In Rev. Ryusho Jeffus’ Lecture on the Lotus Sutra he sets the stage for discussing Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground, with this observation:

“We each may think we are rather ordinary people, not capable of great things. Yet our ordinariness is in fact a disguise for our true self, Bodhisattvas from beneath the ground, the disciples of the Buddha from the infinite past, and beings perfectly endowed with Buddhahood.”

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra


As the Buddha explains to the four great leaders of those Bodhisattvas:

“The living beings are ready to be saved. They do not fatigue me because I already taught them in their consecutive previous existences, and also because they have already honored the past Buddhas respectfully and planted the roots of good. As soon as they saw me and heard my teachings, they received my teachings by faith and entered into the wisdom of the Tathāgata.”

We are those Bodhisattvas who have been studying and practicing with the Eternal Śākyamuni since the remotest past. Since we have forgotten we are asked today to have faith:

“Arouse your power of faith,
And do good patiently!
You will be able to hear the Dharma
That you have never heard before.

“Now I will relieve you.
Do not doubt me! Do not be afraid!
I do not tell a lie.
My wisdom is immeasurable.
The highest Dharma that I attained
Is profound and difficult to understand.
Now I will expound it.
Listen to me with all your hearts!”

And here we need faith to understand and to act. As Rev. Ryusho Jeffus argues:

“This is our relationship with the Eternal Buddha, not with the historical Buddha. As Bodhisattvas from underground we read the Lotus Sutra from the perspective of an infinite bond with the Buddha, as lifelong practitioners of the Eternal Buddha who have in this lifetime manifested as the beings we currently are but who underneath it all are in fact golden-hued Bodhisattvas. We have received training and are eminently qualified to carry out the lives we have and attain enlightenment in our present form. Everything we need is within us, and the Lotus Sutra is our activation code to actualize our true identities.”

As we faithfully chant the daimoku we join our brethren.

“At first only I, Nichiren, started chanting the daimoku, Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, but then two, three, then one hundred people, gradually began chanting it. This will continue in the future. Isn’t this what emerging from the earth means? When an innumerable number of people emerge from the earth and this Wonderful Dharma spreads extensively, there will be no mistake, just as a shooting arrow never misses the earth, Japan will be filled with people chanting Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō. You should therefore establish your fame as the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra and devote your life to it.”

Shohō Jisso-shō, Treatise on All Phenomena as Ultimate Reality, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 78

In last week’s discussion of Chapter 14, I made a big deal about the Peaceful Practices without discussing the other side of that coin – the war we are asked to fight.

“Mañjuśrī! I will tell you a parable. Suppose a powerful wheel-turning-holy-king demanded surrender of the kings of smaller countries by threat of force. They did not obey his demand. He led soldiers, and went and suppressed them. He was very glad to see that some soldiers distinguished themselves in war. According to their merits, he gave them paddy fields, houses, villages, cities, garments or ornaments; or various treasures such as gold, silver, lapis lazuli, shell, agate, coral or amber; or elephants, horses, vehicles, menservants, maidservants or subjects. But he did not give a brilliant gem which he was keeping in his top-knot to anyone because the gem on the head of the king was the only one [in the world]. If he had given it to anyone, the followers of the king would have been much surprised.”

We can make light of Nichiren’s ardor in his battle to save Japan and establish an ideal buddha land in this world, suggesting he was just the high-spirited son, but we shouldn’t ignore the task we are asked to accomplish.

“Mañjuśrī! I am like the king. I obtained the world of the Dharma by my powers of dhyāna-concentration and of wisdom, and became the king of the triple world. But the kings of the Maras did not assent to my demand for surrender to me. Therefore, my army led by generals, that is, by sages and saints, fought with them.”

We are asked to be soldiers. We fight not just for our own benefit but for the defeat of the Maras, the victory that brings everyone peace. Can we do that without the ardor of Nichiren?

Yes, this is not Medieval Japan and we are not challenging the authority of a state religion, at least not hear in the United States. But we have the highest goal before us. “Sentient beings are innumerable; we vow to save them all.”

As with everything, we must seek a middle path. This is just as true with our faith. As Nichiren wrote in Ueno-dono Gohenji, A Reply to Lord Ueno:

“Of the people who put faith in the Lotus Sūtra today, some have faith like fire while others have it like water. Those who have faith like fire refer to those who become enthusiastic upon listening to the preaching but their passion cools down as times goes by, and eventually forget the teaching. On the other hand, those whose faith is like water mean those whose faith is like a ceaselessly flowing water, namely those who retain their faith without retreating.

Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 126

We are asked to fight a war. We will win some battles and we will suffer setbacks, but with faith that is like ceaselessly flowing water we can carve a path to our goal.

Our faith is the initial key that opens the gate to the teachings of the Buddha. Our practice is the action that allows us to enter into the wisdom of the Buddha. Studying the Dharma illuminates the path. As we progress in our practice our faith naturally grows.

In Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices, we are offered four sets of practices – those of body, mouth, mind, and vows – that “an ordinary Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas” should use to expound the Dharma. Invariably, the student of Nichiren Buddhism stumbles here at the stark difference between these peaceful practices and the violence and conflict that enveloped Nichiren’s life.

Much of that difference can be explained by Nichiren’s goals in 13th Century Japan.

“For Nichiren, preaching the exclusive truth of the Lotus Sūtra was not only about leading individuals to enlightenment, but also about saving the country and establishing an ideal buddha land in this world, a task he came to see as his personal mission and responsibility. In declaring the supremacy of the Lotus Sūtra, he found it necessary to rebuke attachment to other, provisional teachings; in consequence, he encountered repeated antagonism.”

Nichiren felt the four peaceful practices were unsuited to his era. Do they apply today?

In Buddhism for Today, Nikkyō Niwano argues carrying the insistence on aggressive propagation into the modern world is ill-advised.

“In practicing the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, so long as a person forces himself to endure persecution and the scorn of outsiders though filled with anger and resentment, he is a beginner in Buddhist disciplines. A person who has attained the Way can maintain a peaceful and calm mind even while suffering and can feel joy in the practice itself. Until a person attains such a state of mind, he must take scrupulous care not to be tempted or agitated by the various setbacks in his daily life. The chapter “A Happy Life” [the title of the Peaceful Practices chapter in the 1975 edition of the Threefold Lotus Sutra] teaches us this. The bodhisattvas declare with great ardor their resolution to withstand persecution from outside in the chapter “Exhortation to Hold Firm,” while the Buddha, like a father, gently admonishes the bodhisattvas not to yield to inward temptation in the chapter “A Happy Life.” In a sense, these two chapters state the contrast between a kindly father who knows the world and a son who is young and high-spirited.”

Rev. Ryusho Jeffus offers this warning in his Lecture on the Lotus Sutra:

“When there is no obstacle to practice it is entirely possible to create a false obstacle by our behavior of obstinacy and belligerence. The kinds of obstacles created in those situations are false. I can be a jerk and have people around me treat me poorly, but I can’t claim it is because of my practice when I am not actually following the peaceful practices in a peaceful environment. In an environment that is not hostile we should practice in a non-hostile way.”