The curse on the infidels

During this crisis, especially in the year 1275, Nichiren wrote several essays on the future of Japan, explaining also his own attitude toward her perils. The most methodical of them is one entitled “Sen-ji-Shō” the “Selection of the Times.” After reviewing the phases of Buddhist history since Buddha’s death, he affirms again the conviction he had often expressed before, that his time was the most significant age in the propagation of Buddhism, being the fated fifth five hundred years, in which, as Buddha predicted, a decisive conflict was to take place between the true Buddhism and its opponents. The persecutions heaped upon the prophet, as well as the various calamities that befell the nation, were the signs of the crisis when decision must be made between the truth and falsehood, between the prophet and his malignant opponents. To all this Nichiren had borne witness, and now the greatest of the signs, the Mongol peril, heralded the final conflict, to be followed by a miraculous, or rather inevitable, conversion of the whole nation. In other words, the imminent peril was regarded as one of the preparatory steps to the establishment of the Holy See in Japan.

In one passage in this essay he writes:

“The Lord Śākya proclaimed to all celestial beings that when, in the fifth five hundred years after his death, all the truths of Buddhism should be shrouded in darkness, the Bodhisattva Viśiṣṭacāritra should be commissioned to save the most wicked of men who were degrading the Truth, curing the hopeless lepers by the mysterious medicine of the Adoration of the Lotus of the Perfect Truth. Can this proclamation be a falsehood? … If this promise be not vain, how can the rulers and the people of Japan remain in safety, who, being plunged in the whirlpool of strife and malice, have rebuked, reviled, struck, and banished the messenger of the Tathāgata and his followers commissioned by Buddha to propagate the Lotus of Truth?

“When they hear me say this, people will say that it is a curse; yet, those who propagate the Lotus of Truth are indeed the parents of all men living in Japan. … I, Nichiren, am the master and lord of the sovereign, as well as of all the Buddhists of other schools. Notwithstanding this, the rulers and the people treat us thus maliciously. How should the sun and the moon bless them by giving them light? Why should the earth not refuse to let them abide upon it? … Therefore, also, the Mongols are coming to chastise them. Even if all the soldiers from the five parts of India were called together, and the mountain of the Iron Wheel (Cakra-vāla) were fortified, how could they succeed in repelling the invasion? It is decreed that all the inhabitants of Japan shall suffer from the invaders. Whether this comes to pass or not will prove whether or not Nichiren is the real propagator of the Lotus of Truth.”

Further on he says:

“See! Presently, it will not be long before the Great Mongols will send their warships, myriads in number, and attack this country. Then, the sovereign and the whole people will surely abandon all the Buddhist and Shinto sanctuaries they used to revere, and join in crying Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō, Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō! and with folded hands, pray, O Master Nichiren, save us; O Master Nichiren!”

Then he reviews the history of his persecutions, and the fulfilment of his former predictions, to prove again that to him was given the mission to establish the Buddhist Catholic Church. The conclusion is:

“The greatest of things is the establishment in Japan of this gateway of Truth. How could (the country) be safe, even for a day or an hour, if Śākyamuni, the Lord of the Paradise of Vulture Peak, with the Buddha Prabhūtaratna, of the realm of Treasure-purity, their manifestations filling the space in the ten quarters, the Saints-out-of-Earth coming from the thousand worlds beneath, and the heavenly beings, such as Brahmā, Indra, the Sun, the Moon, and the four Guardian Kings, should withdraw (from this country) their protection and assistance, visible and invisible?”

All this, especially the last sentence, was a curse indeed. “Cursed be the nation which degrades and offends the Unique Truth!” – this was Nichiren’s attitude toward the actual Japan. He rather welcomed the Mongols coming to apply their rude surgery to the deep-seated disease of his nation; yet he had entire confidence in the future destiny of his country, for which, indeed, he himself had a grave responsibility. For he was the messenger of Buddha, commissioned to establish the center of the world’s religion in Japan for the sake of the coming myriad of years. The task of awakening his countrymen rested solely upon his shoulders, and he would fail of his duty if the nation remained unfaithful to the religion.

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NICHIREN: THE BUDDHIST PROPHET

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