Gosho 御義口伝下 Orally Transmitted teachings on the Lotus Sutra Part 2

第四　是人(ぜにん)命終(みょうじゅう)　為千仏授手(いせんぶつじゅしゅ)の事

「若(も)し人有って受持し、読誦し、其(そ)の義趣を解(げ)せん、

Point Four, on the passage “If there are persons who accept, uphold, read, and recite the sutra and understand its principles,

是の人命終せば、千仏の手(みて)を授(さず)けて、恐怖(くふ)せず、悪趣に堕(お)ちざらしめたもうことを得(う)」

when the lives of these persons come to an end, they will be received into the hands of a thousand Buddhas, who will free them from all fear and keep them from falling into the evil paths of existence.”

御義口伝に云く法華不信の人は命終の時地獄に堕在す可し、

The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings says: When persons who do not have faith in the Lotus Sutra [Gohonzon] come to the end of their lives, they fall into hell.

経に云く「若人(にゃくにん)不信(ふしん)、毀謗(きぼう)此(し)経(きょう)、即断(そくだん)一切(いっさい)、世間仏(せけんぶっ)種(しゅ)、其人命終入(ごにんみょうじゅうにゅう)阿鼻獄(あびごく)」と、

Hence the sutra says, “If a person fails to have faith / but instead slanders this sutra [Gohonzon], / immediately he will destroy all the seeds / for becoming a Buddha in this world. / . . . When his life comes to an end / he will enter the Avīchi hell” .

法華経の行者は命終して成仏す可し、

But when practitioners of the Lotus Sutra come to the end of their lives, they will attain Buddhahood.

是人命終為千仏授手の文是(これ)なり、

Thus the text here says, “When the lives of these persons come to an end, they will be received into the hands of a thousand Buddhas.”

千仏とは千如の法門なり、

The thousand Buddhas represent the doctrine of the thousand factors.

謗法の人は獄卒来迎(らいごう)し、法華経の行者は千仏来迎し給うべし、

The wardens of hell will come to greet those who have slandered the Law, but a thousand Buddhas will come to greet the practitioners of the Lotus Sutra.

今(いま)日蓮等の類い南無妙法蓮華経と唱え奉る者は千仏の来迎疑(うたがい)無き者なり云云。

Without doubt, therefore, a thousand Buddhas will come to greet Nichiren and his followers, who chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

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