Reply to Lord Matsuno
- Matsuno-dono Gohenji -
I have received one kan of coins, one sho of oil, a
robe and ten writing brushes. I cannot adequately
express my appreciation for the sincerity that you
have always shown me, so I will leave it to the
Lotus Sutra and Shakyamuni Buddha to praise
you.
Just as I have said before, as a layman, you
should singlemindedly chant Nam-myoho-renge-
kyo morning and evening, day and night, and then
witness the results at the last moment of your life.
[At that time,] hasten up the mountain of wondrous
enlightenment and look around you in all
directions. You will see that the entire universe is
the Land of Tranquil Light. The ground will be of
lapis lazuli, and the eight paths will be set apart by
golden ropes. Four kinds of flowers will rain down
from the heavens, and music will resound in the
air. All Buddhas and bodhisattvas will be present,
caressed by the breezes of eternity, happiness,
true self and purity. We, too, will surely count
ourselves among their number. The Lotus Sutra is
indeed this splendid!
As I am in a hurry, I cannot go into details.
With my deep respect,
Nichiren
The ninth day of the ninth month in the third year of
Kenji (1277), cyclical sign hinoto-ushi
Postscript: Would you be so kind as to send
about ten ryo of seeds from the mokurenju tree?
Reply to Lord Matsuno's Wife
I am deeply ashamed at having failed until now to
respond to your gift of one chest of wheat, one
basket of yams, one basket of melons and various
other items, which I received on the third day of
the sixth month.
This place, the valley of Minobu, is located in the
area of the three villages of Iino, Mimaki and Hakiri
of Kai Province, in the northwestern corner of the
village of Hakiri. To the north, the peak of Mount
Minobu pierces the heavens; to the south, Mount
Takatori’s crest merges with the clouds; to the
east, Mount Tenshi rises as high as the sun; and
to the west, great sheer mountains stretch across
to the summit of Mount Shirane. The screeching
of monkeys resounds in the heavens, while the
earth is filled with the chirping of cicadas.
I feel as if Eagle Peak in India had made its way
here, or as if I were seeing Mount T’ien-t’ai in
China right before my eyes. Although I am neither
Shakyamuni Buddha nor the Great Teacher T’ien-
t’ai, because each day I read the Lotus Sutra day
and night and discuss the Maka Shikan morning
and evening, this place is like the pure land of
Eagle Peak and in no way different from Mount T’
ien-t’ai.
Nevertheless, I am an ordinary person dependent
on other things for my existence. If I were without
clothes, the wind would penetrate my body, and if
I did not eat, my life could not be sustained. It
would be like failing to replenish a lamp with oil, or
failing to add wood to a fire. How could I continue
to live? If my life should become difficult to
maintain, if the provisions needed to sustain it
were to be exhausted, in one to five days the
voice that now reads and recites the Lotus Sutra
would also be silenced, and weeds would grow up
thick before the window from which discourses on
the Maka Shikan are heard. Such are the
conditions under which I live, but I wonder how
you were able to perceive this.
Because a hare made offerings to a person
walking about in exercise after meditation, the
heavenly king took pity on it and placed it in the
moon. Now, when we gaze up at the heavens, in
the moon we see a hare. In your position as a
woman, you have made offerings to the Lotus
Sutra in this defiled latter age. Therefore, King
Bonten will look after you with his divine eye,
Taishaku will press his palms together and pay
obeisance to you, the earthly deities will delight in
reverently holding up your feet, and Shakyamuni
Buddha will extend his hand from Eagle Peak to
stroke your head. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, Nam-
myoho-renge-kyo.
With my deep respect,
Nichiren
The twentieth day of the sixth month in the second
year of Koan (1279), cyclical sign tsuchinoto-u
Reply to Lord Matsuno’s wife
Reply to Lord Shijo Kingo
- Shijo Kingo-dono Gohenji -
I have received the rice you sent from Tono-oka. I
used it as an offering to the priests for the urabon
ceremony in the seventh month of this year.
Those priests who participated, the assembly
gathered at Eagle Peak, the Buddha and the gods
must surely have accepted your offering and be
rejoicing. Words will not express my appreciation
for your unfailing sincerity and for your frequent
visits.
