Starting today and running through the end of 2021, I will be publishing excerpts from The History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism, From Śākyamuni Buddha Through Nichiren Shōnin to the Present. As always, these are things I want to remember and they don’t necessary represent the full breadth of the material covered. For example, I’ve saved nothing from the 31 pages devoted to the history of various Nichiren schools after Nichiren’s death. This is valuable information for the book’s original audience – Nichiren Shu priests in training – but holds little interest in my quest to establish the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren’s teachings as the guiding light of my daily life.
This material is translated from a collection of essays and as a result each essay author exerts an influence over the material. For example take this explanation of the trials Śākyamuni overcame as he sat under the bodhi tree:
Under the Bodhi tree, demons appeared who tried to interfere with his meditation with temptations. In the Sutta-nipāta, a collection of some of the oldest scriptures, Śākyamuni recalls the demon’s temptations as follows: “Sensual passions are your first army. Your second is called Discontent. Your third is Hunger and Thirst. Your fourth is called Craving. Fifth is Sloth and Drowsiness. Sixth is called Terror. Your seventh is Uncertainty, Hypocrisy and Stubbornness. Your eighth is Gains, Offerings, Fame and Status wrongly gained, and whoever would praise self and disparage others.”
Although Śākyamuni says that demons used ten weapons, it should be noted that the demons are certainly not portrayed as supernatural beings separate from reality. These demons are the embodiments of the essential desires or afflictions humans possess from birth.
This categorical rejection of a spiritual world is a little surprising. While I understand why a non-Buddhist might suggest that demons simply represent “embodiments of the essential desires or afflictions humans possess from birth,” such a statement strips from Buddhism its mystical heritage. It is that heritage that I believe the Aragyo training makes real. Ministers who accomplish the 100-day ascetic training emerge with a real sense of the spiritual realm. Since two of my favorite priests – Revs. Kenjo Igarashi and Shoda Kanai – have completed multiple Aragyo trainings, I am biased toward that view.
Although dry and academic, this book provides an excellent foundation for what it means to be a Nichiren Buddhist.
