Ueno Dono Gohenji(NOPPA translation of this disputed text)
Rogowdoc
BACKGROUND: Uenodono Gokeama was the widow of Nanjo Hyoe Shichiro (?
1265) of Ueno in Suruga Province (Shizuoka Prefecture). This letter is said to
have been written on the 11th of the 7th month in 1265 (second year of the
Bun'ei Era), when Nichiren Shonin, 43 years old, was visiting Awa Province
(southern Chiba Prefecture).
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UENO-DONO GOKEA-MA GO-HENJI (A Response to the Nun, Widow of Lord Ueno)
Thank you very much for the donations in memory of your late husband.
Have you had any communication with your husband, the late Lord Ueno, since he
passed away? I know you did not hear from him in Hades, and you cannot see him
unless you have a dream or an illusion. Your late husband in the Pure Land of
Mt. Sacred Eagle must be looking at you day and night; but you and your
children, who have only human eyes, cannot see him. Nevertheless, you must
believe that you will meet him someday in the Pure Land of Mt. Sacred Eagle.
During your countless lives in the past, you have married so many times.
However, your current marriage is the most precious because due to the
recommendation of your late husband, you became a believer of the Lotus Sutra.
You must worship him as a Buddha. When your husband was alive, he was in a
state of Buddhahood. A person able to uphold the Lotus Sutra is a Buddha
whether he is dead or alive. This is the "attainment of Buddhahood immediately
with the present body," which is one of the most important teachings of the
Buddha. The Buddha says in the Lotus Sutra, chapter 11: "If anyone
can uphold this teaching, then he upholds the Buddha's body."
We tend to believe that the Buddha's pure lands and hells do not exist in this
world, but actually they exist only in our minds. Those who are awakened to
this truth are called Buddhas, and those ignorant of it and still confused are
called the
unenlightened.
It is possible to be awakened to this truth only by upholding the teachings of
the
Lotus Sutra; practicers of the Lotus Sutra perceive that hells and the pure
land of
tranquil light are identical. Even if a person practices provisional teachings
for
innumerable myriad's of aeons against the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, he will
be stuck in hell. This is not my (Nichiren's) arbitrary opinion, but it is
the doctrine of
Sakyamuni Buddha, Taho Buddha, and all Buddhas in manifestation throughout the
universe.
For this reason, a person who does not uphold the teachings of the Lotus Sutra
and who practices the expedient teachings is just like a person surrounded by
fire, struggling to escape from it but gets only deeper in the fire, or a
person drowning, sinking deeper and deeper in water. If a person believes in
the Amida Sutra and the Great Sun Buddha Sutra, following the teachings of
such slanderers as Honen and Kobo, how will he be able to escape the
sufferings of the present? There is no doubt that he will fall deeper into
the center of the Fire Hell or sink to the bottom of the Ice Hell. The Buddha
says in the Lotus Sutra, chapter 3: "When this person's present life ends, he
will fall into the Hell of Incessant Suffering, and stay there, suffering for
an incalculably long period of time, being born and reborn." Your late husband
would not have been subject to such a suffering because he was a follower of
Nichiren, a practicer of the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra states: "Those who
call upon the name of the Buddha will not be burned even if they fall into a
great fire; they will immediately run ashore if carried away by a flood." It
states also: "Fire cannot burn the merit of practicing the teaching of the
Lotus Sutra, and water cannot wash it away." How reliable it is! In a word,
you cannot find hell anywhere aside from your own mind. It exists in your
bosom. I will preach to you this very important teaching the best I can, so
please listen carefully. It is just as Bodhisattva Manjusri preached the
secret teaching of attainment of Buddhahood immediately with the present body
for a daughter of the Dragon King in chapter 12 of the Lotus Sutra.
Endeavor to strengthen your faith after listening to this important teaching.
He who endeavors to strengthen his faith after listening to the teaching of
the Lotus Sutra is a true seeker of Buddhahood. Grand Master T'ien t'ai says:
"Indigo becomes deep blue even though it is created from indigo leaves."
This means that if dyed blue over and over, indigo blue will become deeper
than its original color. Practicing the Lotus Sutra is the same. By
practicing the teaching of the Lotus Sutra over and over, you will be a true
follower. Practice is the best master.
