Part 3: Kosen-rufu and World Peace
Chapter 30: The Future Division—The Treasure of the Soka Gakkai [30.3]

President Ikeda emphasizes that fostering Future Division members to become successors of our movement of human revolution and kosen-rufu is the key to creating a secure future for humanity.

In “On the Buddha’s Prophecy,” Nichiren Daishonin stresses the importance of successors, asserting that without people who “embrace and teach [or transmit]” the Buddhist teachings, Buddhism will become as lifeless as “wooden or stone statues garbed in priests’ robes and carrying begging bowls” (cf. WND-1, 401). The undeniable reality is that no group or organization will endure without people who uphold and pass on its ideals—in other words, without successors.

The simile of the meaninglessness of wooden or stone statues dressed in priests’ robes highlights a unique characteristic of Buddhism. That is, without people to carry on and spread it, its spirit will be lost, even though its teachings and images may survive. Buddhism only remains alive and vital through real, living people carrying on the teachings in their actions.

From that perspective, our Future Division members have an incredibly important mission as people who will “embrace and teach” the Mystic Law.

Fostering Future Division members is creating a bright tomorrow. Let us warmly nurture the rich and vast potential of these emissaries from the future in the garden of the Soka Gakkai, a realm of unsurpassed humanism. Fostering and supporting successors who embrace Nichiren Buddhism and advancing kosen-rufu are key to realizing the Daishonin’s ideal of “establishing the correct teaching for the peace of the land.” Doing so is the direct path to building a just society and actualizing world peace.

Let’s now take a closer look at the meaning of “embrace and teach.” What is it that Future Division members will embrace and convey to future generations? Conversely, what is it that we should help these emissaries from the future embrace, and what should we teach or pass on to them?

The answer is the faith and practice of Nichiren Buddhism taught in the Soka Gakkai that they learn from their family members at home. In other words, it is the eternal and indestructible Law expounded in Buddhism, the principles and tenets of human equality and respect for the dignity of life.

In more concrete terms, embracing and teaching others about Buddhism means each individual believing in the infinite potential of their own life and continuing to make efforts in their human revolution.

One person’s human revolution can transform their family and those around them, spreading understanding and empathy that can even bring change to their community and society at large. Expanding this movement for human revolution throughout the world and ensuring that it endures is the meaning of kosen-rufu. Those who “embrace and teach” Buddhism are none other than the successors of this movement.