The SGI Day Commemorative Gongyo Meeting (January 26, 2009)
Yasunori Takimoto
(SGI Vice President)
Good evening everyone!
I would like to wholeheartedly thank you for participating in today’s SGI Day Commemorative Gongyo Meeting despite of your hectic schedules and coming from far distant places, thank you very much again!
As you all very well know, and as was introduced earlier by the General Director, our SGI movement was established on this day of January 26, 1975.
In other words, Sensei's party flew from Hawaii and arrived in Guam in
Southeast Asia where 158 members representing 51 countries and territories
from around the world gathered at the Guam International Convention Center.
It was there that the Soka Gakkai International or the SGI was founded and where Sensei was recommended and eventually appointed to be the SGI President to this day.
At that time,
Sensei gave the following famous guidance:
"This
conference may be a small one. Moreover, the representatives who have gathered
from each country may be
nameless or ordinary. However, it is my conviction that this meeting will
solemnly and radiantly shine in history.
Moreover, I believe that each of your name will, as a matter of course, remain solemnly etched in human history
and in the history of kosen-rufu in the Buddhist realm.
At
any rate, the Daishonin's Buddhism of the sun has started to rise in the
distant horizon.
I hope that each one of you will not only make the flower of your own humanity bloom, but dedicate your entire life in
the
noble cause of planting the seeds of the Mystic Law called peace throughout
the world. I, too, will do the same."
In another
guidance, Sensei mentioned the following:
"It is important above all to have confidence that everything which relates to or contributes to kosen-rufu leads to our
accumulating
great benefit and fortune. Those who have such conviction feel joy and
gratitude; they are unlikely to
feel
dissatisfied or full of complaint." (The New Human Revolution, Training
19)
Now, as members
of SGI Philippines, let us strive in doing shakubuku together with Sensei;
and together with our General
Director, Mr. Cabauatan, let us all make this year a year of great victory by advancing harmoniously, cheerfully, and in high
spirits.
