Gosho Passage - January 17, 2025

"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."

From Gosho "Reply to the Lay Nun Nichigon" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Volume I, page 1079)

Gosho Passage - January 16, 2025

"Living beings and their environments always manifest Myoho-renge-kyo.” [...] These explanations are precise and clear. Who could have doubts? Thus, the entire realm of phenomena is no different than the five characters of Myoho-renge-kyo."

From Gosho "The True Aspect of All Phenomena" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 383)

Gosho Passage - January 15, 2025

"One may ask why the results of these vows should be so long in appearing. And yet, though one might point at the earth and miss it, though one might bind up the sky, though the tides might cease to ebb and flow and the sun rise in the west, it could never come about that the prayers of the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra would go unanswered."

From Gosho "On Prayer" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Volume I, page 345)

Gosho Passage - January 14, 2025

"I cannot hold back my tears when I think of the great persecution confronting me now, or when I think of the joy of attaining Buddhahood in the future. Birds and crickets cry, but never shed tears. I, Nichiren, do not cry, but my tears flow ceaselessly. I shed my tears not for worldly affairs but solely for the sake of the Lotus Sutra. So, indeed, they must be tears of amrita. The Nirvana Sutra states that, while the tears one has shed in past existences at the death of one’s parents, brothers, sisters, wives, children, and other relatives surpass the quantity of water in the four great seas, one weeps not a drop for the Buddha’s teachings. One becomes a votary of the Lotus Sutra by virtue of one’s practice in past existences. It is karmic relationships that determine which among the many trees are made into images of the Buddha. It is also because of karma that some become statues of Buddhas of the provisional teachings."

From Gosho "The True Aspect of All Phenomena" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Volume I, page 386)

Gosho Passage - January 13, 2025

"The fourth volume of the Lotus Sutra states, “If there were a person who spoke only one word to curse the lay persons or monks or nuns who uphold and preach the Lotus Sutra, then his offense would be even graver than that of cursing Shakyamuni Buddha to his face for the space of a kalpa.”[...] Take these teachings to heart, and always remember that believers in the Lotus Sutra should absolutely be the last to abuse one another. All those who keep faith in the Lotus Sutra are most certainly Buddhas, and one who slanders a Buddha commits a grave offense."

From Gosho "The Fourteen Slanders" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Volume I, page 756)

Gosho Passage - January 12, 2025

"With regard to the debt of gratitude owed to our parents, our father may be likened to heaven and our mother to the earth, and it would be difficult to say to which parent we are the more indebted. But it is particularly difficult to repay the great kindness of our mother. [...] Since I have realized that only the Lotus Sutra teaches the attainment of Buddhahood by women, and that only the Lotus is the sutra of true requital for repaying the kindness of our mother, in order to repay my debt to my mother, I have vowed to enable all women to chant the daimoku of this sutra."

From Gosho "The Sutra of True Requital" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Volume I, pages 930-931)

Gosho Passage - January 11, 2025

"In judging the relative merit of Buddhist doctrines, I, Nichiren, believe that the best standards are those of reason and documentary proof. And even more valuable than reason and documentary proof is the proof of actual fact."

From Gosho "Three Tripitaka Masters Pray for Rain" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Volume I, page 599)