"You say in your letter that you became a priest at the age of seventeen and since then have never had a wife or family or eaten meat. But when one has committed a great slander of the Law by putting faith in the provisional teachings, then no matter how carefully one has observed the precepts in one’s practice, one is guilty of the fault of slandering the Law by turning one’s back on the Lotus Sutra. And therefore one is a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand times inferior to lay believers who follow the correct teaching but break the precepts. Any priest who slanders the Law, no matter how he may observe the precepts, is destined to fall into the hell of incessant suffering. And likewise lay believers who follow the correct teaching, though they may break the precepts, are without doubt certain to attain Buddhahood.
But now you have cast aside the Nembutsu and the other beliefs of the provisional teachings and have put your faith in the correct teaching. Hence you are in truth among the purest of the observers of the precepts, a sage. To begin with, anyone who is a priest, even if he is a follower of the provisional schools of Buddhism, should be pure [in the observance of the precepts], and how much more one who is a votary of the correct teaching! Though one may have had a wife and family when one was a follower of the provisional schools, in a time of great trouble such as the present, he should cast all these aside and devote himself to the propagation of the correct teaching. And in your case you were a sage to begin with [because you observed the precepts]. How admirable, how admirable!
Take care that in the future, though you may be tempted to have a wife and family, that you keep your distance from such matters. Stay unimpeded, berate the slanderers of the Law throughout the country, and be one who works to assist Shakyamuni Buddha in his labors to convert others!"
But now you have cast aside the Nembutsu and the other beliefs of the provisional teachings and have put your faith in the correct teaching. Hence you are in truth among the purest of the observers of the precepts, a sage. To begin with, anyone who is a priest, even if he is a follower of the provisional schools of Buddhism, should be pure [in the observance of the precepts], and how much more one who is a votary of the correct teaching! Though one may have had a wife and family when one was a follower of the provisional schools, in a time of great trouble such as the present, he should cast all these aside and devote himself to the propagation of the correct teaching. And in your case you were a sage to begin with [because you observed the precepts]. How admirable, how admirable!
Take care that in the future, though you may be tempted to have a wife and family, that you keep your distance from such matters. Stay unimpeded, berate the slanderers of the Law throughout the country, and be one who works to assist Shakyamuni Buddha in his labors to convert others!"
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