In Gene Reeves’ Stories of the Lotus Sutra he includes in his discussion of Chapter 1, Introduction, Kenji Miyawaza (1896-1933), the Japanese short story writer.

One person who understood well the importance of enchantment was Kenji Miyazawa, the poet, storyteller, science-fiction writer, scientist, and lover of the Lotus Sutra. Chanting Namu Myoho Renge-kyo, he imagined his spirit in boundless space, where he was filled with joy in the great cosmos, and from which he returned to earth, having acquired strength and courage to endure a life of suffering.

Known throughout the Tohoku area of Japan as “Kenji bosatsu” (Kenji the bodhisattva), Miyazawa devoted his whole life to the Dharma Flower Sutra – to practicing the Lotus Sutra, to embodying the Lotus Sutra, to living the Lotus Sutra – for example by helping struggling farmers of Iwate Prefecture with modern agricultural science.

One of his most ambitious works, A Night on the Milky Way Railroad, was turned into a popular animated film and used in various Japanese manga comic books. It is a story about a young boy, Giovanni, and his friend Campanella, who ride a train to the stars together – a celestial railroad, soaring through deep space – experiencing numerous adventures and encountering unusual characters. In the final passages of the story it becomes clear that this night train to the stars that Giovanni and his friend Campanella are riding is actually a ferry for souls traveling to life after death!

In a chapter called “Giovanni’s Ticket,” the conductor asks the passengers for their tickets. Campanella, who is dead from drowning, like the other passengers has a small gray, one-way ticket. Giovanni, who at first is very nervous because he thinks he has no ticket at all, discovers in a pocket a larger folded piece of green paper with mysterious characters written down the center. Examining this ticket, the conductor is astonished, and asks: “Did you get this ticket from three-dimensional space?” Bird-catcher, another passenger, then exclaims:

Wow, this is really something. This ticket will even let you go up to the real heaven. And not just to heaven, it is a pass that enables you to travel anywhere you want. If you have this, in fact, you can travel anywhere on this Milky Way Railway of the imperfect fourth-dimension of fantasy.

Giovanni alone on that train has a magical round-trip pass that enables him to freely travel from the “three-dimensional space” of ordinary reality to anywhere in the “fourth-dimensional space” of the invisible, spiritual, imaginative, and enchanting world that is the Milky Way Railroad.

What is this extraordinary railway ticket that enables one to enter the fourth-dimensional world and then return to the ordinary world? Giovanni’s ticket is the gohonzon (object of worship), or mandala, of Nichiren, with its inscription of the daimoku, the sacred title of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma Sutra: “Namu Myoho Renge-kyo.” The daimoku, as it represents and embodies the Dharma Flower Sutra, provides a connection, a passage as it were, between earth and heaven, between earthly and cosmic perspectives, between science and imagination.

After reading Reeves’ description I purchased a copy of Miyazawa’s Milky Way Railroad and quickly devoured it, wanting to read more about Giovanni’s ticket.  I was disappointed to find no mention of a gohonzon, nor Nichiren nor the Lotus Sutra or even any reference to Buddhism. “There were just ten strange characters printed on the ticket against a pattern of black arabesques.”  Namu-Myōhō-renge-kyō is written with seven characters. Nichiren is written with two. What was the tenth character if this represented a gohonzon?

Having so narrowly focused my reading I missed the story, and having now read it twice I can imagine – if not understand – how an interfaith view of religion might coexist with a faith in the teaching of the Lotus Sutra: “This ticket will even let you go up to the real heaven. And not just to heaven, it is a pass that enables you to travel anywhere you want.”

The book contains several references to Christian icons.

Suddenly the inside of the car burst into a white glow. A single island came into sight in the midst of the voiceless flow of the gorgeous Milky Way River. And that island cast a halo of white light as if all the splendor of diamonds and the gleaming of grass were concentrated in one place. On the island’s flat summit stood, ah, so vividly, a white cross. Silently, it stood as though hewn out for eternity from the clouds of the frozen North Pole. And it, too, shed a halo of light.

