Rev. Ryuei Michael McCormick has published another of his thoroughly documented Buddhist tomes, “On the Opening of the Eyes: Annotated Translation with Glossary of the Kaimoku-sho.”

One can consider this a sort of prequel to Ryuei’s masterful Open Your Eyes: A Nichiren Buddhist View of Awakening, which uses the Kaimoku-sho as the basis for a historical look at the spread of Buddhism and specifically Nichiren’s teachings as viewed within the context of medieval Japanese culture.

Ryuei is, of course, not the first person to translate the Kaimoku-sho into English. I have five other English translations in my library:

1. The Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 2, published by the Nichiren Shoshu.
2. The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 1, published by Soka Gakkai
3. Selected Writings of Nichiren, translated by Burton Watson and others and published by Columbia University Press.
4. Writings of Nichiren Shonin, Doctrine 2, compiled by Kyōtsū Hori and published by Nichiren Shū Overseas Propagation Promotions Association
5. Kaimokushō or Liberations from Blindness, translated by Senchū Murano and published by the Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research.

Actually, the first three of the five appear to be the same translation. And there is not much difference in any of the translations since they are all working from the same Japanese text: Taisho Volume 84, Number 2689.

Here’s an example:

From Soka Gakkai’s translation in Volume 1 of The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin:

From the beginningless past I have been born countless times as an evil ruler who deprived the votaries of the Lotus Sutra of their robes and rations, their fields and crops, much as the people of Japan in the present day go about destroying the temples dedicated to the Lotus Sutra. In addition, countless times I cut off the heads of the votaries of the Lotus Sutra. Some of these grave offenses I have already paid for, but there must be some that are not paid for yet. Even if I seem to have paid for them all, there are still ill effects that remain. When the time comes for me to transcend the sufferings of birth and death, it will be only after I have completely freed myself from these grave offenses. My merits are insignificant, but these offenses are grave.

If I practiced the teachings of the provisional sutras, then these retributions for my past grave offenses would not appear. When iron is heated, if it is not strenuously forged, the impurities in it will not become apparent. Only when it is subjected to the tempering process again and again will the flaws appear. When pressing hemp seeds, if one does not press very hard, one will not get much oil from them. Likewise, when I vigorously berate those throughout the country who slander the Law, I meet with great difficulties. It must be that my actions in defending the Law in this present life are calling forth retributions for the grave offenses of my past. If iron does not come into contact with fire, it remains black, but if it contacts fire, it turns red. If you place a log across a swift stream, waves will pile up like hills. If you disturb a sleeping lion, it will roar loudly.

From the Writings of Nichiren Shonin, Doctrine 2, compiled by Kyōtsū Hori:

In the immemorable past, I must have been born a wicked king and must have deprived practicers of the Lotus Sutra of their food and clothing and their properties on numerous occasions just as some people today in Japan have been destroying the Lotus temples. I must have also cut off the heads of numerous practicers of the Lotus Sutra. I may have purged myself of some of these grave sins but not all of them. Even if I have, there are the residuals. In order to attain Buddhahood, I must completely compensate for all those serious sins. My merits in spreading the Lotus Sutra are still shallow while my sins in the past are still deep. If I had preached only provisional sutras, grave sins in my past lives would not have been revealed. It is like a forging iron, for instance. Unless you hit it and forge it hard, hidden scars will not be seen. They appear only when the iron is hit hard many times on an anvil. Or it is analogous to squeezing hemp seeds. Unless squeezed hard, there is little oil. Ever since I, Nichiren, strongly condemned those who slander the True Dharma in Japan, I have been persecuted. It must be that grave sins in my past lives are revealed through my merits in defending the dharma in this life. It is just as a piece of iron remains black unless heated by fire, and becomes red when placed in fire. Even calm water makes great waves when quickly stirred by a log. A sleeping lion roars loudly when awakened by a touch of hand.

From Kaimokushō or Liberations from Blindness, translated by Senchū Murano:

I think I was born as an evil king and plundered food, clothing, land, and so forth from practitioners of the Saddharma-puṇḍarīka-sūtra countless times during my previous consecutive existences since the beginningless past, just as the people of Japan today are destroying the temples of the Saddharma-puṇḍarīka-sūtra. I also think that I beheaded practitioners of the Saddharma-puṇḍarīka-sūtra countless times during my previous consecutive existences.

