Letter to Niike (1) 新池御書 一

Letter to Niike

Japanese

■Time of writing: February, 3rd year of the Kōan dynasty (1280 A.D.), 59 years old, given to Niike Saemon-no-jo, a samurai directly serving the Kamakura Shogunate.

■Place of writing: At the hermitage on Mount Minobu.

■Daishonin taught Niike Saemon-no-jo, a samurai of the Kamakura Shogunate living in Iwata District, Toutoumi Province (now Shizuoka Prefecture), about the merits of making offerings to monks who hold the Lotus Sutra, drawing on Dengyo Daishi's sentence, "though he praises the Lotus Sutra he murders the Lotus’ heart." He also encourages them to maintain their faith in the Lotus Sutra for the rest of their lives, saying, "You must have faith increasingly from the beginning to the end."

　Niike Saemon-no-jo took refuge in Daishonin shortly after Daishonin entered Minobu in Bun'ei 11 [1274].

■Autograph: not extant.

[The text]

　What a joy it is for us to have been born in the Latter Day of the Law and to have shared in the propagation of the Lotus Sutra! How pitiful are those who, though born in this time, cannot believe in this sutra!

　No one can escape death once born as a human being, so why do you not practice in preparation for the next life? When I observe what people are doing, I realize that, although they profess faith in the Lotus Sutra and clasp its scrolls, they act against the intent of the sutra and are thereby doomed to the evil paths. To illustrate, a person has five internal organs, but should even one of them become diseased, it will infect all the others, and eventually the person will die. The Great Teacher Dengyō states that though he praises the Lotus Sutra he kills the Lotus’ heart. He means that, even if people embrace, read, and praise the Lotus Sutra, if they betray its intent, they will be killing not only Shakyamuni Buddha but all the Buddhas in the ten directions. Our worldly misdeeds and evil karma may have piled up as high as Mount Sumeru, but when we take faith in this sutra, they will vanish like frost or dew under the sun of the Lotus Sutra.

　Nevertheless, if one commits even one or two of the fourteen slanders (Note) set forth in this sutra, one’s offense will be extremely difficult to expiate. Killing a single Buddha would be a far greater offense than destroying all the sentient beings in the great three thousand worlds, and to violate the sutra’s intent would be to commit the sin of taking the lives of all the Buddhas in the ten directions. Those who disobey this code are called slanderers.

　Hell is a dreadful dwelling of fire, and the realm of hungry spirits is a pitiful place where, driven by starvation, they devour their own children. The realm of asuras consists of strife, and that of animals is to kill or be killed. There is a hell called the Red Lotus Hell. The meaning of this name is that when people freeze in the intense cold and curl up their backs, their backs split open and their flesh comes out, resembling a red lotus. And the hell of the Great Red Lotus is even more horrible. When one falls into such an evil place, the fact that one was a ruler or a general means nothing. Tormented by the wardens of hell, one is no different than a monkey made to dance on a string. What use are fame and fortune then? Can one still be arrogant and persist in false beliefs?

　Stop and ponder conversely! How rare is the faith that moves one to give alms to the monk who knows the heart of the Lotus Sutra! One will not stray into the evil paths if one does so even once. Still greater are the merits arising from ten or twenty contributions, or from five years, ten years, or a lifetime of contributions. They are beyond even the measure of the Buddhas’ wisdom. The Buddha taught that the merits of a single offering to the practitioner of this sutra are a hundred, thousand, ten thousand, million times greater than those of offering countless treasures to Shakyamuni Buddha for eighty million kalpas.

　When one encounters this sutra, one will overflow with happiness and shed tears of joy. It seems impossible to repay one’s debt to Shakyamuni Buddha. But by your frequent offerings to me deep in this mountain you will repay the merciful kindness of both the Lotus Sutra and Shakyamuni Buddha.

　Strive ever harder in faith, and never give in to negligence. All the people appear to believe sincerely when they first embrace the Lotus Sutra, but as time passes, they tend to become less devout; they no longer revere or make offerings to the monk, giving themselves up to arrogance and forming distorted views. This is most frightening. You must have faith increasingly from the beginning to the end. Otherwise you will have regrets. For example, the journey from Kamakura to Kyoto takes twelve days. If you travel for eleven but stop with only one day remaining, how can you admire the moon over the capital? No matter what, stay close to the monk who knows the heart of the Lotus Sutra, keep learning from him the principles of Buddhism, and continue your journey of faith.

Continued

(Note)

　 Fourteen slanders

　“One person enumerates the types of evil as follows, ‘I will first list the evil causes and their effects. There are fourteen slanders: (1) arrogance, (2) negligence, (3) egotistical judgment, (4) shallow understanding, (5) attachment to desires, (6) lack of understanding, (7) disbelief, (8) aversion, (9) doubts, (10) slandering, (11) despising goodness, (12) hating of goodness, (13) jealousy for goodness, (14) grudges goodness’. Since these fourteen slanders apply equally to monks and laity, you must be on guard against them.” ‘Reply to Lord Matsuno. (Fourteen Slanders)’　It is included in Volume 19.

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