A person's values are not measured only by his or her grades.
Besides, there are many other ways to brighten your life besides academics.
You are the only one in the world who has the unique value of being you, so please do not commit suicide.

From the teachings of Master Ryuho Okawa, we have selected prescriptions to help you turn around your attitude toward your studies.

It is not possible to determine a person's value early on

 

 

An academic slump is a passing phase in one's life.

The time when you are forced to study is only for a short period of time, until you are around 20 years old.

Once you enter society, you are free to study or not. If you choose not to study, there is another way to enjoy life in its own way and to enrich your relationships too.

Or, you may study after you enter the workforce and make use of it for something or follow a liberal arts path. It is up to each individual to decide what path to take.

In school, you are forced to study and get scores and rankings, but that ends when you graduate from school. Please know that.

Good grades can be advantageous at an entrance, but it does not guarantee an advantage through an exit.

In government offices, the order of grades at graduation may still be an advantage in some cases, but such a place is a world living in the fossil age. In general society, such a thing is not the case.

Unlike in government offices, where the top people in ranked order at the time of entry into the departments are promoted in turn, but in general companies, the person who got first in their college entrance exam rarely becomes the president, and the pecking order is heavily interchangeable.

Even those in the human resources department do not have a very good eye to judge people. People who they thought "this person will never be great" become great, and people who they thought "this person will be great" do not become great, but instead crumble or quit. That is how difficult it is to "gauge a person," and it is not possible to determine a person's evaluation from the early stages of his or her life.

Therefore, persist. The longer you persist, the more paths may open up.

I want you to know that "when one door closes, another door will open."

 

From“The Laws of Life” by Ryuho Okawa

 

 

When you have gone through the bottom of life, you can live tougher

 

 

If your schoolwork is not as glorious as it once was, it is better to build a few relationships in areas unrelated to schoolwork. This means creating relationships away from the school, such as in various training and study groups.

I think it is better to see “how ordinary people in the world are" in such places and ease your own feelings of being overwhelmed.

Most of the time, we are mistaken. Humans have a tendency to think of themselves only in terms of the group to which they belong. You are convinced that you are not good enough, but if you look at Japan as a whole, you may be very good at what you do.

Also, think, "The best is great, but even the last place is also great."

The first in a class of 40 students is great, but the number 40 is also great. Being the best out of 400 students in a school year is great, but being number 400 is also quite a feat. When there are 400 students in a class, there is always someone who is the best and someone who is the worst, so someone has to be the worst.

Therefore, if you can say "I'm the real last one. The rest of you guys must be happy because of me. I'm the one who is holding up the bottom of the pyramid," you are something.

No one who gets the best grades and is in a good mood will ever stop going to school or quit school, but the person who is last in school, yet is in a good mood without quitting is also great. This kind of person has quite a lot of guts.

Such people have a much better chance of moving up in society. This is because they have "experienced the ultimate bottom of life" and are able to live tough lives despite being trampled on by others. In this sense, the last is also quite great.

Certainly, talent comes out of those who are last. Those people are so well trained in a sense.

Some of you may currently be at the bottom, or even within the tenth from the bottom, but it is important to "support the bottom," so please endure and live.

Still, they are better than those who did not get into those schools, and in some respects, they are supporting the bottom line so that others do not commit suicide. If that is the case, then they should do their best to support others.

There are many other ways to live life. You can develop your skills in as many ways as you want. You should hone your excellence in other avenues.

 

From“The Laws of Life” by Ryuho Okawa

 

 

Everything in the world is pyramidal

 

It is a disaster to have a personality that thinks, "I must always be better than others in everything." It is okay to be at a normal level, or even lower than normal. Wouldn't it be good to have such a feeling?

In the world, in everything, there will always be a pyramid shape with few at the top and many at the bottom. It is the same in studying and in sports too. In high school baseball, only one school stands at the top of the pyramid at the Koshien National High School Baseball Championship, and thousands of other schools do not make it to the top. It will always be like that even in sports.

It is the same with music and other things. Whether you are a singer, do theater, or paint, it is always a pyramid. Inevitably, there will always be less at the top and more at the bottom. That is how the world works.

It is foolish to say, "If I do not triumph in competition with others, I will kill myself in despair for the world." Please graduate from such a view of life as soon as possible.

 

From“The Laws of Life” by Ryuho Okawa