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Open Your Eyes

A Nichiren Buddhist View of Awakening

Finally completed Rev. Ryuei McCormick’s Open Your Eyes: A Nichiren Buddhist View of Awakening. This is a compilation of a series of blog posts McCormick originally posted on his Fraught With Peril website.

I heartily endorse Mark Herrick’s assessment of this work:

This book is a thoroughly researched and well sourced reference combining a historical look at the spread of Buddhism and illuminating Nichiren’s thinking within its context of medieval Japanese culture. It carefully explains why Nichiren expressed criticism of other Buddhist schools and his overarching motivation to ease the suffering of people in this world by returning emphasis to Śākyamuni Buddha’s message that everyone regardless of gender, status, or circumstance can become a buddha in this very lifetime.

Open Your Eyes, p6

The physical book is huge. Literally. It measures 7 inches by 10 inches and 600 pages. (By comparison, Murano’s Lotus Sutra is 5 7/8 by 8 1/4 and 427 pages.) But it is not difficult to read. The text is broken up into 46 chapters, with an average length of 12 or so pages per chapter. I recommend a chapter-a-night regimen.

At the conclusion of the book, McCormick offers an excellent explanation of why you should bother reading his book. Given the length of the book, moving this message up front may encourage more people to pick it up and consider what it has to say:

Many people today, I think, are very casual about being either nominally religious, or vaguely spiritual, or openly disdainful of religious teachings and spiritual practice. Those who do investigate and take up Buddhism and Buddhist practice all too often are satisfied with the small rewards of worldly benefits like peace of mind gained through silent sitting practices, or perhaps good fortune in their relationships or careers because they believe Buddhism can give them some kind of metaphysical control over their lives through ritual practices. I would not deny that sitting meditation or chanting can bring about peace of mind or help people gain the insight to refrain from bad and instead make good causes to help them make the most of life in a worldly sense. Even Śākyamuni Buddha gave discourses to lay followers to help them live wisely and thereby enjoy relatively happy lives in a worldly sense. However, what Nichiren is inviting us to do in Kaimoku-shō is to reflect more deeply about religious teachings including Buddhism and what they mean in terms of how we view life and our own role. Are we content to simply accept that this is the only life and that after death there is nothing at all? Or do we believe there may be some heavenly realm to hope for and that a virtuous life can lead us to it? Or do we wish to seek buddhahood — a life of selfless compassion that transcends small-minded concerns about personal happiness in this or some other lifetime? If we are really willing to engage the deepest teachings of Buddhism and try to realize and actualize them, what are we willing to put on the line? How much of ourselves are we willing to give? Are we only looking for protection and benefits? Or do we have the compassion and courage to give more and more of ourselves for the sake of all beings according to whatever the situation may demand? I cannot imagine that everyone will come to the same conclusions as Nichiren did, but I do think that if the Kaimoku-shō can inspire us to at least reflect on these questions, then it will have been well worth taking the time to read and ponder its message.

Open Your Eyes, p586-587

I’m also publishing the Introduction and I will be setting aside additional quotes in the future.

Earlier I published a lengthy excerpt in a blog post Understanding the 12-Linked Chain of Causation.

 
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800years, Eyes

800 Years: Faith Leads to Buddhahood

It is clear that Nichiren was no longer advocating even the Mahāyāna precepts of the Brahmā’s Net Sūtra. He believed that the practice of revering the true spirit of the Lotus Sūtra by invoking its title transcended any precept codes or particular Buddhist practices or lifestyles inherited from the past as those were all just provisional methods based on provisional teachings that were no longer efficacious. The following statements of his in other writings also express his view that faith in the Lotus Sūtra is what leads to buddhahood and not the observance of precepts:

Speaking of Ajātaśatru and Devadatta: “I am convinced that ordinary people in the Latter Age of Degeneration commit sins more or less. Whether or not such a man can reach Buddhahood depends not on how serious his sin is but whether or not he believes in the Lotus Sūtra. (Hori 2002, p. 188)

It is preached in the Lotus Sūtra, the “Appearance of the Stūpa of Treasures” chapter, ‘Upholding this sūtra is what is called observing the precepts.’ (Hori 2004, p. 214)

Open Your Eyes, p467-468
800years, Eyes

800 Years: Embracing the Lotus Sutra with Faith and Joy

So the question is — what was really intended by these warnings not to engage in slander of the Lotus Sūtra?

