Buddhism for Today, p177-178Buddhism differs distinctively from other religions. Though all have fine teachings, there is no clear evidence of another case in which the founder of a religion attained his own supreme enlightenment and established his own religion. Some religions proclaim that their founders were sent by God. Others declare that God gave a revelation to the founder or that God descended from heaven to this world.
Unlike these religions, the teaching of Buddhism is the truth that Lord Sakyamuni, who was born as a human being like all of us and experienced human suffering and worry, aspired to enlightenment, practiced ascetic disciplines, and attained enlightenment after six years of spiritual effort. The process through which he attained his enlightenment can be clearly seen. Therefore, we can feel confident that we are sure to reach supreme enlightenment eventually if only we follow the Buddha’s teachings and traverse the same path. It is also sure that because this teaching is one that sprang up out of the earth (actual life), we who actually live in this world can follow it. Chapter 15 makes this point emphatically.
Category Archives: d20b
The Bodhisattvas Who Emerged from the Earth
Two Buddhas, p176-177Nichiren maintained that those who shared his practice and commitment were also to be counted among the bodhisattvas who emerged from the earth: “If you are of the same mind as me, then are you not a bodhisattva of the earth? And if you are a bodhisattva of the earth, then without doubt you have been a disciple of Śākyamuni Buddha since the remotest past. … There should be no discrimination as to men or women among those who spread the five characters Myōhō-renge-kyō in the Final Dharma age, for unless they were bodhisattvas of the earth, they could not chant the daimoku. At first, I alone chanted Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō, but then gradually two, three, and a hundred began to chant and transmit it. This will happen in the future as well. Isn’t this what it means to ’emerge from the earth’?”
The Representative of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth
Two Buddhas, p176While chronologies differed, in Japan, widespread opinion held that the Final Dharma had begun in 1052. Thus, the bodhisattvas who emerged from underground could be expected to appear at any time. Indeed, were they not overdue? “Should they fail to appear in the Final Dharma age, they would be great liars, and the prophecies made by Śākyamuni, Prabhūtaratna, and the buddhas of the ten directions would prove as empty as foam on the waters,” Nichiren wrote. In observing that no one other than himself was enduring the great trials predicted in the Lotus Sūtra, Nichiren concluded that he himself must be the representative of the bodhisattvas of the earth, or might even be one of them, a conviction that sustained him through years of danger and privation. Usually he referred to himself only in modest terms as a forerunner or emissary of their leader, the bodhisattva Viśiṣṭacaritra [J. Jōgyō, Superior Conduct], but there is little doubt that he identified his efforts with the work of this bodhisattva. Much of the later Nichiren tradition identifies him as a manifestation of Viśiṣṭacaritra in this world.
Seed of Buddhahood Sown in Eternal Past
The Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 5 (15th chapter on “The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground”) preaches, “I have always taught them in their past existence… , and as Soon as they saw Me and heard My preaching in this life, they received My teachings by faith, entering into the wisdom of the Buddha.” Interpreting this, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai states in his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, “People today were taught and received the seed of Buddhahood in the eternal past.” Grand Master Miao-lê, on the other hand, declares in his Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, “Although it is in the present when people gain the benefit of attaining Buddhahood, the seed of Buddhahood was sown in the eternal past,” and in his Commentary on the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, “Thus I know that the preaching of Śākyamuni Buddha today is for those in whom the seed of Buddhahood was sown in a past existence.” I do not have to explain what is said in the sūtra and its annotations, which are very clear in meaning. It is like a woman, regardless if she is a royal princess or a maid-servant, unless she becomes pregnant by the son of heaven, her child will never be the king of a country.
Soya Nyūdō-dono-gari Gosho, A Letter to Lay Priest Lord Soya, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 150.
Bodhisattvas for the Final Dharma Age
Two Buddhas, p175-176Nichiren observed that these four bodhisattvas [who are leaders of the Bodhisattvas from beneath the earth] were not present at the Buddha’s first sermon nor at the last. They appear in no sūtra other than the Lotus, and even there, they are present only to receive the Buddha’s transmission of the sūtra and his charge to propagate it after his parinirvāṇa. Based on his understanding of the Buddha’s teaching process, Nichiren argued that these bodhisattvas could only appear in the Final Dharma age. During the two thousand years following the Buddha’s passing, that is, the True Dharma and Semblance Dharma ages, persons who had received the seed of buddhahood from Sakyamuni Buddha were led to the stages of maturation and harvesting through provisional teachings. Had the bodhisattvas from beneath the earth appeared and spread the daimoku during that time, many of those people would have reviled it, thereby destroying the merit gained through the maturing of the seeds that they had already received. During those two thousand years, Nichiren said, some of the bodhisattvas from other worlds remained to teach the Lotus Sūtra in this world. Specifically, Zhiyi and his teacher Huisi, long revered as manifestations of the bodhisattvas Bhaiṣajyarāja (J. Yakuō; Medicine King) and Avalokiteśvara (Kannon), respectively, had taught the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment from the abstract perspective of the trace teaching. But by the beginning of the Final Dharma age, those able to achieve liberation through the provisional teachings had vanished, and the bodhisattvas from other worlds had all returned to their original lands. Now, in the present, mappō era, “Hinayāna is employed to attack Mahāyāna, and the provisional used to destroy the true. East and west are confused, and heaven and earth turned upside down. … At this time, the bodhisattvas who emerged from the earth will make their first appearance in the world, solely to have the children drink the medicine of the five characters Myōhō-renge-kyō.”
