Day 24 concludes Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma, and closes the Sixth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month considered the twelve hundred merit of the tonguein gāthās, we consider the eight hundred merits of the body.
“Furthermore, Constant-Endeavor! The good men or women who keep, read, recite, expound or copy this sūtra, will be able to obtain eight hundred merits of the body. Their bodies will become as pure as lapis lazuli. All living beings will wish to see them. Some of the living beings in the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds are just born or have just died. All living beings are either noble or humble. They are either handsome or ugly. They are destined to be reborn either in a better region or in a worse region. All of them will be reflected on the pure bodies [of the good men or women]. The Surrounding Iron Mountains, the Great Surrounding Iron Mountains, Mt. Meru, Mt. Maha-Meru, and the other great mountains, and the living beings in those mountains also will be reflected on their bodies. [All the six regions] down to the Avici Hell and up to the Highest Heaven and the living beings therein also will be reflected on their bodies. The Śrāvakas, Pratyekabuddhas, and Bodhisattvas as well as the Buddhas who are expounding the Dharma, also will show their reflections on their bodies.”
Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
Anyone who keeps
This Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
Will be able to have his body purified like lapis lazuli.
All living beings will wish to see him.
Just as a reflection is seen
In a clear mirror
All things in the world will be reflected
On the pure body of this [person, that is, of this]
Bodhisattva.
No one but he
Will be able to see all things clearly.
The gods, men, asuras,
Hellish denizens,
Hungry spirits and animals,
That is, all living beings
Of the one thousand million Sumeru-world
Will be reflected on his body.
The palaces of the gods in the heavens
Up to the Highest Heaven,
The Surrounding iron Mountains,
Mt. Meru, Mt. Maha-Meru,
And the great oceans also
Will be reflected on his body.
The Buddhas, Śrāvakas, Bodhisattvas who are sons of the Buddhas
[That is, the saints] of whom some live a solitary life
While others are expounding the Dharma to the multitude,
Also will be reflected on his body.
Although he has not yet obtained the wonderful body
[Of the Bodhisattva who knows] the nature of the Dharma-without-āsravas,
He will be able to have all these things
Reflected on his pure and natural body.
There are a number of possible conditions that allow a religion or a belief to arise and eventually to take form and grow. Depending on what approach we take and where we place our emphasis, our understanding of where the religion stands and the nature of its belief will vary. A particular religion arises on the premise that the social matrix is already in place, that is, that there is general popular demand for the type of faith taught by its advocate or advocates.
Certain social strains are necessary for such popular aspirations to exist, and there must be perceived defects in current beliefs. It is when all these conditions are in place that advocates of new religions with their messages of salvation appear in response to popular demand. These preachers seek to find answers to the needs of the times and try various tacks until they arrive at a specific strategy. In the process, multiple belief systems are preached in parallel, and even the form and content of the teaching of a single person will be in flux. Eventually groups of likeminded followers form around a particular teacher, and religious organizations develop. When the teacher dies, his dogma and the organization of his followers have to stand alone; the teachings are systematized so that the belief might be transmitted and regulations governing lifestyle develop to maintain the organization.
We can see that the forming of an idea or a doctrine is premised by the existence of a teacher and a group to transmit it, plus a social base that encourages the process to occur.
Buddha, as he is represented as declaring himself in the chapter on Eternity, is the Tathāgata from all eternity and has ever been working to lead all sentient beings to maturity in Buddhahood. He is the Lord of Truth and Father of all, and we are his disciples and children. Religion is nothing but the way to enlightenment in this eternal relationship, and morality, nothing but the method of realizing the same truth in our life. We have ever been Buddha’s children, but, up to the present, we have been blind to his presence and work, just like the prodigal son in the parable in the fourth chapter of the [Lotus Sutra]. We are now awake to this everlasting fundamental relationship, and thereby shall surely attain Buddhahood, because the Tathāgata is constantly caring for us and watching over us, as he says:
Now, this threefold realm of existence is my dominion, And all beings therein are my children. Yet existence is full of troubles and tribulations, I alone am the protector and savior. (Chapter 3)
Since I have attained Buddhahood, . . I have constantly been preaching truths, And helping innumerable beings to maturity, Leading them in the Way of Buddhas; Thus, innumerable aeons have passed in this work. (Chap. 16).
