Daily Gosho - On Offering Prayers to the Mandala of the Mystic Law

Applicable to men too! When we make great causes for the sake of kosen-rufu, offering our time and efforts, actually we're making these offerings to our own lives and our future happiness. Let's summon up this great protection with the Mystic Law at the centre of our lives, side by side with our mentor... 

"A woman who takes this efficacious medicine will be surrounded and protected by these four great bodhisattvas at all times. When she rises to her feet, so too will the bodhisattvas, and when she walks along the road, they will also do the same."

On Offering Prayers to the Mandala of the Mystic Law http://www.sgilibrary.org/view.php?page=414 The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol.1, page 415) Selection source: Kyo no Hosshin, Seikyo Shimbun, August 23rd, 2012

Background

Neither the date nor the recipient of this letter is known. But it is generally supposed that the letter was given to the lay nun Sennichi, the wife of Abutsubo, in the tenth year of Bun’ei (1273). The “Mystic Law” in the title indicates both the five characters of Myoho-renge-kyo and the seven characters of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. The mandala of the Mystic Law refers to the Gohonzon— the object of devotion inscribed by Nichiren Daishonin with Nam-myoho-renge-kyo down its center. The Daishonin also mentions elsewhere that the daimoku of the Lotus Sutra should be made into an object of devotion.

In terms of the principle of three thousand realms in a single moment of life, the daimoku down the center of the Gohonzon represents the enlightened “single moment of life” of Nichiren Daishonin, and the characters on both sides of it, “the three thousand realms.” Because the former includes the latter, the Daishonin says that “this mandala has but five or seven characters.”

The Daishonin emphasizes that Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the medicine that will cure the illnesses (that is, sufferings) of all people in the Latter Day of the Law, and that the lay nun Sennichi, a woman who chants Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, will be protected by the four bodhisattvas at all times.