Daily Gosho - The Supremacy of the Law

Reminding us of our great good fortune to be practicing as part of the Soka family, united with our mentor. Our strength of faith and belief in each other, practitioners who have made achieving kosen-rufu their mission in life, is truly wondrous.

"In battles soldiers regard the general as their soul. If the general were to lose heart, his soldiers would become cowards."

(The Supremacy of the Law - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol.1, page 613) http://www.sgilibrary.org/view.php?page=612&m=0&q= Selection Source: President Ikeda's Essay - Conversing with the Protagonists of the New Age, Seikyo Shinbun, October 5th, 2012


Background
Nichiren Daishonin wrote this letter at Minobu in the eighth month of the first year of Kenji (1275). It was addressed to Oto, the daughter of Nichimyo, an earnest believer living in Kamakura. This letter, though addressed to Oto, was obviously meant for her mother, whom the Daishonin had called the Sage Nichimyo in a letter dated the fifth month of 1272.
Virtually nothing is known about Nichimyo other than that she visited the Daishonin, with her daughter, while he was in exile on Sado Island. The journey to Sado was a dangerous one, and the Daishonin was greatly impressed by the strength of faith she demonstrated.
In this letter, the Daishonin says, “Ice is made of water, but it is colder than water. Blue dye comes from indigo, but when something is repeatedly dyed in it, the color is better than that of the indigo plant.” With this paraphrase of a passage in the well-known Chinese classic, Hsün Tzu, he encourages Nichimyo to strengthen her faith still more so she can gain even greater vitality and good fortune.
The title for this letter derives from a passage in The Annotations on the Nirvana Sutra that reads, “One’s body is insignificant while the Law is supreme. One should give one’s life in order to propagate the Law.” The Daishonin declares that however much people hate and persecute him, because the Law is supreme, it will spread without fail. Then, after his death, his remains, he adds, will be respected, as will those who have aided him.