“Alleluia! Alleluia!” Voices rose from all sides. Turning around, Giovanni saw that the passengers (there were quite a number now!) were standing at attention, some holding black Bibles to their breasts, others crystal prayer beads. All of them had their hands reverently clasped. Instinctively, the two boys also rose to their feet. Campanella’s cheeks sparkled like bright red apples.

By and by, the island and the cross passed behind them. Across the way now were cliffs and palely colored smoke which, like the marsh grass drifting in the breeze, now and again veiled the cliffs in silver as if they were breathing. (p.56-57)

There’s even a Catholic nun in a black wimple, “Her eyes were lowered and directed straight before her, as if she were reverently listening for something, for some words or some voice.” (p.58)

For Giovanni, his ticket inspires in him the attitude of a Bodhisattva:

Giovanni now, without knowing why, began to feel a strange, unbearable sympathy for the man next to him. He thought of the bird catcher catching herons, and happily saying, “Ah, that was so good!” and wrapping the birds in white cloth, and looking sideways in amazement at Giovanni’s ticket, and finally exclaiming in surprise at it. As he thought of these things one after another, he was seized with the desire to do something for this stranger of a bird catcher, to give him something to eat, or anything. If it would really make the bird catcher happy, Giovanni was ready to stand on the radiant bank of the Milky Way River catching birds himself, even for a hundred years. He thought to ask, “What is it that you really want?” But that seemed too forward. Wondering how to put it, he looked around. But the bird catcher had vanished.

Miyazawa’s train has many passengers, all of whom we learn – with the exception of Giovanni – have recently drowned. Not all are traveling to the same destination.

“We’ll be arriving at the southern cross soon – get ready to get off,” the young man said to them.

“I’m staying on the train a little longer,” responded Tadashi.

Kaoru stood up uneasily and began to get ready. But she seemed reluctant to part from Giovanni and Campanella.

“We’ve got to get off here,” said the young man, looking down at Tadashi and pressing his lips together.

“I don’t want to! I’m staying on the train and riding some more first.”

Giovanni, unable to bear it, said, “Ride along with us! Our tickets are good for going on forever.”

“But we really must get off now,” said Kaoru sadly. “This is the place for going to Heaven.”

“Who wants to go to Heaven? We have to make a place even better than Heaven right here. That’s what my teacher said.”

“But Mom is up there, and furthermore, God said so Himself.”

“That kind of god is false!”

“Your god is false!”

“He is not!”

“What kind of god is your god?” young man broke in, laughing.

“I’m not sure, really. But … anyway, He’s the one true God,” said Giovanni.

“Of course the true God is the only one.”

“Anyway, my God is that one true God.”

“Well, then, there you are! And I pray that you’ll be meeting us before the true God.” The young man pressed his hands together gravely, and Kaoru, too, was praying.

At that precise moment, in the far distance of the Milky Way’s downstream course, a cross, bejeweled with bright orange and blue lights, appeared, standing shimmering in the midst of the river. Its top was lost in a pale cloud, circular like a halo.

The inside of the train was thrown into commotion as all the passengers (just as they had before at the Northern Cross) stood up and began to pray. On all sides there were cries of joy – cries like those of children picking out gourds for the Milky Way Festival. As the cross gradually came parallel to their window, they saw that the silver cloud, pale like the twirling skin of an apple, was gently, ever so gently, revolving.

“Alleluia! Alleluia!” Brightly and happily the passengers’ voices resounded together. From far off in the distant cold depths of the sky came the clear, bracing, indescribable blast of a trumpet.

The train gradually eased to a full stop directly opposite the cross in a blaze of signal lights and street lamps.

“Well, this is where we get off.” The young man took Tadashi’s hand, and Kaoru, adjusting her coat and straightening her collar, slowly followed them out of the train.

“I guess it’s goodbye!” she said, looking back at Giovanni and Campanella.

“Goodbye!” said Giovanni – gruffly, but in fact he was only struggling to hold back his tears.

Kaoru looked back once more with big sad eyes, and then they were gone. The car, already only half full, abruptly emptied out and was left deserted with the wind blowing about it in gusts. Looking out, the boys could see the passengers lined up, kneeling on the bank of the Milky Way in front of the Cross. They saw a figure robed in solemn whiteness passing over the invisible water of the heavenly river, hand extended toward them.

