Translator: Boram Lee Reviewer: Robert Tucker
Several years ago, I was the winning contestant of America's Next Top Model.
America's Next Top Model
is an internationally syndicated model competition,
where young, wannabe models duke it out to the end
to become the new face of the fashion industry.
Well, I won.
And it was a huge, huge accomplishment for me, to say the least.
But my journey getting there wasn't very easy.
I grew up in Detroit, Michigan.
(Audience) Yeah!
Naima Mora: Yeah!
And you know what, I love my hometown.
It was very hard for me growing up there
in the severe conditions that are prevalent to this city.
A warm sunny day in Detroit.
Detroit has consistently ranked
in the Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities in the United States,
oftentimes ranking at number one.
And recent studies based on US census and FBI statistics of 2011
state that the US average to become a victim of a crime in any given city,
is about one in thirty people.
The same study cited that chances of becoming victim to a crime in Detroit
are one in every twelve people.
So compare that to, say, one of the safest cities in the United States,
Ridgewood, Connecticut, for example,
chances of becoming victim of a crime are one in every 129 people.
And if we look at chances of becoming victim of a violent crime specifically,
including murder, armed robbery,
forcible rape, or aggravated assault,
chances in Detroit are one in every 46 people,
versus Ridgewood, Connecticut, one in over 3,000.
So with that said,
I was first held up at gunpoint for the first time in my life
when I was 15 years old.
And my adolescence was colored with things
like my closest girlfriends experiencing teenage pregnancy
as a result of statutory rape,
forcing them to leave school, become young mothers,
and forfeit their education.
Metal detectors and police squad cars at entering school,
and one of the high schools in our neighborhood
was even dubbed "Murder High" for years.
And, unfortunately, some of my closest friends
were murdered due to drug and gun violence before we even graduated from high school.
So, the idea for me of becoming a high fashion model,
or a musician,
or even a published author,
were the farthest things from my mind when I was growing up in Detroit.
That's me when I was 14,
very innocent and naive,
just a year before that innocence and naivety was taken from me.
And so that I wouldn't continue being a statistic,
I was desperately searching for some sort of inspiration to believe in myself.
So I had these very harsh surroundings.
But on the other hand, I had both my parents, whom I love very much.
And on top of that, they were hippies!
(Chuckling)
That's their avant-garde jazz band, I forget the name of it.
Something-nine.
And my beautiful, avant-garde, hippie parents,
you know, it was so embarrassing,
but now as an adult, I realize that they gave me life and love,
and showed me to perceive the world with joy and compassion.
And how else would hippie parents do this for a young girl in Detroit,
besides giving her the gift of Nichiren Buddhism?
And it's interesting because I feel like there couldn't be a less likely candidate
for someone becoming a Nichiren Buddhist than myself.
I'm like this, mixed, biracial minority
living in low-income, poverty-stricken neighborhoods,
adopting this really weird Eastern philosophy in Detroit,
one of the most dangerous, violent cities in the United States,
a country that epitomizes the Western World.
And there I was though, young, and living in these harsh surroundings
but adopting Buddhism as the first step towards seeking inspiration,
to, in some way, transcend some very difficult circumstances.
Well, in Nichiren Buddhism
the fundamental idea is that everyone is a Buddha.
Meaning that at any given moment,
each person possesses the infinite power
to express their ultimate human potential in life.
So, try grasping this as like a teenager.
Well, with that said though, I started seeking inspiration.
And I didn't necessarily find it in others who were part of my immediate environment,
but in people whom I could look up to.
People like Shakyamuni Buddha or Daisaku Ikeda,
or Dr. Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks,
or Oprah Winfrey, or Venus and Serena Williams,
or my grandmother.
And the list goes on and on.
But it's funny because we come across these very fundamental life philosophies,
but we really don't understand them until life actually happens.
So this idea of inspiration,
which at the time, in my adolescence, I really understood more as motivation,
was something that I held on to.
And it really helps me a lot,
but I still didn't understand what being truly inspired meant just yet.
