The revelation of the Great Maṇḍala and further thoughts on
his mission

Let me conclude this chapter by quoting another letter, written at the same time with the “Reality as It Is.” It is entitled “The Realization of Buddha’s Prophecies,” and is an additional witness to Nichiren’s firm conviction of his mission.

“What a great fortune it is to extinguish in this life the sins we have accumulated from eternity by degrading the Truth! What a joy to serve the Lord Śākyamuni, whom we had thought never to see or hear! Let these be my earnest desires, first of all, to persuade the rulers who have persecuted me, to announce to the Lord Śākya (the names of those) of my followers who have assisted me; and to recommend the highest good to my parents, who gave me birth, before they die.

“I have seen, as in a vision, the spirit of the ‘Apparition of the Heavenly Shrine.” The text says, “To grasp the world-mountain, Sumeru, and to throw it to the innumerable lands of Buddhas in various directions – even this is not a thing impossible; but a thing most difficult would it be adequately to preach the Scripture in the degenerate ages after Buddha’s decease,’ etc.

“The Great Master Dengyō said: ‘Śākyamuni has shown a clear distinction between the shallow, which is easy to grasp, and the profound, which is difficult to receive; and it should be the ambition of a great man, leaving the shallow, to take up the profound. The Great Master T’ien T’ai promulgated, in obedient faith in Lord Śākya, the doctrines of the Lotus of Truth in the land of Cathay; and our school, having its center at Hiei, is doing the same in Japan, in accordance with the tradition of T’ien T’ai, for the sake of the Lotus of Truth.’

“I, Nichiren, a native of Awa, am most probably the man whose mission it is, succeeding to the heritage of the three masters, to propagate the doctrines of the Lotus of Truth throughout the ages of the Latter Law. Now another is added to the three, and we shall be called the four great masters of the three countries.”

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