The word "hell" can be defined "to dig the ground." It is called "hell"
because dead people are buried in the ground. In the same way, we can say
that the wife, children, and relatives carrying the corpse to a crematory are
jailers of hell; the grief stricken cries of wife and children are the scolding
voices of jailers; and the crematory flames are the flames of the Hell of
Incessant Suffering. A two and a half foot cane seems like a jailer's iron
stick; horses and cows look like horse head demons and cow head demons; the
hole for burying the dead corresponds to the Hell of Incessant Suffering;
eighty four thousand desires are eighty four thousand iron pots in Hell; to
leave home is a journey of death; and the river by which filial children mourn
equals the Styx, the river of death. It would be foolish for you to look for
hell in places other than your own mind!
However, for those who uphold the Lotus Sutra, all this is reversed. Hell will
be
altered to the Pure Land of Eternally Tranquil Light; the flames in hell will
be changed into the light of wisdom of the Buddha of the Reward body; the dead
will be changed into the Buddha of Dharma body; the fiery hole of hell will be
changed to the compassion of the Buddha of the Accommodative body; the cane of
the dead will become the cane of the true entity of all phenomena; the Styx
will become the ocean of Nirvana; and the journey of death will become the
doctrine of "earthly desires turned to enlightenment."
Understand this, please. To understand this is "immediate attainment of
Buddhahood with the present body" or "opening the treasury of Buddha Wisdom."
This is exactly how Devadatta, the Evil changed the Hell of Incessant
Suffering into the Pure land of Tranquil Light, and a daughter of the Dragon
King became a Buddha in an instant. According to the teachings of the Lotus
Sutra, the evil can be turned to the just. This is solely attributable to the
merit of one character "myo."
Bodhisattva Nagarjuna comments: "It is possible for an excellent physician to
turn deadly poison into medicine." Grand Master Miao-le states: "How can we
find the land of eternally tranquil light outside Buddhagaya in this Saha
world? There is no pure land anywhere except in the Saha world." He also
declares: "Reality is certainly the true entity of all phenomena; the true
entity of all phenomena is certainly the true entity of ten factors of life;
the ten factors of life are certainly seen in all phenomena of ten realms; and
the ten realms certainly exist in our body and land where we live." The
second chapter of the Lotus Sutra affirms: "No one but the Buddha can see the
true entity of all phenomena, that is, appearance, nature, substance, power,
function, primary and the secondary causes, main and environmental effects,
and their consistency from the beginning to the end." The sixteenth chapter
of the Lotus Sutra, "The Duration of the Life of the Buddha," asserts:
"Innumerable aeons have passed since I attained Buddhahood." "I" in this sutra
means "we" in the ten realms. We live in the pure land because we are Buddhas
who live in the ten realms. The second chapter of the Lotus Sutra observes,
"This is the abode of the Dharma and the position of the Law. The reality of
the world is permanent as it is." This means that both life and death are
everlasting. By the laws of this world, matters of life and death
are unchangeable through past, present, and future. This is nothing to lament
or to be surprised about. The character "so" (appearance) means "hasso"
(eight phases in the life of a Buddha), which cannot exist without the two
characters for life and death. Therefore, practicers of the Lotus Sutra who
realize this important doctrine immediately attain Buddhahood with the present
body.
Without a doubt, your late husband has attained Buddhahood because he practiced
the Lotus Sutra. So, do not lament his death. However, it may be natural for
the unenlightened to lament the death of a loved one; even the sages
occasionally weep. When Sakyamuni Buddha passed into Nirvana, even his great
disciples who had attained higher perception mourned. Are they not showing us
reactions of common mortals? Please endeavor to pray sincerely for your late
husband to your heart's content. A wiseman in the past stated: "Have a goal
of mastering the nine consciousness' and start practicing with the lower state
of the six consciousness'." This seems reasonable. This letter includes a
very important doctrine of Nichiren. So, please handle it with great care.
Sincerely yours,
Nichiren
11th of the 7th month
In response to My Lady the Nun, Widow of Lord Ueno