In any event, there can be no doubt about your
enlightenment in your next life. Above all, I
remember how, in the eighth year of the Bun'ei era
(1271), when I incurred the displeasure of the
authorities and was about to be beheaded at
Tatsunokuchi in the province of Sagami, you held
on to the reins of my horse, accompanying me
barefoot and shedding tears of grief. You were
even prepared to commit hara-kiri if my execution
were in fact carried out. In what age could I
possibly forget it?
And that is not all. Exiled to the island of Sado,
buried as I was beneath the snows from the
northern sea and exposed to the winds from the
northern peaks, it hardly seemed I would survive.
Cast away by even my fellows of long standing, I
thought that I could no more return to my
birthplace than a stone on the bottom of the
ocean, requiring the strength of a thousand men to
move it, could float to the surface. Common
mortal that I am, naturally I longed for the people
of my native village.
For you, a lay person pressed for time with your
service to your lord, to believe in the Lotus Sutra
is itself very rare. Moreover, surmounting
mountains and rivers and crossing the great blue
sea, you came to visit me from afar. How could
your resolve be inferior to that of the one who
broke open his bones at the City of Fragrances, or
of him who threw away his body on the Snow
Mountains?
Again, on my part, though there was so little
chance of rising again in the world, for some
reason or other I was pardoned in the spring of
the eleventh year of Bun'ei (1274) and was able to
return to Kamakura.
On pondering the meaning of these affairs, I
believe I must now be free from the karma of past
errors. Once I was almost deprived of life. In the
Kocho era I was exiled to the province of Izu, and
in the Bun'ei era, to the island of Sado. Because I
remonstrated repeatedly with the authorities, I
have encountered one persecution after another.
Yet, for that very reason, certainly I have already
escaped the charge of "betraying Buddhism."
However, when I desired to leave the world for a
mountain forest in order to pursue the Way,
people voiced differing opinions. Yet, for carefully
considered reasons, I came to this mountain in
this province, where I have already passed seven
springs and autumns.
Setting aside for now the question of my wisdom,
in enduring hardship and in suffering injury as an
ally of the Lotus Sutra, I surpass even the Great
Teacher T'ien-t'ai of China and excel even the
Great Teacher Dengyo of Japan. This is because
the time has made it so. If indeed I am a votary of
the Lotus Sutra, then the Lord Shakyamuni of
Eagle Peak, Taho Buddha of the Land of
Treasure Purity, the Buddhas of the ten directions
who are Shakyamuni's emanations, the great
bodhisattvas of the essential teaching, the great
bodhisattvas of the theoretical teaching, Bonten,
Taishaku, the dragon deities and the ten demon
daughters must all be present in this place. Where
there is water, fish dwell. Where there are woods,
birds gather. The mountain island of P'eng-lai is
filled with jewels, and sandalwood trees grow on
Mount Malaya. Gold is to be found in the
mountains from which the river Li-shui issues. This
place is just the same. It is the place of the
"cluster of blessings" where Buddhas and
bodhisattvas dwell.
The blessings of the Lotus Sutra which I have so
long recited must be vaster even than the sky.
Thus, by having come here frequently year after
year, it is certain that within this lifetime you will
eradicate the karmic hindrances you have
accumulated since the beginningless past. You
should exert yourself all the more.
Nichiren
The eighth day of the tenth month
Reply to Myoho Bikuni Gozen
I have received your gift of a light summer robe.
You are a woman, and your husband has passed
away, leaving you behind. You are separated from
your relatives, and your one or two daughters are
undependable and provide you with little support.
Moreover, you are a woman who has been hated
by others on account of this teaching. Thus you
are like Bodhisattva Fukyo.
The Buddha's aunt, the nun Mahaprajapati, was
also a woman. Nevertheless, she attained the
state of arhat and gained a name as a shomon
disciple. Thus she entered the path by which
Buddhahood can never be attained. She
transformed her woman's appearance [and
became a nun], abandoning her status as royal
consort, and honored the exhortations of the
Buddha. For more than forty years, she upheld the
five hundred precepts. By day she waited by the
roadside [begging for alms], and by night she sat
beneath a tree [in meditation], aspiring to salvation
in her life to come. Yet she was denied the road
that leads to Buddhahood, and her name was
bruited about as someone who would never
become a Buddha - a mortifying thing indeed.
