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- We are always going to face obstacles; negative influences and functions that attempt to block our way or interfere with our efforts. Nichiren Diashonin taught that encounter such opposition is in fact a benefit. Because by meeting and winning over difficulties, we naturally carry out the process of “lessening our karmic retribution.”
- Difficulties are important opportunities for ridding ourselves of bad karma and developing and strengthening ourselves. Nichiren says, “Iron, when heated in the flames and pounded, becomes a fine sword. Worthies and sages are tested by abuse. My present exile is not because of any secular crime. It is solely so that I may expiate in this lifetime my past grave offences and be freed in the next from the three evil paths.”
- We can see facing problems as something we do to fulfil our vow as a bodhisattva to save suffering people. Only by dealing with hardships in life can we understand people’s suffering. With every problem we overcome through Buddhist faith and practice, we create model for winning in life, a genuine experience through which we can encourage many others.
- SGI President Ikeda expresses this process as changing karma into mission.
- “We all have our own karma or destiny, but we look it square in the face and grasp its true significance, then any hardship can serve to help us reach richer and more profound lives.”
- “In other words, when we change our karma into mission, we transform our destiny from playing a negative role to a positive one. Those who can change karma into their mission have ‘voluntarily assumed the appropriate karma.’ Therefore, those who keep advancing, while regarding everything as part of their mission, proceed toward the goal of transforming their destiny.”
Soka Creation 
