I am glad to hear that you greeted the New Year with the pleasure of seeing flowers in full bloom and feeling happy like the full moon.

But I still remember the late Gorō, your son. It is during this time of the year when the blossoms bloom again and the dry grass begins to sprout. Why can’t the late Gorō come back to this world? If he were the delicate and transient flower and grass, I would never leave the flower, like Kakinomoto Hitomaro, the poet, nor the grass, like a hitched horse.

It is written in the passage of a Buddhist scripture that children are enemies. I think that there is a reason for this. I hear that the owl eats its mother and a beast called hakyō devours its father. A man, An Lushan, was killed by his son, Shih Shih-ming. A warrior called Minamoto Yoshitomo killed his father, Tameyoshi. Therefore, there is some truth to the Buddhist scripture that states children are enemies.

It is also written in the scripture that children are treasures. King Wonderful Adornment was destined to fall into the Hell of Incessant Suffering upon death, but he was saved by a prince named Pure Store. Saved from suffering in hell, he ultimately became a Buddha called Śāla Tree King Buddha. A woman named Moggaliya was sent to the realm of hungry spirits for the sin of malice and greed, but she was saved by her child, Maudgalyāyana, escaping the suffering mandated in the realm of hungry spirits. Therefore, it seems reasonable for the Buddhist scripture to claim that children are treasures.

The late Gorō was 16 years old and had a more pleasing nature than most. An able man, he was admired by everyone. Moreover, he was filial and obedient to his parents much as water takes the form of a vessel and a shadow follows its form. You must have deeply relied upon him as a pillar of your home and a cane for support on the road. The box of treasures must have been saved for him, and your retainers who have served your family must have been for him. You were hoping that when you died you would be carried on his back to your grave and if this were so you would have had no regrets. Nevertheless, that he left you first must seem like a dream or illusion. If only this were so, I would love for you to be awakened from it soon. But it was neither a dream nor an illusion, and at last the year has come to an end.

I don’t know how long you must wait to meet him again. If I were to tell you where to meet him, you would no doubt fly up to the sky in spite of having no wings or sail even to China in spite of having no ship. If you heard that he was buried deep below the earth, wouldn’t you use all your energy to dig him out?

There is a way, however, to meet him easily. It is to have Śākyamuni Buddha lead you to the Pure Land of Mt. Sacred Eagle. It is written that all who listen to this Lotus Sūtra shall become a Buddha. Thus, even if a finger pointed to the earth were to miss it, the sun and the moon did not rise, the tide did not ebb and flow, and the flowers failed to bloom in summer, the woman who chants “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō” will surely be able to meet her son. Devote yourself to your faith.

Ueno-ama Gozen Gohenji, Response to My Lady, the Nun of Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 56-57

I include this in my 100 Days of Study as an example of the compassion Nichiren showed in his letters to followers.

Regarding the Shinto priests of Atsuwara, I am sure it was not an easy matter for you to protect them until today.

Although we have been safe so far, those in power have the intention of eliminating the believers of the Lotus Sūtra, though they appear to be oppressing us on the pretext of other matters. Therefore, it seems that they are trying to find fault with us through the circumstances of the Atsuwara Persecution. Nevertheless, when we are assailed in the name of the state power, we cannot simply rebuff the charges unless we do not want to make our way through the world. If it is difficult for you to shelter the Shinto priests where you are, please consider entrusting them to us on Mt. Minobu. Even if their wives and children stay there, it is unlikely that the shogunate officials will question them. I think it will be all right for them to remain there until the incident quiets down.

Ueno-dono Gohenji, Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Page 37

I’m compelled to add this to my 100 days out fascination that Shinto priests somehow got caught up in the conflict between Nichiren’s followers and opposing religious factions. This letter was written in 1280 and another letter, a year later in 1281, makes this passing reference:

As for the Shinto priest, he is attended by a groom and a horse named Ochichishio.