I may have already expiated some of these serious sins. But even the sins that I think I have already expiated may not have been expiated satisfactorily. In order to eliminate the bonds of birth and death, I must completely expiate all the sins I have committed.

My merits are trifling while my sins are serious. When I practiced Provisional Mahayana sutras, I did not have to commit these serious sins. When you forge a sword, the scar of the sword is not visible until the iron is red enough for forging and hammering is repeated. When you press sesame seeds with more power, you get more oil from them.

Now I am vehemently criticizing the slanderers of the Dharma in this country. I am persecuted probably because my protection of the Dharma has caused me to expiate the great sins that I had committed in my previous existences. Iron is black without fire, and red in fire. When a stream is checked abruptly by logs, mountainous waves will be made. When disturbed, a sleeping lion will roar.

And, finally, Ryuei’s translation:

In the beginningless past, I must have been born as a wicked king and must have deprived practitioners of the Lotus Sutra of their food and clothing and their properties on numerous occasions just as some people in Japan today have been destroying temples dedicated to the Lotus Sutra. I must have also cut off the heads of numerous practitioners of the Lotus Sutra. I may have purged myself of some of these heinous transgressions but not all of them. Even if I have, I am still experiencing the residual effects. In order to be delivered from samsara, I must completely renounce all those heinous transgressions. My merits are shallow while my transgressions are deep. If I had practiced only provisional sutras, heinous transgressions would not have been revealed. It is like forging iron, for instance. Unless you hit it and forge it hard, hidden impurities will not be seen. They appear only when the iron is forged many times on an anvil. It is also analogous to squeezing hemp seeds. Unless squeezed hard, there is little oil. Ever since I, Nichiren, strongly condemned those who slander the True Dharma in Japan, I have been persecuted. It must be that heinous transgressions in my past lives are revealed through my merits in defending the Dharma in this life. It is just as a piece of iron remains black unless heated by fire, and becomes red when placed in fire. Even calm water makes great waves when blocked by a log. A sleeping lion roars loudly when disturbed.

The Nichiren Shu translation and the one by Murano add subheadings describing the content. Soka Gakkai and Ryuei skip these embellishments and divide the letter into its original two portions.

What makes Ryuei’s On the Opening of the Eyes an invaluable addition are his notes and glossary, which make up three quarters of the 404-page book.

Ryuei has broken up the text into numbered blocks. The number corresponds to a note that identifies the exact section of the original Japanese text and adds pointers to entries in his extensive glossary.

An example of the text:

65. In the Original Gate, the attainment of awakening for the first time [under the Bodhi tree] is disproven and the effects of the four doctrinal teachings are thereby eliminated. As the effects resulting from the four doctrinal teachings are eliminated, the causes leading to those effects shown in the four doctrinal teachings are eliminated. Thus, the cause and effect of the ten realms expounded in the prior sutras and the Trace Gate was eliminated and the doctrine of the cause and effect of the ten realms as expounded in the Original Gate was established. This is the doctrine of the original cause and original effect. In this relationship, the beginningless nine realms are all included in the beginningless buddha-realm. This is the true mutual possession of the ten realms, one hundred realms and one thousand aspects, and three thousand realms in a single thought-moment.

Example of the note:

65. Taisho text 2689 in volume 84, lines 214b04-214b11

See glossary for: attainment of awakening for the first time, cause and effect, four doctrinal teachings, mutual possession of the ten realms, one hundred realms and one thousand aspects, original cause and original effect, ten realms, and Bodhi tree.

