His perilous experiences and the “Stanzas of Perseverance”

Nearly ten years had passed since Nichiren had proclaimed his new gospel, and these years had been full of adventures and dangers. The threats and perils heaped upon him, as well as the disasters which filled the people with terror, seemed to him not mere chance, but the necessary consequence of the conflict between the blindness of the people and the compassionate cure proposed by him. All this – the causes and effects, the present calamities and the future destiny – gave him new assurance that every prophecy in the [Lotus Sutra] would certainly be fulfilled. The thing which most strongly confirmed his faith in the [Lotus Sutra] and his enthusiasm for it was the discovery that every phrase of the vows of perseverance, as set forth in the chapter on “Perseverance” [chapter 13], had been, and was being, realized, step by step, in his own life. The ardent spirit of the vows found its closest counterpart and echo in his fiery personality and perilous career.

See what the Scripture tells us! Buddha’s disciples, beholding the amazing vision of the Heavenly Shrine, and hearing the encouraging exhortation, take together the vows of fidelity and endurance.

O Exalted One! be little anxious for us!
After Thy great decease,
In the evil ages full of fears and dangers,
We shall proclaim the supreme Scripture.

This was what Nichiren had done, and he was now suffering for it.

There will then surely be malignant men,
And they will deride us and abuse us,
Lay upon us with weapons and sticks.

All these things we shall bear with endurance and perseverance. Does this not mean, Nichiren thought, the laymen, the rulers, and the people, who antagonize the Truth because of their dislike for righteousness? Did they not threaten him with sword and fire?

Again:

In the Latter Days there will be monks,
Who, being malicious and crooked in mind,
Will pretend to have attained what is not really attained,
And their minds will be full of vain pride.

Were not the monks always the instigators of the persecutions? Traitors to Buddha, companions of devils, worshippers of strange deities, men of vain pride these are Nichiren’s bitter enemies. Is not the prophecy being fulfilled by them? Further:

There will be those who dwell in forests (āraṇyaka),
Living in tranquility and wearing the regular robes;
They pretend to practice the true monastic life,
And despise all other men.

They will preach to laymen,
Simply for the sake of fame and profit;
And yet they will be revered by the people,
As if they were endowed with the six supernormal powers. …

Are not all abbots and bishops men of this kind? Observe how some of them pretend to be Arahants and are believed by the people!

In the evil days of the ages full of turbulence
There will be many fears and dangers; There will be men possessed by devils, And they will abuse and insult us.

By revering Buddha and putting confidence in him,
And by wearing the armor of forbearance,
We shall endure all these perils,
For the sake of proclaiming this Scripture.

We shall never be fearful in sacrificing our bodily life, But always regard the true Way as the highest cause;
And thus we shall, throughout all coming days,
Stand for the cause committed to us by Buddha.

O Exalted One! Thou may’st be assured,
Even when the vicious monks of the turbulent ages,
Being ignorant of the sermons preached by Buddha,
According to his tactful method,
Shall revile and rebuke us;
And we be repeatedly driven out of our abodes, And kept away from our sanctuaries.
Even then, we shall endure all these injuries,
By ourselves to Buddha’s decree.

In whatsoever cities or villages,
There may be any who would seek the Truth,
Thither we shall surely go
And preach the Truth entrusted to us by Thee.

We are Thy messengers, O Exalted One!
We have nothing to fear from any people,
We shall proclaim the Truth, to deserve Thy commission.
Thou may’st be assured and rest secure.

Now we take these vows in Thy presence,
And in the presence of all Buddhas
Who have come from the ten quarters.
May’st Thou, O Buddha, know our intention and determination!

Nichiren saw all this being fulfilled in himself but had to anticipate yet more persecutions. In later years he referred most earnestly to the passage which tells how the preachers of the true religion should be repeatedly expelled from their dwellings, because it was his actual experience. Thus, he found all his career foretold in the [Lotus Sutra], and deemed that he was faithfully observing the vows of perseverance. “The Twenty Stanzas of Perseverance” was his favorite expression, which he was proud to embody in his life.

He formulated these reflections and hopes in an essay, and in its conclusion his convictions are vividly set forth:

“It is said in the chapter in the Scripture on Perseverance (chapter 13) that, in the fifth five hundred years of the religion, there would appear opponents of the Truth, of three kinds. The present time is just in this period of the fifth five centuries, and I see clearly the existence of the three kinds of opponents. … It is said in the fourth fascicle of the Scripture: Even in the life-time of the Tathāgata, there are manifold animosities shown toward this Scripture; how much more will it be so after his passing away?” Again, in the fifth fascicle: “All over the world, the people find it so difficult to believe that they antagonize (the Truth).” Further on: “We shall not care for bodily life, but do our best for the sake of the incomparable Way” and similarly, in the sixth fascicle: “We shall sacrifice even our life.” … From what we see in these passages it is evident that we are not entitled to be propagators of the Lotus of Truth, unless we call forth the hatred of the three kinds of opponents. One who does so is the propagator of the Truth, and yet he is destined to lose life on this account.”

