“The Testimony Common to all Buddhas”
The mystical strain is stronger in the writings from the years of quiet meditation at Minobu than in the preceding period of storm and stress. The best example of this is an essay written in 1279, after four years of retirement. It is entitled, “The Testimony Common to all the Buddhas of the Three Ages.” We reproduce the essay in extract.
“It is said in the chapter on Tactfulness (chapter 2): ‘According to the model of teaching adopted by all the Buddhas of the three ages, I proclaim the truth which has no distinction (but is universal).’ ‘The truth without distinction’ means the perfect truth of the Sole Road [One Vehicle]. For, in everything, in grasses and trees, in mountains and streams, even in earth and dust, there are present the truths of existence of the ten realms of existence (hokkai, or dharma-dhātu) which participate in one another; while the Sole Road [One Vehicle] of the Lotus of the Perfect Truth, which is immanent in our own souls, pervades the paradises in the ten quarters and is everywhere present in its entirety. The fruits (of truth), both proper and subsidiary, are manifest in the excellence and grandeur and beauty of the paradises in the ten quarters. All these fruits are inherent in our own soul, and the soul is in reality identical with the Tathāgata of the primeval enlightenment (in his eternal entity), who is furnished with the three aspects of his personality (the threefold kāya). How can there be any other truth besides the soul (in this sense)? One and the same truth pervades the paradises in the ten quarters. This is the Sole Road [One Vehicle] and is therefore called ‘the truth without distinction.’ …
“The perfection of truth in the Buddha’s soul and the same perfection in our soul are one, and it is inherent in us, and to be realized by ourselves. Thus, there is no truth or existence besides the soul. What we know as our soul (its appearance), its nature (or essence), and its entity (or substance) – these three make up the three aspects of the Tathāgata’s personality, (united in) the Tathāgata of the primeval enlightenment.
“The [Lotus Sutra] teaches the manifestation (laḳṣaṇa), the essence (or nature, sva-rasa) and the substance (sva-bhava) of reality. The Tathāgata of the primeval enlightenment is furnished with these three categories of reality; his body, or substance, is the cosmos, or the realm of truth (dharma-dhātu), extending in ten directions; his essence, which is soul, is identical with the cosmos; and his manifestation in glories is manifest in the cosmos also. Therefore, our body is one with the body of the Tathāgata, furnished with the three aspects of the primeval enlightenment; it is omnipresent, because it is nothing but a manifestation of the sole Buddha, while all realities represent Buddha’s truths.
“The paradise means a perfect union of the three aspects, realized in the harmony between the existence and its stage, the existence being the proper fruit, and the stage the subsidiary. … The Paradise, or Land of Purity, is the realm of serene light, and is pure, exempt from all depravities; it exists in the soul of every being and is therefore called “The Spiritual Pedestal of the Lotus of the Perfect Truth.” …
“Then the store of truths (Buddha’s teachings), eighty-four thousand in the number of its gateways, is nothing but the record and diary of our own life. Everybody rears and embraces this store of truths in his own soul. Illusion occurs when we seek the Buddha, the Truth, and the Paradise outside of our own self. One who has realized this soul is called the Tathāgata. When this state is once attained, (we realize that) the cosmos in ten directions is our own body, our own soul, and our manifestation, because the Tathāgata is our own body and soul.
“Out of these three fundamental categories of reality spring the following seven and make up the ten which are the conditions of existence in the ten realms (dharma-dhātu). And the ten realms, surging out of the one soul, are revealed in the gateways of truth, eighty-four thousand in number. … Thus, the ten categories of existence are united and realized in the origin, and in the consummation. The origin lies in our ultimate being (as defined in the ten terms), and the consummation is embodied in the realization of Buddhahood. The beings are the original (cause and substratum), and the Buddhas are the consummation (result and fruit), because all Buddhas are manifested out of the souls of all beings. And yet the [Lotus Sutra] says:
‘Now the threefold realm of existence is my dominion,
And all beings therein are my children.’
“… This is because Buddha, the awakened, wakes us, who are dreaming the dreams of births and deaths. This awakening wisdom reaches us like the voice of parents calling their dreaming children. Therefore, Buddha says that we are his children. Think of this! Then Buddha is the Father and we the children, both in the origin and in the consummation, because the fundamental nature and the final destiny are one in the Father and the children. When we perceive, thus, that the soul is one in Buddha and in us, our dreams of births and deaths are broken, and the primeval enlightenment is restored in our awakening. This is the “attainment of Buddhahood in the present life.” …
“When Chuang-Ch’ou dreamt that he became a butterfly, there was none other than Chuang-Ch’ou, just as there was none besides himself when he awoke and knew that he was not a butterfly. When we consider ourselves to be mortals tormented by births and deaths, we are immersed in illusion and delusion, as Chuang became a butterfly in his dream. The original Chuang is restored when we realize that we are the Tathāgatas of the primeval enlightenment; this is the attainment of Buddhahood in the present life. … The soul, the Buddha, and existence, these three (– the spiritual essence of truths, the personal realization of truths, and the objective manifestation of truths –) are laid up in our own soul, beside which there is no reality. This is the enlightenment, Buddhahood. When the truth of the mutual participation [Ichinen Sanzen] between the one and the many, between the particular and the universal, is fully realized, we shall know that everything and all things are found in each existence in the present life. … All truths revealed during the lifetime of the Master are only truths existent in ourselves. Know this, and your own entity is revealed. …
“(All this is fully taught in the Lotus of Truth, and the way to grasp it is to adore the Sacred Title.) Thus, maintain harmony with the Buddhas of all times and live the life of the Lotus of Truth! Thereby you will attain the final enlightenment without impediment and know the relation between self-perfection and the enlightening of others.
“This is the testimony common to all Buddha; of the three ages; keep it as a precious mystery!”
A Paradise On Earth And The Holy See
Minobu, the place of retirement 97
The world and the individual; the ideal and the actual 98
"The Testimony Common to all Buddhas" 101
The true Buddhist creates a paradise everywhere 104
The Kingdom of Buddha and the Holy See 108
"The Three Great Mysteries" 109
NICHIREN: THE BUDDHIST PROPHET