typhoon with Nichiren Daishonin’s writings, including the hope-filled message that “Winter always turns to spring” (WND-1, 536). Inspired by his heartfelt words and example, the Chubu Region was able to rise again like a phoenix.
President Ikeda once described the essential practice of encouraging others: “It is speaking with a spirit of genuine care and concern to the person suffering in front of us. . . . It is listening to their problems and struggles, sharing their pain and sadness, and chanting and rejoicing together. The unconditional, all-embracing nature of such humanistic actions, based on the spirit of treasuring each person, is one of the reasons that the Soka Gakkai has spread around the world.”
The Daishonin cites the old proverb: “One is the mother of ten thousand” (WND-1, 131). When one person stands up, it can change the entire world. Now is the moment to encourage that one person. Let us continue President Ikeda’s great efforts: reach out to others, and engage in dialogue that will bring hope to all those in our lives and our communities.
The complete editorial will appear in the December 2024 New Century.
News
Publication of last remaining chapter of The New Human Revolution
Volume 29 of SGI President Ikeda’s novel The New Human Revolution will be translated into English and published over the next few months. Volume 29 is the only volume that has not yet been translated, as the final volume (Vol. 30) was translated shortly after Ikeda Sensei completed the entire work in 2018.
Volume 29 will be serialized in From Today Onward every month, beginning in November 2024. You can subscribe to From Today Onward by visiting the SGI Canada website at sgicanada.org and clicking on Publications, or by speaking with your district leaders.
Upcoming events
October meetings look ahead to 2025!
The SGI Canada Day Commemorative Meetings to be held across Canada on Sunday, October 6 will be the kick-off for an exciting year of activities in 2025.
SGI Canada Day commemorates President Ikeda’s first visit to Canada in October 1960. Next year we will be celebrating the 65th anniversary of that visit, and the 50th anniversary of the foundation of SGI. We can create great fortune in our lives by redetermining to support President Ikeda’s vision for the kosen-rufu of Canada through our daimoku, our offerings and our Buddhist dialogues with the people around us.
Please check with your local leaders for details about the October 6 meeting in your location.
SGI Canada Special Fund
Kokanee Gem district meeting in Christina Lake, British Columbia The October 6 meetings mark the opening of the SGI Canada Special Fund, which is an opportunity to contribute directly to the kosen-rufu movement in Canada.
President Ikeda says the following about offerings in volume 4 of The New Human Revolution, “Triumph chapter”:
Shin’ichi Yamamoto next turned to the Gosho “The Bodies and Minds of Ordinary Beings.” He stopped at a passage near the end of the letter. He read it over and over, sensing its profound meaning:
Though one may perform meritorious deeds, if they are directed toward what is untrue, then those deeds may bring great evil, but they will never result in good. On the other hand, though one may be ignorant and make meagre offerings, if one presents those offerings to a person who upholds the truth, one’s merit will be great. How much more so in the case of people who in all sincerity make offerings to the correct teaching. (WND-1, 1134)
In short, the Daishonin’s statement in “The Bodies and Minds of Ordinary Beings” indicates that offerings can bring about either good or evil, depending on to whom or for what cause they are made.
In light of this Gosho passage, Shin’ichi thought about the offerings made within the Soka Gakkai. The offerings and financial contributions the organization solicited were exclusively to accomplish the Daishonin’s mandate to widely propagate the Mystic Law. Offerings made toward this end were equivalent to offerings made to the original Buddha. There was, then, no greater offering, no greater good. Certainly, nothing could bring greater benefit. This thought filled Shin’ichi with a sense of immeasurable good fortune and joy at having had the chance to make such offerings as a Soka Gakkai member.
The Daishonin concludes this writing by praising the spirit of his follower who had sent offerings to him at Mount Minobu: “Surely you are sowing good seeds in a field of fortune. My tears never cease to flow when I think of it” (Ibid).
Dedicating oneself to kosen-rufu means “sowing good seeds in a field of fortune”—Shin’ichi had been strongly convinced of this since his youth.
(The New Human Revolution v.4, chapter 2, “Triumph”, pp.114-115)
Members can contribute to the SGI Canada Special Fund at any time through their SGI Canada online portal account (by credit card or debit card) at https://sgicinfo.org/portal/login or by mailing a cheque, bank draft or money order to SGI Canada at 2050 Dufferin Street, Toronto, Ont. M6E 3R6.
Monthly contributions from a chequing account can also be made by completing a Pre-Authorized Payment (PAP) form available from district leaders.
Thank you so much for your sincere dedication and for your support in every way for the advancement of kosen-rufu in Canada!
Study Exam in October
Registration
The SGI Canada Level 2 Study Exam will be held on Sunday, October 27, 2024 and will be offered in English, French and Chinese. Everyone who passed the SGI Canada 2019 Basics Exam or the SGI Canada 2023 Introductory Exam is eligible to write the Level 2 exam in October.
You can register for the exam by completing the short form at: https://forms.gle/mBu4gexhoC6yYEyb8
Anyone wishing to write the exam must first register.
Study Materials
The study materials for the Level 2 Exam are:
- The Basics of Nichiren Buddhism for the New Era of Worldwide Kosen-rufu: chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10
- SGI President Ikeda’s lecture entitled “On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land”—Engaging in Dialogues of Hope to Bring Happiness and Peace to All People
PDF File
The Level 2 Exam materials are now available in PDF format with highlighted key passages. You can obtain the PDF file through your local district leaders.
Printed Versions
The Basics of Nichiren Buddhism for the New Era of Worldwide Kosen-rufu is available from the SGI Canada Online Bookstore and local SGI Canada bookstores in English, French and Chinese.
President Ikeda’s lecture on the Gosho “On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land” is contained in the August issue of NEW CENTURY. A podcast introducing this lecture is available on the SGI Canada website at:
https://www.sgicanada.org/activities/podcast-sgi-canada-level-2-study-exam
More information about the exam is available on the SGI Canada website at:
https://www.sgicanada.org/activities/sgi-canada-level-2-study-exam
We hope you found this newsletter beneficial. Please email your questions or comments to contact@sgicanada.org. Please note that the next SGI Canada Newsletter will appear on October 18, 2024. See you then!