Letters to Women - Nichiren Gosho

Nichiren left behind a large number of letters and treatises for the future propagation of Lotus Sutra Buddhism correctly transmitted and practiced by his scholarship and insights for our modern era. In this regard, the letters Nichiren wrote responding to questions from the women of his day in Medieval Japan are sometimes poetic in their tenderness and delicately supportive of the sometimes unique social constructs around the role and existence of women that in many ways persist to this day. Certainly, no person would argue that childbirth and the reproductive aspects of the female life would present challenges both personal and social today and as it was even more-so in 13th century Japan. I feel these Gosho make for elucidating reading and study for any practitioner of Buddhism regardless of sex. However, due to the segregation that persist to this day in various cultures as regards female inclusion, responsibilities, and especially imposed restrictions, I thought it of particular value to identify Nichiren's communications with the women of Buddhist practice and their value in practice with equal capacity and facility, with sentient minds and determined minds of awakening. With Love and Respect, Sylvain NaMuMyohoRenGeKyo