From the ancient times till today, the pain of parting either between parents and children, or lord and his subordinates remains the same. The most painful, however, is the parting of a married couple. I can only surmise your sadness being separated from your husband by death. You may have been reborn as a woman numerous times since time immemorial, but this last husband of yours was the last “good friend” of yours in this Sahā World.

The 31-syllable Japanese poems offer these sentiments: “In the natural world flowers scatter and fruits fall, but they never fail to come back in time. Why can’t a departed person ever return?” and “Thinking of the deceased day after day, my days are listless and painful year after year.” Please chant the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra for your late husband.

Jimyō-ama Gozen Gohenji, A Response to My Lady, the Nun Jimyō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Page 94

A bird called cormorant can eat a piece of iron, which it digests in its stomach, but even so its unborn baby in its belly does not melt away. Also, there exists a fish that eats pieces of stone, which it digests in its stomach, yet the unborn babies in its belly remain alive. Sandalwood cannot be set on fire, and water does not extinguish the fire in the Heaven of Pure Inhabitants (where sages reside who have reached the stage of not having to be reborn in the six realms of transmigration). The body of the Buddha could not be burned although 32 sumo wrestlers tried to set it on fire, while the fire produced from the Buddha’s body could not be extinguished by the dragon god of the triple world who tried to put it out by pouring rain on it. As you helped me practice the Lotus Sūtra, no evil person can harm you. If anything should happen, it is a retribution in this life for persecuting a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra in a previous life. This cannot be avoided no matter whether you fled into the mountains or to the ocean. Both Never Despising Bodhisattva who was beaten with sticks and pieces of wood, and Venerable Maudgalyāyana, who was killed by non-Buddhists with bamboo sticks, are examples of such retribution. This is nothing to grieve over.

Shijō Kingo Shakabutsu Kuyō, Opening the Eyes Service of Shijō Kingo’s Statue of Śākyamuni Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Pages 135

Interpreting the true meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai of
China states in his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, “Sūtras other than the Lotus Sūtra expound enlightenment of men but not of women. The Lotus Sūtra expounds enlightenment of both men and women.” Does this not mean that the Lotus Sūtra is supreme among all the holy teachings of the Buddha expounded in His lifetime and that in the Lotus Sūtra attainment of Buddhahood by women is the most precious? If so, all women in Japan need not worry since women’s enlightenment is allowed by the Lotus Sūtra although all other sūtras deny it.

Sennichi-ama Gozen Gohenji, A Reply to My Lady Nun Sennichi, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 147

If I, Nichiren, did not speak of this because of my fear of the people, I would be betraying the Buddha’s admonition in the Nirvana Sūtra, “not to hide the teachings of the Buddha even at the cost of life.” If I am to speak it up, I am afraid I shall suffer persecution. But if I do not proclaim this, I will not be pardoned from disobeying the Buddha’s commandment. What should I do? I am in a dilemma!

It is not surprising that the following can be found in the Lotus Sūtra: “Many people hate the Lotus Sūtra with jealousy even in My lifetime. Needless to say, more people will do so after My extinction (chapter 10)” and “Many people in the world would have hated it and few would have believed in it (chapter 14).”

Hōon-jō, Essay on Gratitude, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 8.

Śākyamuni Buddha preaches in chapter 3 on “A Parable” of the Lotus Sūtra, “All living beings in this world are My children. There are many sufferings in this world, and only I can save all living beings.” This explains that only Śākyamuni Buddha possesses the three virtues of the master, the teacher and the parent, and other Buddhas such as the Buddha of Infinite Life are not equipped with them. I have already told this many times before. However, be sure that the words “only I can” are not found in Hinayāna sūtras nor in any of the pre-Lotus Mahāyāna sūtras, which resort to expedient means or do not reveal the truth to those whose capacities to understand are not sufficient. They are the golden words of Śākyamuni Buddha in the Lotus Sūtra, validated by the Buddha of Many Treasures and all other Buddhas from all the worlds throughout the universe.

Gochū Shujō Gosho, People in the World Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 201

The Sūtra of the Transmission of the Dharma explains how the Buddhist dharma would be propagated after His death. It says, “During the Age of the True Dharma, a one-thousand-year period following the death of the Buddha, many propagators will spread His teachings. The first of them will be Venerable Kāśyapa for the first twenty years; the second, Venerable Ānanda for the next twenty years; the third, Śānavāsa for the next twenty years; and the twenty-third will be Āryasimha.”

Regarding the third propagator, Śānavāsa, the Buddha explained that his name came from the garment in which he was born. To be born wearing clothes is indeed a wonder. In the six realms of the unenlightened, all those from hell to the human realm are born naked; but only those in heaven are born with clothes on. All people, even sages and wisemen, are born in the nude. Even bodhisattvas destined to be Buddhas in the next life are born in the nude, not to say of all others. Nevertheless, Śānavāsa was born wearing a wonderful garment called Śāna-clothes.

This garment was never stained with blood or soiled just as a lotus in a pond and wings of an eagle never get wet. As Śānavāsa grew, the garment grew wider and longer. It became thicker in winter and thinner in summer, blue in spring and white in winter. He was wealthy, so he suffered no inconvenience. Later, as the Buddha had predicted, he entered the priesthood under Ānanda. Then, the garment became the ceremonial robes of gojō, shichijō, and kyūjō. The Buddha explains this wonder of Śānavāsa as follows:

Billions of years ago, this man, Śānavāsa, was a merchant. One day, he crossed an ocean for trade with five hundred merchants. There, he found a sick priest named Pratyekabuddha on the beach. Probably due to his ill karma the priest was in critical condition, had lost consciousness, and lay in filth. Feeling compassionate, the merchant nursed the sick man and brought him back to consciousness, cleaned up the filth, and wrapped him with Śāna-clothes made of a hemp garment. This sage appreciated his kindness, saying, “You helped me and covered up my shame. I shall use this garment not only in this life but also in future lives.” He then passed away. With this merit, during the incalculably long period in the past, every time Śānavāsa was reborn in heaven or on earth, he was wearing the garment. … In this life he became the third transmitter of the dharma after the death of the Buddha, and a sage called Śānavāsa. He built a great temple on Mt. Ulda in Matela. He taught the dharma to numerous people for twenty years.

