Spread Your Wings Toward the Future

By Daisaku Ikeda

Daisaku Ikeda has spent a lifetime traveling for peace around the world. In these essays about countries from Canada and Chile to Russia and Spain to Thailand and India, you'll learn about the places he's been, the people he's met, and the wisdom he's learned. Most of all you'll be inspired to take flight on your own wings and soar into the future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
• Release date: Apr 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781946635709

Book preview

One

THE HIGHWAY IN LOS ANGELES

It is an endless road of hopes and dreams. Whitecaps ride in powerfully from the far side of the Pacific, and the blue sky seems to go on forever. Beaches filled with people enjoying the sun, sea, and sand; the green and brown mountain ranges; cars speeding by—everything shines.

This highway, shimmering as if in celebration of the sun, is the road I always travel when visiting Los Angeles. Savoring the sea breeze from inside the car, I found myself pressing my camera’s shutter.

The United States is where I took the first step [in October 1960] to realize the dream of worldwide kosenrufu [bringing peace and happiness to people through Nichiren Buddhism]. This dream was entrusted to me by my mentor, second Soka Gakkai president Josei Toda. Since then, I have visited fifty-four countries and territories, exchanged dialogues with countless people, and continued to sow the seeds of peace.

My mentor had a grand and noble vision—the dream of achieving kosen-rufu all around the globe, of ridding the world of misery. Whenever I traveled, in whatever country I visited, his words resonated in my heart: Daisaku, you must go out into the world! In my stead! As his successor, I have traveled around the globe to realize his dream. It has been a journey of peace to spread the dream of worldwide kosen-rufu.

And now, we are embarking on a new voyage of mentor and disciple to realize the dream I share with you, my young friends of the future division.

Let’s spread wide the wings of our hearts and set forth together toward the future!

Cherishing dreams and aiming toward them is a uniquely human trait. It is a privilege of youth, in particular.

Los Angeles is a city of freedom to which people have long flocked to follow their dreams. California is known as the Golden State. The name comes from the Gold Rush of the 1800s, when the discovery of gold brought in a flood of people who built and populated its cities. Some say that California’s past is America’s future.

The cosmopolitan city of Los Angeles has been and still is a central stage on which people filled with the pioneering spirit live out their dreams. I have visited Los Angeles numerous times. To me, it is a capital of hope, shining with golden capable people.

I fondly remember delivering a lecture at the University of California, Los Angeles, on April 1, 1974. In Japan, due to the time difference, it was April 2, the anniversary of my mentor’s passing.

In my youth, I decided to give up pursuing university studies in order to dedicate myself to supporting Mr. Toda and his business ventures. But Mr. Toda, wishing to provide me with an education of the highest caliber, tutored me personally in a wide range of subjects. At first, he met with me once a week on Sundays. But eventually he began giving me early morning lessons every day.

As a proud graduate of Toda University, I wanted to transmit what he taught me—the principles of the philosophy of the respect for life—to young people of intellect around the world. My lecture at UCLA was both a realization of my mentor’s dream and an effort to present his life and thought to others. Through introducing the Buddhist view of life, I called for making the twenty-first century a Century of Life.

The bright, enterprising students in the audience listened intently. After the lecture, many came up to the podium to shake my hand.

Young minds from around the world seeking the Buddhist philosophy of humanism—How happy Mr. Toda would be if he could see this! I thought. I even forgot to wipe the perspiration from my forehead, as I was so eager to continue shaking hands with each person.

From that first time at UCLA, I have given a total of thirty-two lectures at universities and academic institutions worldwide, my mentor’s vision always in my heart.

The mother of my dear friend former Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley said that we live to dream, and that what matters is whether we have the courage and will to make our dreams come true.

Mayor Bradley studied at UCLA. He was the first African American mayor of Los Angeles. I first met him in January 1975, the year after I gave my lecture, at the Los Angeles City Hall, which commands a sweeping view of downtown.

