On Curing Karmic Disease

Background and Summary（Short Story）

This letter, written in 1275, is a reply to Ōta Jōmyō’s report of his skin disease. Ōta was a devoted follower of Nichiren Daishonin and a government official. The letter mentions T’ien-t’ai’s teachings, discussing the six causes of illness and proclaiming that even diseases caused by one’s karma can be cured by the Lotus Sutra’s “good medicine.” It suggests that Ōta and Daishonin were the same age based on another letter’s content.

Main Text

However, because of the influence of karmic bonds and the compassion with which you are imbued in this lifetime, you met me, a priest of humble learning, when you least expected it, and determined to reform your ways. Therefore, though at the moment your offense has brought on these boils from which you suffer, in the future you will be spared worse suffering.

On Curing Karmic Disease

Background

ISEE from your letter that you have been stricken with a painful affliction. On the one hand, knowing that you are in agony grieves me, but on the other, I am delighted. The Vimalakīrti Sutra states: “At that time the wealthy Vimalakīrti thought to himself, ‘I am ill, lying on my bed, [yet why does the World-Honored One, man of great compassion, not take pity on me]?’ . . . At that time the Buddha said to Manjushrī, ‘Go visit Vimalakīrti, and inquire after his illness.’” The Nirvana Sutra says, “At that time the Thus Come One . . . assumed the appearance of one who is ill in body and lay on his right side like a sick man.” The Lotus Sutra states, “[The Thus Come One is well and happy], with few ills and few worries.”1 The eighth volume of Great Concentration and Insight states: “Vimalakīrti lay on his sickbed in Vaishālī, making his illness a pretext to promote the teachings . . . Through his death, the Thus Come One taught the eternity [of life], and through illness, the power [of Buddhism].” It also says: “There are six causes of illness: (1) disharmony of the four elements; (2) improper eating or drinking; (3) inappropriate practice of seated meditation; (4) attack by demons; (5) the work of devils; and (6) the effects of karma.”

The Nirvana Sutra reads: “There are three types of people whose illness is extremely difficult to cure. The first is those who slander the great vehicle; the second, those who commit the five cardinal sins; and the third, icchantikas, or persons of incorrigible disbelief. These three categories of illness are the gravest in the world.”

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The Lotus, the wonderful sutra of the single vehicle, is the golden words of the three kinds of Buddhas.13 Likened to a bright jewel, it ranks highest among all the sutras that “I have preached, now preach, and will preach.” There are passages in the Lotus Sutra that say, “Among the sutras, it [the Lotus Sutra] holds the highest place,” and “[Among those sutras] the Lotus is the foremost!”14 The Great Teacher Dengyō said that [the Lotus school is] the school founded by the Buddha himself.15

I have made a thorough study of the various True Word sutras, such as the Mahāvairochana, Diamond Crown, and Susiddhikara, but have found nothing written in them to compare with the above passages of the Lotus Sutra. The claim [that these sutras are superior to the Lotus] appears to be no more than a prejudiced view held by Shan-wu-wei, Chin-kang-chih, Pu-k’ung, Kōbō, Jikaku, and Chishō. From this we realize that the true intent of the Buddhas Shakyamuni and Mahāvairochana lay just in the supremacy of the Lotus Sutra. When the three great teachers Kōbō, Jikaku, and Chishō, the founders of the True Word teachings in Japan, went to China during the T’ang dynasty, they inherited from Hui-kuo and Fa-ch’üan the deceptions and delusions originally held by the three Tripitaka masters Shan-wu-wei, Chin-kang-chih, and Pu-k’ung. When on returning to Japan they propagated the Lotus Sutra and the True Word teachings, they hid the brilliant moon of the Lotus Sutra, the supreme vehicle that surpasses all the other sutras of the past, present, and future, and showed the firefly glimmer of the True Word mandalas of the two realms.16 Not only that, but they slandered the Lotus Sutra, saying that it was a work of “childish theory” and belonged to “the region of darkness.” These comments, however, were like a dagger turned against those who made them. It is not the Lotus but the Mahāvairochana Sutra that is filled with childish theory and is in the region of darkness. The founders of the True Word teachings were warped to begin with. So how could their disciples and followers be upright? Contamination at the source of a river will pollute its entire length. Because of this, the Land of the Sun has had a long, dark night, and the Sun Tree is now about to be blighted by an alien frost.17