The duties of the true Buddhist, then, consist in fully knowing the vast scheme of Buddha’s salvation working upon us, in being convinced of our indebtedness to Buddha, and in requiting it by practicing the true morality.
Morality in human relation means, according to this point of view, a life of gratitude shown in fidelity to the Lord, obedience toward one’s master, and filial piety toward one’s parents; all other moral relations flow out of these fundamental ones. But this passive aspect of morality implies the active duty of showing gratitude by perpetuating the will of the benefactor. The ruled fulfills his duty by cooperating with the ruler in the maintenance of order and government, the disciple by propagating the truth taught by the master, and the child by perpetuating the life given by his parents. Similarly, with moral duties viewed from the standpoint of religion: the true faith consists in propagating the Truth, and in ourselves living the life of Truth as revealed by Buddha. This is what is inculcated in the [Lotus Sutra] and is the real import of the vows taken by the saints, the faithful disciples of Buddha.
The question for Nichiren, was, therefore, Is there anyone, in the present age of degeneration, who practices the true essence of the Buddhist religion? In order to answer this question, Nichiren proceeds anew to re-examine the stanzas of the chapter on Perseverance. The three kinds of opponents, the malicious laymen, the perverse monks, and the jealous hypocrites, have been actually embodied in Nichiren’s persecutors. The persecutions heaped upon him are letter by letter prophesied in the Scripture; the perils which the saints, consecrating themselves, promised Buddha to endure – abuse and derision, weapons and sticks, banishment and execution – these have all been experienced in Nichiren’s life. Is there, then, any room to doubt that Nichiren is the true Buddhist, the man who is realizing the prophecies about the propagator of the Truth in the Latter Days? If Buddha is really omniscient and his prophecies not falsehood; if the “Saints-out-of-Earth” are not liars and hypocrites, and their vows not vain; then Nichiren is surely the man who is fulfilling the vows of the old saints. Buddha is the primeval master, and Nichiren is now living the life of his primeval disciples. Primeval, therefore everlasting, and as true for the future as in the past ‐ he is the one predestined to be the leader, the savior of the coming ages. In short, Nichiren is the man who is “reading” the Truth by his life.
By such considerations, Nichiren justified himself in his polemic attitude. The precedence he gives to the “repressive” method in propaganda over the “persuasive” was the necessity of the time; it was the way ordained by Buddha, because the malicious men of the Latter Days could be converted only by arousing their utmost malice, and thereby exterminating their radical sins. (The idea is that radical sin can be exterminated only by arousing the sinful thought and deed to the utmost. Nichiren compares the “repressive” method to a surgical operation, without which certain kinds of disease cannot be cured. Later, we shall see more of his idea of sin.)
Let men’s eyes be opened to the existence and work of the true Buddha, and to the duties of the true Buddhist, and their sight will be clear enough to see in Nichiren the predestined manifestation of the primeval saint, the messenger of the Tathāgata. Expressing this thought with firm confidence, Nichiren says:
“Finally, let the celestial beings withdraw their protection, let all perils come upon me, even so, will I dedicate my life to this cause. … Be it in weal, be it in woe, to desert the Lotus of Truth means to fall to the hells. I will be firm in my great vow. Let me face all manner of threats and temptations. Should one say to me, “Thou mightest ascend the throne of Japan, if thou wouldst abandon the [Lotus Sutra] and expect future bliss through belief in the ‘Meditation on Amita’; or thy parents shall suffer capital punishment, unless thou utterest the name of the Buddha Amita, etc. Such temptations I shall meet unshaken, and shall never be allured by them, unless my principles be shattered by a sage’s refutation of them. Any other perils shall be the dust before a storm. I will be the Pillar of Japan; I will be the Eyes of Japan; I will be the Great Vessel of Japan. Inviolable shall remain these oaths!”
Chapter 6 The Exile In Sado And The Ripening of Nichiren's Faith in His Mission
QUESTION: What merits exist for us, the uneducated, in listening to such an important teaching?
