Acknowledging Various Offerings Chapter3
———————————-（contimued from Chapter2)————————————-
Not even one person in Japan today understands this teaching. Only Nichiren understands it. And if I knew it and nevertheless failed to speak out, I would fall into the hell of incessant suffering and could never hope to be released.
If knowing of a traitor one failed to report the person to the ruler of the country, one would be guilty of wrongdoing. When I speak up, my enemies lash at me like the rain and rush at me like the wind. I am treated as if I am the traitor, or as if I am a pirate or a mountain bandit. In any case, it is hard to bear.
I am like, for instance, Bodhisattva Never Disparaging at the end of [the Middle Day of] the Law of the Buddha Awesome Sound King, or like the monk Realization of Virtue at the end of [the Middle Day of] the Law of the Buddha Joy Increasing. I am like T’ien-t’ai or Dengyō. And my enemies exceed those of such men. Though such men were hated by many people, still their countries’ rulers never persecuted them. As you can see, I am detested even more by the ruler than by many people, and he shows even greater enmity toward me than if I were the enemy of his mother and father.
———————————(continued to Chapter4)——————————————-
Background
Nichiren Daishonin wrote this letter on the seventh day of the seventh month in 1278 to Nanjō Heishichirō, who is thought to have been a relative of Nanjō Tokimitsu. After thanking Heishichirō for the various offerings he had sent, the Daishonin explains that going against the Lotus Sutra leads to the hell of incessant suffering and that it is actually the eminent priests of the various schools who have turned against the Lotus. But having spoken up about this matter, he has been persecuted as if he were a traitor. The Daishonin praises Heishichirō for sending offerings to such a person in spite of the perilous way to Minobu, and concludes that there is no imagining the greatness of the benefit he will receive as a result.