“Living by aspiring” means to live your life cherishing ideals. I believe the universal ideal that humanity shares is the desire to pursue a path in life that can help all people find happiness. This path is what Buddhists call the aspiration to benefit others, which is fulfilled by living one’s life for the sake of the world and its people.
We never realize our aspirations if we only have a vague sense of them. We must not aspire vaguely, but emphatically, and not in passing, but continually. To aspire emphatically in this way is what is called “mindfulness of one’s aspirations” or “keeping our aspirations in mind.”
And if you have an aspiration, you must first of all express it in action. Without expressing it in action, no matter how mindful you are of your aspiration, you will end up aspiring in vain. By manifesting it in action, the aspiration that a person keeps in mind becomes a beacon that illuminates their corner of the world.
Day to day, many things happen in our lives. When our minds are captive to the things going on around us, we tend to zigzag on our path, and we can lose our bearings. But if we can keep the standards of our ideals high and hold fast to them, we will be able to proceed straight ahead without losing our bearings. And the strength of our confident stride will become increasingly powerful with every step we take.
When I was young, people often spoke of “aspirations,” and the adage on everyone’s lips was “A young man who develops an aspiration leaves his birthplace, and unless he completes his education, he is never to return, not even in death.”
But it saddens me to see that even though people today desire more than ever to make something of themselves, they have forgotten to have aspirations along the way. There may be people who conceal their aspirations within their hearts, and I hope that they will manifest their aspirations to their hearts’ content.
People seem to have gradually become alienated from self-respect and virtue now that the word “aspiration” has fallen out of use. In our hearts, we all should want to set our sights high. Otherwise, we will end up quickly compromising with the realities of the world, wanting to avoid difficult things, and drifting into an undemanding way of life.
An ideal is not something that yields value only when it is fully realized. The most important thing is the initial step you take toward your ideal. That is where the realization of your ideal begins.
Bodai no me o okosashimu [Germinating the Seeds of Awakening] (Kosei Publishing, 2018), pp. 20–21
Nikkyo Niwano, the founder of Rissho Kosei-kai, was born in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, in 1906. A longtime advocate of cooperation and dialogue between the world’s religious faiths, Rev. Niwano promoted interreligious understanding as honorary chairman of Shinshuren (Federation of New Religious Organizations of Japan), honorary president of Religions for Peace, and in various other capacities. He is the author of several books on Buddhism, the Lotus Sutra, and spirituality, such as Buddhism for Today, Lifetime Beginner, Buddhism for Everyday Life, and more. Rev. Niwano passed away in 1999 at the age of 92.