Ueno-dono Gohenji, Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Page 46

(Why are the Shinto priest and his groom unnamed and the horse named?)

The glossary offers this on the Atsuwara Persecution

Atsuwara Persecution (Atsuwara no mono)

The Atsuwara Persecution occurred in the 9th month of the 2nd year of the Kōan Era (1279) at Atsuwara (Fuji-shi, Shizuoka Prefecture today). It was an oppression against the rapidly growing Nichiren Buddhists in the Fuji area. In this incident 20 farmers including Atsuwara Jinshiro ̄were arrested and sent to Kamakura, of whom three were beheaded and others were imprisoned.

In trying to find out how exactly the Shinto priests got involved I read Jacqueline I. Stone’s “The Atsuhara Affair: The Lotus Sutra, Persecution, and Religious Identity in the Early Nichiren Tradition.”

In the past there was a daimyō (feudal lord) named Ōhashi Tarō in northern Kyushu. Having incurred the rage of Lord Minamoto no Yoritomo, General of the Right, he was imprisoned in a dungeon in Yuigahama Beach at Kamakura for as long as 12 years. When leaving home under arrest, Ōhashi Tarō said to his wife:

As a warrior who serves a lord with a bow and arrows, I do not grieve over being punished by the lord. However, it is very difficult to be separated from you, whom I have been attached to from my childhood. Setting this aside, what I have always regretted is that we have no children, neither a boy or a girl. However, now you tell me that you are pregnant. Will my child be a girl or a boy? I am sorry for not being able to know this. I also hope that my child upon growing up, will not suffer from having no father, but this is beyond my control.

Thereafter when days and months passed, his wife gave birth safely to a baby boy. When the boy was seven years old, he was sent to a mountain temple to study. Other children ridiculed him as a “single mother’s child.” Returning home, the boy asked his mother about his father. Unable to answer, his mother merely cried. Then the boy agonized his mother by saying, “Without heaven, it does not rain. Without earth, grass does not sprout. Even if there is the mother, she cannot give birth to a child without the child’s father. Why don’t you tell me where my father is?” Finally, the mother revealed the truth about his father telling him, “I could not tell this to you till today because you were too young to understand.” The boy then said in tears, “Isn’t there a keepsake from my father?” “Yes, there is,” said the mother, and she showed him the ancestral diaries of the Ōhashi family together with the self-written will of his father for his unborn child. It made the boy cry in his longing for his father. Finally, he asked his mother, “I want to see my father at any cost. What should I do?” His mother answered, “When your father departed here, many retainers accompanied him. However, as he was charged with a crime, those retainers all abandoned him. Whether or not your father is still alive, nobody visits us to tell us.” The boy wallowed in agony and did not listen to his mother, who tried to reason with him. When his mother said to him, “I sent you to a mountain temple in order for you to be dutiful to your father. Why don’t you offer flowers to the Buddha and recite a fascicle of the Lotus Sūtra as a part of your filial duty,” the boy hurriedly went back to the temple and never returned home. As he continued to recite the Lotus Sūtra day and night, he was not only able to read all of the fascicles but could also recite them by heart.

At the age of 12, he did not enter the priesthood. Instead, he wrapped up the hair on this head with a piece of cloth and ran away from northern Kyushu all the way to Kamakura. Visiting the Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine, he made a deep bow before the god Hachiman and prayed, “Great Bodhisattva Hachiman appeared in Japan as the 16th Emperor of Japan (Emperor Ōjin), and his original substance is Lord Preacher Śākyamuni Buddha, who preached the Lotus Sūtra in the Pure Land of Mt. Sacred Eagle. Śākyamuni Buddha appeared in Japan as a god in order to fulfill the desire of all living beings. Now please fulfill my wish and tell me whether or not my father is still alive.”

