Sensei-tion ! ! !

This year’s Kenshu is a lot better than last year. I felt more connection to Sensei as I watched the various videos and skit made by various institution. Even in some parts of the video that I almost teared, in my mind I’m asking myself, “Despite at 80 yrs old, Sensei is still working so hard for the happiness of others and wanted to fulfil his mentor’s dream of worldwide Kosen-rufu. What am I doing given my youth?” Sensei had made so much effort to promote peace throughout the world, all this efforts are not easy, yet he is able to carry them out. Sensei had dialogue with world leaders like Nelson Mandela, Zhou Enlai, Dr Arnold Toynbee, etc. . .

Some parts of the meeting was good, some quite bad. Let’s focus on the good ones.

All institution, I believed, did their best to portray the spirit. However, some were not ideal its understandable as not even one have realisation in their lives. Everyone needs a platform to do their own human revolution and the skit is one of them. By putting the effort to even be in front a crowd is a form of human revolution, therefore I think its always good to look at the bigger picture and focus on the main intention. As often, the intention is not reflected by the actions, one has to look beyond the action to understand the intention. How to do it? Use your heart to feel and then rationalise it.

Today, there were a lot of sharing. It is like information overload towards the end of the kenshu. However, for such sharing I always think that it is always good to go back to basics, as we cannot assume that everyone is of the same level. We need to rely on these fundamentals to build on harder concepts, also without these basics, we will not be able to understand the rest. If we just take the literal meaning, we only see part of the picture, and often it is skewed. I personally feel that most of the sharing in gakkai, failed to explain the basic, failed to address the main intention. This is an area that we have to work on.

Today, I also try my very best to contribute to this kenshu as discussed during the F5 discussion to reach out to new friends. Although the time to talk to them is little, I tried my best wanting to know them better. During the small group dialogue, I shared 2 questions that I always asked myself. “How can I contribute for the meeting?” and “What I’ve learnt for this meeting?” To me, if I am able to answer these 2 questions, only then it will be a good meeting. I urge everyone to do the same.

Mentor-disciple (M&D) spirit has a very strong meaning. For us to grasp the meaning of M&D spirit with Sensei, we need to find out “why is M&D so important in Buddhism?” and “What is our vow as practitioners of Nichiren’s Buddhism?”. To answer the 2nd qns first, “What is our vow as practitioners of Nichiren’s Buddhism?”, that is we want to lead all mankind to happiness, that is the vow of the Buddha and we are Buddhas ourselves. For the first qns, “why is M&D so important in Buddhism?”, M&D is important as it ensures the correct teaching and spirit is being pass on generations after generations, which is display by the first 3 presidents of the Soka Gakkai. Therefore with the 2 qns answered, who else is able to show a role model and be a mentor to fulfil this vow? He is non other than Daisaku Ikeda, this is why he is my mentor for life.

This kenshu has helped me to be closer to Sensei, and served as a call for me to continue to fight for the happiness of all; I have to respond to my mentor’s call to fight for the happiness of mankind.

I ARISE.

I am with you Sensei
I make this vow today
Sensei
Today, again, I arise
Turn my face to the wind
Lift my spirit to the skies
Today I will not give in
Even though we're thousands of miles apart
I will stay in step with my mentor's heart

I am with you Sensei
Wherever you lead
I'm beside you though storms may assail us
I am ready Sensei
And nothing will stand in my way
Today
I arise I arise I arise
Today I'm fighting to win
If I give up our dream
What will I have lived for then
Today I will not give in
With your words of wisdom each day I'll start
Every word emblazoned across my heart