But then the glass whistle sounded, and, just as the train began to move, a silver fog came flowing softly upstream and their view was blotted out. They could make out only the radiant leaves of many walnut trees standing in the mist, and electric squirrels with gold halos peeping out of the mist with mischievous faces.

Now, soundlessly, the fog rolled away once more. They saw a street, lined with little street lamps, that looked like a highway to somewhere. For some time it ran along beside the track, and as they passed the lights, the boys saw those tiny specks of red flame blink on and off, as if in greeting.

Looking back, they saw that the cross was now incredibly tiny and far away. It looked like something you could hang around your neck. They wondered about Kaoru and Tadashi and the young man. Were they still kneeling on the bank, or had they set out in whatever direction it is that leads to Heaven? But it was so blurry, they couldn’t tell.

Giovanni heaved a deep sigh. “Campanella, it’s just you and me again. Let’s stick together all the way, whatever happens! … You know, if it’s for everyone’s happiness, I’m ready to have my body burned like that Scorpion – even a hundred times.”

“Ummmm. I feel the same.” Campanella’s eyes were swimming with gentle tears.

“But – what is it that will make everyone happy?” continued Giovanni.

“I don’t know,” Campanella muttered.

“Anyway, we’re going to hold on!” said Giovanni with an explosion of breath as if his chest were brimming with new-found energy.

“Ah – that’s the Coal Sack. It’s the hole in the sky!” Campanella seemed to shrink back as he pointed to a spot in the heavenly river. Giovanni, too, was shaken as he looked over there. Beyond on the heavenly river, a great black emptiness opened out.

However he strained his eyes, he couldn’t tell how far down the bottom might be, or what might be inside – it only made his eyes smart. “I wouldn’t be afraid in a big dark place like that anymore,” he said. “I’d go looking in there for what would make people happy. You and me – together to the end!”

“Together!” echoed Campanella. “Hey! Don’t those fields look great, and everyone’s gathered there, and – that must be Heaven itself! And there’s my mother!” Campanella cried out, pointing suddenly out the window to a beautiful place he saw in the distance.

Giovanni looked where he was pointing, but all he could see was dim, white, rolling smoke, and nothing at all like what Campanella was describing. Feeling indescribably lonesome, Giovanni looked aimlessly around. He saw two telephone poles standing on the opposite bank, their arms linked as if joined in an embrace.

“Campanella, we’ll stick together, right?” Giovanni turned as he spoke and … in the seat where Campanella had been sitting until now, there was no Campanella, only the dark green velvet seat.

Giovanni burst into tears and everything went black. (p.119-127)

In Reeves’ description of Miyazawa’s tale he concludes:

Like poets before him, Miyazawa understood the deepest meaning of the Lotus Sutra – an affirmation of the reality and importance of this world, the world in which suffering has to be endured, and can be, combined with an imaginative cosmic perspective engendered by devotion to the Lotus Sutra. And with his imaginative power and skill as a writer, Miyazawa offers Giovanni’s ticket to each of us. Like the Sutra itself, he uses his own imagination to invite us into an imaginary other world in order to have us become more this-worldly.

I wholeheartedly endorse Reeves’ statement that “the deepest meaning of the Lotus Sutra – an affirmation of the reality and importance of this world, the world in which suffering has to be endured, and can be, combined with an imaginative cosmic perspective engendered by devotion to the Lotus Sutra.” I just don’t see how you get from there to the place where all religions share a common, inter-faith truth.

Next: Ecumenical Buddhism

Yesterday I published The Trouble with Interfaith Truth. I asked Rev. Ryuei McCormick, who leads the Nichiren Buddhist Sangha of the San Francisco Bay Area, what he thought and this was his response.

