SSA General Director’s February 2019 Editorial
Dear SSA members and friends, please accept my warmest wishes to you and your family members as we celebrate the festive Lunar New Year! May the year ahead brings everyone good health, boundless joy and great fulfilment.
As we stepped into the month of February, it brings to mind another significant day in the annals of SGS’s history—the Singapore Kosen-rufu Day on February 9. This is a day designated by SGI President Ikeda to commemorate his first meeting with SSA representatives at the Soka Peace Centre (previously known as Telok Blangah Soka Centre) during his first visit to Singapore in 1988.
We were the 42nd nation that President Ikeda visited since his inauguration as third Soka Gakkai president in 1960. President Ikeda was then at the age of 60 years old. We were deeply touched when we witnessed his sincere interactions with each single member by pouring his entire life to encourage us and leave a lasting record of his stay here in Singapore.
At the SSA Representative Meeting held on the afternoon of February 9, 1988, where adult and youth representatives were present, President Ikeda gave heartwarming guidance that we could still vividly remember till today. “Therefore, as long as you exert yourself to succeed in your daily life and contribute to society based on your strong faith, you will surely be able to realise true happiness in life… In faith, one’s heart is of utmost importance. A rainbow of beauty and hope shines splendidly in the lives of people who advance harmoniously for the betterment of society with a pure heart.”
President Ikeda also dedicated the poem “Paths of Verdure in the Lion City” to all SSA members. Part of the poem reads:
Now,
Young lions who have departed
on your journey
To scale the mountain of the new
century,
Train yourselves today and again
tomorrow.
And while I await the day when you dash ahead,
Running on and on,
Live, as you boldly train
yourselves again today!
More than 30 years have passed since and we are deeply grateful that our mentor President Ikeda continues to watch over us. In the final chapter of The New Human Revolution “Vow” chapter which concluded on last year September 8, President Ikeda recollected his third visit to Singapore in 2000. President Ikeda shared to the young people of the Lion City that the word “lion” has the significance of “mentor and disciple.” He further said, “Having a mentor in life provides you with a model for living, and there is no more wonderful example than mentors and disciples striving together, dedicating their lives to the lofty ideal of peace and happiness for all humanity…
“Whether the flow of kosen-rufu will grow into a mighty river nourishing the world throughout the ten thousand years and more of the Latter Day of the Law depends entirely on the disciples who will carry on their mentor’s work.”
It is our mentor who has fostered and inspired a new generation of youthful leaders to stand up for their mission in this new era and the crux now lies in whether we are able to ensure all these youth will awaken and develop their fullest potential for kosen-rufu.
Last year August, in response to our mentor’s expectation, at around the same time the instalment of The New Human Revolution on Singapore was written, based on the unity of the four divisions, we were able to achieve a significant breakthrough when we gathered more than 10,000 youth through the holding of the Youth Summit.
Let us always return to this prime point of faith with our mentor, particularly in the areas of caring for all our members, fostering our youthful successors, and expanding the network of Bodhisattvas of the Earth.
It is only by doing so that everyone can bring forth a beautiful rainbow of hope and beauty to shine in our lives as we challenge our individual human revolution in this Year of Soka Victory!