As Nichiren has explained, the Lotus Sūtra’s two unique teachings concern the One Vehicle whereby even those who would seem to be excluded from attaining buddhahood are promised its attainment and the revelation that Śākyamuni Buddha had in fact been the Buddha since the remote past even before his awakening beneath the Bodhi Tree. Women, evildoers like Devadatta, and those disciples who were believed to have become arhats who would no longer return to the world after their passing, are all told that they will in fact return to the world and attain buddhahood. This was in seeming contradiction to the earlier teaching that only a very few could aspire to and attain buddhahood. The revelation of the attainment of buddhahood in the remote past means that even during the Buddha’s innumerable past lifetimes as an ordinary human being, or an animal, or some other form of sentient being striving to attain buddhahood the Buddha had been a buddha all along. And now even though the Buddha is going to appear to pass away for good, he asserts that he will still be present. In light of these two teachings, buddhahood should be understood as inclusive of all beings, all time, and all space. It is a constant and active presence even when it is not apparent or seems to be absent in the lives of those who strive for it. Throughout the Lotus Sūtra these ideas are put forward as the fullest expression of the Dharma and to embrace them with faith and joy is to embrace the Wonderful Dharma and to reject them is to reject the Wonderful Dharma. The Wonderful Dharma is held to be even more worthy of respect and offerings than the Buddha himself because it is through the Wonderful Dharma that one attains buddhahood. It is for this reason that rejection means a total alienation from what is truly of value in life, and therefore leads to rebirth in hell. It is for this reason that a single moment of faith and rejoicing in the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Sūtra is said to bring unequalled merit, rivaled only by the merit brought by the perfection of wisdom itself which is none other than buddhahood itself.

Open Your Eyes, p312
800years, Eyes

800 Years: We Only Need Faith

The Original Gate consists of the latter fourteen chapters of the Lotus Sūtra in which the Buddha is the timeless ultimate truth and an ever-present reality leading all people to their own buddhahood. The Original Gate is also referred to as the essential section of the Lotus Sūtra because it is in this part of the sūtra that the Buddha reveals the transcendent nature of buddhahood and that it is an active and present part of our lives already, we only need the faith to realize it. From this point on, buddhahood is no longer a theory, but the essential truth informing all the other teachings.

Open Your Eyes, p28
OnTheOpeningOfTheEyes, Eyes, Books

On the Opening of the Eyes

Annotated Translation with Glossary of the Kaimoku-sho

OnTheOpeningOfTheEyes-bookcover-web
Available on Amazon

From Ryuei Michael McCormick’s introduction:

The essay On the Opening of the Eyes (Kaimoku-shō) is one of the five major writings of Nichiren Daishonin (1222-1282), the progenitor of those Buddhist schools and movements that follow his teachings about the Lotus Sutra and practice the chanting of that sutra’s “august title” (daimoku) in the form of “Namu Myoho Renge Kyo.” In this writing, he reflects upon the course of his life and the nature of the hardships and persecutions that had beset him. In the course of it, he clarifies his mission and renews his determination to work selflessly, even at the cost of his life, for the sake of Japan and by extension all sentient beings whose liberation is guaranteed by the universal promise of Buddhahood conveyed by the Lotus Sutra.

On September 12, 1271, Nichiren was arrested by the Hei no Saemon-no-jo Yoritsuna (d. 1293), deputy chief of the board of retainers of the Kamakura shogunate. He was taken to the execution grounds on Tatsunokuchi beach. The traditional story is that he was saved from death when a mysterious ball of light flew through the sky, frightening the executioner and the other samurai. A messenger from the regent arrived soon after with orders that Nichiren was to be exiled, not executed. On October 10, 1271, Nichiren was sent into exile on Sado Island. At first, he lived in a small broken-down shrine in a graveyard called Tsukuhara. It was the hope of his enemies that Nichiren would die in the harsh winter of Sado Island without any adequate shelter or provisions.

