WONS, 100 Days of Study

Day 28 of 100

Concisely speaking, the honzon (Most Venerable Ones) of Buddhist sects are as follows:

  • The three Hinayana sects of Kusha (Chü-she), Jōjitsu (Ch’êng-shih, Establishment of Truth) and Ritsu (Lü, Precept) regard Śākyamuni Buddha appearing in this world in the capacity of the Inferior Accommodative Body as the Most Venerable One.
  • The honzon of the Flower Garland Sect is Vairocana Buddha in the Reward Body.
  • The Hossō (Dharma Characteristics) Sect regards Śākyamuni Buddha in the Superior Accommodative Body as the honzon.
  • The Sanron (Three Discourses) Sect also worships Śākyamuni in the Superior Accommodative Body.
  • The Shingon (True Word) Sect’s honzon is the Great Sun Buddha, whose Dharma Body resides in the Matrix-store Realm Mandala and Reward Body in the Diamond Realm Mandala.
  • Amitābha (the Buddha of Infinite Life), the Most Venerable One of the Jōdo (Pure Land) Sect, is a Buddha in the Reward Body according to Shantao but in the Accommodative Body according to T’ien-t’ai. The Accommodative Body can be divided into two – inferior and superior. …
  • The honzon of the Tendai (T’ien-t’ai) Sect is Śākyamuni Buddha, who had actually practiced the Bodhisattva way and attained Buddhahood in the eternal past. The Buddhas such as Vairocana Buddha, Lord Preacher of the Flower Garland School, and the Great Sun Buddha, Lord Preacher of the True Word School, are retainers of this Eternal Śākyamuni Buddha.

Ichidai Goji Keizu, Genealogical Chart of the Buddha’s Lifetime Teachings in Five Periods, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 249-250

There are five accepted honzons in Nichiren Shu:

  1. A statue of the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha.
  2. A statue of the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha flanked by the four leaders of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth.
  3. Paired statues of Shakyamuni Buddha and Many Treasures Tathagata flanking the Stupa of Treasures inscribed with the words “Namu Myoho Renge Kyo.” This is the depiction used most often in the main halls of temples. The phrase Namu Myoho Renge Kyo is the Odaimoku or “Honored Title” of the Lotus Sutra.
  4. An inscription of the Odaimoku alone.
  5. The Great Mandala depicting the Odaimoku illuminating the Ten Worlds. Nichiren made many such mandalas; 128 of them are still extant. Among them, the Nichiren Shu has chosen the Shutei Mandala that Nichiren made in 1280 and had at his deathbed as the one that it officially bestows upon members. The Great Mandala is the most popular form of the gohonzon for enshrinement in the home.

Lotus World: An Illustrated Guide to the Gohonzon

Senchu Murano offers an excellent discussion on this subject in his Questions and Answers on Nichiren Buddhism

You can buy a Buddha-statue and worship it as that of the Eternal Sakyamuni. But how can you tell others that the statue is that of the Eternal Sakyamuni Buddha? Something must be done to characterize it. Nichiren always carried a small statue of the Buddha with him, and worshiped it. He sometimes advised others to make a set of five statues: the Buddha and the four leading Bodhisattvas to characterize the Etemal Sakyamuni Buddha. But to understand the meaning of this set of statues needs an elaborate study of the Lotus Sutra. Various Buddhist sects are busy arranging the statues of Buddhas and other Buddhist deities on the altar according to the tenets of the sects. A Buddha accompanied by Avalokitesvara and Samantabhadra is Amitabha Buddha. A Buddha attended by Surya and Candra is Bhaisajyaguru Buddha. A Buddha attended by the four Bodhisattvas is what Buddha? This is a topic of quiz: Who am I? Scholastic complicacies weakened Japanese Buddhism.

People are clever. They just call Buddhas and Buddhist deities “Nonosama” invariably and collectively, and chant the Nembutsu in front of any temple, disregarding the sect difference. What is more interesting to note is that no sect except Nichiren rejects the Nembutsu-chanting before their temples. They make flattering excuses. Tendai identifies the Buddha of Chapter XVI of the Lotus Sutra with Amitabha Buddha although such an identification is not mentioned in the sutra. Shingon enlists Sakyamuni Buddha in the four Buddhas under Mahavairocana. Zen sects do not care at all, saying that freedom is Zen.

Nichiren finally gave up idolizing the Eternal Sakyamuni Buddha. Instead, he ideographically described the World of the Eternal Sakyamuni Buddha as his residence, and recommended it for worship. To worship the world of the Buddha means to worship the Buddha in his right position. The “Imperial Palace” alludes to the Emperor. The “White House” stands for the President. This description of the World of the Eternal Sakyamuni Buddha is called Gohonzon or the Great Mandala.

The fundamental idea of the Great Mandala was revealed in his Kanjin-honzon-sho, which he wrote three months before the description of the Great Mandala. It runs:

There is a Stupa of treasures in the sky above the Saha World of the Original Teacher. In the Stupa of Treasures is enshrined [the core of the sutra, that is, the five characters:] Myoho Renge Kyo. By either side of the Myoho Renge Kyo sit Sakyamuni Buddha and Prabhutaratna Buddha. Sakyamuni, the World-honored One, is accompanied by the Four Bodhisattvas headed by Visistacaritra. The four Bodhisattvas: Manjusri, Maitreya, [Samantabhadra and Bhaisajyaraja] sit on lower seats as the attendants on Sakyamuni Buddha. All the other Bodhisattvas, major or minor, who are either the disciples of the Historical Sakyamuni or the Bodhisattvas having come from other worlds, look up at the Buddha just as the subjects of a king sit on the ground and look up at nobles and dignitaries beside the throne. The Buddhas of the worlds of the ten quarters sit on the ground to show that they are emanations of Sakyamuni Buddha and that their worlds are manifestations of the world of Sakyamuni Buddha.

Here we see that the Daimoku, Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, is made visible, and that the visible Daimoku is used as the symbol of the World of the Etemal Sakyamuni Buddha. A symbol represents a thing. A national emblem is the symbol of a country. It represents anything and everything of the country. Without the Olympic flag, the games cannot be called Olympic. The army of the Emperor Gokogon was defeated, but the Emperor was saved because he had his Royal Standard.

When the Daimoku, which is the name of the Dharma by itself, is used as the symbol of the World of the Eternal Sakyamuni Buddha, it represents not only the Dharma but also the Eternal Sakyamuni Buddha and his Samgha residing in that world. In other words, the Daimoku as the symbol represents the Three Treasures of the Lotus Sutra.

The adoption of the Daimoku as the symbol was a great success because it can never be mistaken for the Nembutsu, and because Sakyamuni Buddha mentioned therein can never be mistaken for any other Buddha than the Eternal Sakyamuni Buddha.

And with that I close out the third book of Nichiren’s writings.

100 Days of Study