The Attainment of Buddhahoodin Principle and in Its Actual Aspect Chapter5
Moreover, in spite of the fact that even such men of past ages as these puzzled over the doctrine of attaining Buddhahood in one’s present form, your having inquired about this doctrine again and again in this way in your situation as a woman is surely no ordinary thing. Has Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings, taken possession of you? Or are you following in the footsteps of the dragon king’s daughter? Or perhaps Gautamī has appeared again. I do not know, but without fail the clouds of the five obstacles will lift from you in an instant and you will gaze on the tranquil light of the moon of awakening. I will write again in detail another time.
Nichiren
The fifth day of the tenth month in the third year of Kōan [1280]
Reply to Myōichi-nyo
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.