What the Daimoku means to me

Immeasurable meanings derive from the one Law.

What the Daimoku means to me, it is my mother and father. It is the mother and father of all Buddhas of the three existences and the ten directions. The Daimoku fills me with the warmth and tenderness of a mother and the sternness of a compassionate father.

Nichiren writes in the Opening of the Eyes:

"The Great Teacher Dengyō was the patriarch of both esoteric and exoteric Buddhism in Japan. In his Outstanding Principles he writes: “The sutras that the other schools are based upon give expression in a certain measure to the mother-like nature of the Buddha. But they convey only a sense of love and are lacking in a sense of fatherly sternness. It is only the Tendai Lotus school that combines a sense of both love and sternness. The Lotus Sutra is ‘father of all sages, worthies, those still learning, those who have completed their learning, and those who set their minds on becoming bodhisattvas.’”

Chanting the Daimoku we encounter The Three Obstacles and Four Devils which is a manifestation of the Buddha's sternness. Overcoming them is a manifestation of his compassion and this fills me with great joy.