Your late husband resting beneath the shade of clumps of grass, where nobody visits him, must be anxious to know how his young children whom he left behind in the Sahā World are doing. In ancient China a man named Su-wu was detained in a northern barbarian country for 19 years. He is said to have fastened a letter to the leg of a wild goose addressed to his beloved wife and children at home. A Japanese man, Abe no Nakamaro, went to T’ang China to study. When he lost his way back to Japan, he looked at the moon rising in the east and composed a poem saying “It must be the moon over Mt. Mikasa in Kasuga (Nara).” Your late husband must be thinking of these things as if they were his own.

Nevertheless, because you faithfully chant the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, the character Myō of the Lotus Sūtra transforms itself into the messenger of the Buddha or such bodhisattvas as Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra, Superior Practice, or Never Despising. And these messengers of the Buddha will report the things in the Sahā World to your late husband in the other world just as the mirror pieces of Ch’ên-tzu in ancient China became birds to keep him informed, and the sound of Su-wu’s wife beating her husband’s clothes with a fulling block every autumn reached the ears of her husband detained by the northern barbarians.

Moreover, just as a flower becomes a fruit or a half moon becomes a full, the Chinese character Myō is transformed into the Buddha. Therefore, it is preached in the Lotus Sūtra, “Beholding the Stupa of Treasures” chapter, “He who is able to uphold this sūtra is upholding the Buddha’s body.” Grand Master T’ien-t’ai declares, “Every character is the true Buddha.”

Thus, the character Myō is none other than Śākyamuni Buddha who is perfectly equipped with the 32 marks of physical excellence and 80 minor marks of physical excellence of a Buddha. However, as we cannot see deeply enough, we see it merely as a character. For instance, an aged person with poor eyesight cannot see the new shoot of a lotus flower that sprouts in a pond. Though there may be a shadow, we cannot see it in the darkness of night. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that this character Myō is the Buddha’s body.

Moreover, the character Myō is the moon, sun, stars, mirrors, clothes, food, flowers, earth, and ocean. The merits of all of these are combined in the character Myō. And regarding treasures, it is the wish-fulfilling gem. Please understand this.

Myōshin-ama Gozen Gohenji, A Response to My Lady, the Nun Myōshin, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 106-107

The references to “mirror pieces of Ch’ên-tzu” and “the sound of Su-wu’s wife beating her husband’s clothes” relate to these tales from Jimyō-ama Gozen Gohenji, A Response to My Lady, the Nun Jimyō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Page 93:

In ancient China, a man of courage named Su-wu was sent to a northern barbarian country of Hsiung Nu representing Emperor Wu of the Former Han and was detained there for 19 long years. His wife continued to think of him while Su-wu himself never forgot about his wife.

Longing to see her husband, the wife beat her husband’s clothes upon a block for beating clothes every autumn. It is said that the sound of her beating her husband’s clothes reached the ears of Su-wu. Is it possible that her ardent love reached him despite the distance?

When a man named Ch’én-tzu was separated from his wife, they broke a mirror taking one piece each, promising not to forget each other. Whenever they failed to think of each other, it is said, the mirror appeared as a bird to warn them.