Tuesday, January 13th, 2015 ---- DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT ---- As a young man, second Soka Gakkai president Josei Toda lost an infant daughter. Many years later, when encouraging someone who had lost a child and asked him whether it would be possible to forge a parent-child relationship with that child again in this lifetime, he said: I lost my infant daughter Yasuyo when I was 23. I held my dead child all through the night. At the time, not yet having taken faith in the Gohonzon, I was overcome with grief and fell asleep with her in my arms. And so we parted, and now I am 58. Since she was three when she died, she would now be a fine woman had she lived. Have I or have I not met my deceased daughter again in this life? This is a matter of one’s own perception arising from faith. I believe that I have met her. Whether one is united with a deceased relative in this life or the next is all a matter of one’s perception through faith.[1] After Mr. Toda lost his daughter, his wife also passed away. He grieved terribly over their deaths, but he said that because he had experienced such personal loss and various other kinds of hardships he was able to encourage many others and to be a leader of the people who could understand their feelings. Everything that happens in life has meaning. If you press ahead undefeated, through the sadness, the pain, and the feeling you can’t go on, the time will come when you see its meaning. That’s the power of faith, and the essence of life.” SGI Newsletter No. 9165, The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, Part 1: Happiness, Chapter 6: Facing the All-Important Questions of Life and Death—Part 2 [of 2], 6.9 Ties Based on the Mystic Law Are Eternal, from the December 2014 issue of the Daibyakurenge, translation released 28th Dec. 2014 [1] Translated from Japanese. Josei Toda, Toda Josei Zenshu (Collected Writings of Josei Toda) (Tokyo: Seikyo Shimbunsha, 1982), vol. 2, p. 174. * The Japanese kanji is available by clicking on Seikyo Shinbuns web-site address at seikyoonline.jp/news/index.html
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 16:59:26 +0000
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