Although you were not in the mainstream of the True Word school, you were still a retainer of a patron of that teaching. You lived for many years in a house whose family was devoted to an erroneous doctrine, and month after month your mind was infected by the teachers of error. Though huge mountains may crumble and the great seas dry up, this offense of yours will not easily pass away. However, because of the influence of karmic bonds and the compassion with which you are imbued in this lifetime, you met me, a priest of humble learning, when you least expected it, and determined to reform your ways. Therefore, though at the moment your offense has brought on these boils from which you suffer, in the future you will be spared worse suffering.

King Ajātashatru suffered from severe boils because he committed the five cardinal sins and slandered the correct teaching. But his boils disappeared instantly when the light produced by the Buddha’s moon-loving meditation illuminated his body. And, though it had been predicted that the king had only twenty-one days left to live, his life span was extended by forty years. In deep appreciation, he earnestly requested one thousand arhats to record the golden words of the Buddha’s entire lifetime,18 thus spreading the Buddha’s teachings into the ages of the Former, Middle, and Latter Days of the Law.

Your boils have resulted from only one offense—slandering the correct teaching. The Mystic Law you now embrace surpasses the moon-loving meditation. How then could your boils possibly not be healed and your life span not extended? If these words of mine prove untrue, you should shout: “The Buddha, the eye of the entire world, is a great liar, and the Lotus, the wonderful sutra of the single vehicle, is a scripture of clever flourishes. The World-Honored One should give me proof if he cares about his good name. All the sages and worthies should come to protect me if they do not want to be false to their vows.”

A letter cannot convey all that one would like to say, and words cannot fully express what is in the heart. The rest will have to wait until the next time we meet.

With my deep respect,

Nichiren

The third day of the eleventh month

Reply to the lay priest Ōta

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Background

This letter is a reply to Ōta Jōmyō’s report that he was suffering from a skin disease. Written in the eleventh month of the first year of Kenji (1275), it was sent from Minobu to Ōta Jōmyō, who lived in Shimōsa Province. One of the Daishonin’s most devout believers, Ōta was a government official who was converted to the Daishonin’s teachings by Toki Jōnin. Around 1278, Ōta received tonsure and was given the Buddhist name Myōnichi (Wonderful Sun). From the content of another letter sent to him by the Daishonin, it appears that he and the Daishonin were the same age.

In this letter, citing T’ien-t’ai’s Great Concentration and Insight, Nichiren Daishonin refers to the six causes of illness and declares that diseases resulting from one’s karma are the most difficult to cure, but that even those can be recovered from with the “good medicine of the Lotus Sutra.”

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Notes

1. Lotus Sutra, chap. 15. This is the answer to a question addressed to Shakyamuni Buddha by the Bodhisattvas of the Earth: “Is the World-Honored One comfortable, with few illnesses, few worries?”

13. Shakyamuni Buddha, Many Treasures Buddha, and the Buddhas of the ten directions.

14. The first quotation is from chapter 23; the second, from chapter 10.

15. Adapted from a passage in The Outstanding Principles of the Lotus Sutra.

16. The Womb Realm mandala, described in the Mahāvairochana Sutra, and the Diamond Realm mandala, described in the Diamond Crown Sutra.

17. The Land of the Sun refers to Japan, and the Sun Tree is an ancient name for Japan that appears in a Chinese document.

18. Reference is to the First Buddhist Council, which began the task of compiling the Buddha’s teachings. With the support of King Ajātashatru, this council was convened in the Cave of the Seven Leaves near Rājagriha in Magadha shortly after the Buddha’s passing.

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