I’d like to talk about one of my favorite concepts in Buddhism, which is human revolution.
This concept was created by one of the founders of our SGI movement,
called Josei Toda.
Josei Toda reflected about this inner transformation that can happen in one’s life when we chant
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
So by chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, we can have access to qualities in our life that
exist in essence in our life, but they are kind of sleeping.
To me this concept means hope. Because when I started to practice I thought my life was
like a square and it was kind of predetermined.
I looked at me as a person of certain views and I thought that would never change, but
nowadays I have actual proof in my life that I’m in constant transformation.
So this inner transformation is human revolution.
How can I look at me with a different perception? How can I look at my life as in essence as
the life of a Buddha, or the life of a person with courage, a person with wisdom, a person
with compassion, a person with life force.
The human revolution of only one person can change the whole humanity.
So to the extent that we apply these in our daily lives, we end up by transforming not
only our own lives but our environment.
If our actions change the reactions from the environment, from other people, will change
in connection with our own behavior.
So in this sense only one person can change a lot in her own environment.
I would like to share a little experience about my own human revolution
in my place of work.
I work in a theater company which was founded ten years ago.
But since I practice this Buddhism I can confirm that my inner transformation and the way I
look at myself and at life has contributed to the
development and strengthening of our company.
I started to look at the company with more hope, hope for the future. Since, like economically
things are not very well around the world, and especially in culture it's one of the
first areas where funding is really difficult to accomplish.
And the fact that I can change my attitude toward that specific problem or difficulty
has been able to inspire the other people
who don’t practice Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism.
This is just a small aspect but other aspects are equally important in my own transformation.
Before I chanted Nam-myoho-renge-kyo I didn’t feel courage enough to be able to stand up
and talk, but now I feel a lot more secure and that my ideas can be of value,
can contribute to create value in the company.
In fact I started to chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo because the human revolution or the inner
transformation of the person who talked to me about this Buddhism
was so big that transformation
and I thought this person is really changing the life and I want to know
what can contribute to that.
What is she doing that enables her to change so much? I want to do that also. So that’s
why I was very curious to attend my first meeting.