NPSD meeting on 22 July 2007

NPSD meeting on 22 July 2007

Dear all,

Above are the photos that we have taken at the meeting just now.

Thank you so much to everyone who was there just now, you all have made the meeting a great success!

Thank you to Jefferson, Xue Yun, Derrick and Zi Jing who planned the whole meeting.

Thank you to Xue Yun for being doshi and for bringing her friend, Fiona along.

Thank you to Cai Ling and Jefferson for being emcees, you all did a great job!

Thank you to Zi Jing for taking charge of games and preparing jelly as refreshments for us. The jelly was very nice, too bad for those who missed today's meeting =p

Thank you to Hong Bin and Yvonne for the inspiring testimonials. They touched us in the hearts.

Thank you to Jefferson, Kok Sheng, Vanessa and Sherlene for joining the dance, though you all didn't have a chance to perform due to time constraint. Let's save it for our next meeting, ok? So that we will have a chance to see your superb dance. =)

Thank you to Song Heng for the video and drinks.

Thank you to Soo Shan for the sweet goodies from China and Xue Yun for the snacks.

Thank you to May, Derrick, Soo Shan and Vanessa for preparing the NPSD song and Xue Yun for the song lyrics and emcee script.

We didn't sing well enough for the NPSD song. Huimin, our SD vice chief, commented that our NPSD seniors sang much better than us. Let us really learn this song and sing it well during the next meeting. Cos it's our very own song, we must be proud of it!

For those who could not make it today, thank you to you all for your daimoku behind the scenes. Hope to meet up with you all soon!

Flutter Intrepidly, The Banner of Youth!

Flutter Intrepidly, The Banner of Youth!
-Dedicated to our successors, my beloved youth division members who are the treasures of the SGI-July 3rd, commemorating the day of my mentor's release from prison and the day I was imprisoned.- Sensei

Fierce winds, blow!
Angry waves, surge!

I am a youth
I am the scarlet banner fluttering in the storm-
Nothing daunts me,
Nothing defeats me,

Here where I stand
Is the headland from which I set forth;
Today, this moment,
Ever a fresh, new campaign-
When I think of my future
Boundless strength and courage
Well up in my heart.

Winds! Waves!
As an indomitable youth,
I will bravely battle
Your relentless onslaughts.

Wow! : ) Let's all achieve great advancements and victories this year (its 3&4Q already)

Refusing to Accept Failure

Refusing to Accept Failure


Sir Edmund Hillary was the first man to climb Mount Everest. On May 29, 1953 he scaled the highest mountain then known to man-29,000 feet straight up. He was knighted for his efforts.

He even made American Express card commercials because of it! However, until we read his book, High Adventure, we don't understand that Hillary had to grow into this success.

You see, in 1952 he attempted to climb Mount Everest, but failed. A few weeks later a group in England asked him to address its members.

Hillary walked on stage to a thunderous applause. The audience was recognizing an attempt at greatness, but Edmund Hillary saw himself as a failure. He moved away from the microphone and walked to the edge of the platform.

He made a fist and pointed at a picture of the mountain. He said in a loud voice, "Mount Everest, you beat me the first time, but I'll beat you the next time because you've grown all you are going to grow... but I'm still growing!"

"To live is to be engaged in constant struggle.
The cells in our body, the blood flowing through our veins, are all
engaged in unending struggle. Life is a struggle both on the individual and
social levels. In a poem, the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
cried out: "For i was a human being/ and that means to be a fighter."
(Ikeda sensei)