Daily Gosho - Letter to Gijo-bo

Shu ken ga metsu-do. Ko-kuyo shari. Gen kai e renbo. Ni sho katsu-go shin. Shujo ki-shin-buku. Shichi-jiki i nyunan. Isshin yok ken butsu. Fu ji shaku shinmyo. Ji ga gyu shuso. Ku shutsu ryojusen.  

Sound familiar? We recite these lines twice day during Gongyo, as part of Chapter 16, the Life Span of the Thus Come one. It translates as:

"When living beings have become truly faithful, honest and upright, gentle in intent, single-mindedly desiring to see the Buddha, not hesitating even if it costs them their lives, then I and the assembly of monks appear together on Holy Eagle Peak."

Nichiren Daishonin is urging us within this Gosho, to practice 'single-mindedly'. To summon forth our Buddha nature and use our courage, compassion and wisdom to fulfill our greatest potential. To create a life of indestructible happiness, a life in rhythm with the Mystic Law, based on our unshakable faith.

Let's each determine to practice single-mindedly...without hesitation or begrudging our lives, in the same spirit as Nichiren Daishonin did and as our Soka family do each and every day. Let's remember the struggles our three presidents have undertaken for kosen-rufu, and strive to live a life of absolute victory - with nam-myoho-renge-kyo at the centre of our lives.

"The verse section of the chapter states, '... single-mindedly desiring to see the Buddha, not hesitating even if it costs them their lives.' As a result of this passage, I have revealed the Buddhahood in my own life."

(Letter to Gijo-bo - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol.1, page 389)
Selection source: Myoji no Gen, July 19th, 2012
http://www.sgilibrary.org/view.php?page=389 


Background
This letter was written at Ichinosawa on Sado Island in the fifth month, 1273, to Gijo-bo, who had been the Daishonin’s senior at Seicho-ji temple in Awa Province. Nearly a month earlier, Nichiren Daishonin had written The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind, in which he had explained both the object of devotion in terms of the Law and the correct practice for attaining enlightenment in the Latter Day. This letter briefly restates the profound contents of The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind.
Nichiren Daishonin says that, of all the chapters of the Lotus Sutra, the “Life Span” chapter is particularly important to him. He quotes a passage, “. . . single-mindedly desiring to see the Buddha . . . ,” and notes, “As a result of this passage, I have revealed the Buddhahood in my own life.” He declares that in his capacity as the Buddha of the Latter Day of the Law he has realized and embodied Nam-myoho-renge-kyo of the Three Great Secret Laws, which is implied in the depths of the “Life Span” chapter.
This is one of the earliest references in his writings to the Three Great Secret Laws: the invocation (Nam-myoho-renge-kyo), the object of devotion (the Gohonzon), and the place of worship (the sanctuary).