Good Fortune in This Life
Background
This letter was written at Minobu when the Daishonin was fifty-five years old. Its recipient was Nanjō Shichirō Jirō Tokimitsu, commonly known as Nanjō Tokimitsu, a staunch follower of the Daishonin and the steward of Ueno Village in Fuji District of Suruga Province.
In the letter, citing the Lotus Sutra, the Daishonin says that those who serve the votary of the Lotus Sutra in the Latter Day of the Law, even for a short time, will gain incalculably greater good fortune than those who serve Shakyamuni Buddha for an entire kalpa. Since all Buddhas have attested to the truth of the Lotus and it contains not a particle of falsehood, no doubt can exist that Tokimitsu’s sincerity not only will bring him great blessings in his present existence, as the sutra promises, but also will benefit his deceased father.
Chapter1（Proclaiming the Truth of the Lotus Sutra）
EARLY in the New Year1 I received your greetings from your messenger. Let us congratulate each other! And I have received your various gifts, including seventy slabs of rice cake, a bamboo container of sake, a horseload of taros, one paper bag of river nori, two bundles of radishes, and seven yams. These articles demonstrate your warmhearted sincerity.
The eighth volume of the Lotus Sutra says, “Their wishes will not be in vain, and in this present existence they will gain the reward of good fortune.”2 It also states, “In this present existence he will have manifest reward for it.”3 The Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai said, “The Son of Heaven uttered not a single word in vain,” and “The words of the Dharma King contain no falsehoods.”4 If one is a worthy ruler, one never lies, even if it would bring about one’s ruin. How much more is this true of the Thus Come One Shakyamuni, who, when he was King Universal Brightness in a previous existence, returned to the palace of King Spotted Feet [to be executed] because he observed the precept against lying! When he met King Kāli in another past existence, he declared that those people who speak little truth or tell great lies will fall into hell. In addition, referring to the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha himself declares there, “The World-Honored One [has long expounded his doctrines and] now must reveal the truth,”5 and furthermore, it was expounded at the assembly where Many Treasures Buddha and the Buddhas of the ten directions had gathered as if the sun, the moon, and countless stars were ranged side by side. If there are any falsehoods in the Lotus Sutra, what then can people believe in?
Notes
1. According to the traditional Chinese and Japanese calendar, the New Year is also the beginning of spring.
2. Lotus Sutra, chap. 28.
3. Ibid. The full passage reads, “If there is anyone who offers alms to them [those who accept, uphold, read, and recite this sutra] and praises them, then in this present existence he will have manifest reward for it.”
4. A rephrasing of two passages in The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra.
5. Lotus Sutra, chap. 2.
Lecture
This letter was written at Minobu on the nineteenth day of the first month in the second year of Kenji (1276), when the Daishonin was fifty-five years old, and it was addressed to Nanjō Shichirō Jirō Tokimitsu.
Before this, Tokimitsu had sent New Year’s greetings to Nichiren Daishonin together with heartfelt offerings.
In this letter, the Daishonin expresses deep gratitude for those sincere offerings, praising Tokimitsu for his devotion. He teaches that through such offerings made with pure faith, Tokimitsu will not only receive great blessings in his present life, but that the merit will also extend to his late father, bringing him benefit in the afterlife. The original autograph of this letter is no longer extant.
From its content, this writing is also known as The Letter on the Reward in This Life, and sometimes referred to as The Letter at the Beginning of Spring or The New Year’s Letter.
At the beginning of the letter, after expressing his appreciation for the New Year’s greetings and offerings, the Daishonin cites passages from the sutra emphasizing that the Lotus Sutra is entirely free from falsehood.
The quoted phrases—“Their wishes will not be in vain, and in this present life they will surely receive their reward of good fortune,” and “They will gain visible reward in this very existence”—are from the eighth scroll, chapter twenty-eight (Encouragement of the Bodhisattva Universal Worthy) of the Lotus Sutra. These passages expound the immense merit derived from embracing and making offerings to the Lotus Sutra.
In the various schools that rely on the pre-Lotus teachings, there are some who claim that “seeking benefits in this life deviates from the true purpose of religion.” However, as these passages clearly show, Shakyamuni Buddha himself explicitly stated that the correct practice of the True Law naturally brings about tangible benefit in this present world. Indeed, to deny the reality of benefit in this life would contradict Buddhism’s fundamental aim—the salvation of all living beings.