A very good question. And feel free to share my response:

In East Asia they sometimes talked about the five vehicles – because they would include the vehicle moral practice to attain a human rebirth, and the moral and meditative practices for attaining a heavenly rebirth. These were of course considered provisional and preliminary to Buddhism. Nichiren Shonin alludes to this kind of thinking in the beginning of the Opening of the Eyes (Kaimoku-sho) when he talks about how Confucianism and Brahmanism prepared the way for Buddhism in China and India respectively. In the Pali Canon the Buddha often gave a “progressive teaching” consisting of a review of those spiritual teachings and values that he shared with Brahmanism: generosity, self-discipline, and aspiration for rebirth in the heavenly realms, as well as the dangers of sensual pleasures and the benefits of renunciation. Once his listeners heard and accepted those teachings (almost a Spirituality 101) he would then teach the four noble truths.

And then there is the mutual possession of the ten worlds and the Tiantai teaching that even adverse seeds can lead to buddhahood. And these Tiantai teachings play off such things as Vimalakirti’s admonitions to the voice-hearers.

So, the One Vehicle is actually all the teachings of the Buddha including those he gave that weren’t even particularly unique to Buddhism (such as the above “progressive teaching”) and those he gave as bodhisattvas in times and places where there was no Buddhism but the ground needed to be prepared (Nichiren alludes to this also in Kaimoku-sho by citing Tiantai Zhiyi’s belief that Confucius was just such a bodhisattva).

To be more specific based on what I have discerned from the sutras, the Lotus Sutra, Tiantai’s teachings, and Nichiren Shonin’s teaching (and this is written about at length in my Kaimoku-sho commentary Open Your Eyes), Christianity and other such monotheistic religions are okay insofar as the encourage people to do things that are wholesome and refrain from what is unwholesome. That will enable people to attain a human or heavenly rebirth which is conducive to having the kind of wholesome attitude and way of living that will enable a person to give ear to the Buddha Dharma (including the Lotus Sutra) whereas those in the four lower realms have a more difficult time. Note that among the guardians of the Dharma mentioned in the Lotus Sutra are the eight kinds of supernatural beings, among whom are devas (god realm), asuras (fighting demons realm), nagas (animal realm), and yakshas (spirits considered to exist in the hungry ghosts realm, though I’ll admit it’s kind of odd). It is even possible for bodhisattvas to be born in times and places where there is no established Buddha Dharma and so they will express values and insights that are similar, though they will not turn the Wheel of the Dharma fully (so Jesus is at best a bodhisattva and not a Buddha because he did not teach the four noble truths but a relatively more humane form of monotheism). Now of course, these teachings also perpetuate delusions (like monotheism) and when they come into conflict with Buddhism they then become religions that are no longer preparing the way to Buddhism but blocking it and therefore lead to unwholesome conduct in relation to Buddhism.

Towards the end of Kaimoku-sho, Nichiren makes it clear that there are countries that are just ignorant and evil and then there are countries that slander. I believe the distinction he is making is between non-Buddhist cultures that need to be persuaded to give ear to the Dharma and learn more about it until they are able to take up the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Sutra. This requires shoju or the way of accepting where people are at and encouraging them in their good qualities while leading them gradually to the Wonderful Dharma. Then there are those countries (like 13th century Japan) that were Buddhist and had centuries to digest the Buddha Dharma but they still turn away from the Lotus Sutra. These countries are slanderous because they are not just hostile to Buddhism out of ignorance but are Buddhists misrepresenting Buddhism and they should know better and they had their chance. For them, shakubuku or the way of subduing their arrogant misrepresentations of the Dharma must be used.

So I recognize the Dharma at work surreptitiously in other traditions, but I also see how their are unwholesome teachings that must be criticized not because they slander the Dharma (of which they are largely ignorant and even their misrepresentations lack authority because they are not coming from Buddhists themselves) but because they are inhumane and lead to lower realms because of the obvious harm they cause. For instance, fundamentalist Christians gathering in defiance of the law and endangering their own health and ours because they falsely and arrogantly assume they are immune to disease because they are “bathed in the blood of Christ.” Not on Buddhist or Dharmic grounds but simply on scientific grounds and for our own survival as a species these false religiosities must be opposed. That puts me at odds with fundamentalists but not with people of other traditions who truly are good hearted, open-minded, and share values and even insights with Buddhism (probably because their founders or saints were bodhisattvas or pratyekabuddhas).

