His proclamation of his new faith

The young monk, now no longer a seeker after truth, but a reformer filled with ardent zeal, bade farewell to the great center of Buddhism on Hiei and went back to the old monastery on Kiyozumi, which he had left fifteen years before. He visited his parents, and they were his first converts. His old master and fellow monks welcomed him, but to their minds Nichiren, the former Renchō, was nothing more than a promising young man who had seen the world and studied at Hiei. Keeping silence about all his plans and ambitions, Nichiren retired for a while to a forest near the monastery. Everyone in the monastery supposed that he was practicing the usual method of self-purification, which they themselves employed; but, in fact, Nichiren was engaged in a quite different task, and occupied with his original idea, neither shared nor guessed by anyone else.

The seven days of his seclusion, as the tradition says, was a period of fervent prayer, in preparation for launching his plan of reformation and proclaiming his new gospel. When his season of meditative prayer had reached the stage when he was ready to transform it into action, Nichiren one night left the forest and climbed the summit of the hill which commands an unobstructed view of the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. When the eastern horizon began to glow with the approaching daybreak, he stood motionless looking toward the East, and as the golden disc of the sun began to break through the haze over the vast expanse of waters, a loud voice, a resounding cry, broke from his lips. It was “Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō” “Adoration be to the Lotus of the Perfect Truth!” This was Nichiren’s proclamation of his gospel to heaven and earth, making the all-illumining sun his witness. It happened early in the morning of the twenty-eighth day of the fourth lunar month 1253. (See explanation of dates here.)

The proclamation of the Lotus of Truth, with the sun as witness, was, indeed, the first step in translating into action the ideal symbolized in his name, the Sun-Lotus. After this unique proclamation, Nichiren came back among human beings, and at noon of the same day, in an assembly hall facing south, he preached his new doctrine, and denounced the prevailing forms of Buddhism, to an audience composed of his old master and fellow monks, and many others. There was none who was not offended by his bold proclamation and fierce attack. Murmurs grew to cries of protest; and when the sermon had been finished, everyone assumed that the poor megalomaniac was mad. The feudal chief ruling that part of the country was so incensed that he would not be satisfied with anything short of the death of the preposterous monk. This lord, who was Nichiren’s mortal foe throughout the subsequent years of his mission, was watching to attack Nichiren, who was now driven out of his old monastery. His master, the abbot, pitied his former pupil, and gave instruction to two elder disciples to take Nichiren to a hidden trail for escape. It was in the dusk of evening that Nichiren made his escape in this way. The sun, which at its rising had beheld Nichiren’s proclamation, the sun which at noon had witnessed Nichiren’s sermon, set as the hunted prophet made his way through the darkness of a wooded trail; only the evening glow was in the sky. What must his thoughts have been? What prospect could he have cherished in his mind for his future career and for the destiny of his gospel?

The expelled prophet now went on missionary journeys in the neighboring provinces, and finally settled down in Kamakura, the seat of the Dictatorial government. While he was studying further the religious and social conditions of the time and looking for an opportunity to appear again in public, the city of Kamakura was the scene of many frightful events. There were rumors of plots against the Hōjōs, and family strife arose among them; in addition to these things, storms, inundations, earthquakes, famines, comets, followed one another in swift succession. The people were panic-stricken, and the government could only resort to the offerings at Shinto sanctuaries and to the Buddhist rites of the Shingon mysteries. Nichiren himself describes the conditions as follows [in the “Risshō Ankoku Ron”]:

“We have seen many signs in heaven and in earth; a famine, a plague – the whole country is filled with misery! Horses and cows are dying on the roadsides, and so are men; and there is no one to bury them. One half of the population is stricken, and there is no house that has entirely escaped.

“Hence many minds are turning to religion. Others, again, in accordance with the doctrines of the Secret Shingon, use copious sprinkling of holy water from the five vases. … Some write the names of the seven gods of luck on pieces of paper and affix them by the hundreds to the door-posts of their houses, whilst others do the same with the pictures of the five Great Powerful and the various (Shinto) gods of Heaven and Earth. … But let men do what they will, the famine and the plague still rage; there are beggars on every hand, arid the unburied corpses line the roads.”

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Nichiren’s personal touch with the Scripture

Of great importance, in Nichiren’s view, was the story of the Bodhisattva Sadāparibhūta [Never-Despising Bodhisattva], a previous life of Buddha himself, told in the 20th chapter. The story is this: While Buddha was still striving for Buddhahood, he was a monk, and used to salute every person he met as a future Buddha, because he was convinced that everyone was destined eventually to be so. The people, however, took this salute as an insult, and in turn insulted and abused the monk. He endured all this, but never changed his way of saluting others, or his conviction that everyone was a Buddha-to-be. Therefore, he was called the “Constantly-revering.” (The Sanskrit name Sadā-paribhūta certainly means the “Constantly abused,” but Kumārajīva rendered the name by the “Constantly-revering,” that is, Sadā-aparibhūta, or with a different termination, indicating the present participle. Japanese, Jō-kufyō.) This story is told as an occurrence in the past, and also as an example for all Buddhists, especially for those living among the evil-disposed men of degenerate ages. It was this aspect of the story, indicating an underlying bond connecting the true Buddhist of the past with his successor in any age, that inspired Nichiren and kept him ever perseverant throughout all persecutions. Thus, in his mind this story of the “Constantly-revering” saint was nothing else than another version of his own life, which was also foretold in the vows of endurance as recorded in the thirteenth chapter. The same spirit of endurance for the sake of the Truth, and the same life in emulation and practice of the ardent vows of the ancient saints — this was what he found in the story, and derived from it incentive and consolation.

The Lotus of Truth is a rich treasury of religious inspiration and moral precepts, prophetic visions and poetic imagery, philosophical speculations and practical admonitions. From this book, all ages, and every man in Buddhist countries, derived some sort of instruction and inspiration, each according to his needs and disposition. Most Buddhists of a speculative trend of mind occupied themselves in elaborating the teaching of the oneness of Truth, the doctrine of the Sole Road [One Vehicle], notwithstanding the three gateways opened by Buddha in chapter 2, on “Tactfulness.” Many others, inclined to fantastic imagination, and delighted with supernatural glories, were keen for heavenly visions and apocalyptic scenes. Many others, again, found objects of worship in the deities of mercy and benefaction, such as Avalokiteśvara [World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva]. Much was written on the Lotus – philosophical treatises, miracle stories, poems, and prayers; the book also inspired many painters and sculptors, and we have a rich store of works of art whose subjects are taken from it. But there was none, until Nichiren “read” the book in his original way, who derived from it such a wonderful power of strenuous, militant life, and thereby lived a life of striving toward the ardent zeal exemplified by primeval disciples of Buddha. Indeed, Nichiren deemed himself to be an embodiment of the Scripture, a personal version of its teachings and prophecies and a living testimony to them.

How did he carry out his life in accord with this idea and attain to a full conviction of his mission, foreordained in the Lotus of the Perfect Truth?

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