I have received the horseload of polished rice and ginger that you sent me.
While he was still living a secular life, Aniruddha, the son of King Dronodana, was a descendant of
the wheel-turning king who was the true ruler of India, a grandson of King Simhahanu, a nephew of King Shuddhodana, and a
son to King Dronodana. He was a person of noble descent known throughout the whole land. Moreover, his house was visited by
twelve thousand people each day: six thousand came to borrow from the wealth of his family, and the other six thousand came
to pay back what they owed. Not only was he this wealthy, but he later became foremost in divine insight, and the Buddha prophesied
in the Lotus Sutra that he would become the Buddha Universal Brightness.
If we examine what great goodness he performed in past existences, we find that a long time ago there
was a hunter who supported himself by capturing beasts in the mountains. He also raised millet for food, but, since he lived
in a time of famine, there was almost nothing to eat. As he was eating the single bowl of millet that was his only food, a
sage, a pratyekabuddha named Rida, appeared and begged him for it, saying, "I have not eaten for seven days. Let me have your
food." The hunter replied, "I have put it in a vessel defiled by a common person of the secular world, and moreover have tainted
the food by starting to eat it"; but the sage said, "Just let me have it. If I do not eat now, I shall die." Though ashamed
of its unworthiness, the hunter offered him the food. After eating the millet, the sage returned the bowl to the hunter, having
left just one grain of millet remaining. This millet turned into a wild boar. The wild boar changed into gold and the gold
was transformed into a corpse. The corpse then changed into a man made of gold. Whenever the hunter pulled off one of the
golden man’s fingers and sold it, a new finger would appear in its place. Thus, for ninety-one kalpas the hunter was
reborn as a wealthy man, and in his present existence he was called Aniruddha and became a disciple of the Buddha. Although
it was a paltry amount of millet, because it sustained the life of a sage in a famished country, he received a wonderful reward.
The Venerable Mahakashyapa was the worthiest of all the Buddha’s disciples. In terms of lineage,
he was the son of the wealthy Nyagrodha of the kingdom of Magadha. The floor of his house was covered with one thousand straw
mats, each seven feet thick. Even those mats of lesser quality were each worth a thousand ryo of gold. The household assets
included 999 plows, each worth a thousand ryo of gold, and sixty storehouses, each with 340 koku of gold inside. Such was
the immensity of his wealth. His wife had a gold-colored body, which shed light to a distance of sixteen ri. Her beauty exceeded
even that of Lady Soto’ori Hime of Japan and surpassed even that of Lady Li of China. This husband and wife conceived
a desire to seek the way, and became disciples of the Buddha. In the Lotus Sutra, it was predicted that the husband would
become the Buddha Light Bright. If we were to inquire into the past existences of these two people, we would find that because
one had offered a bowl of wheat to a pratyekabuddha, he was later born as the Venerable Mahakashyapa. The other was a poor
woman who had a sculptor of Buddhist images [a previous incarnation of Mahakashyapa] beat a gold coin of hers into gilding
for a statue of the Buddha Vipashyin, and who later became this person’s wife.
Although I, Nichiren, am not a sage, I have become known as the defender of the Lotus Sutra. For this,
not only have I been hated and assailed by the ruler of the country, but my disciples and even those who visit me have been
reviled or struck, or have had their fiefs confiscated, or have been driven from their dwellings. Because they live under
such a ruler, even people with seeking minds do not visit me. This has been the case for some time, but this year, in particular,
because of epidemics and famine, very few people have come to visit.
Just as I was thinking that, even if I remained free from illness, I would surely die of starvation,
the wheat that you sent arrived. It is more wonderful than gold and more precious than jewels. Rida’s millet changed
into a golden man. How, then, could Tokimitsu’s wheat fail to turn into the characters of the Lotus Sutra? These characters
of the Lotus Sutra will become Shakyamuni Buddha and then a pair of wings for your deceased father, flying and soaring to
the pure land of Eagle Peak. On returning, they will cover your body and guide you.
With my deep respect,
Nichiren
The eighth day of the seventh month in the first year of Koan (1278)
