This calendar describes planned activities in Surrey and West Sussex. For more information about locations and who to contact for directions, please use the contact form. Note: Additional information on individual events (where available) is only visible to PC and laptop users. A tablet/phone version is coming shortly.
2023
Year of Youth and Triumph
Unofficial Merged Calendars for East Surrey & Mid-Sussex and West Surrey & West Sussex HQs
For online meeting contact details, please request using the Contact form page. For 1-2-3 Be the Light podcasts see the SGI-UK members’ site.
Now is the Time to Take Action
Nichiren Daishonin is the Buddha of the “mystic principle of true cause.” Though the original Buddha, he always practiced the bodhisattva way as an ordinary person. From start to finish, he struggled as a common mortal. The ordinary person is supreme. This is the essence of the Daishonin’s Buddhism.
Even after he had cast aside his transient role, as Bodhisattva Superior Practices (Jogyo), and revealed his true identity as the original Buddha at the time of the Tatsunokuchi Persecution, Nichiren Daishonin did not manifest any special physical characteristics such as the 32 features. Nonetheless, the Law of kuon ganjo shone brightly in his heart. And he carried out the actions of the original Buddha for the people of the 10,000 years of the Latter Day. The Daishonin manifested ultimate humanity. This was his “casting off the transient and revealing the true.”
Our Buddhist practice is not one of revering the true effect. Since embracing the Mystic Law is in itself enlightenment, when we embrace the Gohonzon we can immediately manifest the world of Buddhahood in our lives. The bodhisattva practice of the Buddhism of the true cause is to direct ourselves toward the nine worlds while basing ourselves on the life of Buddhahood. It is, it might be said, to dive headlong into the mundane reality of society dominated by the nine worlds, based on the life of Buddhahood.
— Daisaku Ikeda, Conversations and Lectures on the Lotus Sutra vol. 2
For Today
Do not pursue the past
do not idly hold out hopes for the future.
The past is already discarded,
And the future has not yet arrived.
Thoroughly discern the nature of the present
in the midst of reality.
One who, without swaying or moving,
clearly grasps the present
deepens his state of life.
Simply set your heart on doing
what must be done today.
— Shakyamuni Buddha
President Toda once said:
When we turn to the east and salute the Buddhist gods, then and there the Buddhist gods within our own hearts soar out into the universe. Then, when we face the Gohonzon during the second prayer, the Buddhist gods all take their seats behind us.
If I were to salute the Buddhist gods right now, then, regardless of whether it was night or day, they would all take their seats behind me and salute the Gohonzon. And these Buddhist gods would all work to bring about what I desire.
–http://nichiren.info/buddhism/library/SokaGakkai/Study/LectLS/Lectur01.htm