Daily Gosho - The Great Battle

It's a battle, and sometimes the battle is the one in our mind. The internal struggle between victory and defeat. Let's summon up Nichiren's fighting spirit and keep battling on....

"It has been twenty or more years now since I found myself in that situation and began the great battle. Not once have I thought of retreat."

(The Great Battle - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol.2, page 465) Selection Source: Our Brilliant Path of Victory - 84, Seikyo Shinbun, September 12th, 2012


Background
Nichiren Daishonin wrote this letter to all his followers in the fifth month of , while he was still enduring the severe privations of exile on Sado Island. The title, On Practicing the Buddha’s Teachings, indicates practicing in exact accordance with what the Buddha taught.
This title can be said to indicate two important points. One is that Nichiren Daishonin lived in accord with Shakyamuni’s teachings and fulfilled all the prophecies of the Lotus Sutra. The other is that the Daishonin’s followers in the Latter Day of the Law are to carry out and fulfill his teachings.
In this letter the question is raised: Why must believers experience hardships when the Lotus Sutra promises “peace and security in their present existence” ? Nichiren Daishonin answers that those who practice the Lotus Sutra exactly according to the Buddha’s teachings are bound to face the three powerful enemies, whose appearance was predicted in the “Encouraging Devotion” chapter of the sutra. In other words, one proves oneself to be a true votary only by facing and overcoming great obstacles for the sake of the Buddha’s teachings. In essence, this means to forthrightly make clear what is the correct teaching of Buddhism and to mercifully transmit the teaching to others.
One month before writing this letter, the Daishonin completed the treatise The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind, in which he revealed the true object of devotion— the Gohonzon— for the people of the Latter Day of the Law. He also revealed that the practice based on it— chanting with firm faith in it— leads to enlightenment. This present letter was written subsequently to clarify the importance of another practice— shakubuku, or spreading this teaching to others.