[Regarding the difference between the essential and theoretical sections of the Lotus Sūtra,] the Buddha had made a clear distinction between the two sections, but during more than 2,000 years since He passed away no one in India, China, Japan and the entire world (Jambudvīpa) has ever clearly differentiated them. Only T’ien-t’ai of China and Dengyō of Japan seemed to have almost made a difference between them, but they did not clarify the Lotus Tendai (T’ien-t’ai) law of precepts among important doctrines of the essential and theoretical sections. After all, although Grand Masters T’ien-t’ai and Dengyō knew it well in mind, they did not explain it clearly because: (1) the time was not right, (2) the people’s ability to understand was not ripe, and (3) they were not entrusted by the Buddha to propagate the doctrine.
Now, we have finally entered the Latter Age of Degeneration, when great bodhisattvas appearing from underground such as Bodhisattva Superior Practice should propagate the teaching of the essential section. As the Latter Age of Degeneration is the time for the essential section to spread, even if people with faith in Hinayāna Buddhism, quasi-Mahāyāna Buddhism, or the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra spread their respective teachings without committing any mistakes, they will serve no useful purpose. It is like a medicine for spring that is not useful in fall. Even if it is still useful in autumn, its effectiveness is not as good as in spring and summer. How much less useful they would be when they, Hinayāna and quasi-Mahāyāna Buddhists and believers of the theoretical section, become confused with the differences between Hinayāna and Mahāyāna Buddhism and provisional and true teachings. Moreover, as rulers in the past had put faith in their scriptures, built temples for them and donated pieces of farm land, it not only is inexcusable but also destroys the basis of their faiths for them to slight the teachings of their canons. Therefore, they are furious at the man who criticizes their canons, and they slander the True Dharma and persecute the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra.
Toki Nyūdō-dono Go-henji: Chibyō-shō, A Response to Lay Priest Lord Toki: Treatise on Healing Sickness, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 253-254
The Buddha said to Endless-Intent Bodhisattva: “Good man! In a certain world, World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva takes the shape of a Buddha and expounds the Dharma to those who are to be saved by a Buddha. He takes the shape of a Pratyekabuddha and expounds the Dharma to those who are to be saved by a Pratyekabuddha. He takes the shape of a Śrāvaka and expounds the Dharma to those who are to be saved by a Śrāvaka.
The Buddha gives this description of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva (Kannon, Kanzeon, Avalokitesvara) to Endless-Intent Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Five of the Lotus Sūtra. Like all Bodhisattvas, World-Voice-Perceiver can adapt his appearance to whatever we need to remove our delusions. In one way, this is a guide for us, reminding us that as Bodhisattvas ourselves, we can learn to adapt our approaches to others so that we can benefit them. In another way, it helps us to realize that more beings than we realize are helping us with our practice.
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Having last month considered the Buddha’s view of this world, we consider the vehicle the Buddha offers.
Śāriputra!
With this parable I expounded
The teaching of the One Buddha-Vehicle
To all living beings.
All of you will be able to attain
The enlightenment of the Buddha
If you believe and receive
These words of mine.
This vehicle is
The purest and most wonderful.
This is unsurpassed by any other vehicle
In all the worlds.
This vehicle is approved with joy by the Buddhas.
All living beings should extol it.
They should make offerings to it,
And bow to it.
The powers, emancipations,
dhyāna-concentrations, wisdom,
And all the other merits [of the Buddhas],
Many hundreds of thousands of millions in number,
Are loaded in this vehicle.
I will cause all my children
To ride in this vehicle
And to enjoy themselves
Day and night for kalpas.
The Bodhisattvas and Śrāvakas
Will be able to go immediately
To the place of enlightenment
If they ride in this jeweled vehicle.
Therefore, even if you try to find another vehicle
Throughout the worlds of the ten quarters,
You will not be able to find any other one
Except those given by the Buddhas expediently.