Many of Nichiren’s followers, like Nisshin and Nichiro had also been arrested and imprisoned. They wondered why they had not received divine protection from such persecution. In order to resolve these doubts Nichiren started writing On the Opening of the Eyes in November of 1271. He finished it in February of 1272, after the successful conclusion of the Tsukuhara Debate. This was a debate arranged by Sado Island’s deputy constable between Nichiren and several hundred monks from other schools of Buddhism on January 16 and 17. Nichiren addressed On the Opening of the Eyes to Shijo Kingo, a samurai in Kamakura who was one of his staunchest followers.

Shockingly, Nichiren wrote that he had been beheaded at Tatsunokuchi and it was his spirit that had come to Sado Island. Such a statement reflects Nichiren’s feelings that in a sense he had given up his life at the execution ground and begun a new life. At the same time, he was aware that he could still literally die in the harsh winter on Sado Island or that he might once again face execution. On the Opening of the Eyes was intended to be a memento in case of his death. In other words, it was Nichiren’s last will and testament, so that he could bestow his most important teachings upon his disciples before it was too late. Throughout the work, Nichiren states that the most important question is whether he really has been acting as the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra; and, if so, why he and his followers have not received the blessings and protection of the buddhas, bodhisattvas and other divine guardians of the Dharma.

In the following passage from his autobiographical work, On Various Distinguished Actions (Shuju onfurtnnai gosho), Nichiren describes the circumstances of writing On the Opening of the Eyes and his purpose for writing it:

After everyone had left [following the Tsukuhara debate] I finally finished writing a thesis entitled On the Opening of the Eyes in two fascicles, which I had been writing since the eleventh month of the previous year. I wrote it thinking that if I was to be beheaded, I should have recorded the miracles in my life. The gist of this writing is as follows:

The safety of Japan depends solely upon Nichiren. For example, a house cannot stand without pillars, and a person would be dead without a spirit. I am the spirit of the Japanese people. Hei no Saemon, however, has cut down the pillar of Japan. The world will be in turmoil; lies will prevail; fighting will begin among members of the Hojo clan; and moreover Japan will be attacked by foreign forces just as I wrote in my Treatise on Spreading Peace Throughout the Country by Establishing the True Dharma (Risshō Ankoku-ron).

Thus I wrote On the Opening of the Eyes and gave it to my disciples and lay followers in Kamakura through Shijo Kingo’s messenger. It seems that some disciples who were still with me thought it was worded too strongly, but nobody could stop me. (WNS5, adapted, p. 36)

Throughout On the Opening of the Eyes Nichiren uses a series of comparisons to show that the teaching of the Lotus Sutra can enable all people to attain buddhahood. These comparisons range from the various non-Buddhist philosophies and religions of China and India to all the schools of Buddhism that had been brought to Japan by the thirteenth century. This writing is therefore a survey of the development of world religions, especially of Buddhism, from the perspective of a highly educated Japanese monk of the thirteenth century whose sole concern was to discern which teaching could best liberate people from suffering and enable them to attain the selfless compassion of buddhahood.

Nichiren also shows that the Lotus Sutra itself predicted that anyone propagating it in the Latter Age of the Dharma would be bound to encounter the kinds of hardships that Nichiren and his disciples had already faced and would continue to face. Nichiren also discerned that of all the teachers in Japan at that time, he was the only one who was directing people to the Lotus Sutra instead of away from it. Having reflected upon these things, Nichiren states his determination in the form of a threefold vow to continue upholding the Lotus Sutra for the sake of Japan, no matter what hardships he might have to face:

… no matter how many great difficulties fall upon me, I will not submit to them until a wise person defeats me by reason. Other difficulties are like dust in the wind. I will never break my vow to become the pillar of Japan, to become the eyes of Japan, and to become a great vessel for Japan.

