Answer

When I was living in Japan, I practiced, I studied, I worked, I took part in the activities of the Sōka-Gakkai, of which I had become a small neighborhood leader, and I did Tozan as often as I could. Yet I couldn't see any connection between these different aspects of my daily life. In fact, I complained that I wasn't getting any benefits. When I went to the Taisekiji, I always poked around in the bookshops to see if there was a book that might help me with my practice. That's how one day I came across a little book written by the 56^th High Priest Nichiō Shōnin, entitled, quite simply, "the doctrine of Three Thousand worlds in a single thought”.

I'm going to read you a few passages from his introduction.

"In the chapter of Means of the Lotus Sutra it is said:

"When Buddhas appear in the world, they can be distant and difficult to meet.

And even if they are born,

Rarely do they deign to explain the law.

Over the countless, countless eons

Hearing this law is also difficult.

And he who can listen to her

Is also extremely rare.

And so it is with the Udumbara flower

To be loved and cherished by all,

Rare to men and gods

And it only blooms once in a while.

Hear the law, rejoice in it and praise it

If only with a word,

It is already having borne the offering

To all the Buddhas of the three phases".

In this sentence from the Sutra, both "the law to expose" and "to hear this law" refer to the doctrine of Three Thousand worlds in a single thought.

O you, men or women of our order or not, rarely have you been born on this earth and rarely also in a human body. Even with a human body, it is even more difficult to be born in a country where Buddhist law has already been propagated. And if this is the case, it is often improbable that the time and the capacities are suited to the dissemination of the Lotus Sutra. Assuming this to be the case, then, with even greater difficulty, it would be necessary to reach the right law and the right master in order to hear the doctrine of Three Thousand worlds in a single thought in its reality, the true meaning of this sutra and the seed buried deep in the phrases of the Life Span of the Buddha in the original teaching. 

(...)

Born in this land teeming with oppositions to the law, it is far more difficult to meet the true master and the true law, to hear, believe and keep the marvelous law of the profound, the hidden, the subtle One Thought Three Thousand than it is to see the udumbara flower that blossoms only once in three thousand years or, for the one-eyed tortoise, to haul oneself up a floating tree. We possess life in the world of men, which is rare, and what is more, in this debased age of the End of Dharma, we believe and receive the great law of Nam Myōhōrengekyō of the One Thought Three Thousand in its reality. This is even happier than for one blind from birth, the first glimpse of his parents and more unhoped for than for one who has been captured by fierce enemies, to be released and be able to reunite with his wife and children. Nothing can compare with this joy, and apart from our tears, what else can testify to our gratitude? 

This text was a real revelation for me. On the one hand, I realized that I was complaining about not having any benefits, even though I had received the most precious of jewels without even having looked for it, namely the Gohonzon, and, on the other hand, that during all the time I had been a member of the Sōka Gakkai, I had in fact never been a Buddhist. Thinking of all my comrades still in France and unaware of the deception of the organization in which they were vainly searching for something that had nothing to do with Buddhism, and being the only one who could make them open their eyes, I had a sort of vertigo and felt it my duty to help them.

Since then, therefore, I no longer practice to have benefits, but to become Buddha, to have the correct vision at the supreme moment, which is ultimately, the greatest of benefits and for the vast propagation. I try to put into practice the advice Nichiren Daishōnin gave to the Nyūdō Toki: "Life is short, it must not be spared. What we must ultimately aspire to is the land of the Buddha".

I realized that from the moment I started asking myself the question "how can I contribute to the vast spread of Buddhism", my whole life changed. I always met the right people at the right time, whether in the context of Buddhist practice and study, or in everyday life. I had everything I needed without having to ask for it. In fact, ask who? Ask what? From the Gohonzon, as if he were a God or Santa Claus? Ultimately, this notion of benefits, so dear to the Sōka gakkai, is nothing compared to the real benefit, which is, as I said earlier, the purification of the six roots.