He recited the Lotus Sūtra from around eight o’clock in the evening until around four o’clock in the morning. His young and lucid voice resounded in the shrine building, causing visitors (of the shrine) to tingle with the feeling of being refreshed and making them forget all about going home. They gathered to see who was reciting the sutra and was surprised to learn that it was a young boy, not a priest or an aged woman, who was chanting the sūtra in such a splendid voice.

Just at that moment, Lady Masako, wife of Yoritomo, paid homage to the Hachiman Shrine. Her visit was incognito, but she stayed there until the chanting of the sūtra was completed because it sounded especially noble. She returned home later, but feeling reluctant to leave the boy, she left a retainer to watch him. When she reported the incident in the shrine to her husband, Lord Yoritomo summoned the boy and let him recite the sutra in his Hall of the Buddha.

On the following day when Lord Yoritomo was listening to the boy reciting the sūtra, there was a noise at the western gate. Listening intently, they heard a loud voice announce, “A prisoner will be beheaded today.” The boy, on the verge of tears said, “Although I do not think my father is alive, it is still painful for me to hear that a man is about to be beheaded because it reminds me of my father.” Upon hearing him say this, Lord Yoritomo inquired, “Who are you? Tell me everything.” Thereupon the boy related a detailed story about himself from infancy. Having heard his story, everyone — feudal lords of all statures as well the ladies-in-waiting inside a bamboo screen — was moved to tears.

Lord Yoritomo called Kajiwara no Kagetoki ordering him to summon a prisoner named Ōhashi Taro. Kagetoki said to Yoritomo, “He has just been taken to Yuigahama Beach to be beheaded. He might have already been killed.” Upon hearing this, the son of Ōhashi Taro fell to the ground and cried, forgetting about being before Lord Yoritomo.

Yoritomo ordered Kagetoki to go to the execution ground himself in a hurry and bring the prisoner back if not executed yet. Kagetoki rushed to Yuigahama on horseback, shouting the order of Yoritomo before reaching the ground. When the executioner drew his sword to behead the prisoner, he heard the shouting voice of Kagetoki, saving the life of Ōhashi Tarō. When Kagetoki brought Ōhashi Tarō, bound with a rope, and made him sit in the open space in front of the palace, Yoritomo ordered, “Pass him to this child,” and the boy, the son of Ōhashi Tarō, ran down from the palace to the open space to untie the rope binding his father. Ōhashi Tarō did not know who the boy was and why his life was spared. A while later Yoritomo summoned the boy again and gave him various gifts as well as his father, who was pardoned, and restored his father’s original territory. I heard that Lord Yoritomo then said with tears in his voice:

I heard about the preciousness of the Lotus Sūtra since early times. However, the reason why I came to believe in it is two-fold. First of all, my late father Yoshitomo was beheaded by Lay Priest Taira no Kiyomori making me suffer a bitter resentment beyond expression. Contemplating to which god Or Buddha I should pray, I learned from Nun Myōho of Mt. Izu how to recite the Lotus Sūtra. On the day I was able to finish reciting the sutra 1,000 times, Mongaku-bō of Takao showed me the head of my late father, creating an opportunity for me not only to take revenge for my father’s death but also to be appointed the shogun of warriors in Japan. This was entirely due to the divine help of the Lotus Sūtra. Secondly, I encountered this mysterious incident in which this young boy saved his father’s life. Ōhashi Tarō committed an inexcusable crime so I intended to behead him even against the imperial edict. It was due to my hatred of him that I made him suffer in prison as long as 12 years. Just about the time when I was going to kill him a mysterious happening such as this took place. Reflecting upon these facts, the sutra entitled the Lotus Sutra is indeed precious. Although I committed many sins as a general of warriors, somehow I may be able to receive a divine protection due to my faith in the Lotus Sūtra.