Gloassary examples. (The glossary entries include the Chinese ideograms, but they are dropped here because I am unable to reproduce them.)

attainment of awakening for the first time: (J. shijō shōgaku)

The ideograms literally mean “first attaining true awakening” and refer to Shakyamuni Buddha’s attainment of unsurpassed, complete, and perfect awakening under the Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya, India. Contrary to this, the sixteenth, “The Duration of the Life of the Tathagata,” chapter of the Lotus Sutra declares: “To tell the truth, good men, it is many hundreds of thousands of billions of nayutas of kalpas since I became the Buddha.” (LS, p. 247) Thus, the attainment of buddhahood in the remotest past of five hundred dust-particle kalpas ago was revealed.

cause and effect: (J. inga;)

The ideogram [not shown] means “cause” and the ideogram [not shown] means “effect.” The “law of cause and effect” encompasses the functioning of various kinds of causes and effects in every area of conditioned life.

four doctrinal teachings: (J. shikyō or kehō no shikyō;)

Zhiyi classified Shakyamuni Buddha’s fifty-years of teaching from the time of teaching the Flower Garland Sutra to the time of teaching the Lotus Sutra and Nirvana Sutra into five periods according to the order of teaching. They are further categorized into four doctrinal teachings: 1) the tripitaka teaching that is regarded as hinayana, 2) the shared teaching for voice-hearers, privately-awakened ones, and bodhisattvas, 3) the distinct teaching for advanced bodhisattvas, and 4) the perfect teaching that is complete and well-rounded without taking sides.

mutual possession of the ten realms: (J, jikkai-gogu;)

According to Zhiyi, the world consists of the ten realms of hell-dwellers, hungry ghosts, animals, asuras, humans, gods, voice-hearers, privately-awakened ones, bodhisattvas, and buddhas. Each of these realms mutually contain characteristics of the nine others in and of itself. This means that, for instance, human beings have characteristics of the nine other realms from beings in hell up to buddhas; asuras have those of the rest of the ten realms; buddhas also have characteristics of the nine other realms. This idea was set up by Zhiyi based on passages in the Lotus Sutra such as “The buddhas appear in the worlds in order to cause all living beings to open the insight of the buddha.” It meant to him that those beings in the nine realms other than the realm of buddhas also possessed the characteristics of buddhas. The idea of “mutual possession” provided the basis for another important Tiantai school doctrine, the “three thousand realms in a single thought-moment.”

Nichiren Shonin established and spread the practice of chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo on the foundation of the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment and the mutual possession of the ten realms as the ultimate means of attaining buddhahood by an ordinary person.

one hundred realms and one thousand aspects: (J. hyakkai-sennyo;)

According to the teaching of Zhiyi in the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra, an individual mind has ten realms (from the realm of the hell-dwellers up to and including the buddha-realm), each of which includes in itself characteristics of the other nine realms, as per the teaching of the mutual possession of the ten realms, making one hundred realms. Each of these one hundred realms has ten suchnesses, so there are one thousand aspects of existence. (FTP, p. 182; PMLS2, p. 74) In the Great Calming and Contemplation, Zhiyi further taught that as these one thousand aspects have three categories of existence, there are three thousand realms in a single thought-moment. (CSQI, pp. 815-816)

original cause and original effect: (J. hon’in-honga;)

The original cause is the causal conduct of the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha revealed in the Original Gate of the Lotus Sutra. The original effect is his resulting virtue. That is to say, the original cause and original effect means the great merit of Shakyamuni Buddha’s practice since the eternal past and the great virtue he gained as a result of his great conduct.

Original cause and original effect are the first two of the ten subtleties of the Original Gate. They also refer to the mutual possession of the ten realms. This is because the realm of buddhahood, the effect aimed for in Buddhist practice, includes the other nine realms that are the causes of buddhahood’s unfolding. Conversely, the realm of buddhahood is nascent within each of the nine realms. (WNS2, p. 48)

ten realms: (S. daśa-dhātu; J. jikkai;)

The combination of the six destinies and the four noble states. The realms of the: 1) hell-dwellers, 2) hungry ghosts, 3) animals, 4) asuras, 5) humans, 6) gods, 7) voice-hearers, 8) privately-awakened ones, 9) bodhisattvas, and 10) buddhas.

Bodhi tree: (S. Bodhi-druma; J. Bodai-ju or Dō-ju)

The pipal or sacred fig tree (Ficus religiosa) in Bodhgaya under which Shakyamuni Buddha was sitting when he attained unsurpassed, complete, and perfect awakening.

Multiply that example by 288 and you have an idea of what Ryuei has accomplished with this book.

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Tomorrow: Why Reading Glasses Are Sometimes Necessary for Eyes