Let's fast forward a couple of years.
With a lot of hard work and despite many challenges,
and even with some chance,
I was selected to be one of the contestants
on America's Next Top Model.
And yet I didn't understand why they had chosen me to be there.
I didn't get it.
You know, I felt like I was just this really ordinary girl
from Detroit, Michigan,
with really meager to almost terrible odds at competing.
But I was selected
to be in this huge, internationally syndicated, television competition,
one in some 20,000 applicants,
and yet I didn't understand why they had chosen me.
Because there was something missing.
I hadn't found that inspiration from within me, yet.
Halfway through filming, we were in Capetown, South Africa.
And we were told that we were going to take a field trip.
So this is supposed to be like, "Oh God, a field trip!",
but we were going to take a ferry to an island.
And this island happened to be the infamous Robben Island,
where many, many, many political prisoners who fought against apartheid
were held wrongfully for some 20 years, give or take,
one of those prisoners having been President Nelson Mandela.
And we walked for what felt like miles and miles through this prison,
until we came to a single cell in a row of countless cells.
And our guide, he slowly turned to us and asked
if any of us would like to open the prison cell
where President Mandela was held for 18 years of his life
with the master key of the prison.
And everyone was silent.
But I jumped at the opportunity.
Because, I would never have a chance like this ever again in my life.
So I took the key from him, and I held it in my hand, my right hand,
and it was just this, cold, heavy,
black, simple, iron thing, you know?
But this thing I held in my hand
held hundreds upon hundreds of people
locked away for a good portion of their lives,
and their human rights and dignity taken from them.
And my hand trembled as I turned the key in the lock and it clunk into place.
And as this cell door slid open, and I stepped inside,
this huge rush came over me
and the gravity of the moment really hit me,
all the weight of this tiny cell,
a single man, just one person, was able to help change a country,
and the world,
and he was held there in that prison cell
for almost 20 years doing so.
This was like the extent of time
that I had even been alive at that point.
And I stood there imagining,
spending everyday of my young twenty years in that prison cell.
This is when inspiration truly happened for me for the first time in my life.
And in that moment I realized, you know, we can't just work hard.
We have to have hope, and as human beings be truly inspired.
Here I was, this young girl from Detroit, Michigan,
filming this huge TV show with Tyra Banks,
this supermodel, in Africa, of all places.
But there was so much more than just being on TV or becoming a model,
or some sort of celebrity.
You know, I always really wanted to win the competition, right?
But I didn't necessarily think that I could, for most of it.
And at that moment I realized though, that I had to.
I had to win.
I had to win with a purpose.
And that purpose was to give so much more.
To perform with the intent to inspire people
as I had been inspired in that moment.
Honorary doctorate and peace activist Daisaku Ikeda states,
"A great human revolution in just a single individual
will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation.
And further, will enable a change in the destiny of all human kind."
So if he could do it, then I could do it.
And if I could do it, then anyone can do it.
So this idea of inspiration, it doesn't just happen once,
and then we move on, and we live the rest of our lives
with this great memory or whatever it was for you.
We have to be continuously doing it every single day.
Responsibility doesn't just lie with religious leaders or political leaders,
or Bono, you know.
(Laughter)
Remember when I reminded you guys earlier that everyone is a Buddha,
that at any given moment, each of us has the infinite power
to express our ultimate human potential in life?
The responsibility lies with all of us
to truly take advantage of each precious moment,
seeking inspiration and finding inspiration,
and most importantly, creating inspiration.
Because inspiration incurs hope,
and hope incurs belief,
belief in our infinite power and potential.
And belief incurs courage,
courage to act for our lives and for our happiness.
So I end with this one question that I wanted to pose to you guys:
Why shall we do this?
Why shall we live our lives trying to create inspiration or seeking it?
And I think the answer is really quite simple.
Because the world needs it,
Really, really needs it.
And as individuals, we are not powerless
in helping to create a world of hope,
and love, and courage.
Thank you so much for allowing me this time
to have this conversation with you.
(Applause)