For the Nichiren Buddhist tradition, this writing is considered Nichiren’s testimony regarding his identity as the foremost practitioner of the Lotus Sutra (Hokekyō-no-gyōja) in the Latter Age of Degeneration (mappō). The Latter Age of Degeneration is the era when the true spirit of Shakyamuni Buddha’s teachings will be forgotten. Nichiren and his East Asian contemporaries believed that this era had begun in the year 1052. However, as the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra, Nichiren believed that he was fulfilling the mission given to Superior Practice Bodhisattva, one of the four leaders of the bodhisattvas appearing from underground in Chapter Fifteen of the Lotus Sutra. These bodhisattvas are given the specific transmission to spread the Wonderful Dharma in the Latter Age by the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha in Chapter Twenty-one of the Lotus Sutra. By upholding the Lotus Sutra and spreading the practice of the daimoku, Nichiren came to believe that he was, at the very least, the forerunner of Superior Practice Bodhisattva. The mainstream of the Nichiren Buddhist tradition in Japan has long considered Nichiren to be the “appearance” of Superior Practice Bodhisattva” and the exemplar of all those who continue to uphold and practice the Lotus Sutra.

See also Open Your Eyes: A Nichiren Buddhist View of Awakening

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Eyes

Buddhahood: Past, Future and Now

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Śākyamuni Buddha gave the Original Gate discourse to his disciples two thousand five hundred years ago in India at a time when their understanding was ripe and they could awaken to the fullest implications of what they were being told. The ‘three thousand realms in a single thought-moment’ is the Tiantai way of expressing the contemplative insight that is implied by the Original Gate of the Lotus Sūtra. Therefore, it is called the seed of buddhahood. In other writings, particularly Treatise on Spiritual Contemplation and the Focus of Devotion (Kanjin Honzon-shō), Nichiren identifies this seed with the Odaimoku (Sacred Title) of the five characters of the Lotus Sūtra: myō, hō, ren, ge, and kyō. Nichiren sees the present age as the time in which to sow this seed of buddhahood. Because of this seed, buddhahood is something that is not only found in the past or the future but is a reality that can be sown in our lives in the present moment.

Open Your Eyes, p30
Eyes

Expressing Buddhahood Through Ritual Practices

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Kūkai’s understanding was that all beings are originally enlightened or awakened, and that they only have to realize their intrinsic unity with Mahāvairocana Buddha. This realization can come about through the practice of the three mysteries. He explains it as follows in his essay The Meaning of Becoming a Buddha in This Very Body.

On the basis of this meaning it says, “When empowered by the three mysteries, [Buddhahood] is quickly manifested.” “Empower” (lit., “add and hold”) expresses the great compassion of the Tathāgata and the faithful minds of sentient beings: the reflection of the Buddha sun appearing on the mind-water of sentient beings is called “adding” and the mind-water of the practitioner sensing the Buddha-sun is called “holding.” If the practitioner contemplates well on this guiding principle, through the intercorrespondence of his three mysteries [with those of the Tathögata] he will quickly manifest and realize in his present body the originally existent three bodies. Therefore it is said, “[Buddhahoodl is quickly manifested.” (Giebel 2004, p. 79)

The thought that all beings are originally enlightened and possessed of the three bodies of the Buddha and only need to take faith in the Eternal Buddha (whether understood as the Dharma-body Mahāvairocana Buddha or the Eternal Śākyamuni Buddha of the Lotus Sūtra) and express buddhahood through ritual practices utilizing mudrās, mantras, and the contemplation of mandala images would later be incorporated into Tendai Buddhism and then into Nichiren Buddhism. The result was that practices such as meditative cultivation of the mind in order to perceive the truth were believed to be surpassed by practices in which the original enlightenment made itself immediately manifest in concrete ritual practices that would transform the practitioner into a buddha. …

In regard to Nichiren specifically, [Jacqueline] Stone wrote:

Where Chih-i’s form of meditative discipline was that of “principle,” or introspective contemplation to perceive the truth aspect of reality in one’s mind, Nichiren’s was that of “actuality,” or the chanting of the daimoku, the title of the Lotus Sūtra, said to embody the reality of the Buddha’s enlightenment and the seed of Buddhahood.

