​The essence of the Buddhist ideal of teacher and disciple: the teacher (the Buddha) and the disciples (living beings) striving together as one in a shared vow.​​

And in a diary entry I made in January when I was 25, I asked myself: “Have I travelled the path of mentor and disciple honorably?”​

My mentor is always in my heart. When I was inaugurated as the third Soka Gakkai president; when I took my first step in worldwide kosen-rufu; and each time I faced storms of criticism — my mentor was ever present in the depths of my life.​

In The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, Nichiren Daishonin states:​

When teacher and disciples have fully responded to one another and the disciples have received the teaching, so that they gain the awakening referred to where the [Lotus] sutra says, “I took a vow, / hoping to make all persons / equal to me, without any distinction between us” [LSOC2, 70], this is what the sutra calls “causing living beings to awaken to the Buddha wisdom” [cf. LSOC2, 64]. (OTT, 30)​

This is the essence of the Buddhist ideal of teacher and disciple: the teacher (the Buddha) and the disciples (living beings) striving together as one in a shared vow.