During this crisis, especially in the year 1275, Nichiren wrote several essays on the future of Japan, explaining also his own attitude toward her perils. The most methodical of them is one entitled “Sen-ji-Shō” the “Selection of the Times.” After reviewing the phases of Buddhist history since Buddha’s death, he affirms again the conviction he had often expressed before, that his time was the most significant age in the propagation of Buddhism, being the fated fifth five hundred years, in which, as Buddha predicted, a decisive conflict was to take place between the true Buddhism and its opponents. The persecutions heaped upon the prophet, as well as the various calamities that befell the nation, were the signs of the crisis when decision must be made between the truth and falsehood, between the prophet and his malignant opponents. To all this Nichiren had borne witness, and now the greatest of the signs, the Mongol peril, heralded the final conflict, to be followed by a miraculous, or rather inevitable, conversion of the whole nation. In other words, the imminent peril was regarded as one of the preparatory steps to the establishment of the Holy See in Japan.
In one passage in this essay he writes:
“The Lord Śākya proclaimed to all celestial beings that when, in the fifth five hundred years after his death, all the truths of Buddhism should be shrouded in darkness, the Bodhisattva Viśiṣṭacāritra should be commissioned to save the most wicked of men who were degrading the Truth, curing the hopeless lepers by the mysterious medicine of the Adoration of the Lotus of the Perfect Truth. Can this proclamation be a falsehood? … If this promise be not vain, how can the rulers and the people of Japan remain in safety, who, being plunged in the whirlpool of strife and malice, have rebuked, reviled, struck, and banished the messenger of the Tathāgata and his followers commissioned by Buddha to propagate the Lotus of Truth?
“When they hear me say this, people will say that it is a curse; yet, those who propagate the Lotus of Truth are indeed the parents of all men living in Japan. … I, Nichiren, am the master and lord of the sovereign, as well as of all the Buddhists of other schools. Notwithstanding this, the rulers and the people treat us thus maliciously. How should the sun and the moon bless them by giving them light? Why should the earth not refuse to let them abide upon it? … Therefore, also, the Mongols are coming to chastise them. Even if all the soldiers from the five parts of India were called together, and the mountain of the Iron Wheel (Cakra-vāla) were fortified, how could they succeed in repelling the invasion? It is decreed that all the inhabitants of Japan shall suffer from the invaders. Whether this comes to pass or not will prove whether or not Nichiren is the real propagator of the Lotus of Truth.”
Further on he says:
“See! Presently, it will not be long before the Great Mongols will send their warships, myriads in number, and attack this country. Then, the sovereign and the whole people will surely abandon all the Buddhist and Shinto sanctuaries they used to revere, and join in crying Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō, Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō! and with folded hands, pray, O Master Nichiren, save us; O Master Nichiren!”
Then he reviews the history of his persecutions, and the fulfilment of his former predictions, to prove again that to him was given the mission to establish the Buddhist Catholic Church. The conclusion is:
“The greatest of things is the establishment in Japan of this gateway of Truth. How could (the country) be safe, even for a day or an hour, if Śākyamuni, the Lord of the Paradise of Vulture Peak, with the Buddha Prabhūtaratna, of the realm of Treasure-purity, their manifestations filling the space in the ten quarters, the Saints-out-of-Earth coming from the thousand worlds beneath, and the heavenly beings, such as Brahmā, Indra, the Sun, the Moon, and the four Guardian Kings, should withdraw (from this country) their protection and assistance, visible and invisible?”
All this, especially the last sentence, was a curse indeed. “Cursed be the nation which degrades and offends the Unique Truth!” – this was Nichiren’s attitude toward the actual Japan. He rather welcomed the Mongols coming to apply their rude surgery to the deep-seated disease of his nation; yet he had entire confidence in the future destiny of his country, for which, indeed, he himself had a grave responsibility. For he was the messenger of Buddha, commissioned to establish the center of the world’s religion in Japan for the sake of the coming myriad of years. The task of awakening his countrymen rested solely upon his shoulders, and he would fail of his duty if the nation remained unfaithful to the religion.