Nichiren’s usage reflects the strong influence of esoteric Buddhism, in which ri refers to formless truth that is contemplated inwardly, and ji, to its expression in outwardly manifest practices involving concrete forms.(Stone 1999, pp. 68)

Open Your Eyes, p444-446
Eyes

The Precepts and Development of Morality

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The precepts and the development of morality is a very fundamental part of the Buddhist path. The precepts lay the groundwork for the further mental and emotional development that will eventually lead to liberation. In taking up the precepts, the follower of the Buddha consciously affirms the most basic values that all people seem to know instinctively. Through the development of basic morality, we are protected from all manner of evil; whether the inner torment of a guilty conscience, the social and legal consequences of wrongdoing, or a future rebirth in unfortunate circumstances. Taking the precepts is also a sign of determination and sincerity. It shows that we are no longer willing to compromise our integrity or harm others for worldly gain, because we have aspired to the highest goal. The precepts also cause us to be more mindful of our daily activities; they provide a yardstick by which we can improve our character in every facet of life through exploring their implications in everyday situations.

The precepts are not just negative injunctions either; each of the precepts has a positive value as well. Those who truly follow the precepts against killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and taking intoxicants will naturally develop the qualities of humility, love, compassion, generosity and honesty. Such people will not harm themselves or others; and instead, will seek to protect all beings. In being guided by the precepts, we can cultivate a character that is not only blameless, but also pure and worthy of respect.

Morality is an indispensable element of the Buddhist path, but moral discipline is not an end unto itself. Morality that is not supported by the practice of concentration and insight can easily wither away or degenerate into puritanical self-righteousness. It is only truly fulfilled when it acts as the basis for the cultivation of the mind that leads to perfect and complete awakening for the sake of oneself and all other beings. For the bodhisattva, morality functions as one of the perfections when it is guided by wisdom and thus accompanied by generosity, patience, energy, and meditation, all of which are practiced for the sake of all beings.

Open Your Eyes, p460
Eyes

The Precept Platform for the Latter Age

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Nichiren Buddhism teaches that the Hinayāna precept platform and the Mahāyāna precept platform are now obsolete: the time has arrived for the precept platform of the Diamond Chalice Precept that subsumes all other precepts. From this point of view, the practice of Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō ensures that morality and ethics are not unthinking, rigid adherence to any specific code of conduct. Rather, the moral and ethical life is based directly upon the wisdom and compassion of buddhahood. There is no need to go to a specially sanctioned place in order to receive the Diamond Chalice Precept. Wherever Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō is recited becomes the precept platform where all can dedicate their lives to the Wonderful Dharma and attain enlightenment. It is the place where all people of the world, lay or ordained, can receive the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Flower Teaching directly from the Eternal Śākyamuni Buddha, just as the bodhisattvas from beneath the earth received it during the Assembly in Space.

Open Your Eyes, p472
WONS, Eyes

Five Comparisons Revealing the Highest Teaching

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In Nichiren Buddhism it is understood that in the Kaimoku-shō Nichiren made five comparisons between various religious teachings in order to reveal the highest teaching. Nichiren himself does not ever use the term “five comparisons” and the fifth comparison is not as clear in Kaimoku-shō as it is in other writings. Nevertheless, Kaimoku-shō is regarded as the source of the five comparisons. …

1. Buddhism is Superior to Non-Buddhism
Of all the non-Buddhist teachers Nichiren says, “Although they are called sages, they are as ignorant as infants in that they do not know causality.” This is essentially the same critique the Buddha makes of the sixty-two false views in the Supreme Net Discourse. None of the sixty-two views takes into account the causal and interdependent nature of life. They tend to assert either a form of eternalism, wherein all or at least some beings enjoy an eternal unchanging existence, or they assert some form of annihilationism, wherein phenomena disappear without a trace, or they try to equivocate in some way. …
2. Mahāyāna is Superior to Hinayāna
Just as Buddhism is superior to non-Buddhism because it takes a greater perspective that goes beyond one lifetime or even many lifetimes to reveal the causal processes underlying even the births and deaths of the gods in the heavenly realms, Mahāyāna is superior to Hinayāna because its perspective is vast enough to see that beyond the limited goal of nirvāṇa as an escape from the cycle of birth and death it is possible for people to raise their aspirations by taking the vows of a bodhisattva and thence embarking on the path to attain buddhahood, even if it takes an incalculably long time to do so.

