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The Opening of the Eyes The Opening of the Eyes For 2020 SGI-USA Essential Exam only. Please do not share. For 2020 SGI-USA Essential Exam only. Please do not share. For 2020 SGI-USA Essential Exam only. Please do not share. Published by World Tribune Press 606 Wilshire Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90401 © 2012 by the Soka Gakkai • All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Design by Lightbourne, Inc. Source artwork: www.istockphoto.com ISBN 978-1-935523-34-5 24 23 22 21 20 4 5 6 7 8 For 2020 SGI-USA Essential Exam only. Please do not share. Contents Editor’s Note . vii Preface: “Opening of the Eyes”—A Call To Open Our Eyes to Nichiren, To Open Our Eyes to the People . 1 Introduction . 3 1 The Three Virtues—Sovereign, Teacher and Parent—Establishing the Buddhism of the People Through Compassion and Enduring Persecution . 15 2 The “Teaching Hidden in the Depths of the Sutra”—The Supreme Law That Opens the Path to Buddhahood for All People . 25 3 Original Cause and Original Effect—Eternal Buddhahood and the Unending Bodhisattva Way Are Opened Through Faith . 33 4 The Fivefold Comparison—Clarifying the Causality of Life and the Fundamental Direction for Human Existence. 43 5 A Vow for the Enlightenment of All People—The Power Deep Within Our Lives That Can Overcome All Obstacles . 51 6 The Votary of the Lotus Sutra—One Who Practices the Correct Teaching With Outstanding Perseverance and Compassion . 59 7 The Profound Debt Owed to the Lotus Sutra and the Protection Received by Those Who Spread the Supreme Law of Universal Enlightenment. 67 8 The Six Difficult and Nine Easy Acts—To Discard the Shallow and Seek the Profound Is the Way of a Person of Courage . 77 v For 2020 SGI-USA Essential Exam only. Please do not share. 9 The Two Admonitions of the “Devadatta” Chapter—A Call To Lead All People to Enlightenment Based on the Teachings of Changing Poison Into Medicine and Attaining Buddhahood in One’s Present Form . 85 10 The Three Powerful Enemies, Part 1—The Anatomy of Persecution Arising From Fundamental Darkness . 95 11 The Three Powerful Enemies, Part 2—Confronting the Most Formidable Enemy: Arrogant False Sages . 103 12 Why the Votary of the Lotus Sutra Encounters Great Persecutions—The Votary’s Battle Against the Fundamental Evil of the Slander of the Law . 113 13 “I Will Be the Pillar of Japan”—Standing Alone and Dedicating One’s Life to the Vow for Kosen-rufu . .123 14 Lessening One’s Karmic Retribution—The Principle of Changing Karma That Frees People From Suffering . 133 15 “I and My Disciples”—Attaining Buddhahood Through Steadfast Faith at the Crucial Moment . 143 16 Shakubuku—A Lion’s Roar of Great Compassion To Refute Error and Spread Good . 151 17 The Sovereign, Teacher and Parent of the Buddhism of Sowing of the Latter Day of the Law, Part 1 . 161 18 The Sovereign, Teacher and Parent of the Buddhism of Sowing of the Latter Day of the Law, Part 2 . 169 19 Enjoying Infinite Benefit Throughout Eternity—The Boundless Joy of a Life of Unceasing Challenge Based on the Mystic Law . 175 Notes . 183 Index . 209 vi For 2020 SGI-USA Essential Exam only. Please do not share. Editor’s Note his series of lectures by SGI President Ikeda were published in SGI-USA’s T Living Buddhism from the November 2004 issue to the April 2005 issue, the June 2005 issue to the December 2005 issue and the January–February 2006 issue to the July–August 2006 issue. Please also see The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, pp. 220–98, for “The Opening of the Eyes.” • GZ, page number(s)—refers to the Gosho zenshu, the Japanese-language compilation of letters, treatises, essays and oral teachings of Nichiren Daishonin. • LSOC, page number(s)—refers to The Lotus Sutra and Its Opening and Closing Sutras, translated by Burton Watson (Tokyo: Soka Gakkai, 2009). • OTT, page number(s)—refers to The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teach- ings, translated by Burton Watson (Soka Gakkai: Tokyo, 2004). • WND, page number(s)—refers to The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1 (WND-1) (Tokyo: Soka Gakkai, 1999) and vol. 2 (WND-2) (Tokyo: Soka Gakkai, 2006). vii For 2020 SGI-USA Essential Exam only. Please do not share. For 2020 SGI-USA Essential Exam only. Please do not share. Preface “Opening of the Eyes”—A Call To Open Our Eyes to Nichiren, To Open Our Eyes to the People eligion is the pillar of humanity. Phi- age—and, more specifically, in people’s actual Rlosophy is the backbone of life. lives and in society. The Soka Gakkai has advanced based on Above all, based on Nichiren’s writings, the strength of its members’ solid ground- President Toda