Being a woman, she had, whether with or without
cause, been the subject of unsavory rumors
throughout long kalpas past, which surely caused
her shame and vexation. Loathing her [female]
body, she clad herself in rags and became a nun,
thinking that in this way she had divorced herself
from such sorrows. But on the contrary, she
learned that, having become a person of the two
vehicles, she was never to attain Buddhahood.
How wretched she must have felt! By means of
the Lotus Sutra, however, she was absolved from
the displeasure of the Buddhas of the three
existences and was able to become a Buddha
called Beheld with Joy by All Sentient Beings.
How happy, how joyful she must have been! Thus,
no matter what might happen, were it for the sake
of the Lotus Sutra, she would surely never turn
away.
Then the Buddha in a loud voice addressed the
four categories of Buddhists at large, saying,
"Who can broadly preach the Lotus Sutra in this
saha world?" When everyone responded with the
thought, "I will, I will!" the Buddha fully three times
admonished that nuns and laywomen desirous of
repaying their debt to all the Buddhas should
persevere through any difficulty to spread the
Lotus Sutra in this saha world after his passing.
But they did not pay attention, and vowed instead
"to declare this sutra widely in the lands of the
other directions." Thus these nuns did not clearly
understand the Buddha's intent. How exasperated
he must have been! Thereupon the Buddha
turned aside and instead looked earnestly to the
eighty myriad of millions of nayutas of
bodhisattvas.
I had therefore thought that, although women
might tarnish their names and throw away their
lives for the sake of insignificant matters, they
were weak in pursuing the path of Buddhahood.
But now you, born a woman in the evil world of the
latter age, have been reviled, struck and
persecuted by the barbaric inhabitants of these
islands [of Japan], who are so ignorant of reason,
and have endured it all to propagate the Lotus
Sutra. The Buddha on Eagle Peak surely
perceives that you far surpass that nun
[Mahaprajapati]. The name of that nun [when she
attained Buddhahood], the Buddha Beheld with
Joy by All Sentient Beings, refers to none other; it
belongs to you, Myoho-ama Gozen of the present
time.
A person who becomes a king is reputed to be
one who in both past and present has observed
the ten good precepts. Though the names of
individual rulers change, the lion throne they sit
upon is only one. Likewise, this name [Beheld with
Joy by All Sentient Beings] is the same for you
both.
Even a nun who went against the Buddha's words
received the name Buddha Beheld with Joy by All
Sentient Beings. You have not deviated from the
Buddha's words; you are a nun who, right here in
the saha world, has lost her good name and been
willing to discard her life [for the sake of the Lotus
Sutra]. The Buddha did not abandon the nun, his
foster mother. Were he to abandon you because
you are no relation to him, he would be a biased
Buddha indeed. But how could that ever be?
Moreover, the sutra states, "The living beings in it
[the threefold world] are all my children." If we go
by this sutra passage, then you are the Buddha's
daughter, while that other nun was merely his
foster mother. If the Buddha did not abandon his
foster mother, then how could he intend to
abandon his own daughter? Please understand
this thoroughly. Before this letter becomes too
involved, I will stop here.
Nichiren
Reply to Nichigon-ama
On the eighth day of the eleventh month in the third year of Koan (1280), I placed before the Lotus
Sutra the written petition in which you, Nichigon-ama, expressed your prayer, together with your offerings of one kan of coins
and an unlined robe made of thread spun from bark fiber, and reported the matter to the gods of the sun and the moon. In addition,
you should not presume to fathom [the blessings of the Gohonzon]. Whether or not your prayer is answered depends upon your
faith; [if it is not,] the fault in no way lies with me, Nichiren.
When the water is clear, the moon will be reflected in it. When the wind blows, the trees sway. One's
mind is like the water. Faith that is weak is like muddy water, but faith that is resolute is like clear water. The trees
are like the principles [of all things], and the wind that sets them in motion is like the recitation of the sutra. You should
understand things in this way.