Furthermore, the Daishonin demonstrates that the words of the Lotus Sutra can never be false, citing T’ien-t’ai’s statements, “The word of the Son of Heaven is never empty,” and “The Dharma King never utters falsehood.”
The “Dharma King” refers to the Buddha himself. As the Parable Chapter (chapter three) declares, “I am the Dharma King, free and sovereign over the Law,” and the Medicine King Chapter (chapter twenty-three) states, “Just as the Buddha is the King of all laws.”
Just as it is said that a wise sovereign’s words are never false, so too, the words of the Buddha—the King of the Law—contain not even the slightest untruth.
Therefore, the Buddha’s promise in the Lotus Sutra—“They will gain their reward of good fortune in this life; they will receive visible benefit in this existence”—is an absolute truth that will unfailingly be fulfilled.
To illustrate that the Buddha never speaks falsely, the Daishonin recounts the story of Shakyamuni’s past life as King Fumyo (Universal Brightness) and his encounter with King Haringa (Banju). The story of King Fumyo is summarized as follows.
In a past existence, while still engaged in bodhisattva practice, the Buddha was a monarch named King Fumyo. One day, as he was about to leave the castle gate for a pleasure outing in a grove, a Brahman appeared and begged alms. The king gladly consented, saying, “Wait here until I return,” and departed. During the excursion, King Banju suddenly appeared and captured him.
King Banju, misled by an evil teacher who told him he must collect the heads of a thousand kings, had already seized 999 rulers. King Fumyo was to be the thousandth.
Fumyo sighed, saying, “I do not lament my death; what grieves me is that I may become a liar. When I left the castle, I promised a Brahman that I would give him alms.”
Hearing this, King Banju granted him seven days’ reprieve. Returning to his kingdom, Fumyo gathered not only that Brahman but all the Brahmans in the land and made offerings to them.
Then, relinquishing the throne to his heir, he resisted the pleas of his retainers who tried to stop him, declaring, “I will not speak falsely. I must fulfill my promise.” He returned to King Banju’s palace.
Banju rejoiced, saying, “You are a man of truth—a truly noble being.” He then repented his wrongdoing, released the other 999 kings, and himself took refuge in the True Law.
King Fumyo’s actions exemplified his observance of the precept against false speech. His willingness to stake his life on keeping his word embodies the true quality of a ruler—and indeed of a human being.
How much more so, then, must the Lotus Sutra, which the Buddha himself described as “the true teaching to be revealed only after a long time has passed since I attained enlightenment,” be held as the supreme of all sutras, revealing the ultimate truth that had not been taught in any prior scripture.
Moreover, at the assembly where it was preached, Many Treasures Buddha declared, “All that Shakyamuni Buddha has expounded is the truth,” and the Buddhas of the ten directions extended their long, broad tongues in testimony, attesting to the authenticity of the Lotus Sutra.
The Daishonin concludes that if there were any falsehood in the Lotus Sutra, then what could human beings possibly regard as true? In the following section, he urges Tokimitsu to deepen his faith, assuring him that the vast benefit of offering to the Lotus Sutra and its practitioner will certainly not be false in his case.
Chapter2(Explaining the Benefits of Offering to the Lotus Sutra Practitioner)
Those who offer even a flower or a stick of incense to such a sutra have offered alms to a hundred thousand million Buddhas in their previous existences. Moreover, in the Latter Day of the Law of Shakyamuni Thus Come One, when the world is in chaos, and the ruler, his ministers, and the common people all alike hate the votary of the Lotus Sutra; when this votary is like a fish living in a puddle during a drought, or like a deer surrounded by all sorts of people, those who visit this votary on their own will obtain far greater blessings than they would by making offerings with their mind, mouth, and body for the space of an entire kalpa to the living Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings. The golden words of the Thus Come One are clear.
The sun is brilliant, and the moon, clear. The words of the Lotus Sutra are brilliant and clear, clear and brilliant, like the reflection of a face in a bright mirror, or the image of the moon on clear water. Yet could the Thus Come One’s pronouncement “In this present existence they will gain the reward of good fortune,” or his proclamation “In this present existence he will have manifest reward for it” possibly be empty only for Nanjō Shichirō Jirō? It is certain that, even if there were an age when the sun rises in the west, or a time were to come when the moon emerges from the ground, the Buddha’s words would never prove false. Judging from this, there cannot be the least doubt that your late father is now in the presence of Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings, and that you will receive great blessings in your present existence. How wonderful, how splendid!