When your late father sees your great kindness shown to me, how happy he will be! It is likely he loved you simply as his child but never expected you to hold a memorial service through the Lotus Sutra. Even if he has been in evil realms due to his sin, Yama, the King of Law, King of the Brahma Heaven, and Indra will notice your offering of filial piety and save him. How can Śākyamuni Buddha and the Lotus Sūtra abandon him? There is no difference between the young boy of Ōhashi Tarō, who saved his father out of a prison and you who saved your father through your precious offering. I cannot help but cry as I write this letter.

Nanjō-dono Gohenji, Reply to Lord Nanjō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 18-20

Another of the fascinating stories that Nichiren uses to inspire his followers. Still inspiring so many years later.

According to Buddhist sūtras, the Buddha’s tongue is as grand as to cover His whole face, as expansive as to cover the triple thousand worlds, and as lengthy as to reach the Summit Heaven in the Region of Form. It is a mark of physical excellence showing that the Buddha has never uttered a false word ever since the eternal past. Therefore, it is preached in a certain sūtra, “There exists no falsehood in the words of the Buddha even if Mt. Sumeru crumbles or if the earth is overturned.” This means that there is never a mistake in the words of the Buddha even if the sun rises in the west or the ebb and flow of the tide in an ocean stop, does it not? Moreover, the superiority of the Lotus Sūtra over various other sūtras has been confirmed by the words of the Buddha of Many Treasures, and the long tongues of other Buddhas touching the Brahma Heaven. There must not be any mistake in the sūtra, not even one written character or one stroke of a character.

Ueno-dono Gohenji, Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Page 4

Coming from a non-Buddhist upbringing, this concept that a long tongue signifies truthfulness fascinates me.

In ancient China a man called Hung-yen, a retainer of the Duke of Yee of Wei state, cut open his own stomach and inserted his slain lord’s liver inside him before he died. Similarly, a man called Yü-jang tried to repay his indebtedness to his Lord Chih-pai by swallowing a sword and killing himself. These were cases in the secular world of repaying a minor debt of kindness, to what lengths should one go to repay the debt to the Buddha?

The reason why we continue to transmigrate through the six lower realms without attaining Buddhahood from the eternal past of innumerable kalpa (aeons) till today is that we fail to give up our lives for the sake of the Lotus Sūtra. Gladly Seen Bodhisattva burned himself for 1,200 years as a votive light to the Sun Moon Pure Bright Virtue Buddha and burned his arms for 72,000 years to the Lotus Sūtra. He is Medicine King Bodhisattva today. Never Despising Bodhisattva was abused, disparaged, beaten with sticks and rubble was thrown at him for many kalpa (aeons) in order to disseminate the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra. Did he not become Śākyamuni Buddha in a future existence? Therefore, the way of practicing the sūtra leading to Buddhahood differs according to the times.

Inchinosawa Nyūdō Gosho, A Letter to Lay Priest Ichinosawa, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Pages 161-162

And if “the way of practicing the sūtra leading to Buddhahood differs according to the times,” does it differ today? Something to ponder, but I return to what I wrote on Day 22:

I hold as without question that the Lotus Sūtra is the highest teaching of the Buddha and it presents the Dharma best suited for this declining age. As Nichiren writes at the conclusion of Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Venerable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 168:

The differences between 13th Century Japan and a non-Buddhist land in the 21st Century changes nothing of that.

This concludes Volume 6 of the Writings of Nichiren Shōnin.

How can we identify the sage of the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration? The Lotus Sūtra states, “He who preaches this sūtra to others and can uphold it for himself is a messenger of the Buddha.” In other words, anyone who recites eight chapters of the Lotus Sūtra, or one fascicle, one chapter, or just a verse of it, or chants the daimoku is a messenger of the Buddha. He who carries through faith in the Lotus Sūtra to the end, enduring the great persecutions that arise, is the true messenger of the Buddha.

Shijō Kingo-dono Gohenji, A Reply to Lord Shijō Kingo, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 153

Here’s to all of the True Messengers of the Buddha. May I be counted among them.