The Space Under the Earth of the Sahā World
Two Buddhas, p173-174According to the sūtra text, the vast throng of bodhisattvas who appear suddenly in Chapter Fifteen “had all previously been living in the space under the earth of the Sahā world.” Zhiyi identified this “space” as the mysterious depth that is the dharma nature and as the middle way; he also equated it with the “land of ever-tranquil light,” a metaphor for the Buddha’s enlightened realm. One modern Lotus commentator interpreted “living in the space under the earth of the Sahā world” to mean having insight into the empty and constructed nature of all things, which permits one “to be in the midst of the swirl of the world of desire, without being dragged down by it, constantly maintaining a stance of unattached freedom.” This interpretation echoes the description of these bodhisattvas later in the chapter as being “as undefiled by worldly affairs as the lotus blossom in the [muddy] water.”
The Divine Power to Save the People in the Sahā World
Buddhism for Today, p179That these bodhisattvas [from Underground] did not originally dwell in the earth but that they, who were in the infinite space below the sahā-world, came out of the earth and rose into the sky has a deep meaning. These bodhisattvas were people who had been freed from illusion in their previous lives by means of the Buddha’s teachings. For this reason, they had been dwelling in infinite space. But hearing the Buddha declare that he would entrust the instruction of the sahā-world to them, they entered into the earth, namely, this sahā-world, experiencing suffering there, and practiced religious disciplines so zealously as to attain the mental state of bodhisattvas. Therefore, they rose into the sky again after coming out of the earth. Though the bodhisattvas had been free from illusion in their previous lives, they voluntarily passed through various sufferings and worries in sahā-world for the purpose of saving the people here, endeavored earnestly to become enlightened, and preached the teaching to others. As mentioned before, this is a very important process; without completing such an endeavor, they could not truly acquire the divine power to save the people in the sahā-world.
Through Our Own Efforts
Buddhism for Today, p177The bodhisattvas who sprang up out of the earth signify people who have had much suffering and worry during their lives, have accumulated virtues in such an unfavorable environment, and have attained enlightenment while leading ordinary lives. Such people, who have themselves experienced and weathered much suffering and worry, possess real power. They indeed have the power to instruct other people.
That the Buddha entrusted the sahā-world to the bodhisattvas who emerged from the earth teaches us that the world in which we live should be purified and made peaceful through our own efforts as dwellers in the world, and that we should realize happiness in our lives through our own efforts. We are responsible for creating the Pure Land where we live. We should bring about our happiness through our own efforts. What a reassuring and positive teaching this is!
Escaping the Evil Realms Without Understanding the Lotus Sūtra
The Buddha preaches in “The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground” of the Lotus Sūtra that those who doubt and do not believe in this sūtra will fall into the evil realms of hell, hungry spirits, and beasts. This means that all who have the ability of understanding but do not have faith in the Three Treasures will fall into the evil realms. Nevertheless, scholars today wonder how those who only have belief in the Three Treasures but cannot understand what the sūtra means are able to avoid falling into the evil realms by just chanting Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō. These scholars are those who will go down to the most terrible hell, according to the sūtra cited above. Therefore, people can escape the evil realms without understanding the sūtra perfectly as long as they chant Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.
Hokke Daimoku Shō, Treatise on the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 37
Who Are These Bodhisattvas?
Two Buddhas, p174-175Who are these bodhisattvas who emerge from beneath the earth? One interpretative move, current in medieval Japanese Tendai circles in Nichiren’s day, was to associate their four leaders — Viśiṣṭacaritra (J. Jōgyō, “Superior Conduct”), Anantacāritra (Muhengyō, “Boundless Conduct”), Viéuddhacāritra (Jyōgyō, “Pure Conduct”), and Supratisthitacāritra (Anryūgyo, “Firm Conduct”) — with the four universal elements of fire, wind, water, and earth, which were believed to constitute and benefit all beings. In a sense, Nichiren also understood these bodhisattvas as innate, for example, when he writes that they represent the bodhisattva realm within us; they are “the followers of the Śākyamuni Buddha who dwells within ourselves.” However, he also took them to be historical agents, entrusted by the Buddha with the mission of propagating the Lotus Sūtra specifically in the Final Dharma age, that is, his own time. “And what is this dharma that was entrusted to them?” he asked. “From within the Lotus Sūtra, it discards the broad to take up the condensed and discards the condensed to take up the essence, that is, the five characters Myōhō-renge-kyō.”