You already resemble a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra just as a monkey resembles a human being or a piece of rice cake resembles the full moon. Although the farmers of Atsuwara only hoped to preserve their own faith, people considered them rebels similar to Taira no Masakado of the Shōhei Period or Abe no Sadatō of the Tenki Period. However, those farmers of Atsuwara simply dedicated their lives to the Lotus Sūtra. The heavens will never consider them similar to those who betrayed their lord. Moreover, you have fallen out of favor with your lord and therefore have been forced to bear a heavy burden of the public expenditure. As a result you yourself do not have a riding horse while your wife and children do not have enough clothing.
Yet under such difficult circumstances, you sympathized with me, a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra, snowed in on a deep mountain and in need of food. You kindly sent one kammon of coins to me. Your offering is as precious as a needy couple who gave away the only piece of garment they shared to an alms-begging monk, or Rita who gave a small amount of barnyard millet in a rice bowl to a pratyekabuddha. It is valuable indeed.
Ueno-dono Gohenji, Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers II, Volume 7, Page 44
Anyone who keeps
The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
Should be considered to have given up his pure world and come here
Out of his compassion towards all living beings.
The Buddha declares these verses to Medicine-King Bodhisattva in Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. He reminds us that as Bodhisattvas, we are no longer concerned with getting into a paradise where all our desires are met. This also means that we were not sent into this world of conflict (Sahā) so that we could be tested to see whether we are worthy of getting into that paradise. Instead, we are Bodhisattvas, beings who through our great resolve to benefit all beings, have with great courage chosen to immerse ourselves in the misery of this world, because we know there is no other way to create benefit and lead all beings to the Buddha’s enlightenment.
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Having last month considered the three vehicles, we consider why the rich man gave his children the large carts.
“Śāriputra! Seeing that all his children had come out of the burning house safely and reached a carefree place, the rich man remembered that he had immeasurable wealth. So without partiality, he gave them each a large cart. I am also a father, the father of all living beings. Seeing that many hundreds of thousands of millions of living beings have come out of the painful, fearful and rough road of the triple world through the gate of the teachings of the Buddha, and obtained the pleasure of Nirvāṇa, I thought, ‘I have the store of the Dharma in which the immeasurable wisdom, powers and fearlessness of the Buddhas are housed. These living beings are all my children. I will give them the Great Vehicle. I will not cause them to attain extinction by their own ways. I will cause them to attain the extinction of the Tathāgata.’
“To those who have left the triple world, I will give the dhyāna concentrations and emancipations of the Buddhas for their pleasure. These things are of the same nature and of the same species. These things are extolled by the saints because these things bring the purest and most wonderful pleasure.
“Śāriputra! The rich man persuaded his children to come out at first by promising them the gifts of the three kinds of carts. But the carts which he gave them later were the largest and most comfortable carts adorned with treasures. In spite of this, the rich man was not accused of falsehood. Neither am I. I led all living beings at first with the teaching of the Three Vehicles. Now I will save them by the Great Vehicle only. Why is that? It is because, if I had given them the teaching of the Great Vehicle at first directly from my store of the Dharma in which my immeasurable wisdom, powers and fearlessness are housed, they would not have received all of the Dharma. Śāriputra! Therefore, know this! The Buddhas divide the One Buddha-Vehicle into three by their power to employ expedients.”
Nichiren’s faith in his own mission was firmly established; all the events of his life proved to him the truth of Buddha’s prophecies concerning the messenger of the Tathāgata in the Latter Days. In the later years, his thoughts turned more to the future of his religion and his country. His serene delight among the mountains of Minobu was an earnest of the terrestrial paradise that should come in all the world. Probably he offered prayers to Buddha for the fulfilment of this expectation, but he certainly did not lay much weight on any special form of prayer, much less on any ritual such as was employed by the Buddhists of the time. For him, his life in silent retirement was the greatest of prayers, because he believed that the concentrated thought of a true Buddhist ruled the realm of truth, and that by his thought and desire the fulfilment would be hastened.
