Good morning. I hope you are well today. This is Shima, from Oubaitori.com.
I chanted my ten thousand daimoku again this morning. And while I was chanting, a phrase came to me.
── To live my own era, with daimoku at the root.
What “my era” means
My era is the time from the day I was born. And it runs to the moment I finish carrying out my own mission.
If you are near my age, perhaps this feels familiar. If you are not, then your era is a different one. It still begins the same way. You are born, and you go on until your mission is complete. No one can take that stretch of time for you.
A film that stayed with me
There is a Japanese film called The Eternal Zero. It has stayed with me. Watching it, I found myself wondering about my own ancestors. What kind of man was my father. What kind of man was my grandfather.
Their era was the Second World War. Their grandchildren came into the Showa years. Something was handed down, and carried on. That is how today’s Japan came to be. That is how today’s world came to be.
And now Japan sees disaster after disaster. Around the world it is the same. There is hardship everywhere.
The word for mission is written “to use your life”
In the middle of all that, what matters most for us as members is this. To live our era with daimoku at the root. To put daimoku at the center of our own life, and carry out our own mission.
In Japanese, the word for mission — shimei — is written with two characters: to use, and life. To use your life. Whether I am truly living that way, day after day, is the proof of my own faith. That is how I see it.
Let’s Daimoku.
Thank you, and I look forward to today with you.
🙏 From Yukihiro Shima — Oubaitori.com
Bloom your own way, at your very best.
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