Thus the Buddha preached that all the happiness and wonder of Priest Śānavāsa stemmed from this one garment.

Myōhō Bikuni Go-henji, A Reply to Nun Myōhō, Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, Page 176-180

Numerous bodhisattvas as many as the number of dust-particles of the great earth worked their way up to the highest stage of bodhisattva practice, next only to the Buddha. They had eliminated incalculable number of evil passions except the last one, the fundamental ignorance. They had hoped to encounter the Buddha so that this huge rock of fundamental ignorance would crushed by Him, but the Lord Buddha Śākyamuni preached only the method of practicing the teaching, not the doctrine attained by practicing it during the first 40 years or so. As the merit of Perfect Enlightenment was not revealed in those years, it saddens me to report that none of those numerous bodhisattvas was able to ascend to the stage of Wonderful Enlightenment (myōgaku).

However, during the eight years when the Buddha expounded the One Vehicle teaching of the Lotus Sūtra on Mt. Sacred Eagle, all the bodhisattvas reached the stage of Wonderful Enlightenment, attaining the same Perfect Enlightenment of Śākyamuni Buddha and perceiving everything clearly as if they looked all around on the summit of Mt. Sumeru or the sun rose at dawn of a long night. Therefore, it cannot be that they do not intend to spread the Lotus Sūtra or bear the suffering of the practicer of the sūtra even without the word of the Buddha. They have thus made a vow, “We will not spare even our lives; we will treasure only the supreme way;” or “Without sparing our lives, we will disseminate this sūtra throughout the land. ”

Kitō Shō, Treatise on Prayers, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 65

It is stated in the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 9, “The seed of Buddhahood was planted by this Buddha-Bodhisattva at the beginning, and it was nurtured by this Buddha-Bodhisattva;” and in the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 6, “The Buddha appears in the actual world with form and figure to guide the people. How can those in whom He had planted the seed of Buddhahood not come to receive His guidance? As streams of many rivers all go into the ocean, people who have established a relationship with the Buddha can have the good fortune of encountering the Buddha in this life.”

As stated above, the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 6, preaches, “Properly speaking, all living beings will awaken aspiration for Buddhahood and proceed to it without falling back to a lower spiritual stage by following this Buddha.”

Ichidai Goji Keizu, Genealogical Chart of the Buddha’s Lifetime Teachings in Five Periods, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 248-249

According to the shakumon section of the Lotus Sūtra, the people in this Sahā World have been closely related to Śākyamuni Buddha since dust-particle kalpa ago without any relations to other Buddhas such as the Buddha of Infinite Life. Chapter 7 on the “Parable of A Magic City,” of the Lotus Sūtra states: “Those who listened to the teachers then have always been beside those Buddhas. … Destiny has made them meet the preaching of the Lotus Sūtra now.” This statement tells us that we, the people in this Sahā World, have never been in Pure Lands of fifteen other Buddhas such as the Buddha of Infinite Life in the universe. Grand Master T’ien-t’ai states in his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra:

“An old interpretation considers the Buddha of Infinite Life as the rich father in the parable of the father and son. However, this is incorrect, and today we do not consider the Buddha of Infinite Life as the wealthy father. The Western Pure Land of the Buddha of Infinite Life and this Sahā World of Śākyamuni Buddha each has a different Buddha and karmic relations. The Buddha of Infinite Life is not the Lord Buddha of this Sahā World, so he was never born to and died in this world. He never guided us in this world. There are no relationships formed between the Buddha of Infinite Life and us like that of a father and son. There are no words in the Lotus Sūtra which state that the Buddha of Infinite Life is our lord, teacher or parent. If you really want to encounter the Buddha, you need to contemplate this with your eyes closed.”

Grand Master Miao-lê explains this in his Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra: “Śākyamuni Buddha and the Buddha of Infinite Life have completely different karmic relationships to the people in their past lives, and the worlds they guided are completely different. By birth and in growing up, the Buddha of Infinite Life and the people in this Sahā World have no father-son relationship.” From these statements of T’ien-t’ai and Miao-lê, I would think the Buddha of Infinite Life and other Buddhas in the world all over the universe are like stepfathers whereas Śākyamuni Buddha is a compassionate, real father. T’ien-t’ai wrote many works interpreting the Lotus Sūtra; however, we should know this interpretation of his to be fundamental, and consider Śākyamuni Buddha as the lord of this Sahā World.

Gochū Shujō Gosho, People in the World Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 202

On the palm of a man named Mahānāma a pebble changed to a precious stone. King Konzoku is said to have been able to transform sand into gold. The Lotus Sūtra enables even insentient beings such as grass and trees to attain Buddhahood, not to speak of sentient beings that possess minds such as humans. The Lotus Sūtra enables the Two Vehicles whose seed of Buddhahood has been burned to attain Buddhahood, how much more so with people whose seed of Buddhahood is still alive! Moreover, the Lotus Sūtra enables even the icchantika who has no religious belief to attain Buddhahood, how much more it will lead those with religious faith.

Ueno-dono Gohenji, Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Page 33