When I was watching the people performing a trapeze in a Circus in Russia, the host announced:

 “The leading role wishes to thank the audience, so he will be performing a dangerous leap that stretches as far as 30 meters! But I’d not think that he’ll make it.”

6000 spectators did not give a single sound as they were all stunned!

The performer was about to jump, but hold on, he failed! He dropped onto the ground in no time!

‘Whoa….!’ The crowd yelled and sighed.

Not wanting to disappoint the spectators, the performer was willing to do it again!

Only this time, the spectators gave him a big hand to support him. But when he was about to jump again, all of them kept quiet.

The performer leaped out like a strong hawk and landed on another platform 30 meters away!

A great applause was paid to the performer. Beethoven’s ‘Heroic Symphony’ was played at the background as our ‘hero’ jumped back on stage and showed his widest smile ever.

A student who worked as a part time staff in the circus said the first failure was done on purpose to stir up the emotion of the audience. I wasn’t mad of hearing this. But I think that it’s perfectly logic to have arranged a failure. The defeat and victory might be just a show, but to me, they’re quite equivalent.

Defeat made victory more precious.

This happens quite a lot in our life. There are times when failure is what we’ve got out of great expectation. However, a victory after the defeat would appear to have greater applause.

No matter if it’s the person who walks on wires or the one that do the great leaps, they must have gone through tonnes of failing experience off the stage. This is how they end up designing a successful show!

Their achievement is built on ‘danger’ and ‘defeat’. If the same performance were to be performed on flat ground, they won’t be fascinating wouldn’t they?

Life is like a circus performance where we could sometimes walk on wires or forced to make a great leap. All these dangerous actions require great courage, a courage that allows us to stand again once we fall.


Postscript:

It’s very difficult to walk on wire. Performers do their best at practice to make it perfect. There is always risk as they walk on that wire. Perhaps they’d always pray before getting onto the wire.

Nevertheless, if we’re stopped from making the first move by the worries and thought of consequences before starting, we may never get the great applause from the audience.

Trapeze artists face the same challenge. What they need, is courage. Not everyone could leap great distance and walk on air. If these artists and performers were too afraid of taking the first step, we would not have got the chance to spectate such a fascinating performance. This is why I admire their bravery.

Who would have understood the number of failures and trials they’ve gone through before stepping on that stage? How many times have they overcome fear?

Anyhow, all these became reasons to their victory. Behind every victory, there are tonnes of defeat! I believe if we were to jump at the height of 30 meters, we would have to start from 1 meter, 2 meters, and adding the numbers up one by one. This works the same as life. We must look forward to the next stage. We will fail in life, but we must never be afraid of failing. Just as the article had mentioned, through danger we overcome weakness with courage, through failure we learn to stand up strong again.

Our lifelong mentor, Ikeda Sensei once said “Challenges never stop. We do not walk because there is a path. We make a path because of the need to walk.”

A ‘path’ is as an aim or a goal, and we’re the ones who create them. If we never challenge a higher aim, we would only stay at 1 meter or 2. That way, we’d never reach to 30 meters.

Do you still remember our mentor, Toda Sensei vowed to achieve shakabuku of 750,000 families and household? Toda Sensei was about the age of 51 by that time. Everyone thought of it as a difficult mission. But Toda Sensei and his beloved disciple, Ikeda Sensei believed that it will succeed. It was such great spirit that led them towards victory. The mission was achieved four months before Toda Sensei’s death. It took 6 years to accomplish the mission.

It’s all because of this vow that had contributed to the drastic growth of the organization. If no one ever created such aim, I think we wouldn’t even have the chance to get to know the ‘Lifetime University’, Soka Gakkai.

The organization has continuously making the impossible possible. There have been lots of proves. Ikeda Sensei has been realizing all he learned from Toda Sensei. Even now, Ikeda Sensei is still continuously striving. Sensei has done so much for the sake of everyone’s happiness, and to prove the nobleness of Toda Sensei and Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism. Our sensei is striving hard, so we must not stop.

There are 68 billion of people around the world. It is a great honour to be able to get to know such a noble Buddhism, to turn the impossible possible. To be able to execute our mission as the role of Bodhisattva of the Earth, we must strive till the very end! Let’s realized it when we’ve got aims! We must create a history of our own about the victory we’ve achieved. We must receive the applause from the whole universe with the brightest smile possible!

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