Point One, concerning the parable of the jewel in the robe in the “Prophecy of Enlightenment for Five Hundred Disciples” chapter
The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings says: This chapter tells the story of the priceless jewel that was sewn into the lining of a man’s robe. In a word, it means that Nichiren and his followers, who chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, have accepted and taken faith in the wisdom jewel of the Wonderful Law of the one vehicle. The mind of faith is comparable to the jewel that is sewn into the robe.
Point Two, on the passage “World-Honored One, it was like the case of a man who went to the house of a close friend and, having become drunk on wine, lay down to sleep.”
The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings says: The wine stands for ignorance, and ignorance leads to slander of the Law. To lie down means to be born into a family that slanders the Law. Long ago, major world system dust particle kalpas ago, certain persons drank the wine of evil influence; as a result, in a drunken state they kept transmigrating through the five or six lower realms of existence, and now they have been born into families that slanders the Law. To be drunk means to be lacking in faith; to sober up means to have faith. Now, when Nichiren and his 79followers chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, they are in effect sobering up from the wine of ignorance.
Again, we may say that, when it comes to wine, there are various gradations. The provisional teachings represent a certain kind of wine, in relation to which the teachings of the Lotus Sutra represent a state of sobering up. And as to the relationship between the theoretical teaching and the essential teaching, the theoretical teaching represents a kind of wine, because it depicts the Buddha as having attained enlightenment for the first time during his lifetime in India. The essential teaching represents a sobering up from this wine, because it reveals that the Buddha originally attained enlightenment in the remote past.
Again, both the theoretical teaching and the essential teaching may be said to represent a kind of wine, while Nam-myoho-renge-kyo represents the sobering up from this wine.
The wine and the sobering up from it are mutually inseparable. The wine is ignorance, and the sobering up from it is the realization of the Dharma nature. Hō, or “dharmas” (phenomena), stands for wine, and myō, or “wonderful,” stands for the sobering up. When we chant myōhō, or the Wonderful Law, we are expressing the idea that ignorance and a realization of the Dharma nature are in fact a single entity. Thus volume one of Great Concentration and Insight says, “The ignorance and dust of earthly desires are none other than enlightenment.”
Point Three, on the words “in body and mind we are [all] filled with joy” in the passage “Now we have heard from the Buddha / these prophecies and descriptions of adornment, / and how each in turn will bestow a prophecy on his successor, / and in body and mind we are [all] filled with joy.”
The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings says: “Body” here refers to the principle that the sufferings of birth and death are none other than nirvana, while “mind” refers to the principle that earthly desires are none other than enlightenment. “All” refers to the fact that all the Ten Worlds participate simultaneously. “Joy” 80refers to the joy experienced by the entire Dharma-realm simultaneously.
Within this joy is contained the joy of all the Buddhas of the three existences of past, present, and future. Now because Nichiren and his followers chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, Shakyamuni Buddha experiences joy, as he indicates in the words [in chapter eleven, Treasure Tower], “I will surely rejoice.” This joy is shared by the good and evil realms alike. It is shared by the Ten Worlds simultaneously. You should give careful thought to this.