ANSWER: With this we can say that we have really heard the Lotus
Sūtra for the first time. Grand Master Miao-lê claims in his Annotations on the Great Concentration and Insight: “If indeed the three evil ways can readily become the three merits, then it becomes possible to cross both kinds of rivers separating life and death—that experienced by men who are lost in rebirth and that of bodhisattvas who have managed to free themselves from delusions, not to speak of the rebirth in the triple world and six lower realms.” When we, the unenlightened of the latter age, hear this teaching, we are not the only ones to gain enlightenment, but our parents would so benefit as well. Without a doubt, this truly exemplifies filial piety.
Shimon Butsujō-gi, Listening to the Once Buddha Vehicle Teachings for the First Time, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 249-250
World-Honored One! I bring you a message from Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom Buddha. [He wishes to say this.] Are you in good health? Are you happy and peaceful or not? Are the four elements of your body working in harmony or not? Are the worldly affairs bearable or not? Are the living beings easy to save or not? Do they not have much greed, anger, ignorance, jealousy, stinginess and arrogance, or do they? Are they not undutiful to their parents, or are they? Are they not disrespectful to śramaṇas, or are they? Do they not have wrong views, or do they? Are they not evil, or are they? Do they not fail to control their five desires, or do they?
The passage above is how Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva greets Śākyamuni Buddha in Chapter Twenty-Four of the Lotus Sūtra. This Bodhisattva asks not only about the Buddha, but about those whom the Buddha benefits with his teaching. The Buddha answers that those he teaches have prepared through innumerable lives to receive his wisdom. The questions of Wonderful-Voice show how we obscure the teaching through our delusion and attachments.
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Day 23 covers all of Chapter 18, The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing This Sutra, and opens Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma.
Having last month considered the eight hundred merits of the eye received for keeping, reading, reciting, expounding and copying the Lotus Sūtra, we consider the twelve hundred merits of the ear.
“Furthermore, Constant-Endeavor! The good men or women who keep, read, recite, expound or copy this sūtra, will be able to obtain twelve hundred merits of the ear. With their pure ears, they will be able to recognize all the various sounds and voices inside and outside the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds, [each of which is composed of the six regions] down to the Avici Hell and up to the Highest Heaven. They will be able to recognize the voices of elephants, horses and cows; the sounds of carts; cryings and sighings; the sounds of conch-shell horns, drums, gongs and bells; laughter and speech; the voices of men, women, boy and girls; meaningful voices, meaningless voices; painful voices, delightful voices; the voices of the unenlightened ones, the voices of the enlightened ones; joyful voices, joyless voices; the voices of gods, dragons, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras and mahoragas; the sounds of fire, water and wind; the voices of hellish denizens, animals and hungry spirits; and the voices of bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, Śrāvakas, Pratyekabuddhas, Bodhisattvas and Buddhas. In a word, with their pure and natural ears given by their parents, they will be able to recognize all the sounds and voices inside and outside the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds, although they have not yet obtained heavenly ears. Even when they recognize all these various sounds and voices, their organ of hearing will not be destroyed.”
It appears that in the early period the dharma-bhāṇaka [great master of expounding the dharma] occupied only a low position. Early Buddhism already taught five of Mahayana’s six perfections (pāramitās); forbearance alone was Mahayana’s addition, appearing in the early period with an important meaning. In “A Teacher of the Law,” forbearance is one of the three rules of the preacher (donning the robe of the Tathāgata). The various Mahayana scriptures, including the Lotus Sutra, speak of the good and evil of following or not following the guidance of the preacher, and stress that the preacher is to be respected and not slighted. This no doubt reflects the reality of the times, that the Mahayana preacher was held in contempt and persecuted by society as a whole. The Lotus Sutra, having dealt with philosophical issues in the chapters before “A Teacher of the Law,” after that chapter turns its attention to practical problems, encouraging the mission of the dharma-bhāṇaka and, in later chapters, emphasizing the virtues of forbearance and endurance. We should understand this to be a reflection of the position and circumstances of the Mahayana preacher at the time when the sutra was being composed.
This was Nichiren’s conviction about his person and his mission. In order to open the eyes of all fellow beings to this, it was necessary to bring them to the same enlightenment concerning themselves. For this purpose, each must, first of all, know the true relation existing between himself and the eternal Buddhahood, which is represented, preeminently, by the Lord Śākya, and is to be realized in one’s own self. This metaphysical relation between the Master and the disciples, between the cosmos and the individual, is the very foundation of all religion and ethics. Open the eyes to this cardinal relation, then all enlightenment will naturally follow.
