I PLACED the written petition, dated the eighth day of the eleventh month in the third year of Koan (1280), in which you expressed your prayer, along with your offerings of one thousand coins and an unlined robe made of thread spun from bark fiber, before the Lotus Sutra, and I spoke to the gods of the sun and moon about it. Now there is no need to attempt to surmise yourself how things will go. Whether or not your prayer is answered will depend on your faith; [if it is not] I will in no way be to blame.
When water is clear, the moon is
reflected. When the wind blows, the trees shake. Our minds are like the water. Faith that is weak is like muddy water, while faith that is brave is like clear water. Understand that the trees are like principles, and the wind that shakes them is like the recitation of the sutra.
With my deep respect,
Nichiren
The twenty-ninth day of the eleventh month
Reply to the lay nun Nichigon
This letter was written at Minobu in the eleventh month of the third year of Koan (1280) in response to a petition from the lay nun Nichigon. She is thought to have been either a relative of the lay priest Takahashi, a cen
tral figure among the believers in Fuji District of Suruga Province, or the mother of Nichigen, a priest of Jisso- ji temple in the same province who converted to Nichiren Daishonin’s teachings.
