Daily Gosho - The Good Medicine for All Ills

Wonderful news this week! A member in our district has been given the all-clear from the life-threatening condition she suffered with last year. We might think that because we practice, we will not encounter illness, but as we know this is one of the four sufferings which cannot be avoided. Similarly, we might view illness as a sign of weak faith. Not so! Illness, as this Gosho states, is a wonderful opportunity for us to strengthen our faith. It gives us the courage to determine to make the appropriate changes in our lifestyle, or obtain medical advice for example, and as Nichiren Daishonin writes, can be a springboard to enlightenment...

"And could not this illness of your husband's be the Buddha's design, because the Vimalakirti and Nirvana sutras both teach that sick people will surely attain Buddhahood? Illness gives rise to the resolve to attain the way."

(The Good Medicine for All Ills - The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, page 937) http://www.sgilibrary.org/view.php?page=937 Selection source: Kyo no Hosshin, Seikyo Shimbun, November 7th, 2012


Background
This letter was written at Minobu to the lay nun Myoshin. The most widely accepted view suggests that it was written in the first year of Koan (1278); another view is that it was written in the first year of Kenji (1275). Few details about Myoshin are known. One explanation identifies her as the wife of the lay priest Takahashi Rokuro Hyoe, and if this is correct, she would have been an aunt of Nikko Shonin. In any event, she lived in Fuji District of Suruga Province and was a follower of Nichiren Daishonin.
This letter was a reply to a report from Myoshin about her husband’s illness. The Daishonin encourages her to view his illness as a manifestation of the Buddha’s compassion, since it has enabled him to arouse a determination to seek enlightenment— a determination that he previously lacked. He explains that, because of the sincerity of her husband’s recently awakened faith, he will certainly be able to eradicate the bad karma of his misdeeds; and even if he were to die now, he would experience the boundless joy of the Law that transcends both life and death.
When her husband eventually died of his illness, Myoshin was left with a young child. She maintained her faith after her husband’s death and visited the Daishonin often at Minobu to bring him offerings.