Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism[The moment of “embracing” the Lotus Sūtra as conceived in Nichiren’s thought] is a moment of intersection between the present time and the timeless realm of enlightenment, in which the Buddha, the practitioner, and the practitioner’s outer world are all identified. It is described as the “three thousand realms in one thought-moment,” which is implicit in the practitioner as the ontological basis of enlightenment, embodied in the daimoku and the object of worship, accessed in the act of faith and chanting, and manifested outwardly in the transformation of the world. This reality is both inherent in and mediated by the five characters myōhō-renge-kyō conferred by the original Śākyamuni Buddha upon the people of the Final Dharma age and is accessible in no other way. This understanding of the Lotus Sūtra as the sole vehicle of realizing Buddhahood underlies Nichiren’s mandate to uphold it “without begrudging bodily life.” It also enabled him and his followers to challenge the authority of established religious institutions and to define themselves as the unique possessors of truth. (Page 294-295)
Category Archives: 800years
800 Years: Faith Beyond Calculations of Ability
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p 234-235In ancient India placing one’s hand on the head of another apparently was a sign of trust. Clearly something like that is intended here – but perhaps something more is involved. Though not in this chapter, in various places in the Dharma Flower Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha has said that he is the father of this world. Further, bodhisattvas are regarded as children of the Buddha. There is, in other words, a kind of familial relation, a relation of affection between the Buddha and bodhisattvas. Here, the placing of his hand on the heads of bodhisattvas indicates that the relationship is not only one of trust in a formal sense but displays a religious faith which goes beyond calculations of ability and such. Just as in early chapters of the Sutra he has assured shravakas of becoming buddhas, here the Buddha assures bodhisattvas that they can do the job that needs to be done.
The bodhisattvas, in turn, assure the Buddha that they will indeed carry on his ministry of spreading the Dharma. In other words, the relationship of trust between the Buddha and the bodhisattvas is a mutual one, based on personal assurance. The Buddha assures the bodhisattvas that they can do what needs to be done and they assure him that they will do it.
800 Years: Four Faiths and Five Categories
Buddhism for Today, p270Since ancient times, the essential points of [Chapter 17] have been considered to be the “four faiths” (shishin) and “five categories” (go-hon). This division was first made in China by Chih-i in order to make the chapter more easily understood. The concept of the four faiths to be followed during the Buddha’s lifetime came from the idea that the ideal way of faith while the Buddha lived was to be divided into the following four stages: (1) receiving but one thought of faith and discernment concerning the eternity of the Buddha’s life, (2) apprehending its meaning, (3) devotion to preaching the Lotus Sutra abroad to others, and (4) beholding and perfecting profound faith and discernment.
The five categories of faith to be pursued after the Buddha’s extinction are derived from the idea that the ideal way of faith in the age of degeneration is divided into the following five categories: (1) first rejoicing over the Lotus Sutra, (2) reading and reciting it, (3) preaching it to others, (4) concurrently practicing the six pāramitās, and (5) intensively practicing the six pāramitās.
The first of the four faiths is to receive but one thought of faith and discernment concerning the eternity of the Buddha’s life. This is the first stage of faith, but the merits obtained by this practice are beyond limit or measure.
800 Years: The Source of Strong Faith
It is easier to begin putting faith in the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra than to keep on believing in it to the very end. It is as though water flows in the direction of the wind and the color of flowers fade with dew.
You have steadfastly maintained your true faith in the Lotus Sūtra till today, which is very rare. How do you think you have had such a strong true faith in the Lotus Sutra? It was solely due to the good karma you accumulated during your lives in the past, in addition to the divine protection of the Buddha.
Matsuno-dono Nyōbō Go-henji, A Response to the Wife of Lord Matsuno, Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, Page 244
800 Years: Variable Speed Transmission
Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, is considered the specific transmission of the daimoku in the Latter Age of Degeneration of the Dharma given to the bodhisattvas from underground led by Jōgyō. Chapter 22, Transmission, is the general transmission given to the rest of the gathering. Nichiren describes the scene in his letter “Nichinyo Gozen Gohenji”:
“[A]s Śākyamuni Buddha stepped out of the Stupa of Many Treasures and stood in the air, the original disciples of the Buddha such as Bodhisattva Superior Practice, disciples of the Buddhas in manifestation such as Bodhisattva Great Mañjuśrī, Great King of the Brahma Heaven, Indra, the sun, the moon, the Four Heavenly Kings, the Dragon King, the ten female rākṣasa demons, and others gathered in the vast world of four-trillion nayuta, as numerous as the pampas grass in the Musashino Field or trees on Mt. Fuji. They waited knelt side by side with their heads bowed to the ground, their hands together in gasshō, beads of perspiration forming from all the body-heat. Like an affectionate mother stroking the head of her child, Śākyamuni Buddha placed His hand upon their heads three times and entrusted them with the Lotus Sūtra. Then accepting the request of Śākyamuni Buddha, Bodhisattva Superior Practice, the sun and moon, and others vowed to spread the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration.
Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4,
Page 132-133
As Gene Reeves explains in Stories of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha’s placing his hand on the heads of the bodhisattvas is a gesture of trust, but also something more:
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p234“Though not in this chapter, in various places in the Dharma Flower Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha has said that he is the father of this world. Further, bodhisattvas are regarded as children of the Buddha. There is, in other words, a kind of familial relation, a relation of affection between the Buddha and bodhisattvas. Here, the placing of his hand on the heads of bodhisattvas indicates that the relationship is not only one of trust in a formal sense but displays a religious faith which goes beyond calculations of ability and such. Just as in early chapters of the Sutra he has assured shravakas of becoming buddhas, here the Buddha assures bodhisattvas that they can do the job that needs to be done.
“The bodhisattvas, in turn, assure the Buddha that they will indeed carry on his ministry of spreading the Dharma. In other words, the relationship of trust between the Buddha and the bodhisattvas is a mutual one, based on personal assurance.
Whether we consider ourselves among the bodhisattvas who rose from unground or among the general gathering doesn’t matter. As the History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism explains:
History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism, p 94“To answer the message of the Lotus Sūtra, we should think of this transmission as coming directly to us. Receiving this transmission, we must ourselves commit to becoming teachers of the Dharma and messengers of the Tathāgata and put this transmission into action.”
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800 Years: The Place of Enlightenment
As we take faith and practice before our altar and our faith grows, we should keep in mind that we are practicing at the Place of Enlightenment. This is the place where we are taken when we study the Lotus Sutra.
In Chapter 3, Śāriputra sings:
“You lead all living beings
To the place of enlightenment
By the Dharma-without-āsravas, difficult to understand.”
And the Buddha points out that with the One Vehicle of his teaching in the Lotus Sutra:
“The Bodhisattvas and Śrāvakas
Will be able to go immediately
To the place of enlightenment
If they ride in this jeweled vehicle.”
Where is this place of enlightenment? As the Buddha reveals in Chapter 21, any place “where anyone keeps, reads, recites, expounds or copies this sūtra, or acts according to its teachings, or in any place where a copy of this sūtra is put, be it in a garden, in a forest, under a tree, in a monastery, in the house of a person in white robes, in a hall, in a mountain, in a valley, or in the wilderness, there should a stupa be erected and offerings be made to it because, know this, the place where the stupa is erected is the place of enlightenment. Here the Buddhas attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Here the Buddhas turned the wheel of the Dharma. Here the Buddhas entered into Parinirvana.”
As Rev. Ryusho Jeffus says in this Lecture on the Lotus Sutra:
“In the special transmission [Chapter 21] we have the revelation once again that this place, the very place where the Lotus Sutra is practiced, is the place of enlightenment. In other words, there is no greater place to be, there is no greater place to practice than the very place where you are. Through this practice in your life you erect a great treasure tower containing the two Buddhas and you purify your environment revealing the pure land that it already is. We may not be able to perceive the reality of the Buddha’s pure land in our environment, through our practice we begin to manifest our own Buddha life and with the eyes of the Buddha we become, we have the ability to see our world with a new perspective. As the Buddha says further on, when we practice exactly as the buddha instructs us in the Lotus Sutra we will be able to eliminate darkness in our lives.”
Our acceptance of the teaching of the Lotus Sutra and belief in the truth of that teaching is the measure of our faith. This is the practice of great Bodhisattvas. As Universal Sage says in Chapter 28:
“Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this sūtra, memorizes it correctly, understands the meanings of it, and acts according to it, know this, does the same practices that I do. He should be considered to have already planted deeply the roots of good under innumerable Buddhas in his previous existence. He will be caressed on the head by the hands of the Tathāgatas.”
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800 Years: Faith and Gratitude
SADO GOKANKI SHO
I, Nichiren, vowed to learn and to master Buddhism and to attain Buddhahood so that I would be able to save the people from whom I had received favors. To attain Buddhahood, one must not think selfishly even at the cost of his life.
(Background : October 10, 1271, 49 years old, at Echi, Showa Teihon, p.510)
Explanatory note
With the protection of guardian deities of the Lotus Sutra, Nichiren Daishonin narrowly escaped the execution at Tatsu-no-kuchi on September 12, 1271. But a month later, he was exiled to Sado Island in the Japan Sea. The above quotation was a part of a letter written by Daishonin before leaving for exile.
Most people see Nichiren’s vigorous actions which have appeared externally, but they do not try to see his religious point which has come from within his inner self.
For Nichiren Daishonin, “Ho-on” or gratitude was the nucleus of his religion. “Ho-on” means to show appreciation that you are living because of others. Any society is formed with each individual depending on others, so that we must show appreciation of all people. But if the appreciation is referred to only in our daily living, it is not real gratitude, or “Ho-on”.
According to Nichiren Daishonin, the real gratitude is to lead all people to the faith in the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, which was revealed by the Buddha Sakyamuni.
Nichiren might have received all sorts of earthly kindness from many people. But he never tried to return their kindness with worldly matters. Rather, in order to have real salvation for them, Daishonin preached Buddha’s teachings by sacrificing his own life. He cast away all attachments, even his own life. Daishonin’s four major persecutions and many other minor persecutions proved his willingness to sacrifice his own life. We, as his followers, should not be afraid of any obstacles to living in truth; then, we will be given power to overcome such obstacles.
