But in this passage the Daishonin is telling us that this definitely is not the case. When this letter was written, Shijo Kingo, its recipient, had been libelously accused of various wrongs by his colleagues and had fallen from favor with his lord as a result. This was all due to envy. Kingo had enjoyed the deep trust of his lord, but he also had the straight-forwardness to speak out when he felt it necessary. As a result, he had made many enemies.
People have the tendency to become envious over the slightest thing, which is perhaps human nature.
They may try to undercut someone of whom they feel envious and then delight at the person's misfortune. We must not be defeated by this pitiful tendency. To allow ourselves to become caught up in or swayed by such whirlpools of emotion, going from elation one moment to dejection the next, is pointless. And, as the Daishonin says, steadfastly chanting daimoku enables us to do this. Nor is it about changing our subjective outlook irrespective of other people and our surroundings.