“There are three objects which every man ought to revere, his lord, his master, and his parents; there are three subjects which should be studied, Confucianism, Hinduism, and Buddhism.” Thus begins the essay on “Opening the Eyes.” The keynote – the emphasis on the eternal Buddhahood – runs through all the argument, but the melody varies, just as diverse systems of religion and ethics are engaged in inculcating one and the same principle of reverence to the same objects of veneration. According to Nichiren, the manifold teachings existing are but the varying aspects of the same cosmic principle; and each of those systems represents a certain truth, while errors come from sticking to a particular point of the teachings. The Truth is touched, but the whole Truth is missed, as squinting eyes, though not totally blind, distort images. The full-opened eyes see the Truth of the everlasting relationship between ourselves and the eternal Buddhahood, in which the Buddha, as revealed in the chapter on the Eternal Life of the Tathāgata, is the Lord ruling over all subjects, the Master leading his pupils to maturity, and the Father who gives birth to the children. We are, from all eternity, subjects of the Buddha, his disciples, and his children; being essentially like him through the eternal Truth. When seen in this light, every religion and ethical system, compared with Nichiren’s religion revealed in the Lotus, is one of the preliminary steps leading up to the ultimate truth. Yet men are blind or squinting and do not see the whole truth in its full light.
Confucianism, being a system of humanitarian ethics, limits its view of this relationship to the visible side of human life. Hinduism, worshipping Brahmā or Vishnu as the highest Lord, goes a little beyond the actual world, yet sees in those phantom gods the ultimate Being. There are relative merits in these systems, but, after all, they are blind or half blind to the true foundation of human relations and religious worship. Buddhism opens our spiritual eyes to the being of Buddha, our Lord, yet many Buddhists are too “squint-eyed” to see his real nature and our proper relation to him. Nichiren criticizes these distorted forms of Buddhism most severely and shows less clemency toward them than toward other religions. Especially Hinayāna, the way of those who are contented with mere knowledge of certain truths or with solipsistic transcendence in contemplation, is further away from the true way than the secular teachings of ethics which inculcate loyalty and filial piety.
That Nichiren emphasized these virtues, together with obedience to the master, is noteworthy as showing his keen interest in moral life. It must be observed, also, that this ethical interest was not with him merely an adjunct of religious belief, but a vital criterion of religious truth. For to worship Buddha and revere the Truth revealed by him does not consist in devising rituals, or in contemplating Buddha’s truths in visionary ways, but in working out in our own life the truths taught, by putting faith in Buddha as the Lord, Master, and Father. Faith ought to be actualized in life but is empty unless realized in the three cardinal virtues named above. Nichiren’s conviction that his life was vitalizing the Lotus of Truth was another way of stating his ethical interpretation of religion.
Chapter 6 The Exile In Sado And The Ripening of Nichiren's Faith in His Mission
In the special transmission we have the revelation once again that this place, the very place where the Lotus Sutra is practiced, is the place of enlightenment. In other words, there is no greater place to be, there is no greater place to practice than the very place where you are. Through this practice in your life you erect a great treasure tower containing the two Buddhas and you purify your environment revealing the pure land that it already is. We may not be able to perceive the reality of the Buddha’s pure land in our environment, through our practice we begin to manifest our own Buddha life and with the eyes of the Buddha we become, we have the ability to see our world with a new perspetive. As the Buddha says further on, when we practice exactly as the buddha instructs us in the Lotus Sutra we will be able to eliminate darkness in our lives.
In India, there was a man named Sudatta who experienced poverty seven times and also experienced becoming millionaire seven times. When he was stricken with poverty for the seventh time, his family members as well as household servants all fled or died, leaving only Sudatta and his wife. The couple then had five shō of rice, which they planned to use for food for five days. Just at that moment five priests — Mahākāśyapa, Śāriputra, Ānanda, Rāhula, and Śākyamuni Buddha visited them one by one begging for food. Sudatta offered all the five shō of rice to them. From that day on Sudatta became the wealthiest person in all of India. In the end he was able to build the Jeta Grove Monastery for the Buddha.
Ueno-dono Gohenji, Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers II, Volume 7, Page 44
