Worthy persons deserve to be called so because they are not carried away by the eight winds: prosperity,decline,disgrace,honor,praise,censure,suffering, and pleasure.They are neither elated by prosperity nor grieved by decline. The heavenly gods will surely protect one who is unbending before the eight winds.
Interpretation
Worthy individuals remain unaffected by external circumstances and emotions.
This quote by Nichiren emphasizes the importance of inner strength and stability in the face of life's ups and downs. It teaches that true worthiness comes from maintaining equanimity despite external influences such as success, failure, praise, and criticism, suggesting that those who can resist being swayed by these forces will receive spiritual protection and support.
In practice
In a motivational speech to encourage resilience.
Flint has the potential to produce fire, and gems have intrinsic value. 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.
If you light a lantern for another, it will also brighten your own way
Never let life's hardships disturb you. No one can avoid problems, not even saints or sages.
Suffer what there is to suffer. Enjoy what there is to enjoy. Regard both suffering and joy as facts of life.
This is the kind of balance people expect: both environment and the economy - not one or the other.
But I began then to think of time as having a shape, something you could see, like a series of liquid transparencies, one laid on top of another.
Life is made of our attitudes. And there are certain things that the gods oblige us to live through. Their reason for this does not matter, and there is no action we can take to make them pass us by.
Human pride and egoism always create divisions, build walls of indifference, hate and violence. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, makes hearts capable of understanding the languages of all, as he re-establishes the bridge of authentic communication between earth and Heaven.
The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature... It is this sudden confrontation with the depth and scope of ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of twentieth-century science to the human intellect.
The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them.
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