The obstacles in question are the three obstacles and four devils. We cannot attain enlightenment without struggling against them. We cannot become Buddhas without experiencing and overcoming difficulties—just as we cannot graduate from university without taking examinations and passing them.
From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 2, revised edition, p. 136

Daisaku Ikeda

Happiness for the individual alone is impossible, and peace in terms of the environment alone is impossible. There can be no happiness exclusively for the self, nor unhappiness exclusively for others. The happier we make others, the happier we are, and as long as a single miserable person exists, our own happiness cannot be complete. This is the meaning of the true aspect of all phenomena. Hence, the heart of this teaching is a neverending effort to transform reality.
>From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 2, revised edition, p. 17

Daisaku Ikeda

The SGI has always been a movement committed to empowerment—of the people, by the people, and for the people—through a process we describe as human revolution.The essence of empowerment is to fully unleash the boundless potential inherent in every human being based on the Buddhist understanding that our own happiness is inextricably linked to the happiness of others.
From The Wisdom for Creating Happiness and Peace, part 3, revised edition, p. 512

Daisaku Ikeda