Daily Gosho - The Three Kinds of Treasure

How mystic that this Gosho keeps appearing for me this week! I'll have to study it harder; there must be a reason for it.

This extract reminds me how fortunate I was to be born as a human, and to meet the practice. I started practicing in 1995 at the age of 21. I'd been searching for something (anything!), and I had the great good fortune to be introduced to Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism by a compassionate colleague who obviously could see I was suffering. It felt like coming home…

"It is rare to be born a human being. The number of those endowed with human life is as small as the amount of earth one can place on a fingernail. Life as a human being is hard to sustain - as hard as it is for the dew to remain on the grass. But it is better to live a single day with honor than to live to 120 and die in disgrace."

(The Three Kinds of Treasure - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 851) http://www.sgilibrary.org/view.php?page=848
Selection source: Kyo no Hosshin, Seikyo Shimbun, July 14th, 2012

Background

This letter was written at Minobu in the ninth month of 1277 and addressed to Shijo Nakatsukasa Saburo Saemon-no-jo Yorimoto, commonly known as Shijo Kingo, in Kamakura. Sometime around 1274, Shijo Kingo had begun making efforts to convert his lord, who was named Ema, to the Daishonin’s teachings. Lord Ema, however, did not respond positively. Instead, he reduced the size of Kingo’s landholdings and threatened to send him to the remote province of Echigo. Kingo’s colleagues spread scurrilous reports about him, and Kingo was accused of fomenting trouble at a debate in the sixth month of , during which the Tendai priest Ryuzo-bo was bested by the Daishonin’s disciple Sammi-bo.

Nichiren Daishonin cautions Shijo Kingo and instructs him on the best course of behavior in his trying circumstances. Later that year Lord Ema fell ill, and Kingo, applying his medical skills, helped cure him. The lord was most grateful and in 1278 restored, and later even increased, Kingo’s landholdings.

At the outset of this letter, the Daishonin tells Kingo that he should remember his debt of gratitude to his lord, and stresses the Buddhist teaching that fundamental changes within oneself inevitably result in changes in the environment. He mentions that when he was about to be executed at Tatsunokuchi Kingo vowed to die by his side. Now Kingo is undergoing a severe ordeal and the Daishonin is exerting all his powers to protect him. The Daishonin says that, since Kingo was fortunate enough to have been born human and encountered the true teaching, he should accumulate “the treasures of the heart” and win the respect of others. Finally, through historical references to Emperor Sushun and others, the Daishonin teaches Kingo that as a Buddhist he should conduct his daily life admirably and be considerate of others.