With my deep respect,
Nichiren
The twenty-ninth day of the eleventh month
Reply to Sairen-bo
Take great care when you come to me after dark. I will explain to you in detail the teachings regarding
the benefits to be gained by the recipient of the ordination to the highest stage of Buddhist practice.
I have carefully noted the contents of your letter. I have also received safely the various articles
that came from the capital. When I was living in Kamakura, such articles were a daily sight, but since having been exiled
to this island, I have yet to encounter them. To come upon articles such as these on this tiny faraway island is truly a most
welcome event.
In your letter you mention that you became a disciple of mine and pledged to follow me at the beginning
of the second month, and that from now on, though you may not measure up to other persons, you would be most pleased and honored
if I would continue to count you among my disciples.
The sutra says: "They were constantly reborn with their teachers in various Buddha lands. And it also
says: "If one stays close to the teachers of the Law, he will speedily gain the bodhisattva way. By following and learning
from these teachers, he will see Buddhas as numerous as Ganges sands."
A commentary states: "Originally one followed this Buddha and for the first time conceived the desire
to seek the way. And by following this Buddha again, one will reach the stage where there is no retrogression." Another commentary
states: "In the beginning one followed this Buddha or bodhisattva and formed a bond with him, and so it will be through this
Buddha or bodhisattva that one will realize one’s goal."
When I consider these passages of the sutra and the commentaries, I wonder if you and I have not been
pledged to each other as teacher and disciple from countless kalpas in the past. The fact that you and I have been born in
this defiled age of the Latter Day of the Law, in the country of Japan in the southern continent of Jambudvipa, that with
the utmost reverence we chant with our mouths Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, the ultimate reason for which all Buddhas appear in the
world, that we have faith in it in our hearts, embrace it with our bodies and delight in it with our hands--all of this has
come about, has it not, entirely as a result of some old bond of karma from the past?
When I look at the situation in Japan, I find that the Devil of the Sixth Heaven has entered into the
bodies of people of wisdom, transforming correct teachers into heretical teachers, and good teachers into bad teachers. This
is what the sutra means when it says, "Evil demons will take possession of others."
Although I, Nichiren, am not a man of wisdom, the Devil of the Sixth Heaven has attempted to take possession
of my body. But I have for some time been taking such great care that he now no longer comes near me. Therefore, because the
power of the heavenly devil is ineffectual against me, he instead possesses the ruler and his high officials, or stupid priests
such as Ryokan, and causes them to hate me.
Be that as it may, one should understand that at present, when it comes to teachers, there is a difference
between correct teachers and heretical teachers, between good teachers and bad teachers. One should shun those who are heretical
or evil, and associate with those who are correct and good. Even if their virtue is known throughout the four seas and their
wisdom is as bright as the sun and moon, one should recognize that teachers who slander the Lotus Sutra are evil teachers
and heretical teachers, and refrain from drawing near them. A certain sutra warns us on this point: "If there are slanderers
of the Law, one should not dwell with them. If one draws near them and dwells with them, one will be bound for the Avichi
hell."
No matter how honest and upright you may be, or how you may strive to be known as a worthy person in
the secular or the religious world, if you associate with evil persons, then as a natural result you will find that, in two
or three instances out of ten, you are following their teachings, and in the end you, too, will become an evil person. Thus
the commentary says: "Though one may not be evil to begin with, if he associates with and is friendly with evil persons, he
himself is bound in time to become an evil person, and his evil reputation will spread throughout the world."
In the end, what we mean by heretical and evil teachers are those priests in the world today who slander
the Lotus Sutra. The Nirvana Sutra says: "Bodhisattvas, have no fear of mad elephants. What you should fear are evil friends!
Even if you are killed by a mad elephant, you will not fall into the three evil paths. But if you are killed by an evil friend,
you are certain to fall into them." And the Lotus Sutra says: "In that evil age there will be monks with perverse wisdom and
hearts that are fawning and crooked..."