As I entered the room, Mayor Bradley, a tall man, greeted me with a warm smile. He spoke gently, with unpretentious candor and sincerity. His modest behavior revealed a shining character burnished by many trials and challenges.

Mayor Bradley’s grandfather had been a slave. His father was a poor farmer, and the mayor had worked in the cotton fields during his childhood. When Mayor Bradley was around the same age as you, our future division members, blatant discrimination against African Americans still remained in society.

For him, attending university was a dream far beyond imagination. A teacher at school told him he should abandon that idea and find a job instead. But he refused to give up. We live to dream—his mother’s words became a source of strength that sustained him through his struggles.

After making tremendous efforts in his studies, he was accepted to UCLA. Following graduation, he worked for the Los Angeles Police Department for twenty-one years. He then became a city council member, ran for mayor, and won his second election.

Becoming a police officer was not what he originally had in mind. But at the suggestion of friends and family, he decided to take the police academy examination. That opened the way to a new and unexpected career path.

The important thing is to give your all in challenging whatever task is in front of you, and to try many things, even if you don’t have a clear idea of what your dream is.

No effort is ever wasted. Each step you take forward, doing your best, eventually leads you toward success and the realization of your dreams.

There may well be times when you feel lost. But there’s no need to be anxious. Even if you end up taking the long way around, make that journey an opportunity for fresh discoveries and enjoy the scenery along the way. In the process, you may find another wonderful pathway or a new dream to pursue.

What’s crucial is having courage and not being afraid of failure. Please persevere with the unflagging conviction that your dreams will someday come true.

Your dreams don’t have to be big. Just think of your everyday goals such as improving your grades, joining an after-school club, being able to study abroad, maintaining good friendships, or wanting a sick family member to get better. All of these are precious dreams.

I’m sure you have many wishes that may grow into dreams. So let’s chant in earnest each day, make efforts to find your dreams, and fulfill them one by one.

If you ever travel to Los Angeles by airplane, you’ll most likely land at Los Angeles International Airport. All flights from overseas arrive at the Tom Bradley International Terminal, where a bronze bust of Mayor Bradley greets visitors from around the world with that familiar warm smile. I am sure he will call out to all of you, Have a dream!

Rosa Parks, a pivotal figure in the American Civil Rights Movement, was another dear friend, whom I also met in Los Angeles (in January 1993).

Mrs. Parks fought to eradicate racial discrimination alongside civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who made the famous I Have a Dream speech.

African Americans were discriminated against and mistreated just because of the color of their skin. In a society where African Americans were required to give up their seats on the bus to white people, Rosa Parks courageously spoke out against such injustice. And in doing so, she changed the course of history.

Mrs. Parks once wrote to a young girl, a future leader: You can help keep hope alive by believing in yourself. Your hope for yourself and for the future can make this world a better place to live.¹

Even though you may come up against an obstacle and feel trapped, if you expand your dreams to embrace the world, hope will well forth. And as long as you have hope, the path toward achieving your dreams will remain open.

Mrs. Parks dedicated her life to the dream of making the world a better place. In a letter of encouragement, she wrote that she held high hopes for Soka University of America.

SUA, located in Orange County, not far from Los Angeles, is the culmination of a dream shared by people around the world working for peace. Outstanding young global citizens from various countries have gathered there and are forging ahead on the great path of realizing peace. My heart is always with these SUA students, who are dedicating their youth to learning and fulfilling their mission on a campus that brims with the light of hope. And I’m always together in spirit with the alumni striving in their respective places of mission.

I look forward to the day when many of you, our future division members, and your friends will enter SUA as students.

Some days, the path of youth is bathed in warm sunshine, and some days, it is buffeted by stormy winds. During such trying times, supportive friends with whom you can advance together are a great source of strength.

Nichiren Daishonin writes, The best way to attain Buddhahood is to encounter a good friend (WND-1, 598). If you have big dreams and press forward together with good friends, encouraging one another, you will never reach a deadlock.

You also have future division leaders and other seniors in faith who are always there to chant with you, listen to and advise you, and to sincerely support you.

When I was young, I loved the works