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    Hope Is a Decision: Selected Essays
    Hope Is a Decision: Selected Essays
    Hope Is a Decision: Selected Essays
    Ebook135 pages2 hours

    Hope Is a Decision: Selected Essays

    By Daisaku Ikeda

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    How do we remain optimistic when the world seems to be falling apart around us? In these intimate essays, the author leads the reader on an inspirational journey to find answers and hope in troubled times. The book includes incisive commentaries on terrorism, good and evil, and aging and death that provide a new perspective on approaching the world with hope. The lyrical reflections on poetry and friendship highlight how such spiritual pursuits are the wellsprings of hope in dark times. Each essay suggests ways in which anyone can connect their personal search for strength, wisdom, and hope to the collective desire to bring about a just, humane, and caring society.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMiddleway Press
    Release dateMay 1, 2017
    ISBN9781938252709
    Hope Is a Decision: Selected Essays

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    • 4/5
      I like the name of the book: Hope is a decision.
      To have hope is also the ability to inspire others.
      I like for some reason the personal history of Daisaku Ikeda. It seems in this book we can see hope in Daisaku as a little boy and that same hope growing up to powerful ideas written in the essays this book offers. We can also lead in between the lines some magical quality (hope) existing in the most inhospitable places, kind of like Japan was at the end of Second world war and immediately after it. What inspires hope in a human being? We can ask ourselves that question and see how good this book holds up to that question. If I were to say myself, since it is a collection of essays in which memories are also reviewed, the question itself is a question that points to hope itself. I enjoyed reading and have my personal moments that I liked more in this book, which gives me courage, courage to decide on hope.

    Book preview

    Hope Is a Decision - Daisaku Ikeda

    HOPE AND HAPPINESS

    THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISION

    LOOKING AT THE WORLD today, it is easy to feel despair. A kind of powerlessness seems to be the prevailing mood in the world today. Decisions about important issues all seem to be made somewhere beyond our reach. What can one person accomplish in the face of the vast forces that run our world? The current of the times can seem so fast flowing and complex as to be overwhelming.

    I do not believe that people are powerless. The philosophical tradition that I embrace teaches on the most fundamental dimension—that of life itself—that each human life partakes of the limitless life force of the cosmos. The same power that moves the universe exists within our lives. Each individual has immense potential, and a great change in the inner dimension of one individual’s life has the power to touch others’ lives and transform society. Everything begins with us.

    As Nigerian author and poet Ben Okri wrote in his poem Mental Fight:

    You can’t remake the world

    Without remaking yourself.

    Each new era begins within.

    It is an inward event,

    With unsuspected possibilities

    For inner liberation.

    The term my mentor, Josei Toda, used for this process of inner transformation that also transforms our surroundings was human revolution. And I believe it is the most fundamental, most vital of all revolutions. It can create changes that are more lasting and valuable than political, economic, or technological revolutions. For no matter how external factors change, the world will never get better as long as people remain selfish and apathetic.

    An inner change for the better in a single person—one person becoming wiser, stronger, more compassionate—is the essential first turn of the wheel toward realizing peaceful coexistence and fulfillment for the whole human race. I firmly believe that a great human revolution in just one person can be the start of a transformation in the destiny of whole societies and all humankind. And for the individual, everything starts in the inner reaches of life itself.

    When we change our inner determination, everything begins to move in a new direction. The moment we make a powerful resolve, every nerve and fiber in our being will immediately orient itself toward the fulfillment of this goal or desire. On the other hand, if we think, This is never going to work out, then every cell in our body will be deflated and give up the fight.

    Hope, in this sense, is a decision. It is the most important decision we can make. Hope changes everything, starting with our lives. Hope is the force that enables us to take action to make our dreams come true. It has the power to change winter into summer, barrenness to creativity, agony to joy. As long as we have hope, there is nothing we cannot achieve. When we possess the treasure of hope, we can draw forth our inner potential and strength. A person of hope can always advance.

    Hope is a flame that we nurture within our hearts. It may be sparked by someone else—by the encouraging words of a friend, relative, or mentor—but it must be fanned and kept burning through our own determination. Most crucial is our determination to continue to believe in the limitless dignity and possibilities of both ourselves and others.

    Mahatma Gandhi led the nonviolent struggle for Indian independence from British colonial rule, succeeding against all odds. He was, in his own words, an irrepressible optimist. His hope was not based on circumstances, rising and falling as things seemed to be getting better or worse. Rather, it was based on an unshakable faith in humanity, in the capacity of people for good. He absolutely refused to abandon his faith in his fellow human beings.

    Keeping faith in people’s essential goodness, and the consistent effort to cultivate this goodness in ourselves: These are the twin keys, as Gandhi proved, to unleashing the great power of hope. Believing in ourselves and in others in this way—continuing to wage the difficult inner struggle to make this the basis for our actions—can transform a society that sometimes seems to be plummeting toward darkness into a humane, enlightened world, where all people are treated with respect.

    There may be times when, confronted by cruel reality, we verge on losing all hope. If we cannot feel hope, it is time to create some. We can do this by digging deeper within, searching for even a small glimmer of light, for the possibility of a way to begin to break through the impasse before us.

    And our capacity for hope can actually be expanded and strengthened by difficult circumstances. Hope that has not been tested is nothing more than a fragile dream. Hope begins from this challenge, this effort to strive toward an ideal, however distant it may

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