July 2025 Gosho Quote
“Letter to Shi’iji Shiro”
(“Shi’iji-shiro dono-gosho”)
You must know that you possess a profound karmic relationship from the past to be able to teach others even a sentence or phrase of the Lotus Sutra. The sutra states: “They will not listen to…the correct Law—such people are difficult to save.” The term “correct Law” mentioned here indicates the Lotus Sutra, and this passage means that those who do not listen to this sutra are difficult to save. The Teachers of the Law (Hosshi) chapter [of the Lotus Sutra] reads: “If…there are good men and good women, and one among them secretly preaches the entire Lotus Sutra or a phrase of it to even one other person, then you should know that this individual, indeed, is an envoy of the Tathagata.” This means that people—be they priests, laymen, nuns, or women—who teach even one phrase [of the Lotus Sutra] should be considered the envoys of the Buddha.
(Gosho, p. 1555)