That is why the Buddha turned aside and looked earnestly at the eight hundred thousand million nayutas of bodhisattvas.
I had therefore thought that, though women would tarnish their names and throw away their lives on meaningless paths, they were weak at following the path to Buddhahood. But now you, born a woman in the evil world of the latter age, while being reviled, struck, and persecuted by the barbaric inhabitants of this island country who are unaware of these things, have endured and are propagating the Lotus Sutra. The Buddha at Eagle Peak surely perceives that you surpass the nun [Mahaprajapati] as greatly as clouds do mud. The name of that nun, the Buddha Gladly Seen by All Living Beings, is no unrelated matter; it is now the name of the lay nun Myoho. One who becomes a king is reputed to be a person who in both the past and the present has observed the ten good precepts. Although the names of the kings may change, there is only one lion throne.
This name likewise will never change.
Even that nun who went against the Buddha’s words received the name Buddha Gladly Seen by All Living Beings. You are a lay nun who, being true to the Buddha’s words, has lost her good name only in this saha world and is giving her life [for the Lotus Sutra]. The Buddha did not abandon the nun, his foster mother. If he were to abandon you as one who is unrelated to him, he would be a biased Buddha. But how could such a thing ever be? And how much less so if, as the sutra states, “The living beings in it [the threefold world] are all my children” ?3 Then you are the Buddha’s daughter, and that nun was his foster mother. Is it possible that the Buddha, who did not abandon his foster mother, would wish to abandon his own daughter? Please understand the truth of this thoroughly. I have gone on too long, so I will stop here.
This letter was written at Minobu to a woman called the lay nun Myoho. There seem to have been several women among the Daishonin’s followers known as Myoho; this particular Myoho was a widow who lived at Okamiya in Suruga Province. She also received the letter The One Essential Phrase. Her husband had died in 1278, and from the present letter, thought to have been written in 1281, it is clear that she was now virtually alone in the world. Whether because her daughters had married and become part of their husbands’ families, or for some other reason, they were apparently of little help to her. She also lived apart from her
other relatives, possibly an estrangement stemming from her belief in the Daishonin’s teaching. In any event, she appears to have maintained pure and steadfast faith despite the opposition of those around her.
In this letter, thanking her for the gift of a summer robe, Nichiren Daishonin praises her strong resolve and likens her to Bodhisattva Never Disparaging, who patiently endured repeated insults in carrying out his Buddhist practice.
In the main part of the letter, the Daishonin likens the lay nun Myoho to the Buddha’s maternal aunt Mahaprajapati, the first Buddhist nun. In the India of Shakyamuni’s time, there
