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Permalink Reply by Dan on June 17, 2010 at 12:45pm

Letter to the Brothers. It should be in the last two installments of Living Buddhism issues from Nov-Dec 2009, and Jan-March 2010. This is in the Gosho Zenshu per lecture:

Soka Spirit - lecture by Saito Norimasa, Soka Spirit

• The real battle in life, as well as in the temple issue, is the fierce struggle between the function of the devil and the function of the Buddha, as indicated by Nichiren Daishonin when he said, “I have been waging war against the ten armies of the devil…” (Gosho Zenshu, p. 1224). It is important to realize that this devil can take any shape, can possess our lives and even enter into our organization. Buddhist practice to attain Buddhahood means a ceaseless battle against the function of this devil within us and in our environment.

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Permalink Reply by Frankie T on June 17, 2010 at 1:38pm

Dear Ken,

" The devil king of the sixth heaven has roused the ten kinds of troops** and, in the midst of the sea of the sufferings of birth and death, is at war with the votary of the Lotus Sutra to stop him from taking possession of and to wrest away from him this impure land where both ordinary people and sages dwell."

" It has been twenty or more years now since I found myself in that situation and began the great battle. Not once have I thought of retreat." ---- The Great Battle ( WND-II, pg 465 )

**The ten kinds of troops represent ten kinds of hindrances. The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom lists them as;

1. Greed.
2. Care and worry.
3. Hunger and thirst.
4. Love of pleasure.
5. Drowsiness and langour.
6. Fear.
7. Doubt and regret.
8. Anger.
9. Preoccupation with wealth and fame.
10. Arrogance and contempt for others.

source: SGM publication, Flow #427 (January, 2008)

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Permalink Reply by Dan on June 17, 2010 at 3:29pm

Go Frankie! :-D

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Permalink Reply by Frankie T on June 17, 2010 at 5:04pm

" The devil king of the sixth heaven has roused the ten kinds of troops** and, in the midst of the sea of the sufferings of birth and death, is at war with the votary of the Lotus Sutra to stop him from taking possession of and to wrest away from him this impure land where both ordinary people and sages dwell."

" It has been twenty or more years now since I found myself in that situation and began the great battle. Not once have I thought of retreat." ---- The Great Battle ( WND-II, pg 465 )

Background
This letter was written by Nichiren Daishonin in September 1273, Ichinosawa in Sado Island and addressed to Nissho, the Daishonin’s disciple in Kamakura, and his mother, the lay nun Myoichi.

Two years prior to this, from September 1271, many of the Daishonin’s disciples and followers in Kamakura began to backslide in the face of harsh persecution. However, the lay nun Myoichi courageously carried through with unwavering faith.

In this Gosho, the Daishonin recalls his fierce fight as the votary of the Lotus Sutra with the devil king of the sixth heaven on the stage of the saha world of reality for over twenty years since establishing his teaching in 1253 and declares that Nichiren has “not once thought of retreat.”

The Daishinin further praises the lay nun Myoichi for maintaining her faith together with her mentor until the very end in the midst of so many cowardly disciples backsliding. The Daishonin expresses his appreciation for her sending one of her own servants to assist him in his dwelling in exile and that Sakyamuni, Many Treasures, and all the emanation Buddhas in the ten directions will definitely be aware of this.

Widely Expanding the Foundation of the Good!

Buddhism is none other than the struggle to defeat the devilish function in our human life!

In the depths of our human life is endowed the most respectworthy Buddha nature. However, this Buddha nature is always concealed by our fundamental delusion, that is, our devilish function. Because we human beings are controlled and manipulated by this devilish function, we tend to make light of, hurt and take advantage of our own as well as other human life. Here lies the most fundamental cause for the misery and wretchedness of humanity. Buddhism was expounded for the purpose of defeating this devilish function.

Especially in this time of the Latter Day of the Law, the devilish function in the life of the people is thriving and the whole of society is covered widely by this devilish function. In order to rescue such an evil age, not only must we fight against our own inner devilish function, we must also wage a war against devilish function that has become prevalent throughout the entire world.

In this Gosho, the Daishonin teaches that as the votary of the Lotus Sutra, he has been fighting against the devil king of the sixth heaven who is leading his various troops of evil to take possession of and wrest away this world of reality. The Daishonin has been waging this war for over twenty years since establishing his teaching. And, the devil king of the sixth heaven has taken the concrete form of statesmen and priests enthralled by the devilish nature of authority to persecute him. Yet, the Daishonin never retreated a single step and carried on his advance of victory, saying “Not once have I [Nichiren] thought of retreat.”

In our present age, shouldering the mission of the votary of the Lotus Sutra and waging a battle against the devilish function nesting in the life of humanity is none other than the Soka Gakkai International (SGI). In our present society, there exist various ideologies and movements with social reform as their objective. However, the only movement that challenges the most fundamental of all reforms, the reformation of life, is the SGI.

SGI President Ikeda once said that we must never retreat even a single step in our battle against the troops of evil. Indeed, such life-state of faith that fights until the very end entails happiness. Kosen-rufu is an eternal struggle to establish as much as possible the foundation of good and to expand as wide as possible the foundation of truth right in the very midst of our actual society. If we are defeated, our foundation of good will be wrested away by the force of evil. It is now the time for us to establish the wide foundation of the truth of Soka with perfect succession of victories!

Let us dynamically take action and carry out dialogue to expand widely our foundation of Soka!


--- Contributed by SGM Study Department
Flow #427 (January, 2008)

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Permalink Reply by ken on June 18, 2010 at 6:05am

Frankie&dan---thank-you both,,you gave me an answers,,and then some!! Thanks!!

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Permalink Reply by Sudha Gupta on April 19, 2023 at 11:16pm

Hello Ken

To read in detail, sensei ikeda's explanation on each of the Ten Troops of Devil King, pls read NHR volume 27, chapter Fierce Struggle. It is so well explained in easy to understand manner. Happy Reading !

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