We can here see clearly how Nichiren was prepared for any perils, and how ready to encounter even greater dangers, leaving his fate to the destiny of the true Buddhist as prophesied in the Scripture. To him dangers and persecutions were the very signs of his being the genuine believer of the Truth.

NICHIREN: THE BUDDHIST PROPHET

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His warning and the first exile

Out of pity, not only for the people stricken by these calamities, but on account of the superstitious practices in which they took refuge, Nichiren pondered in his mind the question, What are the causes of these evils, and how can they be averted?

In attacking the problem, Nichiren’s thought naturally turned to the unique authority of the Lotus [Sutra], in contrast to the syncretistic practices of the prevailing Buddhism. Yet he was not satisfied until he had made a further investigation of the sacred books and found various prophecies concerning calamities which should befall the people who degraded the true Buddhist religion by resorting to superstitions. He retired, for this investigation, to a monastery furnished with a good library. There he wrote and rewrote his ideas, which finally took shape in an essay entitled “Risshō Ankoku Ron,” which means “The Establishment of Righteousness and the Security of the Country.”

In this essay Nichiren fearlessly pointed out the degeneracy of the people and the foolishness of the rulers. The heaviest responsibility for the miseries of the time he ascribed to Amita-Buddhism, by which both the government and the people were led astray from righteousness. Moreover, he gave a prophetic warning to the nation that, if it did not turn at once to the unique Truth, the country would experience more disastrous calamities, especially a foreign invasion and a rebellion. His vehement expression runs as follows:

“Of all the misfortunes but one remains that we have not yet experienced, the misfortune of foreign invasion. … When I consider thee Scriptural prophecies and then look at the world around me, I am bound to confess that both the gods and the minds of the people are confused. You see the fulfilment of the prophecy in the past; dare we say that the remaining prophecies will fail of their fulfilment?”

(This prediction foreign invasion was based on statements in several Buddhist books, and its realization in the following years immensely strengthened Nichiren’s faith.)

This warning was followed by an admonition to the nation to be converted to Nichiren’s religion, based on the sermon of the [Lotus Sutra]. The vehement prophet would not be satisfied unless all other forms of Buddhism were suppressed and their leaders severely punished. Thus he concludes:

“Woe unto them! They have missed the entrance into the gate that leads to the true Buddhism and have fallen into the prison-house of the false teachings. They are fettered, entangled, bewildered. Whither will their blind wanderings lead them?

“Ye men of little faith, turn your minds and trust yourselves at once to the unique Truth of the Righteous Way! Then ye shall see that the three realms of existence are (in reality) the Kingdom of Buddha, which is in no way subject to decay; and that the worlds in the ten directions are all Lands of Treasures, which are never to be destroyed. The Kingdom is changeless, and the Lands eternal. Then how shall your bodies be otherwise than secure and your minds serene in enlightenment?”

Not only were these words preached to the masses on the streets and in the parks, but the written document was presented to the government authorities (in the seventh month of 1260). The government was shocked, the ecclesiastical dignitaries were enraged, and instigation from behind the scenes stirred up a mob which attacked Nichiren’s hermitage and burnt it down. Nichiren escaped the peril through the darkness of the night, and fleeing out of Kamakura, went on a missionary journey in adjacent provinces. There, more converts were made, and among them not a few of the warrior class, the local chiefs who were not under the direct control of the Dictator. The suspicion in which the government held Nichiren increased, and when he came back to Kamakura in the following year, he was officially arrested, and finally sentenced to banishment and sent to the desolate shore of the peninsula Izu (in the fifth month of 1261).

In this place of exile, Nichiren found bare shelter with a fisherman and his wife amid threatening dangers. How deeply he felt his obligations to these simple and faithful converts is shown in the letters written to them later, wherein they are likened to Nichiren’s parents, perhaps in a former life. His hardest trials did not last long. More converts were made, and Nichiren’s message found a sincere response in the unprejudiced hearts of the country folk. Yet he was an exile; he had been repeatedly attacked and had some narrow escapes from death; his future showed no bright prospects, and his hope of converting the nation as a whole seemed to be very remote, if not totally vain. His thought turned to the question whether his mission would be fulfilled, and he re-examined the [Lotus Sutra] with reference to this problem.

NICHIREN: THE BUDDHIST PROPHET

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