“Reply to the Lay Nun Nichigon”.docVIP

“Reply to the Lay Nun Nichigon” (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, P. 1079; Gosho Zenshu, P. 1262) The following is the entire text of Nichiren Daishonin’s letter “Reply to the Lay Nun Nichigon” and is the study material for February study meetings in the SGI-USA. I placed the written petition, dated the eighth day of the eleventh month in the third year of Koan (1280), in which you expressed your prayer, along with your offerings of one thousand coins and an unlined robe made of thread spun from bark fiber, before the Lotus Sutra, and I spoke to the gods of the sun and moon about it. Now there is no need to attempt to surmise yourself how things will go. Whether or not your prayer is answered will depend on your faith; [if it is not] I will in no way be to blame. When water is clear, the moon is reflected. When the wind blows, the trees shake. Our minds are like the water. Faith that is weak is like muddy water, while faith that is brave is like clear water. Understand that the trees are like principles, and the wind that shakes them is like the recitation of the sutra. With my deep respect, Nichiren The twenty-ninth day of the eleventh month Background This letter was written at Mount Minobu in the eleventh month of the third year of Koan (1280) in response to a petition from the lay nun Nichigon. She is thought to have been either a relative of the lay priest Takahashi, a central figure among the believers in Fuji District of Suruga Province, or the mother of Nichigen, a priest of Jisso-ji temple in the same province who converted to Nichiren Daishonin’s teachings. Lay nuns and lay priests have been tonsured but continue live in society. It signifies one who has entered the “way of the Buddha.” Commentary Outside of Nichiren Buddhism, self-reliant faith may sound like an oxymoron since we often associate faith with belief in something outside ourselves and beyond our control. Or self-reliant faith may strike us as absurd since we find it difficult t