By Kazuhiro Nagahama
[Excerpted from the World Tribune, May 18, 2001]

One day as I was leaving high school for the day, I felt a sharp pain in my heart and fell to the floor. Fortunately there were teachers and students nearby who called an ambulance.

I was taken to the hospital and diagnosed as having had a heart attack due to a medical condition called "variant angina pectoris."

From that point on my life completely changed. I continued to have heart attacks at anytime of day or night. The attacks were unimaginably painful and all most killed me every time. I even thought that I would rather die than go on living this way.

I looked for the meaning of life and started to read the Bible. A Catholic priest instructed me, and I thought about becoming a priest for the rest of my life. Though I felt that I was gaining fulfillment from Christianity, I continued suffering and experiencing heart attacks. It was around this time that my grandmother joined the
SGI.

I had a negative image of the SGI from the Japanese media. SGI members would sometimes visit me and, although I did not like them, they kept visiting me until we could really talk and eventually chant. But, to be honest, I still thought that I hated them.

My heart started to change through the SGI members' influence and I started to think about living again. As I attended SGI activities, I felt joy, peace, and extreme power and warmth from the members.

The SGI shares my feelings that religion should be for ordinary people, not just for a special group. But I did not see this idea put into practice by other religions. In fact, they used people to make money, and the people did not become happy. Yet these people would not leave these religions. I wondered why. Why would they do these things without thinking?

After much chanting and reflecting, I joined the SGI. After that, I applied for and was accepted at Soka University. My grandmother and the other members were pleased. However, I still struggled with my disease. In fact, it was getting worse and worse. Almost every morning I experienced a heart attack and could not move. Every morning I did Gongyo in bed crying. I wanted to know why I could not change this problem.

One day in 1997, I was walking around the Pond of Literature on the Soka University campus. I was thinking about my health problem and was even contemplating suicide.

I watched some cars go by and then I noticed the Daisaku Ikeda was in one of them. His car drove in front of me and stopped. The car window rolled down and Mr. Ikeda called me to his car. As I came closer, I saw both Mr. and Mrs. Ikeda inside.

He asked me about my family and my hometown. Near the end of the encounter I told him about my health problem. He encouraged me very strongly and then advised, "Become stronger and stronger."

Because of his encouragement, something inside me changed. I decided to follow his advice. The very next day, I determined to chant 10 hours.

I felt myself getting stronger and stronger.

By the time I was a senior, my heart attacks stopped completely and I was able to function as never before.

Daisaku Ikeda once wrote: "Only the person who struggles can experience true faith." I have made a promise that whenever I face a problem, I will never give up. I will always stick with the Gohonzon and the SGI.  No matter what happens I will not be swayed.