called on people to stand up ing in Buddhist study, a pursuit that can be as Bodhisattvas of the Earth and work for likened to the rigorous training of a master the genuine welfare and prosperity of their swordsman. Opening the pages of Nichi- country. His compassionate guidance and ren Daishonin’s writings with the spirit of encouragement awakened a sense of courage receiving direct instruction and guidance and mission in the depths of their lives. I am from the Daishonin himself, members every- firmly convinced that in the seven hundred where have deepened their understanding of years following the Daishonin’s death, no one faith, practice and study; summoned forth had ever read his writings from the perspec- courage; and emerged victorious in their tive that all people are Bodhisattvas of the struggles for kosen-rufu. When we advance Earth. President Toda, however, lectured on with Nichiren’s writings as our foundation, the Daishonin’s teachings based on his own we will never be deadlocked. inner awareness and sense of mission as a The lectures I received in my youth from Bodhi sattva of the Earth, which he gained as my mentor, second Soka Gakkai president a result of his spiritual awakening in prison Josei Toda, continue to resonate vibrantly in during World War II. my heart even now. His lectures covered such It goes without saying that President topics as life, happiness, government, culture, Toda’s lectures also played a pivotal and deci- peace, human integrity, the principles of orga- sive role in my own life. In fact, my first fateful nization and the mentor-disciple relationship. encounter with my mentor (on August 14, His free and far-reaching discourses truly 1947) took place during one of his lectures on revived Nichiren Buddhism in the present the Daishonin’s treatise “On Establishing the 1 For 2020 SGI-USA Essential Exam only. Please do not share. The OPENING of the EYES Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land.” around the world are searching for a human- After joining the Soka Gakkai, I attended his istic religion. Out of the hope that it may lectures on the Lotus Sutra, and later I was serve as a key for ushering in such an age and able to have early-morning study sessions with become a source of inspiration and growth for him, during which he discussed the profound my fellow SGI members everywhere, I have philosophy and principles of Nichiren Bud- decided to embark on a new series of lectures dhism. President Toda was truly a master on “The Opening of the Eyes,” an important in giving lectures. I was so impressed that I writing embodying the great lion’s roar of the remember thinking, There are three kinds of lec- Daishonin. Toward realizing a century of life tures: unskilled, skilled and artistic—Mr. Toda’s and a century of humanity, I would like to belonged to the last category. As President Toda’s discuss the essence of Nichiren Buddhism disciple, I also exerted myself on the front lines and the steadfast commitment of the SGI, an by giving lectures and striving to convey the organization that has inherited the true spirit greatness of Nichiren Buddhism to as many of the Daishonin. I would also like to leave people as possible. behind a solid spiritual foundation for the Like a lion’s roar, the truth and justice SGI of the future. of Nichiren Daishonin is a powerful force Philosophy is what empowers our strug- for defeating the devilish nature inherent in gle to be victorious in life. All of you who are human life. The reverberations of his invinci- earnestly studying and internalizing Nichiren ble life force that surmounted successive major Buddhism, an extremely lofty and profound persecutions impart courage, hope, confidence practical philosophy, are certain to become and joy to those challenging painful obstacles eternal “doctors of philosophy.” I began this and hardships. His words of profound con- series of lectures with the ardent prayer that templation and introspection teach us the each of you will illuminate the deepening correct path of kosen-rufu and life. For that darkness of modern society with the bril- reason, making his writings our foundation is liant light of the Daishonin’s writings—the also the correct path leading to victory both in eternally treasured teachings of hope—and life and in our struggle for kosen-rufu. develop into courageous people of philosophy We of the SGI aspire to make the twenty- who will build a century of humanity. first century an age of the victory of the people, the victory of youth and the victory of DAISAKU IKEDA humanity. Now, more than ever before, people November 18, 2006 2 For 2020 SGI-USA Essential Exam only.
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