My picture was taken with a Buffalo 2.0 Mega Pixels Web Camera. Ed has camera pre-installed in his
computer.
Letter from Echi
The government’s persecution of me has clearly demonstrated my faith in the Lotus Sutra. There is no doubt that the
moon wanes and waxes and that the tide ebbs and flows. In my case, too, since punishment has already occurred, benefit must
be forthcoming. What is there to lament?
At the Hour of the Cock (around 6:00 P.M.) on the twelfth day, I incurred the wrath of the government authorities. Placed
in the custody of the lord of Musashi, I left Kamakura at the Hour of the Ox (around 2:00 A.M.) on the thirteenth day for
exile in the province of Sado. At present, I am in a place called Echi, which is the domain of Lord Homma, under the supervision
of a person called Uma Tara, a deputy of Lord Homma Rokuro Zaemon-no-jo of Echi. I will probably be staying here for four
or five days.
Your grief is understandable, but because I have been certain from the beginning that this would occur, I myself do not
grieve. Rather, I regret that I have yet to be beheaded. Had I been decapitated on account of the Lotus Sutra in a past existence,
I would not have been born as such a lowly person in this life. By undergoing repeated persecution, just as is noted in the
sutra when it says, "again and again we will be banished,"
I
can erase the grave offenses of my past and, for the first time, attain Buddhahood. I therefore
engage in these difficult practices of my own accord.
