Buddhist quotes - February

Keeping in line with the general topic of courage, here are two quotes from Letter to the Brothers.

[Y]ou must grit your teeth and never slacken in your faith. Be as fearless as Nichiren when he acted and spoke out before Hei no Saemon-no-jō. Although theirs was not the path to Buddhahood, the sons of Lord Wada and of the governor of Wakasa, as well as the warriors under Masakado and Sadatō, fought to the death to preserve their honor. Death comes to all, even should nothing untoward ever happen. Therefore, you must never be cowardly, or you will become the object of ridicule.

Hei no Saemon-no-jō was a powerful government official who persecuted Nichiren and attempted to have him killed. This resulted in the Tatsunokuchi persecution.

The second quote is about the attitude we should have in front of obstacles.

Whatever trouble occurs, regard it as no more than a dream, and think only of the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren’s teaching was especially difficult to believe at first, but now that my prophecies have been fulfilled, those who slandered without reason have come to repent.

Happy Leap February everyone!

Buddhist quotes - March

Here is my quote for March.

 

The picture was taken by a good friend of mine and put on Facebook. What you see is a card that I made as a gift for the 16th of March celebration meeting in my HQ.

I chose a few different quotes, but all came from a Dedicated Lilac training I attended at the start of March.

This particular quote was mentioned by a senior WD leader during her lecture, and it immediately carved itself a safe place in my heart. When I was asked to create the gifts for the meeting, the first quote I thought about was this one. It took me longer to find the little shiny flower thingies than to think up the quotes. (I got the shiny stuff from here if anybody is interested, btw, it's sticky, too!)

Now, onto some background info: