food or drink since the time of their birth.
Law-devouring hungry spirits are people who renounce the world and spread Buddhism. They think that if they preach the Law people will respect them, and because of their ambition for fame and profit, they spend their entire present lifetime striving to be thought of as better than others. They neither help other human beings nor have a mind to save their parents. Such people are called Law-devouring hungry spirits, or hungry spirits who use the Buddhist teachings to satisfy their own desires.
When we observe the priests of our time, we find some who secretly accept offerings for themselves alone. In the Nirvana Sutra they are described as dog-like priests. In their next life they will become ox-headed demons.7 We also find persons who, though they receive offerings openly, being greedy, never share them with others. In their next existence they will be born as horse-headed demons.
Also, some lay believers fail to pray for the repose of their parents who, having fallen into hell or the realm of hungry spirits or of animals, are undergoing excruciating agonies. These believers are luxuriously clad and fed, have an abundance of cattle, horses, and retainers, and enjoy themselves as they please. How their parents must envy and resent them! Even among priests, those who pray for the repose of their parents and teachers on the anniversaries of their death are rare. Certainly the gods of the sun and moon in the heavens and the deities on earth must be angry and indignant with them, considering them to be unfilial. Though they possess a human form, they are like animals. They should also be called human-headed beasts.
When I think that I will surely eradicate these karmic impediments and in
the future go to the pure land of Eagle Peak, though various grave persecutions fall on me like rain and boil up like clouds, since they are for the sake of the Lotus Sutra, even these sufferings do not seem like sufferings at all. Those who have become the disciples and lay supporters of such a Nichiren— especially your deceased mother, Myoho, the anniversary of whose death falls on the twelfth day of this month—are votaries of the Lotus Sutra and my lay supporters. How could she possibly have fallen into the world of hungry spirits? No doubt she is now in the presence of Shakyamuni Buddha, Many Treasures Buddha, and the Buddhas of the ten directions. Perhaps they are saying, “So this is the mother of Shijo Kingo!” and, with one accord, patting her on the head and praising her joyfully. And she is probably saying to Shakyamuni Buddha, “What a splendid son I have.”
The Lotus Sutra says: “If there are good men or good women who, on hearing the ‘Devadatta’ chapter of the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law, believe and revere it with pure hearts and harbor no doubts or perplexities, they will never fall into hell or the realm of hungry spirits or of beasts, but will be born in the presence of the Buddhas of the ten directions, and in the place where they are born they will constantly hear this sutra. If they are born among human or heavenly beings, they will enjoy exceedingly wonderful delights, and if they are born in the presence of a Buddha, they will be born by transformation8 from lotus flowers.”9 The phrase “good women” is found in this passage of the sutra. If it does not refer to the deceased, Myoho, then to whom does it refer? The sutra also states, “This sutra is hard to uphold; if one can uphold it even for a short while I will surely rejoice and so will the other Buddhas. A person who can do this wins the admiration of the Buddhas.”10 My
