Letter to Endo Saemon-no-jo
I have recently received an official pardon
and am now returning to Kamakura. Can this be the year in
which the passage, "By now the original vows that I
made have already been fulfilled," comes true for me?
Had it not been for your protection, could
I possibly have sustained my life? Could I have survived
to be pardoned? All the achievements of my lifetime are
solely thanks to you. The Lotus Sutra says, "The young
sons of the heavenly deities will wait on and serve him.
Swords and staves will not touch him, and poison will have
no power to harm him." How reassuring this sutra is!
Such being the case, you must be an envoy
sent by the heavenly gods Bonten and Taishaku. I will bestow
my seals upon you as a promise that you will be reborn in
[the Pure Land of] Eagle Peak. You should take one of them
with you to your next existence. [When you arrive] at Eagle
Peak, call out, "Nichiren, Nichiren!" and I will
come to meet you at that time.
I will write to you again from Kamakura.
Nichiren
The twelfth day of the third month in the
eleventh year of Bun'ei (1274), cyclical sign kinoe-inu.
Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin,
Vol. 6, page 87.
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