Conspicuous and Inconspicuous Benefits

Conspicuous and Inconspicuous Benefits

Faith enables us to transform not only our day-to-day problems, but our lives at their very foundation. Through our Buddhist practice, we can develop a strong inner core and a solid and inexhaustible reservoir of good fortune.

There are two kinds of benefit that derive from faith in the Gohonzon: conspicuous and inconspicuous. Conspicuous benefit is the obvious, visible benefit of being clearly protected or quickly able to surmount a... particular problem when it arises--be it an illness or a conflict in our personal relationships. Inconspicuous benefit, on the other hand, is less tangible. It is good fortune accumulated slowly but steadily, like the growth of a tree or the rising of the tide, which results in the forging of a rich and expansive state of life. We might not discern any change from day to day, but as the years pass, it will be clear that over time we've become happy, that we've grown as individuals. This is inconspicuous benefit.

When you chant daimoku, you will definitely gain the best result for you, regardless of whether that benefit is conspicuous or inconspicuous.

No matter what happens, the important thing is to continue chanting. If you do so, you'll definitely become happy. Even if things are not solved in the way you had initially hoped or imagined, when you look back later, you'll understand on a much more profound level that it was the best possible result. This in itself is tremendous inconspicuous benefit.

The true benefits of Nichiren Buddhism are not so much of a momentary and conspicuous nature, but those of a lasting and inconspicuous nature that accrue in the depths of our lives. Conspicuous benefit, for instance, might allow you to eat your fill today but still leave you worrying about where your next meal will come from. Inconspicuous benefit, on the other hand, more resembles a situation where, though you may only be able to eat a meager meal today, you will steadily develop your life to the point where you will never have to worry about having enough to eat. The latter is surely a far more attractive prospect.

The more we exert ourselves in faith, the greater the benefit we experience

-SGI President Daisaku Ikeda

Source: Excerpted from Discussions on Youth (SGI-USA, 1998)