Daily Gosho - On Omens

This Gosho, for me, sums up the correctness of Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism. The Soka Gakkai throughout its history has been persecuted for propagating the Mystic Law in this evil age, the Latter Day of the Law. Rest assured then, that we are bound to face slander, ridicule and obstacles, just as Nichiren Daishonin foretold, as we boldly advance for the sake of kosen-rufu...

"The great omens of the “Supernatural Powers” chapter foretold that the essence of the Lotus Sutra would spread widely after the Buddha’s demise, when the two thousand years of the Former and Middle Days of the Law had passed and the Latter Day of the Law had begun."

(On Omens, The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol.1, page 646) http://www.sgilibrary.org/view.php?page=644&m=0&q=  Selection Source: Kyo no Hosshin, Seikyo Shinbun, September 26th, 2012

Background
This letter was written at Minobu in the first year of Kenji (1275), when Nichiren Daishonin was fifty-four years old. As the closing part of this letter is missing, the identity of its recipient is uncertain, but it is generally thought to have been addressed to Shijo Kingo, a samurai and one of the Daishonin’s most loyal followers. Shijo Kingo was at this time facing opposition from his lord and his fellow samurai on account of his faith.
In the tenth month of 1274, the Mongols launched a massive attack against the southern part of Japan. The next year, Khubilai Khan again sent envoys, threatening another invasion if the Japanese government did not acknowledge fealty to the Mongol empire. On Omens interprets the Mongol threat and other recent calamities in the light of the Daishonin’s teaching.
In the beginning of this letter, the Daishonin discusses the omens that appeared when Shakyamuni Buddha expounded the Lotus Sutra in terms of the principle of the oneness of life and its environment. Expanding on this principle, he explains that, when the people’s six sense organs, or perceptive faculties, are deluded, extraordinary changes occur in the heavens and on earth. This reflects the truth that, while life and its environment may seem to be two independent phenomena, fundamentally they are one and inseparable.
Next, the Daishonin explains that the Buddha’s preaching is always preceded by omens, whose magnitude reflects the depth of the teaching about to be revealed. Thus the portents heralding the preaching of the Lotus Sutra were greater than those preceding any other sutra. Moreover, the signs presaging the essential teaching (latter half) of the Lotus Sutra far surpassed those introducing the theoretical teaching (former half). The Daishonin refers to the emergence of the treasure tower and the appearance of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth as omens revealing the superiority of the essential teaching over the theoretical teaching. Furthermore, he says, the great portents of the “Supernatural Powers” chapter surpass even those, and foretell that the Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo indicated in the depths of the “Life Span” chapter will spread widely in the Latter Day of the Law.
The Daishonin then turns to the upheavals and strange occurrences in the Japan of his own time. All of these, he concludes, occur because people oppose the votary of the Lotus Sutra, who propagates its essence in the Latter Day. Specifically, he warns that, because of the slander perpetrated by Nembutsu and True Word priests, Japan will be destroyed by a foreign country. And, he says, the people suffer from great calamities because they are persecuting “a single monk . . . who embraces the correct teaching”— that is, the Daishonin. In this way, he reassures his follower of the correctness of his teaching and emphasizes the inevitability of persecution.