Though thus living for the future, the present could not be excluded from his mind. In the autumn of the year in which Nichiren retired from the world, the Mongols invaded outlying islands in western Japan, devastated them, and massacred the inhabitants. The invaders, further, succeeded in landing on the larger island of Kyushu, the seat of the government of western Japan and, for a while, occupied that part of the country. The people were in consternation, and the government appealed for help to Shinto and Buddhist deities by dedicating offerings and celebrating mysteries. Nichiren watched the passing events with anxiety, but with a confident faith. His anxiety was of a different nature from the apprehension of the people. He was sure that his country was destined to be a fountain of blessing for the whole world through all coming ages. Yet the government and the people were actually rebels against the true religion of the Lotus, and had not repented as yet of their grave sin in persecuting the prophet, the messenger of Buddha. Therefore, he was no less convinced that Japan was to suffer still greater calamities at the hands of the Mongols. He could welcome the Mongol invaders as instruments of chastisement for the sinful nation, yet he could not harden his heart to the fate of his people in their distress. Righteous indignation and yearning compassion were in conflict within him. He often expressed himself in words like the following: “Behold, now, the danger impending from the fierce Mongols! When they occupy the imperial residence and massacre the people as they did in the western islands, you will undoubtedly ask the help of Nichiren. But it will then be too late. Repent, and be converted to the true faith before the hour of the utmost disaster arrives!”
He even went so far as to say that the Mongols were the messengers of Buddha, sent for the chastisement of the unbelievers living in his country. But he did not curse his fellow-countrymen and wish their ruin, nor did he believe that Japan was doomed to such a fate. For example, in a letter addressed to a lady he says:
“You would perhaps rejoice to see my prophetic warning fulfilled, and the Mongols occupying this country. But such a sentiment befits only the common herd (and should not be cherished by my followers). Every faithful follower of the Lotus of Truth should know that he is living in a winter, but also that spring is sure to come after winter.”
His thoughts concerning the threatening catastrophe seem to be somewhat conflicting, though his course was clear. He was a fervent patriot, but the country and nation he hoped to see was one completely purged from the sin of rejecting the Truth – the Japanese nation reconstructed and transformed according to his own ideal; while the actual nation was still false to Buddha and his religion. The prospective chastisement of the nation by a foreign invasion was something like a radical cure for a cancer. He saw in the invaders the surgeons, but he never believed that the patient would succumb to the operation. He cursed Japan, but exalted her at the same time, according to these two opposite points of view. This explains the paradoxical character of his expressions in those days of great anxiety. The paradoxes were never, in his own mind, contradictions, but were conceived to be steps toward the fulfilment of his aim.
Although you two have a difference in status, if you were greedy and crooked in mind and had not understood the reason behind everything, your elder brother’s disinheritance would never have been lifted. Your elder brother, Munenaka may become a Buddha due to his fervent belief in the Lotus Sūtra. However, your father would certainly go to hell for disinheriting his own son, who is a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra. In this case you would lose your older brother and father and become like Devadatta. However, as you are born wise and without greed unlike those born in the Latter Age of Degeneration, three of the Ikegami family attained Buddhahood together, saving everyone on the father’s side as well as the mother’s side.
Hyōesakan-dono Gohenji, Answer to Lord Ikegami Munenaga, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 97-98
We know the defects of the Lesser Vehicle.
But we do not know how to obtain
The unsurpassed wisdom of the Buddha.
The Buddha’s disciples Maudgalyāyana, Subhūti and Mahā-Kātyāyana sing these verses in Chapter Six of the Lotus Sūtra. They have heard the Buddha teach that the expedient teachings about Suffering are incomplete. However they still have not yet embraced the One Vehicle teaching of the Lotus Sūtra which leads all beings to enlightenment. Nichiren explained, in his Treatise on Opening the Eyes of Buddhist Images, how teachings that came before the Lotus Sūtra were based on the mind of the hearer, where the Wonderful Dharma is itself the mind of the Buddha. When we read, recite, copy and expound the Lotus Sūtra, we are becoming of one mind with the Buddha.
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