Nichiren
The nineteenth day of the first month in the second year of Kenji (1276)
Reply to Nanjō
Lecture
This letter reveals that those who make offerings to the Lotus Sutra are persons who, in past existences, made offerings to as many as a hundred thousand million Buddhas, thus accumulating immense good causes. Moreover, it explains that the rewards gained from again making offerings to the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra in the Latter Day of the Law are described in the sutra itself as vast beyond measure. The Daishonin concludes by praising Nanjō Tokimitsu and his late father for the boundless benefit they have attained in both their present and future existences.
The phrase “those who have already made offerings to a hundred thousand million Buddhas in the past” comes from the “Teacher of the Law” chapter (chapter ten) of the Lotus Sutra, which reads:
“Such a person has already made offerings to a hundred thousand million Buddhas, and having fulfilled the great vow in the presence of those Buddhas, is born in this human world out of compassion for living beings.”
Hence, to have been born in the Latter Day, to believe in and uphold the Gohonzon as a disciple of Nichiren Daishonin, and to make even the smallest offering—a single flower or a stick of incense—is proof that one possesses inconceivably great karmic reward from the remote past.
The Daishonin further explains that in this defiled age of the Latter Day of the Law—an age rampant with the five impurities—when people everywhere slander and persecute the practitioners of the Lotus Sutra, the benefit of one person who rises alone to protect and make offerings to the practitioner is far greater than that of making offerings to Shakyamuni Buddha himself.
This “practitioner of the Lotus Sutra” clearly refers to none other than Nichiren Daishonin, the Original Buddha of the Latter Day.
At that time, the Daishonin’s life in the mountains of Minobu was extremely harsh, as he himself wrote: “I am like a fish living in a small puddle, or a deer surrounded by many hunters.”
Thus, he teaches that to visit and make offerings to him under such circumstances brings blessings surpassing those gained by making offerings to Shakyamuni Buddha with one’s body, mouth, and mind for an entire kalpa.
A similar statement appears in The Person and the Law written in the ninth month of the fourth year of Kōan (1281):
“Shakyamuni Buddha teaches, however, that one who makes offerings to the votary of the Lotus Sutra in the latter age for even a single day will gain benefit a hundred, thousand, ten thousand, million times greater than one would by offering countless treasures to the Buddha for one million kalpas. ” (The Writing of Nichiren Daishonin I, p.1097, l.13)
The reason there is such a difference in the merit of offering is, first, because Nichiren, the votary of the Lotus Sutra who is more precious than Shakyamuni Buddha” (The Writing of Nichiren Daishonin Ⅱ, p.710, l.43, Letter to Shimoyama), being the Eternal Buddha, the Original Buddha of Kuon Ganjo, whose life embodies the self-enjoyment body of infinite wisdom.
Secondly, for the believer making offerings, such acts can only be performed with the readiness to endure persecution from all sides. Because this requires a faith of unshakable strength, the benefit is incomparably greater.
As the Daishonin states, “The golden words of the Tathagata are perfectly clear.”
This teaching is none other than the Buddha’s own declaration in the Teacher of the Law chapter, which says:
“If there is someone who seeks the Buddha way and, over a kalpa, devotes himself to countless practices… yet praises and extols the one who upholds this sutra, the latter’s blessings will far surpass his own.”
Thus, the truth that every phrase and sentence of the Lotus Sutra is genuine and unfailing is already as bright and certain as the sun. Therefore, the Buddha’s edict and sacred decree—“They will obtain their reward of good fortune even in this life; they will receive visible benefits in this present existence”—cannot possibly be empty or false, especially when applied to Tokimitsu, whose offerings are imbued with sincerity and whose faith is pure and unyielding.
As the Daishonin emphasizes again, “Even if the sun should rise in the west or the moon come forth from the earth, the Buddha’s words will never prove false.”
The Buddha’s teaching is eternally free of deception.
Accordingly, the Daishonin concludes that through the profound faith and heartfelt offerings of Tokimitsu, his deceased father will certainly attain Buddhahood, and Tokimitsu himself will without doubt be enveloped in great fortune and benefit in this very life.
In the affectionate expression “Kōjin, kōjin” (my faithful one, my faithful one), one can almost see the Daishonin’s gentle smile, radiating compassion as he praises Tokimitsu’s steadfast faith.
How deeply moved Tokimitsu must have been to receive this letter at the beginning of the New Year!
It is not difficult to imagine his youthful heart burning ever more brightly with courage and determination to overcome the hardships that the coming year would bring.