Find your gateway to happiness

Transformed by the grace of Nichiren Buddhism, Ashish Virmani stresses the importance of adopting a spiritual path on life's journey

When I was introduced to Buddhism 25 years ago, my life was at an all-time low. My journalistic career had gone off the rails, I was unhappy with my family life, and my health and mental stability were in question. In such circumstances, my mother, who was concerned about me, introduced me to Nichiren Buddhism practised by Soka Gakkai International (SGI). I must admit that I have not looked back in these last 25 years.

Not only did I go on to build an above-average career in journalism for 18 years after that, but with the practice of spirituality, I was able to recover my health and mental stability, and build a harmonious family life. I discovered a spiritual mentor in Daisaku Ikeda, the president of SGI, who changed the trajectory of my life with the simple and practical teachings of Buddhism.

It was in the teachings of Buddhism that my Japanese mentor so lovingly imparted to me through his writings and videos (I never met him personally) over the course of the last quarter century that I truly found resonance. Many of them were teachings that had come down from the last 3,000 years in the orthodox lineage of the founder of Buddhism, Gautama Buddha, while others were the teachings of a 13th-century Japanese monk Nichiren Daishonin, who preached Buddhism to the samurai as well as common people of Japan.

The way of Buddhism