Another difference in perspective is that whereas the Hinayāna only teaches that there are six worlds of rebirth (realms of hell-dwellers, hungry ghosts, animals, fighting demons, humans, and gods) and nothing more besides the negation of rebirth in the six worlds known as nirvāṇa, Mahāyāna teaches that in fact there are many pure lands throughout the universe. The pure lands are realms where all the conditions are perfect for attaining buddhahood and each is presided over by its own buddha who is assisted by many bodhisattvas. With the help of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, sentient beings can be reborn in these pure lands in order to attain buddhahood. Nichiren says that the Mahāyāna:

… were expounded for criticizing adherents of the two vehicles who relied on the Hinayāna sūtras. In these Mahāyāna sūtras, the Pure Lands of the Buddhas were established in the worlds of the ten quarters in order to encourage ordinary men and bodhisattvas to be born there. This troubled adherents of the two vehicles.…

3. True Mahāyāna of the Lotus Sūtra is Superior to Provisional Mahāyāna
In the Lotus Sūtra … the Buddha reveals that the three vehicles he taught to the śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas are actually just partial aspects of the One Vehicle that leads all alike to buddhahood. The Buddha even makes a series of predictions that in future ages his major disciples and all the other members of the assembly will attain buddhahood. If it were not for the Lotus Sūtra then the major disciples who had become arhats would have no hope of attaining buddhahood. “But if the earlier sutras are more attractive [and more valuable], Śāriputra and other adherents of the two vehicles would have lost a chance to become Buddhas forever.” The other sūtras are considered provisional because they do not reveal this larger perspective that grants buddhahood even to śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas and so they are not fully inclusive of all beings. The Lotus Sūtra alone should be considered the true Mahāyāna because it makes it clear that all beings can attain buddhahood without exception. This is the reason why the Lotus Sūtra is superior to the other Mahāyāna sūtras. …
4. The Original Gate is superior to the Trace Gate
The Trace Gate consists of the first fourteen chapters of the Lotus Sūtra in which the Buddha is still seen as the historical Śākyamuni Buddha who attained awakening two thousand five hundred years ago. It is called the Trace Gate because it covers the teaching of the One Vehicle by the historical Buddha as described above, and these teachings are the traces or imprints of the teaching of the Eternal Śākyamuni Buddha. The historical life of the Buddha and his teachings is like a print made in soft wax by a seal, or like traces left in the sand by a person walking on the beach. The Trace Gate is also referred to as the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra because it is in this part of the sūtra that the Buddha teaches that in theory all people are capable of attaining buddhahood.

The Original Gate consists of the latter fourteen chapters of the Lotus Sūtra in which the Buddha is the timeless ultimate truth and an ever-present reality leading all people to their own buddhahood. The Original Gate is also referred to as the essential section of the Lotus Sūtra because it is in this part of the sūtra that the Buddha reveals the transcendent nature of buddhahood and that it is an active and present part of our lives already, we only need the faith to realize it. From this point on, buddhahood is no longer a theory, but the essential truth informing all the other teachings.

