Gosho Passage - September 15, 2024

"Before, I had thought that your sincerity was just an ordinary matter, but now, for the first time, I have sensed the depth of your faith. If anything should happen to you, just as the moon emerges to shine in the dark night, so the five characters of Myoho-renge-kyo will appear as a moon for you."

From Gosho "The Sons Pure Storehouse and Pure Eye" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Volume I, page 1050)

Gosho Passage - September 14, 2024

"The Lotus Sutra is the king of sutras, true and correct in both word and principle. Its words are the ultimate reality, and this reality is the Mystic Law (myoho). It is called the Mystic Law because it reveals the principle of the mutually inclusive relationship of a single moment of life and all phenomena. That is why this sutra is the wisdom of all Buddhas."

From Gosho "On Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Volume I, page 3)

Gosho Passage - September 13, 2024

"The Lotus Sutra is the king of sutras, true and correct in both word and principle. Its words are the ultimate reality, and this reality is the Mystic Law (myoho). It is called the Mystic Law because it reveals the principle of the mutually inclusive relationship of a single moment of life and all phenomena. That is why this sutra is the wisdom of all Buddhas."

From Gosho "On Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Volume I, page 3)

Gosho Passage - September 12, 2024

"The “Expedient Means” chapter in volume one of the Lotus Sutra states, “The wisdom of the Buddhas is infinitely profound and immeasurable.” A commentary says that the riverbed of reality is described as “infinitely profound” because it is boundless, and that the water of wisdom is described as “immeasurable” because it is hard to fathom. Is not the meaning of the sutra and the commentary that the way to Buddhahood lies within the two elements of reality and wisdom? Reality means the true nature of all phenomena, and wisdom means the illuminating and manifesting of this true nature. Thus when the riverbed of reality is infinitely broad and deep, the water of wisdom will flow ceaselessly. When this reality and wisdom are fused, one attains Buddhahood in one’s present form."

From Gosho "The Essentials for Attaining Buddhahood" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Volume I, page 746)

Gosho Passage - September 11, 2024

"The Buddha revealed that he had attained enlightenment countless kalpas in the past, which puzzled his listeners as greatly as if he had asserted that an old man of a hundred was the son of a man of twenty-five. And he also expounded the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life, explaining that the nine worlds have the potential for Buddhahood and that Buddhahood retains the nine worlds. Thus a single word of this Lotus Sutra is as precious as a wish-granting jewel, and a single phrase is the seed of all Buddhas."

From Gosho "The Selection of the Time" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Volume I, page 539)

Gosho Passage - September 10, 2024

"[...] in the sixth volume of Miao-lo's Annotations on "The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra," in the passage that reads: "While the three thousand realms remain latent [in ordinary beings], they are all designated by the term 'ignorance.' But when the three thousand realms all manifest themselves as the result [of Buddhahood], then they are all designated by the term 'eternal happiness.'"

From Gosho "The Entity of the Mystic Law" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 419)

Gosho Passage - September 9, 2024

"The great lantern that illuminates the long night of the sufferings of birth and death, the sharp sword that severs the fundamental darkness inherent in life, is none other than the Lotus Sutra."

From Gosho "A Comparison of the Lotus and Other Sutras" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 1038)

Gosho Passage - September 8, 2024

"We are troubled by revolt in our own country, thieves and bandits fill the land, enemies come from abroad to attack us, and all our thoughts are of armed conflict. The people’s hearts are lacking in filial piety and they look on their own parents as strangers. [...] How thankful we must be that, in a world such as this, there are those who, because of some good karma accumulated in the past, are willing to support the votaries of the Lotus Sutra! How thankful we must be!"

From Gosho "On the Three Calamities" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Volume II, page 802)

Gosho Passage - September 7, 2024

"[...] in the sixth volume of Miao-lo's Annotations on "The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra," in the passage that reads: "While the three thousand realms remain latent [in ordinary beings], they are all designated by the term 'ignorance.' But when the three thousand realms all manifest themselves as the result [of Buddhahood], then they are all designated by the term 'eternal happiness.'"

From Gosho "The Entity of the Mystic Law" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 419)

Gosho Passage - September 6, 2024

"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 Preyer" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Volume I, page 345)

Gosho Passage - September 5, 2024

"At present the entire body of the Honorable Abutsu is composed of the five elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space. These five elements are also the five characters of the daimoku. Abutsu-bo is therefore the treasure tower itself, and the treasure tower is Abutsu-bo himself. No other knowledge is purposeful. It is the treasure tower adorned with the seven kinds of treasures— hearing the correct teaching, believing it, keeping the precepts, engaging in meditation, practicing assiduously, renouncing one’s attachments, and reflecting on oneself. You may think you offered gifts to the treasure tower of the Thus Come One Many Treasures, but that is not so. You offered them to yourself. You, yourself, are a Thus Come One who is originally enlightened and endowed with the three bodies. You should chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with this conviction."

From Gosho "On the Treasure Tower" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, pages 299-300)

Gosho Passage - September 4, 2024

"Though the teaching I am now propagating seems limited, it is extremely profound. That is because it goes deeper than the teaching expounded by T’ien-t’ai, Dengyo, and others. It is the three important matters in the “Life Span” chapter of the essential teaching. Practicing only the seven characters of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo seems limited, but since they are the master of all the Buddhas of the three existences, the teacher of all the bodhisattvas in the ten directions, and the guide that enables all living beings to attain the Buddha way, it is profound."

From Gosho "Earthly Desires Are Enlightenment" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Volume I, page 317)

Gosho Passage - September 3, 2024

"Thus faith is the basic requirement for entering the way of the Buddha. In the fifty-two stages of bodhisattva practice, the first ten stages, dealing with faith, are basic, and the first of these ten stages is that of arousing pure faith. Though lacking in knowledge of Buddhism, a person of faith, even if dull-witted, is to be reckoned as a person of correct views."

From Gosho "The Daimoku of the Lotus Sutra" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Volume I, page 141)

Gosho Passage - September 2, 2024

"During the Former Day of the Law, Bodhisattva Vasubandhu and Bodhisattva Nagarjuna chanted the daimoku, but they did this solely as a practice for themselves and went no further than that. In the Middle Day of the Law Nan-yüeh and T’ien-t’ai likewise chanted Nam-myoho-renge-kyo; they did so as a practice for their own benefit, but they did not expound it widely for others. [...] Now, however, we have entered the Latter Day of the Law, and the daimoku that I, Nichiren, chant is different from that of earlier ages. This Nam-myoho-renge-kyo encompasses both practice for oneself and the teaching of others."

From Gosho "Receiving of the Three Great Secret Laws" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Volume II, page 986)

Gosho Passage - September 1, 2024

"for the matter of becoming a Buddha, ordinary people keep in mind the words “earnest resolve” and thereby become Buddhas. When we carefully consider what exactly earnest resolve refers to, it is the doctrine of observing the mind. When we inquire into what exactly the doctrine of observing the mind refers to, it means that offering one’s only robe to the Lotus Sutra is equivalent to peeling off one’s skin; and that in a time of famine, offering the food that is the only means for sustaining one’s life that day to the Buddha is offering one’s life to the Buddha."

From Gosho "The Gift of Rice" (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin Volume I, page 1125)