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No Safety in the Threefold World
I have received the various articles you sent me. Concerned about my life in the mountains, you had your messenger plow
through the snow to call on me. Your sincerity has no doubt been recognized by the Lotus Sutra and the ten demon daughters.
The Nirvana Sutra states, "Human life runs its course more
swiftly than a mountain stream; the person here today will not likely be here tomorrow." The Maya
Sutra reads, "Imagine, for instance, a flock of sheep being driven
by a chandala to the slaughterhouse. Human life is exactly the same; step by step one approaches the place of death." The Lotus Sutra states, "There is no safety in the threefold world; it is
like a burning house, replete with a multitude of sufferings, truly to be feared,..."
In these passages from the sutras, our compassionate father, the World-Honored One of Great Enlightenment, admonishes the
ordinary persons of the latter age, warning them, his ignorant children. Nevertheless, they do not awaken for even one instant;
nor do they conceive a desire to attain the way for even a single moment. In order to decorate their bodies, which, if abandoned in the fields, would be stripped
naked overnight, they spend their time striving to pile up articles of clothing.
When their lives come to an end, within three days their bodies will turn into water that washes away, into dust that mixes
with the earth, and into smoke that rises up into the sky, leaving no trace behind. Nevertheless, they seek to nurture these
bodies and to amass great wealth.
This principle has been known since ancient times, but today the situation is pitiable. The country of Japan has been visited
by continuous famine for the last several years, and supplies of food and clothing are exhausted. The domestic animals have
all been consumed, and persons who eat human flesh are appearing. They tear flesh from the bodies of the dead, children and
the sick, mix it with fish or deer meat, and sell it. People purchase this mixture and eat it. Thus, this country has unwittingly
become an abode of wicked demons.
Moreover, from the spring of last year through the middle of the second month of this year, epidemics have spread throughout
the country. In five families out of ten, in fifty households out of a hundred, all the members have died from disease. Others
have escaped illness but are suffering from great spiritual distress, and thus are in even greater agony than those who are
ill. Even the people who managed to survive have lost the children who used to follow them as closely as shadows, or the spouses
from whom they had been as inseparable as a pair of eyes, or the parents upon whom they had relied as they would upon heaven
and earth. For them, what meaning does life hold? How could sensible people not abhor this world? The Buddha taught that there
is no safety in the threefold world, but the current state of affairs seems excessively tragic.
Although I myself am only an ordinary person, I informed the ruler that the Buddha had left behind teachings predicting
such a situation. However, he did not heed my admonitions, but rather began to persecute me even more harshly, so there was
nothing further I could do. This country has already become a slanderer of the Law and, by turning into an enemy of the Lotus Sutra, it has also made itself an enemy of the Buddhas and the
gods of the three existences and the ten directions.
Please consider deeply. No matter what grave crimes I Nichiren, have been charged with, I am a votary of the Lotus Sutra.
No matter what grave crimes a person who chants Namu Amida Butsu may be guilty of, it cannot be denied that he is a follower
of the Nembutsu. Because I chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with my own mouth, I have been reviled, struck. exiled and had my life
threatened. However, in spite of all this, I have continued to exhort others to do likewise. Am I not then a votary of the
Lotus Sutra?
In the Lotus Sutra, it is stipulated that those who bear a grudge against its votary are destined to fall into the Avichi
hell. The fourth volume states that the offense of harboring
malice toward a votary of the Lotus Sutra in the latter age is graver than that of reviling the Buddha for an entire medium
kalpa. The seventh volume teaches that people who disparage the votary will suffer in the Avichi
hell for a thousand kalpas. The fifth volume states that after the Buddha’s death, when the Latter Day of the Law arrives,
a votary of the Lotus Sutra will certainly appear, and that at that time, in that country, an immeasurably great multitude
of monks who either uphold or violate the precepts will gather and denounce the votary to the ruler of the country, causing
him to be banished and ruined.
These passages from the sutra all coincide precisely with what has happened to me. I am therefore convinced that I will
attain Buddhahood in the future. I will speak in more detail when we meet.
Nichiren
The thirteenth day of the second month in the fourth year of Kenji (1278), cyclical sign tsuchinoe-tora
Reply to Lord Matsuno
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