---- DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT ----
"Nichiren Buddhism teaches that the highest life-state of Buddhahood does not exist somewhere separate from us ordinary human beings or our daily reality, but within us. It teaches that we ourselves are Buddhas.

"Nichiren Daishonin likens the difficulty people have in believing this truth to the inability to see one’s own eyelashes because they are so close. In the same way that beautiful blossoms emerge from the rough-barked branches of the cherry tree, he says, we ordinary people can bring forth the life-state of Buddhahood from within our lives.[1]

"!In short, it is the ultimate power of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo that brings the supreme flower of life that is Buddhahood to bloom. This is an absolute and unfailing principle."

SGI Newsletter No. 8716, 63rd Soka Gakkai Headquarters Leaders Meeting, Bringing Forth Flowers of Happiness and Victory in Our Lives, translated 13th Feb. 2013

[1] The Daishonin writes: “We ordinary people can see neither our own eyelashes, which are so close, nor the heavens in the distance. Likewise, we do not see that the Buddha exists in our own hearts. . . . [It is like the way that] the graceful cherry blossoms come forth from trees” (WND-1, 1137).