Good morning everyone!
I would like to wholeheartedly thank all of you for participating in the
July World Peace Gongyo Meeting coming early in the morning and traveling
from far-away places to attend, thank you very much.
Together with all of you, I have prayed for the realization of world peace and the happiness of all mankind.
Aside from this, I have also prayed for the greater health, happiness, growth as well as long life of all the participants and their family who has attended today.
We have just heard the song “Haha (mother)” with piano accompaniment rendered by the YWD Chorus Group, thank
you very much for your performance
Now, this grand piano that was used in the performance has been wholeheartedly donated to this Culture Center yesterday by a certain member who has splendidly recovered from a very serious illness last year as a token of gratitude. Thank you very much for your generosity. You can rest assured that we shall put this grand piano to its fullest use in our cultural activities in further promoting our cause for kosen-rufu. Miss Hazel Andaya, our YWD Vice Chief and also the leader in the Diamond Kotekitai Group is assigned as the in charge of the piano, so should anyone like to use the piano, kindly contact her so that proper arrangements can be made.
Now, concerning “long life” the Daishonin has written a famous Gosho, “The Three Kinds of Treasure” in which he expounded that among the treasure of the storehouse, treasure of the body and treasure of the heart, treasure of the heart or faith is the foremost of treasures. He writes:
“It is rare to be born a human being. The number of those endowed with
human life is as small as the amount of earth one can place on a fingernail.
Life as a human being is hard to sustain as hard as it is for the dew to
remain on the grass. But it is better to live a single day with honor than
to live to 120 and die in disgrace.” (WND, p. 851)
Apparently, it was considered during the lifetime of the Daishonin that the longest human life span was 120 years.
At present, the longest recorded life span in humanity is that of Jeanne Louise Calment, a French woman who died at the age of 122 in 1997. This is in exact accord with what the Gosho has stated. Each sentence and phrase of the Daishonin’s Gosho is scientifically and accurately set forth to a surprising degree.
The human body has about 60 trillion cells. And each of these cells contains chromosomes and on the end of those chromosomes is telomere, which is said to be the ones controlling our life span. Research on this field has rapidly developed in recent years.
Sensei gave the following guidance: “There are people who can only be saved
by particular individuals. This is precisely the reason why each single
person is an irreplaceable person of mission. That is why I want you to
live very long lives until you have fully fulfilled your mission. I want
you to teach the Mystic Law to as many people you can and make them happy.
This is the very reason why I want you to live even 1 day longer such sincerity
will extend your life and such sense of mission will boost your life force.”
Let us all aim to live a long life of 120 years and live out this persistently lively and wonderful life. And, together with General Director Niitsu and Women’s Division Chief, Mrs. Shibata, let us do our utmost for the sake of Philippine kosen-rufu on the second half of this year in a cheerful, high-spirited and enjoyable manner while striving to do shakubuku until we accomplish our noble mission for kosen-rufu.
Photo on the top: Flowers in Nagano (Photo by Daisaku Ikeda)
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