The Regal Beauty of Orchids

On February 27, 2007, a ceremony was held at the Singapore National Botanic Garden, with its 150-year history, to name a new orchid: Dendrobium Kaneko Ikeda. For the past half-century, the botanic garden has been naming new orchid cultivars after distinguished individuals, and on this day, Mrs Ikeda’s birthday, they honoured her for her ceaseless efforts for world peace by naming a new orchid variety after her.

Singapore attained independence in 1965. It selected the orchid as its treasured national flower. Singapore has undergone numerous ups and downs in its history and, with its rich diversity of languages and ethnic groups, has been called the “crossroads of Asia”. Even in the most turbulent times, the orchid flower has continued to impart comfort and hope to the people, with its beauty and vitality. Today, Singapore is flourishing.

President Ikeda’s camera captures these orchid blossoms, shining with regal beauty like the smiling faces of brave and noble mothers.

Mothers
have
beautiful,
resolute hearts.

The nobility of mothers
lies not in their appearance or clothing,
nor in their social status or possessions,
nor in the size of their home,
nor in the spaciousness of their garden.

Mothers are the sun,
brightest of all.
Mothers are the earth,
infinitely bountiful.
Mothers are the symbols of happiness,
ever optimistic,
walking tall with their heads held high.

Mothers dedicated to truth and justice
are never intimidated
by jealous
or malicious attacks
aimed at them.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Don’t make mothers suffer!
Protect mothers!
Praise mothers!
Don’t belittle mothers!
Give mothers

all your support and love.
That is the way of humanity.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

All people
are born from mothers.
Mothers
risk their lives
giving birth to us.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The world
is now praising
the mothers of Soka,
comparing them to orchids.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Widely admired
like the orchid,
the network for peace
of the mothers of Soka
is actively promoting
friendship and dialogue,
with each member epitomizing
what the Daishonin calls
“a friend in the orchid room,”1

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Mothers!
Great and noble
mothers of Soka!
May you
who are gentle and wise,
strong and true, like Buddhas,
courageously and masterfully
conduct a grand symphony
of triumphant happiness
resounding high into the heavens!

1 From The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Vol 1, p 23
(Excerpt of SGI President Ikeda’s Poem “A Symphony of Great and Noble Mothers — Dedicated to the Gentle, Wise and Courageous Mothers of Kosen-rufu” written in February 2009)

(Published in Creative Life June 2012)