On the Importance of the “Expedient Means” and “Life Span” Chapters—Chapter1
YOUR letter dated the eighteenth day of this month arrived around noon on the twenty-third day of the same month. I opened and read it immediately. I have received the offerings listed in the letter, namely, ten thousand coins, a long sword, a fan, and twenty ryō of incense.
Looking over your letter, I see you say that you have turned fifty-seven this year, and that fifty-seven is regarded as a dangerous year in a man’s life.1 You do not know if this is the reason, but from the latter part of the first month on down to the present fourth month, you have experienced many sufferings in both body and mind. Granted that, since human beings are endowed with bodies, they are certain to suffer various illnesses that drag on and to be much troubled in their five extremities,2 still in your case these seem excessive.
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Background
This is Nichiren Daishonin’s reply to a letter from his follower Ōta Saemon-no-jō, also known as Ōta Jōmyō, who lived in Shimōsa Province. From the content it is clear that in 1278 Ōta sent offerings with a letter to the Daishonin at Minobu. In the letter, Ōta had reported his recent sufferings, physical and spiritual, and his concern that his present age, fifty-seven, was considered a “dangerous year,” or an “unlucky age,” in Japanese and Chinese tradition. He was the same age as the Daishonin.
The Daishonin responds that various sufferings are unavoidable, but that the Lotus Sutra provides “good medicine” to alleviate the sufferings of body and mind.
Suffering is a result of the karma one created in past existences, the Daishonin explains. He then cites the Buddhist principle of the twelve-linked chain of causation, which defines the links of causation between the previous existence and the present, between the present existence and the future.
He also discusses the yin and yang theory of the five agents, sharing some knowledge of a dangerous year with Ōta based on the so-called precept of adapting to local customs.
The Daishonin tells Ōta that he is copying for him two chapters of the Lotus Sutra. They are the second chapter, “Expedient Means,” and the sixteenth, “Life Span,” the core chapters respectively of the theoretical teaching and the essential teaching. He also addresses errors and falsehoods promulgated by the True Word and Flower Garland schools, which stole the T’ien-t’ai school’s principle of three thousand realms in a single moment of life. This principle, the Daishonin says, is found only in the Lotus Sutra, and it was expounded by Shakyamuni Buddha when he originally attained enlightenment. The Daishonin identifies himself as “a disciple of the Buddha in his true identity,” that is, as a Bodhisattva of the Earth.
In closing, the Daishonin advises Ōta to trust in him concerning “this year of danger that you face,” and see whether the promises of Shakyamuni and all the other Buddhas made in the Lotus Sutra to protect its believers are trustworthy.
Notes
1. The idea of “dangerous year” or “unlucky age” derives from the ancient Chinese philosophy of yin and yang. In Japan, the ages of twenty-five, forty-two, and sixty are considered unlucky for men, and the ages of nineteen, thirty-three, and thirty-seven for women, though there are local and historical variations.
2. The “five extremities” refers to one’s whole body, though explanations vary according to the source. One account defines them as one’s head, both hands, and both feet.