There are many people who put faith in the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra. Yet as I often experience great difficulties, both public and private, some change their faith after a year or two, even becoming my enemies who shoot arrows at me. Some only outwardly appear to be believers of the Lotus Sūtra, while others believe in the Lotus Sūtra in heart but not in practice.

Śākyamuni Buddha, was the legitimate son of King Suddhodana, a great king who governed the entire continent of Jambudvipa, and all of its 84,210 countries. The kings in Jambudvipa all submitted to King Suddhodana, and he had an innumerable number of domestic servants. Nevertheless, at the age of 19, Śākyamuni left the palace of King Suddhodana, and entered Mt. Dapdaloka, where he spent 12 years practicing asceticism. He was then accompanied by only five men: Ājñāta-Kauṇḍinya, Aśvajit, Bhadrika, Dasābala-Kāśyapa and Mahānāman, two of whom left him in the sixth year and the remaining three also deserted him during the last six years. In the end he continued his training alone until he attained Buddhahood. The Lotus Sūtra is harder than this to have faith in. Therefore the sūtra itself preaches that it is “difficult to put faith in and difficult to understand.” It is also preached in the sutra (“The Teacher of the Dharma” chapter) that the great difficulties that abound today in the Latter Age of Degeneration surpass those that occurred during the lifetime of the Buddha. Therefore the practicer of this sūtra who perseveres through the adversities today acquires more merit than giving alms to the Buddha over the course of a kalpa (aeons).

Shijō Kingo-dono Gohenji, A Reply to Lord Shijō Kingo, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 152

A little perspective helps appreciate the task of being a practicer of this sūtra.

Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, and Kāśyapa, who perceived the doctrine of “no birth and no death” of all phenomena and became bodhisattvas without “falling back,” declined to propagate the Lotus Sūtra in the Sahā World during the Latter Age of Degeneration because the difficulty was too much for them to endure. Even those who gained the three supernatural types of knowledge and six supernatural powers, and rose to the ranks of shoji and shojū (entered the rank of sagehood) and gained arhatship by practicing the Lotus Sūtra declined to do so. How then can ordinary people in the Latter Age of Degeneration, incapable of extinguishing the three delusions, become practicers of the Lotus Sūtra?

Shijō Kingo-dono Gohenji, A Reply to Lord Shijō Kingo, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 142

This clearly states the challenge at hand. Thankfully, we have Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.

Moreover, the “3,000 existences contained in one thought” doctrine is based on the three realms of existence: the realm of living beings, the realm of five components, and the realm of environment. Putting aside the first two realms for now, the third realm of environment includes trees and plants. The five colors of paint are made of trees and plants and therefore a portrait painted with colors of paint is made of trees and plants. Also a wooden statue is made of wood. It is the power of the Lotus Sūtra that inspires a soul into these portraits and wooden statues. This is based on the “3,000 existences contained in one thought” doctrine perceived by Grand Master T’ien-t’ai. Applied to living beings, this doctrine means the “attainment of Buddhahood with one’s present body. ” Applied to the portraits and wooden statues, it means the “attainment of Buddhahood by trees and plants.”

Applauding the doctrine of T’ien-t’ai expounded in his Great Concentration and Insight, Grand Master Chang-an states, “The doctrine of ‘tranquility and contemplation’ has never been made as clear as this,” while Grand Master Miao-lê states in his Annotations on the Great Concentration and Insight, “Preaching that insentient beings such as trees and plants possess the Buddha-nature, T’ien-t’ai startled the people.” This doctrine of “3,000 existences contained in one thought” had never appeared before T’ien-t’ai nor was it to appear again. If it did appear later, it must have been plagiarized from his doctrine.

Shijō Kingo Shakabutsu Kuyō, Opening the Eyes Service of Shijō Kingo’s Satue of Śākyamuni Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Pages 132

This is a continuation of yesterday’s quote. I wanted to keep it separate to underscore the source of the idea that mandalas and statues, if properly treated, can be imbued with great powers.