The Original Gate, therefore, surpasses the more limited view of the Trace Gate that Śākyamuni Buddha attained awakening for the first time at the age of thirty (or thirty-five according to other sources) under the Bodhi Tree forty years before the time when he taught the Lotus Sūtra. From the perspective taken in the Original Gate, Śākyamuni Buddha’s awakening occurred in a past time so remote that it is often just glossed as “eternal.” Nichiren says,

“In the Original Gate of the Lotus Sūtra, it was revealed that the Buddha had attained perfect enlightenment in the remote past, making it untenable to assert that he had attained Buddhahood for the first time in this world. “

This is important because it means that even when the Buddha was demonstrating bodhisattva conduct in previous lives he was actually not trying to attain buddhahood but was demonstrating it in a progressively more complete way until he revealed the fullness of buddhahood as Śākyamuni Buddha in India 2,500 years ago. This means that buddhahood was always present and even after the passing away of the historical Buddha, Śākyamuni Buddha as the Eternal Buddha will remain present. …

5. Buddhism of Sowing Superior to Harvest — Introspection over Doctrine
There is one final comparison that Nichiren makes in his teachings, though it is not set forth as clearly in Kaimoku-shō as it is in other writings. This is the comparison between the essential teaching of the Lotus Sūtra as a discourse given by Śākyamuni Buddha 2,500 years ago in India and the essential teaching of the Lotus Sūtra as spiritual contemplation for those in the present.

Nichiren identifies the spiritual contemplation of the essential teaching of the Lotus Sūtra with the Tiantai teaching of the “three thousand realms in a single thought-moment” … . According to Nichiren, ‘The ‘three thousand realms in a single thought-moment’ doctrine is hidden between the lines of the sixteenth chapter on The Life Span of the Tathāgata’ in the Original Gate of the Lotus Sūtra.” Nichiren identifies the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment doctrine as the seed of buddhahood. “Based on the concept of the seed of buddhahood preached in the Lotus Sūtra, Bodhisattva Vasubandhu insisted on the ‘supremacy of the seed’ in his Discourse on the Lotus Sūtra. This later became the ‘three thousand realms in a single thought-moment’ doctrine of Grand Master Tiantai.”…

The conclusion of the five comparisons is that Lotus Sūtra is the teaching that truly encompasses all time, from the remotest past, to the farthest future. In this perspective all beings are able to attain buddhahood in the fullness of time. More importantly, the perspective of the Lotus Sūtra provides assurance that buddhahood is a present actuality for all beings. Nichiren makes this point clear in A Letter to the People of Seichōji Temple (Seichōji Daishū-chū), a letter he wrote to Seichōji Temple in 1276:

The Lotus Sūtra preaches that Śākyamuni Buddha had attained buddhahood already 500 (million) dust particle kalpa in the past and that even those of the two vehicles such as Śāriputra, who are considered incapable of becoming buddhas, will inevitably attain buddhahood in the future. … It is the Lotus Sūtra that explains the past and future with precision, and upholding this sutra is the way to attain buddhahood.

Open Your Eyes, p23-30
WONS, Eyes

Failing to Achieve the True Purpose of the Buddha Dharma

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Nichiren criticizes those who follow the two vehicles of the Śrāvakas (lit. “voice hearers” who are the Hinayāna disciples of the Buddha) and the pratyekabuddhas (lit. “privately awakened ones” who contemplate dependent origination on their own) because these kinds of Buddhists attain liberation from the sufferings of this world of birth and death, but are unable to help anyone else, including their parents. Because of this, they fail to achieve the true purpose of the Buddha Dharma. Speaking of these Hinayāna disciples, Nichiren says:

The purpose of becoming a monk by renouncing one’s family is to save one’s parents. Adherents of the two vehicles think that they can emancipate themselves from suffering. It may be true, but it is very difficult for them to benefit others. They may benefit others to some extent, but they will send their parents to the world where their parents can never become Buddhas. Therefore, I say that they do not know the favors of their parents. (Murano, p. 21. See also Hori 2002, pp. 39-40, and Gosho Translation Committee 1999, p. 228)

Nichiren’s conclusion is that only the Lotus Sūtra has the power to enable our parents to attain buddhahood. Other Buddhist teachings and sūtras may state that in principle all beings can attain buddhahood, but only in the Lotus Sūtra is the buddhahood of all men and women guaranteed and even demonstrated.

Open Your Eyes, p12