The Good Law

If a vessel be tipped on one side, its contents will overflow ; if the tranquillity of a State be disturbed, its inhabitants will be in danger. Now the original doctrine of the “Holy Book of the Lotus of the Good Law” [The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma] is two-fold. In the first place it teaches that the visible, inhabited world, which is changeable and destructible, is but the external appearance of an underlying eternal Reality; in the second place, it teaches the original enlightenment of all living beings. Its object is to ensure the tranquility of the present life and relieve the future life of suffering, and therefore, whenever Nichiren preached, he claimed it as the merit of our Sect to establish the Good Law and preserve the peace of the State. Now the State prospers by virtue of the Law, and the Law receives its justification from Man. It is clear, then, that the prosperity or decadence of the State depends upon the truth or falsehood of its religion; and this being the case, it is our duty to promulgate the Good Law with faithfulness and zeal and so bring about the well-being of our country.

Doctrines of Nichiren (1893)