By the way your husband’s recent illness may have been at the Buddha’s discretion. This is because it is preached in the Vimalakirti Sūtra and the Nirvana Sūtra that a sick person will indeed attain Buddhahood. This means that the desire to attain Buddhahood begins to appear while one worries about one’s sickness, doesn’t it?
Myōshin-ama Gozen Gohenji, A Response to My Lady, the Nun Myōshin Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 103
Suppose a man as evil as Devadatta slandered, physically beat and envied Śākyamuni Buddha, committing all three kinds of acts—physical, verbal, and mental—against the Buddha for as long as one medium kalpa (20 times the length of a kalpa). How serious is the sin committed by this man? This earth is 168,000 yojana in depth, and it supports all the water of the four great oceans, earth, and rocks of nine mountains, numerous trees and plants, and all creatures on top without dropping, tilting or breaking them. On the contrary, Devadatta’s body being five feet tall or so fell into hell breaking through the earth because he committed the Three Rebellious Sins. The hole he fell through still exists today in India. Tripiṭaka Master Hsüan-chuang writes in his Record of the Western Regions that he saw the hole of Devadatta in India while making a pilgrimage from China to India.
However, it is preached in the “Teacher of the Dharma” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra that the sin of slandering a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration on a mere whim, without any trace of animosity or envy, is more serious than the sin of Devadatta committing the three kinds of acts—verbal, physical, and mental—against the Buddha for as long as a medium kalpa. How much more so then is the sin of people today who, like Devadatta commit the three kinds of evil acts (verbal, physical, and mental) against a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra, by speaking ill of him, censuring him, envying and physically beating him, and trying to kill him for many years!
Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 44-45
Your having deep faith is not for the sake of [pleasing] others, but for the sake of your late father. Other people will not pray for your deceased parents. You are their child, so you must pray for their repose after death.
Ueno-dono Gohenji, A Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 113
[T]he reason why I, Nichiren, insist on the supremacy of the Lotus Sūtra is as follows: while preaching the Lotus Sūtra the Buddha twice exhorted the listeners to actively spread the teaching. In addition, the Buddha expounded the Nirvana Sūtra for the purpose of amplifying the Lotus teaching. It is preached in the Nirvana Sūtra, “Suppose a good priest who upholds the True Dharma sees a man destroying the Buddha’s Dharma and ignores him without rebuking him, chasing him away, or chastising him. You should know that such a priest is a loathsome enemy of Buddhism.” …
Therefore if I, Nichiren, am afraid of the people in the world and do not rectify the false teachings of these tripitaka masters and grand masters, I will end up in being a loathsome enemy of the Buddha. Moreover, Grand Master Chang-an warns the scholars in the Latter Age of Degeneration in his Annotations on the Nirvana Sūtra: “He who destroys and confuses Buddhism is an enemy of Buddhism. He who pretends to be friendly while having no compassion to someone is someone’s enemy. He who rectifies someone’s mistakes is someone’s true friend.”
Ōta-dono-gari Gosho, A Letter to Lord Ōta, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 199.
Two Buddhas, p196In its claims for the salvific powers of the Lotus Sūtra, the “Description of Merits” chapter says that the merit accruing to those who generate even a single thought of willing acceptance — that is, faith — in the Lotus Sūtra immeasurably surpasses that gained by men and women who cultivate the first five perfections of a bodhisattva for eighty myriads of kotis of nayutas of eons. The sixth perfection, wisdom, is not included. But Nichiren held that wisdom, too, is inherent in, and emerges from, faith in the Lotus Sūtra. Scholars of his day, he notes, all agree that those who would practice the Lotus Sūtra must devote themselves to the three disciplines of moral conduct, meditative concentration, and wisdom; lacking any of these, one cannot attain the way. Nichiren adds, “I too once thought the same.” But over time, he became convinced that this was not the case. Citing the “Description of Merits” chapter to support his argument, Nichiren asserts that the Buddha had restrained persons at the first, second, and third of the five stages of practice from focusing on the cultivation of moral conduct and meditative concentration and directed them solely to cultivate some degree of wisdom.” And because our wisdom is inadequate, he teaches us to substitute faith, making this single word ‘faith’ the basis. … Faith is the cause for wisdom and corresponds to the stage of verbal identity.”
Grand Master T’ien-t’ai in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 6, asserts: “Our troubles and sufferings in this world are all due to our sins in our past lives, and rewards for our meritorious acts in this life will be received in our future lives.” It is also said in the Shinjikan-gyō (Sūtra of Meditation on the Earth of the Mind): “Our virtues or vices in our past can be seen in our present fortune; our future fortune can be seen in our present acts,” and in the “Never-Despising Bodhisattva” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra: “Thus the bodhisattva made amends for the past.” It seems that the Never Despising (Fukyō) Bodhisattva was attacked with rocks and tiles because of his past sins. It seems also that those who are destined for hell in the next life do not receive punishment even for serious sins in this life. For instance, some icchantika do not even receive punishment.
Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 104
Two Buddhas, p185-186Nichiren understood the revelation of Buddha’s inconceivable “lifespan” as the very heart of the sūtra. The sūtra text makes clear that, even after realizing buddhahood, Śākyamuni has remained in the world, and will continue to do so, for countless eons, “teaching the dharma and inspiring sentient beings.” For Nichiren, this signaled a seismic shift in the entire concept of buddhahood as a realm apart from the nine realms of ordinary experience. Conventional understanding holds that the cause of buddhahood and its effect, that is, practice and attainment, are separated in time. To become a buddha, one must carry out the practices of the bodhisattva for three immeasurable eons, a staggering length of time spanning countless lifetimes. The “trace teaching” or shakumon portion of the Lotus Sūtra, even while extending the promise of buddhahood to all beings, still preserves this perspective on realizing buddhahood as a linear process in which one moves from practice (nine realms) toward attainment (buddhahood). We see this in Śākyamuni Buddha’s predictions in the sūtra’s early chapters that his individual śrāvaka disciples such as Sāriputra, Mahākāśyapa, and others will become buddhas in the remote future, after many eons of bodhisattva practice. From this perspective, buddhahood remains a distant goal, abstracted from one’s present experience.
But with the origin teaching, Nichiren wrote, the cause and effect of the pre-Lotus Sūtra teachings and of the trace teaching are “demolished” and “original cause and original effect” are revealed: “The nine realms are inherent in the beginningless buddha realm, and the buddha realm inheres in the beginningless nine realms. This represents the true mutual inclusion of the ten realms … and three thousand realms in a single thoughtmoment.” That is, he saw the origin teaching as overturning linear views of practice and attainment, in which one first makes efforts and then realizes buddhahood as a later result, and revealing that cause (the nine realms) and effect (the buddha realm) are present simultaneously; buddhahood is manifested in the very act of practice.
Regarding the mountain scenery at Minobu, there are Mt. Shichimen in the west, Mt. Tenshigatake in the east, Mt. Minobu in the north and Mt. Takatori in the south. These four mountains are so steep and as high as the heavens that birds can barely fly over them. Through the narrow spaces between these mountains four rivers flow: Fujigawa, Hayakawa, Ōshirogawa and Minobugawa. In an open-space about one hundred meters square my retreat was built. The mountains are so tall that I can barely see the sun in the day or the moon at night. There is heavy snowfall in the winter and grasses grow high in the summer. Few people visit me, as it is difficult for anyone to travail through the grasses and make their way. Especially since the snow is deep this year, no visitors have come to see me.
Shuju Onfurumai Gosho, Reminiscences: from Tatsunokuchi to Minobu, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Biography and Disciples, Volume 5, Pages 45-46
Two Buddhas, p174-175Who are these bodhisattvas who emerge from beneath the earth? One interpretative move, current in medieval Japanese Tendai circles in Nichiren’s day, was to associate their four leaders — Viśiṣṭacaritra (J. Jōgyō, “Superior Conduct”), Anantacāritra (Muhengyō, “Boundless Conduct”), Viéuddhacāritra (Jyōgyō, “Pure Conduct”), and Supratisthitacāritra (Anryūgyo, “Firm Conduct”) — with the four universal elements of fire, wind, water, and earth, which were believed to constitute and benefit all beings. In a sense, Nichiren also understood these bodhisattvas as innate, for example, when he writes that they represent the bodhisattva realm within us; they are “the followers of the Śākyamuni Buddha who dwells within ourselves.” However, he also took them to be historical agents, entrusted by the Buddha with the mission of propagating the Lotus Sūtra specifically in the Final Dharma age, that is, his own time. “And what is this dharma that was entrusted to them?” he asked. “From within the Lotus Sūtra, it discards the broad to take up the condensed and discards the condensed to take up the essence, that is, the five characters Myōhō-renge-kyō.”
The Lotus Sūtra enjoins us to give up the provisional teachings, saying that with faith we can enter the Way to Buddhahood. The Nirvana Sūtra preached last in the śāla forest states that there are numerous ways to get the seed of Buddhahood, but as faith in the Three Treasures include all those ways, it is faith in the Three Treasures that matters most. The basic way to Buddhahood thus lies in faith. The foundation of the Fifty-two Ranks is the ten stages of faith which those who practice Buddhism should live up to. Of the ten stages of faith, the belief in the Three Treasures comes first. Those with faith in the Three Treasures are considered to have the right view even if their caliber is low and they cannot perceive much. Those without belief in the Three Treasures, on the other hand, are considered to have abandoned the seed of Buddhahood even if they are talented and can perceive many things.
Hokke Daimoku Shō, Treatise on the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 36-37