Minobu, the place of retirement
The place whither Nichiren retired was surrounded on all sides by high mountains, and when his hermitage was finished in summertime, he doubtless enjoyed cool breezes rustling in the green trees on the slopes. “Like screens,” he wrote to a lady in the following winter, “steep peaks surround my abode. On the mountains trees and grasses grow luxuriantly; in the valleys are rolling stones and rocks. Wolves howl and monkeys cry, and the echoes of their voices resound through hill and dale; deer plaintively call the does, and crickets chirp noisily. Flowers that elsewhere bloom in spring, bloom here in summer, and fruits do not ripen till winter. Occasionally human figures are seen, but they are only wood cutters; or sometimes I have visits from some of my comrades in religion.”
His mind often turned to retrospection on his past; but what now occupied his quiet thought was rather the future destiny of his religion. As the one foreordained to fulfil the prophecies of the Lotus, he had gone through all perils, and was enjoying the tranquility of a hermit. A mere secluded life, however, was not his mission. What should he do for the consummation of his lifework, and for the perpetuation of his gospel? This was his question, and he formulated it immediately after his arrival at Minobu. The result was the essay referred to at the close of the last chapter, which was, in fact, intended to be the proclamation of Nichiren’s plan, for the accomplishment of which he was about to prepare.
A Paradise On Earth And The Holy See
Minobu, the place of retirement 97
The world and the individual; the ideal and the actual 98
"The Testimony Common to all Buddhas" 101
The true Buddhist creates a paradise everywhere 104
The Kingdom of Buddha and the Holy See 108
"The Three Great Mysteries" 109
NICHIREN: THE BUDDHIST PROPHET