With Buddhists I actually use shakubuku more than I expected and more than most people think. When I’m with other Buddhists I usually don’t need to contradict or argue as long as we are talking about shared values, insights, and so on. And there is a LOT of shared ground. However, I am quick to speak up when I think the Buddha Dharma is being misrepresented. More often than not I get admissions that my point is valid. I have pointed out to Zen Buddhists that they all too often pay more attention to the koans than to the sutras. I have pointed out to Pure Land Buddhists that ultimately there is no self- or other-power. I am very quick to point out that the Diamond Sutra and Heart Sutra are merely provisional sutras and are not the pinnacle of Buddha Dharma. I do this politely but firmly.

Another important point to consider, which those who emphasize the ecumenical implications of the One Vehicle (whether just within Buddhism or between Buddhism and non-Buddhism) is that trajectory is very important. In any given situation, is a teaching or practice leading people to a place where they will be able to appreciate and accept the Lotus Sutra on some level, or is it leading people away from the Lotus Sutra? This requires a lot of discernment and more discussion.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

Next: The Example of Kenji Miyazawa

Gene Reeves’ The Stories of the Lotus Sutra was published by Risshō Kōsei Kai in 2010 as a companion to Reeves’ updated translation of the threefold Lotus Sutra. This is the second Kōsei kai book I’ve read that brings up the concept that all religions share a common, inter-faith truth. As Reeves puts it:

[W]ithout the nourishment of the Dharma [as revealed in the Simile of the Herbs] we would dry up and die. But this Dharma that nourishes all is not something to be found only in the Buddhist religion. It is universal. It is everywhere. The Dharma can be found even in the ordinary food that we eat and the water we drink, making it possible for us to live.

Or this conflating of Jesus and Krishna with the Eternal Buddha:

[E]ven when we think we cannot see him, the Buddha can be found right next to us. The Buddha may not even go by the name of a buddha. Sometimes perhaps he goes by the name of Christ, or Krishna, or even Jane. Belonging to a Buddhist temple or organization is not, in itself, the Buddha Way, nor is it the only way to enter or follow the Buddha Way. The “universal gate” is many gates, many more than you or I could possibly know in a lifetime.

Reeves comes at this whole issue of inter-faith Dharma from a number of directions.

One of the important insights to be gained from the teaching of skillful means is that many things that are not the whole truth are nevertheless important truths. Just as we should seek the potential to be a buddha in ourselves even though we are far from perfect, we should seek the truth, even the hidden truths, in what others say, in their words and in their stories.

“Others” includes of course other religions and their followers. Followers of the Dharma Flower Sutra can be glad when they encounter people of other faiths who have found carriages appropriate for themselves. The Sutra teaches that there are many successful ways, some, no doubt, beyond our imagination.

Or this:

Apart from the Buddha and blind to the Buddha Dharma, we are like someone wandering around, destitute, impoverished, without purpose, miserable. In a sense, this is the destiny of those who do not, in some way, follow the Buddha Way. This does not mean, however, that one has to be a Buddhist in the ordinary sense. To follow the Buddha is to put one’s trust in and devote oneself to the happiness of others and the life of the whole. It is to share in a kind of common human faith that life is meaningful, a faith that finds expression in a variety of religious and other forms.

I struggle with this concept that the One Buddha Vehicle includes Christian chariots along with the Śrāvakayāna sheep cart and Pratyekabuddha deer cart and Bodhisattva bullock cart.

Stretching the One Buddha Vehicle to cover all of the Buddha’s teachings is, for me, the essence of the Lotus Sutra. I view the Lotus Sutra as the blueprint that allows the practicer to gather from all of the building materials (other sutras) what is needed to create a hall within which one can practice the Buddha way. The Lotus Sutra is the ocean into which all streams have flowed. But I’m unable – or perhaps just unwilling – to stretch it further to include all religions.

These ideas troubled me and it occurred to be that someone who had a statue of a Roman Catholic saint eye-opened for his Buddhist altar might be able to share some insight. I sent this as an email to Ryuei McCormick.

Ryuei McCormick’s response