1. 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 languor, (6) fear, (7) doubt and regret, (8) anger, (9) preoccupation with wealth and fame, and (10) arrogance and contempt for others.
2. Nisshō, a disciple later designated by Nichiren Daishonin as one of the six senior priests.
3. Lectures held annually on the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the anniversary of T’ien-t’ai’s death.
4. Shijō Kingo, a samurai and loyal follower of the Daishonin who lived in Kamakura.
5. A seventh-century Chinese translation by Jnānabhadra and Hui-ning, in which Shakyamuni Buddha describes the practice his disciples should carry out after his death. The text also describes the cremation of the Buddha’s body and the distribution of his ashes. Fragments of the Sanskrit sutra on which this translation was based are extant.
6. Having perhaps run out of space, the Daishonin inserted this paragraph at the beginning of the letter, which is where it appears in Nichiren Daishonin gosho zenshū. Based on recent scholarship suggesting that it may be a sort of postscript, we have moved it to the end.