As I have pointed out so many times in the past, when teachers such as Shan-wu-wei, Chin-kang-chih,
Bodhidharma, Huik-k’o, Shan-tao, Honen, Kobo of To-ji, Chisho of Onjo-ji, Jikaku of Mount Hiei or Ryokan of Kanto read
the golden words, "I ... honestly discarding expedient means, [will preach only the unsurpassed way,]" they take them to mean,
"honestly discarding the true teachings, I will preach only the expedient teachings." When they read the passage that says,
"Among the sutras, it [the Lotus Sutra] holds the highest place," they take it to mean, "Among the sutras, it holds the lowest
place." And when they read, "[Among those sutras] the Lotus is the foremost," they take it to mean, "The Lotus holds second
place," or "holds third place." That is why I describe these various priests as heretical and evil teachers.
Those that I call correct and good teachers are persons who take Shakyamuni Buddha’s golden words
to mean just what they say, namely, that the other sutras represent expedient means and the Lotus Sutra represents the truth.
In this connection, you should consult the Nyuhokkai chapter, the seventy-seventh volume of the Kegon
Sutra. And the Lotus Sutra states: "A good friend is the great cause and condition by which one is guided and led, and that
enables one to see the Buddha and to conceive the desire for supreme perfect enlightenment."
As the Buddha tells us, we should regard as correct teachers and good teachers those who honestly discard
the doctrines of the four flavors and three teachings, the Hinayana and provisional Mahayana sutras that were expounded as
expedient means, as well as the Nembutsu, Shingon, Zen and Ritsu sects and the sutras upon which they rely, and expound Myoho-renge-kyo,
"the one great reason for which the Buddhas appear in the world."
As for myself, I, Nichiren, having been born in Japan in the first five hundred years of the Latter
Day of the Law, have encountered the three powerful enemies and met with various types of calamity and trouble, just as the
Buddha predicted would happen. But, without any thought for my person or my life, I chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. I ask you to
consider with the utmost care whether I deserve to be called a correct teacher or a heretical teacher.
Each of the proponents of the various sects mentioned above declares that he above all others has grasped
the meaning of the Lotus Sutra and is practicing the Lotus Sutra. But none of them have been exiled to the province of Izu
as I was in the Kocho era, or exiled to the island of Sado as I was in the Bun’ei era, or been led to the place of decapitation
at Tatsunokuchi or faced the countless other difficulties that I have. If the sutra passages [that predict such difficulties]
are true, then you should realize that I am the correct teacher, the good teacher, and that the scholars of the other sects
are all heretical teachers and evil teachers.
In addition to these, there are a great many other passages in the sutras and treatises that make clear
the distinction between these two types of teachers, the good and the bad. But I am sure you are already familiar with them,
so I will not go into them here.
How wondrous, that in your letter you say that from now on you will reject the heretical teachers of
our time and will rely entirely upon me as the correct teacher! When Shakyamuni Buddha, our original teacher, appeared in
the world in order to expound the Lotus Sutra, like shadows and echoes the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the other worlds came
forth and assisted him in his efforts to spread the teachings. And now it seems that they have appeared here in Japan as envoys
of Shakyamuni, Taho and the other Buddhas of the ten directions to help me in my efforts to spread the teachings!
The sutra says: "I will send persons conjured up by magic to other lands to gather together assemblies
to listen to the Law. And I will also send [monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen conjured up by magic to listen to the preaching
of the Law. These persons conjured up by magic will listen to the Law, believe and accept it,] and abide by it without violation."
The "monks" who are spoken of in this passage refer to you. Therefore, when the sutra speaks of persons who "listen to the
Law, believe and accept it, and abide by it without violation," clearly this is something that you yourself are living. How
can there be any doubt of it?
Although the sutra speaks of those who are "constantly reborn with their teachers in various Buddha
lands," there are persons like the three groups of voice-hearers who, after receiving the seeds of Buddhahood, reject the
Mahayana, select the Hinayana and sink into the five paths or the six paths for a succession of rebirths, but when the time
to achieve Buddhahood arrives, they are able to obtain emancipation, one after another. How gratifying, to think that you
have now cast aside the heretical doctrines and heretical teachers of the Nembutsu, Shingon and other sects, and become a
disciple of Nichiren!
