The Attainment of Buddhahoodin Principle and in Its Actual Aspect Chapter1
AROUND the middle of the seventh month I sent you a general explanation of the differences between the teaching of the True Word school and the teaching of the Lotus Sutra about the doctrine of attaining Buddhahood in one’s present form. Since then I am sure that you must have embraced the Lotus Sutra’s teaching of attaining Buddhahood in one’s present form. If that is not the case, then it must be the teaching of the attainment of Buddhahood in one’s present form that does not actually lead to Buddhahood, which is the one held by people in society today.
This worries me. I hope that you will pay careful attention to and ponder what I wrote out and sent you at that time. Besides, all the well-known scholars in society recognize the vital importance of the doctrine of attaining Buddhahood in one’s present form. My disciples and followers in particular, then, should set everything else aside and give their attention to this single doctrine. The teachings I have spoken of in various places over a period of twenty-seven years, from the fifth year of Kenchō [1253] to the present, the third year of Kōan [1280], are numerous, but fundamentally my purpose has been this one alone.
Background
Nichiren Daishonin wrote this letter on the fifth day of the tenth month in 1280 at Minobu in answer to a question posed by Myōichi-nyo. Three months earlier he had written an answer to a related question from her, and now he praises her for asking questions “again and again” about the doctrine of attaining Buddhahood in one’s present form. In this letter the Daishonin emphasizes first the vital importance of this doctrine for believers in his teaching, and second, that the true doctrine of attaining Buddhahood in one’s present form is found in the Lotus Sutra alone. In the Lotus, he says, the doctrine is set forth both in principle, in the theoretical teaching, and in its actual aspect, in the essential teaching. Further, he explains, the time to spread Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, the heart of the essential teaching, is now, the Latter Day of the Law. He points to statements by the Great Teachers T’ien-t’ai and Dengyō showing that, in addition to Nāgārjuna and Vasubandhu, they too understood that the heart of the essential teaching, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, would be spread in the Latter Day and that they longed for this time.