Reply to the Lord Ueno (Buddhist memorial service letter) 上野殿御返事(法要書)

Reply to the Lord Ueno (Letter of the Buddhist Memorial Service)

Original Text. 　

■Time of writing: April 1, 1278, aged 57.

■Place of writing: In a thatched hut on Mt. Minobu.

■Background of writing: This is a letter given to the supporter Lord Ueno (Tokimitsu Nanjo) who built Taiseki-ji Temple. It is a reply to the letter that Tokimitsu sent to Daishonin about the death of his older sister's daughter. On March 14 or 15, Daishonin received a letter from that daughter saying,"My condition suddenly changed, and I think this letter to you may be my last." and lamented, "Has she then passed away at last?" Furthermore, Tokimitsu informed that the daughter died by chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo on her deathbed. The Daishonin praised her pure faith by saying "What good fortune had this lady accumulated from her past lives? Saying Nam-myoho-renge-kyo at the moment of death is like a one-eyed turtle encountering a floating sandalwood with a proper size hollow to crawl in the vast ocean, or a thread lowered from the heavens passing through the eye of a needle on earth. How rare she is!”

Furthermore, at the end of the letter, he admonished, "Now, in this age of the Latter Day of the Law, neither the Lotus Sutra nor the other sutras have the power to save the people. Only Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo can lead all people to Buddhahood. To mix other things with this Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is a grave error.".

■Original handwriting: It no longer exists. An old manuscript: Written by Nikko Shonin (Possessed by Fuji Taiseki-ji Temple)

[The text]

　　The 18 liters of polished rice, a horse-load of taro, five sections of konnyaku, you took kindly the trouble to send it to me.

First, concerning the young lady of Ishikawa Hyoe Nyudo, I often received letters from her. I believe it was on the evening of the 14th or the 15th day of the third month that her last letter arrived. In it, she said, “When I look at the world around me, it appears that even the healthy will have difficulty surviving this year. I have been ill for quite some time, but my condition has recently become critical and I think this letter to you may be my last”. Then had she passed away at last?

Because they are the Buddha’s golden words, the general belief among the people is that one who chants Namu-Amida Butsu at the last moment of death will surely go to the Pure Land. And yet, for some reason, Shakyamuni Buddha regretted and abandoned this teaching stating, “I have not yet expressed the truth” and “Honestly discard expedient means.”

Therefore I have been teaching as the Buddha advocated, but all of Japan has become enraged and denounced my words as groundless fabrications.There were other instances of the Buddha reversing his earlier teachings. In the Hinayana sutras, Shakyamuni taught that in all the ten directions there was no other Buddha and that no other living beings possessed the Buddha nature. Yet in the Mahayana sutras, he revealed that Buddhas live in all ten directions of the universe and that the Buddha nature is inherent within all living beings. How could anyone believe in the Hinayana sutras for this? Naturally, since that time all people have placed their faith in the Mahayana sutras.

There are even more incomprehensible differences. In the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni regretted and disclaimed all the sutras he had previously preached, currently preached and would preach, declaring only the Lotus Sutra to be the full and complete truth. But his disciples could not accept this. At that time, Taho Buddha came over to prove to what Shakyamuni Buddha had said, and tall the Buddhas from throughout the ten directions concurred and extended their tongues until they reached the Brahma Heaven. After that, Taho Buddha had closed the door of the treasure tower and the other Buddhas had returned to their original lands. Not even Shakyamuni Buddha himself could have denied the Lotus Sutra, whatever other sutras he might have expended in an effort to do so, because the other Buddhas had all joined in affirming its truth. That is why in the Fugen Sutra and Nirvana sutras, which are preached after the Lotus Sutra, the Lotus Sutra is praised but never slandered.

Nonetheless, priests like Zenmui of the Shingon sect and the founders of the Zen school have slandered the Lotus Sutra, and the entire Japanese believe their assertions. In so doing, the Japanese have become like those who were misled into joining forces with the rebel warriors, Masakado and Sadato. Japan is now on the brink of ruin because it has for many years been the archenemy of Shakyamuni, Taho, and the Buddhas of the ten directions, and in addition, the person who denounces these errors is persecuted. Because such evils thus accumulate one atop another, now our nation is incurring the wrath of heaven.

　What good fortune had this lady accumulated from her past lives? Saying Nam-myoho-renge-kyo at the moment of death is like a one-eyed turtle encountering a floating sandalwood with a proper size hollow to crawl in the vast ocean, or a thread lowered from the heavens passing through the eye of a needle on earth. How rare she is!

Moreover, the sutras make it very clear that a person who chants the Nembutsu will definitely fall into the hell of incessant suffering; yet people in their ignorance, believe this is just something I, Nichiren, have made up. As is often said, “To view the heavens is like viewing one’s own eyelashes.” People can see neither their own eyelashes which are just so close, nor a far-off sky. If my teachings had been false, Ishikawa’s lady, daughter nun, could not have achieved a correct and steadfast mind at the moment of her deathbed.

　Some, among my disciples, profess to know this teaching well, but this attitude is incorrect. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the heart of the Lotus Sutra. It is like the soul of a person. To revere another teaching together with Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is similar to an empress making two emperors as her husbands or secretly marrying a minister or a person of low rank. This could only result in disaster. In the Former and Middle times, this Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo was not propagated specifically in order not to deprive the other sutras of their power of merit.

Now, in this age of the Latter Day of the Law, neither the Lotus Sutra nor the other sutras have the power to save the people. Only Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo can lead all people to Buddhahood. This is not only my own judgment. Shakyamuni, Many Treasures, the Buddhas of the ten directions, and the Bodhisattvas who emerged from the earth as numerous as the dust particles of a thousand worlds have determined it. To mix other things with this Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is a grave error. A lamp is useless when the sun rises. When rain falls, are dewdrops necessary? Should one feed a newborn baby anything other than its mother's milk? With good medicine, it is not necessary to add any other medicine.

Although this woman possessed no special knowledge of this teaching, she had held this doctrine naturally and upheld the faiths until the last moment of her life. How precious she was! How noble-minded she was!　

Nichiren

The first day of April in the first year of Koan (1278) 　

The reply to the Lord Ueno.

Original Text. 　Table of Contents.