Background :Nichiren Daishonin wrote “On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land” on July 16, 1260. He submitted it to Hojo Tokiyori, the most influential government official of Japan at that time. Written in the form of a dialogue between a host (Nichiren) and a guest (thought to represent Tokiyori), Nichiren uses Buddhist scriptures to explain that people’s misguided beliefs are the fundamental reason for the many troubles and disasters causing widespread suffering.
“Establishing the correct teaching” means clarifying what the correct teachings are and helping people understand and practice them, while “peace of the land” means a world of peace, justice and prosperity. Only by spreading and solidifying in society the Lotus Sutra’s teaching that all people have unlimited potential and power, he says, can people’s sufferings be alleviated, and peace and security be realized.
“Rather than offering up ten thousand prayers for remedy, it would be better simply to outlaw this one evil.” (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 15)
COMMENTARY : When Nichiren Daishonin wrote “On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land,” people in Japan were suffering from a series of disasters, famines and epidemics. Nichiren had sought to understand the fundamental cause of these disasters by studying all the Buddhist sutras. In them, he found lots of support for his argument that a major cause of the disasters and suffering was the people’s rejection of the correct teaching, that is, the Lotus Sutra, which teaches that all people have the Buddha nature.
As the new year begins, Nana Akufu Addo increase salaries by approving 30% salary increament for public workers.
If President Nana Akufu Addo and his administration visionaries have raised workers salaries, and allow Thailand, the World’s largest exporter of rice, to support the Irrigation Company of Upper Region (ICOUR), to expand local rice production under the Tono and Vea Irrigation Schemes in the Region, then Ghana is living on the growth mindset agenda of Akufu Addo’s administration.
And vice president Mahmoud Bawumia paves the way to a technology revolution for Sustainable Development, a time when Ghana will become vastly more smarter.
But what will the path to this amazing future look like?
Assumpta: How will Ghanians life grow and unfold to this economic approaches?
Tsasi: It has little to do with laziness and corruption.
It’s rather a challenge that requires infinite patience and the joy of uncomfortable commitment.
The main function of the Akufu Addo’s Government is not to materialise a small wish, but to help us correctly perceive reality, identify that small wing corrector that changes the route to a new continent, giving an unprecedented light to each phenomenon or even to love building.
Assumpta: Indeed, more than any other thing, needs tools: time, effort, dialogue and trust to consistently recover.
But sometimes, it’s look scarier, because it hurts more. In fact, nothing exposes so much vulnerability, wounds, fear of rejection, abandonment, betrayal, change.
It brings back old painful patterns of denial and mortification that can cloud the vision.
Tsasi : My question is: Do Ghanaians really want Nana Akufu Addo?
Assumpta: I believe I can have a valid experience, to say that Ghanaians replaced their trust in him when they voted him.
Tsasi: Voting Nana Akufo Addo as president with faith, and brave actions, pushes our gaze from where we have always hidden our plain truth, waiting for God’s intervention
Ghanaians have to be willing to really look at who they are as people in front of this new choice and exercise genuine trust, compassion, and listening more to the president.
Assumpta: Quote from the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni: “What we will be facing will be a complex period, but this scenario full of crisis must not prevent us from looking to the future with optimism: we must think big, have the courage for the long term.Giorgia (Meloni )
Tsasi: As usual, prosperity had to be an exacerbation of inequalities. As we have seen, President Nana Akufu Addo’s economic recovery policy and human equality soon gained him a following as well as the rise of the #FixTheCountry movement.
Assumpta: A movement in Ghana that helped the president to establish the rules of equality among Ghanaians.
Tsasi: You mean the Government approved a 30% salary increase for public workers?
If all of us agree with the declaration that God created us equal then why should public workers be poor and piety and ministers should enjoy much privilege?
Assumpta: Yes. President Nana Akufu Addo’s growth strategy protects all Ghanaians to become free from any slavery economic development.
Justice and equality require that we begin with the assumption of human diversity while celebrating its value.
A society best serves the cause of equality and justice that makes the fulfilment of the different potentials of each the condition for the fulfilment of potentials of all.
Gender, racial, ethnic or age differences must be celebrated and respected instead of being used as a basis for discrimination.
Tsasi : Differences should be a basis for respect, not for discrimination; that’s really a splendid idea. I agree fully.
The Buddhist view that goes by the key words “cherry, plum, peach, and apricot” is also an endorsement of individuality and diversity. Each kind of tree has its own merit and values.
By letting each Ghanaian display his/her individuality fully, society itself can benefit from the richness and fruits of diversity.
Assumpta: That’s perfectly true. Thank you for today too!
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