Continue your practice without backsliding until the final moment of your life, and when that time comes, behold! When you climb the mountain of perfect enlightenment and gaze around you in all directions, then to your amazement you will see that the entire realm of phenomena is the Land of Tranquil Light. The ground will be of lapis lazuli, and the eight paths19 will be set apart by golden ropes. Four kinds of flowers20 will fall from the heavens, and music will resound in the air. All Buddhas and bodhisattvas will be present in complete joy, caressed by the breezes of eternity,
happiness, true self, and purity. The time is fast approaching when we too will count ourselves among their number. But if we are weak in faith, we will never reach that wonderful place. If you still have questions, I am waiting to hear them.
The ninth day of the twelfth month in the second year of Kenji (1276), cyclical sign hinoe-ne
Written near the end of 1276, this letter was a reply to the lay priest Matsuno Rokuro Saemon. Four in his family received letters from Nichiren Daishonin — he, his wife, son, and daughter-in-law. One of his daughters married Nanjo Hyoe Shichiro and gave birth to Nanjo Tokimitsu, a staunch supporter of the Daishonin and his disciple Nikko Shonin. It is thought that Matsuno was converted to the Daishonin’s teachings through this connection with the Nanjo family.
This letter explains the fourteen slanders, citing Miao-lo’s Annotations on “The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra.” These slanders are referred to originally in the “Simile and Parable” chapter of the Lotus Sutra. Asked if there is a difference in benefits derived when a sage chants the daimoku and when an ordinary person chants it, the Daishonin answers in the negative. “However, there is a difference,” he continues, “if one chants the daimoku while acting against the intent of this sutra.” He explains “the intent” of the sutra by referring to the fourteen slanders.
The first ten of the fourteen slanders
concern one’s attitude and action toward the Law, that is, the Buddha’s teachings; the last four concern those toward people who believe in and practice that Law.
Emphasizing the importance of unity among believers, the Daishonin says, “Always remember that believers in the Lotus Sutra should absolutely be the last to abuse one another.” The reason he gives is that “all those who keep faith in the Lotus Sutra are most certainly Buddhas, and one who slanders a Buddha commits a grave offense.” In other words, he warns against the last four of the fourteen slanders: “despising, hating, envying, and bearing grudges against” fellow believers.
The Daishonin next recounts in detail the story of the boy Snow Mountains, who offers his body to a fierce demon in order to learn a Buddhist teaching. He encourages Matsuno to make this bodhisattva’s spirit a model for his own faith and practice. He further clarifies that a priest who lacks the spirit to study and practice Buddhism diligently, and to strive to refute its slanderers, is “no better than an
