This year, “The Year of Great Advancement,” will be a crucial year for the successful achievement of our objectives for 2009. In order to achieve our goals, it is vital that we do our best during this “Year of Great Advancement.” Thus, we must first achieve the objectives right before us. Otherwise, we will not be able to achieve those for 2009.

Since the first day of the year, I have been speaking about this whenever the opportunity has arisen. In order to triumph during this “Year of Great Advancement,” we must fulfill two requirements.

First, each chapter must fulfill the pledges and goals it set for this year. This is particularly true for the shakubuku goal. All the members of each chapter must put forth their collective efforts, and no matter what, achieve the shakubuku goal.

The objective of “Doubling the number of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth” will primarily be achieved by the practice of shakubuku. Worldwide Kosen-rufu, the propagation of the Buddhism of the Sowing, will also be achieved first and foremost by the practice of shakubuku. Our faith, in fact, must also be based on the practice for oneself and for others. Therefore, if we forget about the practice of shakubuku and only practice for our own sake, we will never be able to gain fortune and blessings from the Three Treasures of Buddhism.

I hope that each and every one of you will etch these points into your hearts, and, with boundless energy, valiantly do shakubuku, as you courageously move forward for the sake of worldwide propagation and uphold the significance of this “Year of Great Advancement.”

Second, we must ensure the complete success of the General Meeting for the Advancement of the Great Assembly of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth, which will be held at four venues across Japan. As you know, this will be held as a pre-General Meeting in order to promote the achievement of our objectives for 2009. The priesthood and laity must combine their efforts, and achieve great results in making a breakthrough in shakubuku activity for the grand celebration in 2009. This will truly bring great significance to the pre-General Meeting.

Today, it is an extremely rare occurrence for us to be able to encounter the True Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin, who is the True Buddha of kuon ganjo. And even rarer still, are the immeasurable benefits that we, common mortals, are able to accumulate.
Not only have we been fortunate to encounter the True Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin, we are also very fortunate to be part of the grand celebration of the 750th Anniversary of Revealing the Truth and Upholding Justice through the Submission of the Rissho-ankoku-ron. This is even rarer than encountering the Udumbara Flower, which blooms once every three thousand years.

Therefore, we must not miss this opportunity, and with single-minded and wholehearted determination, aim to achieve the objectives for 2009 with our heart and soul. If we do not, it will be meaningless for us to have obtained birth in the human world, something difficult to achieve, and to have encountered the sacred teachings of the Buddha, which are rarely to be met. And moreover, we will ruin this opportunity to encounter the grand celebration of 2009, which will never happen again.

Therefore, I would like to ask each and every one of you to press ahead without flinching, based on the spirit that, “The body is insignificant while the Law is supreme,” and, “never begrudging one’s life for the sake of propagating the Law.”