Rev. Kanai
Phrase A Day800 Years: The One Requirement
Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism[I]n Nichiren’s thought, enlightenment, or salvation, depends not on multiple factors but on one condition only—faith in the Lotus Sūtra, which is inseparable from the chanting of the daimoku. Anyone who chants the daimoku, man or woman, cleric or lay person, foolish or wise, realizes enlightenment. Correspondingly, there is but one single error or evil that can obstruct this enlightenment: “slander of the Dharma,” or willful disbelief in the sūtra. To discard the Lotus Sūtra, Nichiren writes, “exceeds even the sin of killing one’s parents a thousand or ten thousand times, or of shedding the blood of the Buddhas in the ten directions.” The modality of Nichiren’s doctrine on this point appears at first absolutely either/or: “Disbelief is the cause of the icchantika and of slander of the Dharma, while faith is the cause of wisdom (prajn͂ā) and corresponds to the stage of verbal identity.” So powerful is faith in the Lotus that no worldly evil can ever counteract it and pull the practitioner down into the evil paths. Conversely, slander of the Lotus Sūtra is so great an evil that no accumulation of worldly good deeds can ever offset it or save one who commits it from the Avīci Hell. On a deeper level, however, the dichotomy is dissolved, for even to slander the Lotus Sūtra is to form a connection with it. Thus in Nichiren’s view, even if one’s practice of shakubuku should arouse the enmity of others and cause them to slander the Lotus Sūtra, because it nonetheless allows them to form a “reverse connection” with the sūtra, that is far preferable to their having no connection at all. Once the retribution of their slander is expiated, they will, by virtue of that connection, encounter the sūtra again and attain Buddhahood. (Page 295-296)
800 Years: Living Faith
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p309Faith is not faith if it is only believed, or only felt; it must be lived. One must strive to become a buddha by being a bodhisattva for others, which means nothing more and nothing less than embodying Buddha Dharma by helping others in whatever ways are appropriate and in whatever ways one can.
800 Years: Faculties of Faith
Buddhism for Today, p223-224[The Buddha] preaches his teachings according to the mental capacity of his listeners. This the tactful way of the Buddha’s compassion, coinciding with his words: “Whenever living beings come to me, I behold with a Buddha’s eyes all the faculties, keen or dull, of their faith.”
The words “faculties of their faith” refer to the five organs (pañcendriāni, go-kon) that lead man to good conduct — the sense of belief (śraddhendriya, shin-kon), sense of endeavor (vīryendriya, shōjin-kon), sense of memory (smrtīndriya, nen-kon), sense of meditation (samādhīndriya, jōkon), and sense of wisdom (prajñendriya, e-kon). All five are fundamental to our religious lives.
“Sense of belief” means the mind of faith. … [A] religion, unlike intellectual learning, does not enable a believer to have the power to save others as well as himself if he understands it only in theory. When he believes from the depths of his heart, his belief produces power. His faith cannot be said to be true until he attains such a mental state.
“Sense of endeavor” means the spirit of endeavoring purely and incessantly. Faith alone is not enough. Our religious lives cannot be true unless we maintain our faith purely and constantly endeavor so that our religious spirit does not weaken or lose its power.
“Sense of memory” indicates the mind that always focuses upon the Buddha. Practically speaking, of course, it is impossible for us to completely forget the Buddha for even a moment. When a student devotes himself to his studies or when an adult is entirely absorbed in his work, he must concentrate on one object. Doing so accords with the way to buddhahood. While devoting ourselves to a particular object, we reflect, “I am caused to live by the Buddha.” When we complete a difficult task and feel relieved, we thank the Buddha, saying, “How lucky I am! I am protected by the Buddha.” When an evil thought flashes across our mind or we suddenly feel angry, we instantly examine ourselves, thinking, “Is this the way to buddhahood?” The mind that thus keeps the Buddha in mind at all times is “sense of memory.”
“Sense of meditation” implies a determined mind. Once we have faith in a religion, we are never agitated by anything, whatever may happen. We bear patiently all persecution and temptation, and we continue to believe only in one religion. We must constantly maintain such firm determination, never becoming discouraged. We cannot be said to be real people of religion unless we have such a mental attitude.
“Sense of wisdom” means the wisdom that people of religion must maintain. As frequently mentioned in this book, this is not a self-centered wisdom but the true wisdom that we obtain when we perfectly free ourselves from ego and illusion. So long as we have this wisdom, we will not take the wrong way. We can say the same thing of our belief in religion itself, not to mention our daily lives. If we are attached to a selfish, small desire, we are apt to stray toward a mistaken religion. However earnestly we may believe in it, endeavoring to practice its teaching, keeping it in mind, and devoting ourselves to it, we cannot be saved because of its basically wrong teaching, and we sink farther and farther into the world of illusion. There are many instances around us of people following such a course. Although “sense of wisdom” is mentioned as the last of the five organs leading man to good conduct, it should be first in the order in which we enter a religious life.