A Path toward the Birth of Rikka no Kai

English

A Study Meeting for Business Owners, the “Fukumori School,” Was Started.

In 2014, a study meeting for business owners named the “Fukumori School” was started at the Suginami Dharma Center in Tokyo Prefecture. This program provided the participants with practical lectures and individual consultations by the instructor, Shozo Fukunaga, who was a member of Rissho Kosei-kai and had received instruction from Founder Niwano and Mr. Kazuo Inamori, the honorary president of Kyosera Corporation. Regardless of one’s business scale, those business owners, also including female managers as well as young managers, earnestly learned and practiced the knowledge. As a result, it was reported that many corporations had been re-established. They also learned the importance of practicing donation so that they have been practicing monetary donations from the spirit of gratitude. Today, not only the Suginami Dharma Center, but also the Tokyo West, Central, and East Divisions have a “Fukumori School.”

A Project of Networking Business Owners in the Spirit of Buddhism as a New Initiative

Incidentally, going through the deliberation in the General Assembly of the Men’s Group (sonen) leaders at the Great Sacred Hall, the momentum toward creating a new form of sangha named “sangha of sonen bodhisattvas, or, sangha of dāna,” which is to hold gatherings sorted by topics or professions, increased. Especially, the development of a “network that links business owners to one another in the spirit of Buddhism” was longed for. In 2016, a new voluntary project, “A Network of Business Owners in the Spirit of Buddhism,” was launched to shape the ideas of business owners who are also members of a lay Buddhist organization. The Managing Trustee’s Office at the headquarters was responsible for this initiative.

“School of Business Owners in the Spirit of Buddhism” and the Spread of Its Network

Supported by the project of “A Network of Business Owners in the Spirit of Buddhism,” the program of “School of Business Owners in the Spirit of Buddhism” was started in the Divisions of Kitakyushu and Tohoku. They invited Mr. Fukunaga as their lecturer. In 2017, the program started in the Divisions of Kanagawa, Chugoku, and Ibaraki. In 2018, it also started in the Divisions of Shikoku and Hokuriku. The business owners deepened their understanding through lectures and cultivated their hearts and minds in the individual consultations based on hoza sessons, which followed the footsteps of the Fukumori School, thereby receiving many merits in the field of business (as of 2018).

The “Gathering for Business Owners to Study the Spirit of Buddhism,” to Commemorate the Eightieth Anniversary of the Founding of Rissho Kosei-kai

Commemorating the eightieth anniversary of the founding of Rissho Kosei-kai, a program of the “Gathering for Business Owners to Study the Spirit of Buddhism” was planned to be held at the Great Sacred Hall in 2018 and the executive committee was made up. It included the core members of the voluntary business owners and staff members of the organization’s headquarters and those of the participating Divisions and the Dharma centers. This gathering was held based on its “Wish and Object.” It calls for the participation of not only the students of the “Fukumori School” and the “School of Business Owners in the Spirit of Buddhism,” but also business owners who are members of Rissho Kosei-kai and other persons concerned, across the country.