In any case, like me, you should condemn the slander of the Law committed by the followers of the other
sects and cause them to reject the heretical and embrace the correct. Then, when you arrive in the Land of Eternally Tranquil
Light where the three types of Buddhas are seated, and appear before the Buddhas Shakyamuni and Taho, you will ask, "Were
Nichiren and I bound by a promise to be teacher and disciple from the beginningless past, or were we not? Was I sent as an
envoy of Shakyamuni Buddha to assist him in his efforts to spread the teachings?" And when the Buddhas reply, "Just so!" then
you, too, will understand in your own mind why these things happened. Therefore you must by all means be diligent! You must
be diligent!
As a matter of course, I began giving you instruction in the important doctrines around the second month.
And as a result, on the eighth day of the fourth month, late at night in the Hour of the Tiger (around 4:00 A.M.), I performed
for you the ceremony for ordination in the precept of the perfect teaching of the Mystic Law.
How could a person who has undergone this ordination fail to become a Buddha of perfect enlightenment
in his present existence? And if in this life you have attained the level of perfect enlightenment, then in your next life,
how could you have any reason to regress to the stage of near-perfect enlightenment and other lower stages of practice? In
view of our promise from the beginningless past and the principle that one will be constantly reborn with one’s teacher,
if I, Nichiren, attain Buddhahood in my present lifetime, then how could it be possible for you to become separated from me
and fall into the evil realms of existence?
The prophecies of the Buddha recorded in the scripture, when viewed in the light of the Buddha’s
true intentions, never contain the slightest falsehood with regard to either secular or religious matters. Now, in the Lotus
Sutra it is stated: "After I have passed into extinction, one should accept and uphold this sutra. Such a person assuredly
and without doubt will attain the Buddha way." And it also says, "This way one will quickly attain the unsurpassed Buddha
way." If these passages of prophecy should be meaningless and if the prediction that we will attain Buddhahood should be a
lie, then the tongues of all the Buddhas will break apart, the tower of Taho Buddha will crumble and fall, the place upon
which the two Buddhas [Shakyamuni and Taho] are seated side by side will be changed into a bed of burning iron in the hell
of incessant suffering, and the three lands of Transition, Actual Reward and Eternally Tranquil Light will be transformed
into the three evil realms of hell, hungry spirits and animals. But how could such a thing be possible?
Ah, how certain is the outcome! How certain is the outcome! If we continue to think in this way, then, though
we may be exiles, we have cause to be joyful in both body and mind!
So day and night I ponder the important doctrines, and hour by hour, moment by moment, I savor the principle
that allows us to attain Buddhahood. And because I pass the time in this fashion, though months and years go by, it does not
seem long at all, and the hours that have elapsed do not seem like many. It is similar to the case described in the sutra,
when the two Buddhas Shakyamuni and Taho, seated side by side in the Treasure Tower, nodded in approval over the wonderful
principles of the Lotus Sutra and although fifty small kalpas had elapsed, because of the supernatural powers of the Buddha,
it seemed to the great crowd assembled there like no more than half a day.
Among all the persons since the beginning of our present kalpa who have incurred the displeasure of their
parents or their rulers and have been exiled to distant islands, there can be none who overflow with joy as we do. Therefore,
wherever we dwell and practice the single vehicle, that place will be the capital of Eternally Tranquil Light. And, without
having to advance a step, those who are our disciples and lay supporters can view Eagle Peak in India and day and night will
go to and from the Land of Eternally Tranquil Light that has existed for all time. How inexpressibly joyful to think of it!
So delightful is the thought that I want now to make a promise to you. If you should be released quickly
from exile and return to the capital, although the lord of Kamakura23 may continue to refuse pardon to Nichiren, I will call
upon the heavenly deities, and when I have returned to Kamakura, I will write to you in Kyoto. And if I should be pardoned
first and return to Kamakura, I will call upon the heavenly gods to make certain that you are able to return to your hometown,
the ancient capital.
With my deep respect,
Nichiren
The thirteenth day of the fourth month
