Nichiren’s great aim was to achieve his ideal of the Catholic Church, with its center in his own country. Believing that he was himself the man to do this, and that the true import and end of Buddhism had not been apprehended in earlier times, even in India, he saw in vision a return of Buddhism from Japan to India, and its propagation thence throughout the world. He himself was always the cardinal factor in this new era, but the time and place were essential conditions of the realization of this universal Buddhism. Thus, he writes:
“That India was called the country of the Moon-tribe was prophetic of the appearance of Buddha (in that country). Our Fusō is called Japan, the Land of Sunrise. Must it not be the country where the predestined Sage should appear? The transit of the moon shifts from west to east; this symbolizes the transmission of the Buddha’s religion to the East. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west; this is an omen that the Buddhist religion shall return from the Land of Sunrise to the country of the Moon-tribe. The moon is not bright all the time, and just so (Buddha proclaimed the Perfect Truth) only during eight years of his life. The sun surpasses the moon in brilliancy, and in like manner (the light of the eastern Sage) is destined to illumine the dark ages after the fifth five hundred years.”
Nichiren had a keen sense of thankfulness for benefits of every kind, just as he never excused those who did him wrong. We have seen how he based his ethical theory on the three relations in human life, namely, the relation of a man to his lord, his master, and his parents, and how earnestly he desired to dedicate all his merits to his parents and friends, and even to his persecutors. We have also noted how he spoke of the men and women who supported him in the worst days of his banishment as if they were reincarnations of his own parents. Similarly, the letters written during his retirement are full of expressions of affectionate gratitude toward those who sent him food or clothing. To a nun who sent him a bag of seaweed, the sight of which made him homesick for his native place, he wrote:
“When I had nearly forgotten my native place, these seaweeds you kindly sent me awakened in me yearning memories of the familiar scenes of my boyhood. The weeds are like those I used to see in the waters of my native province, the same in color, form, taste, and smell. May it be that they have been sent by my dear parents? I cannot help thinking so, foolish as it may seem.”
In short, everyone who nourishes him, the man who is living for the sake of the Truth, is father or mother, and is thus contributing to the Buddhist cause. In this way his sense of personal indebtedness was always combined with the consciousness of his high mission; there was nothing in his life that did not present itself in these two aspects – the immediate benefits, and the eternal cause; all practiced in the communion of the believers.
The close union of religion and ethics was a characteristic feature in Nichiren’s thought and life, and it appears in a harmonious combination of his human sentiments with his religious aspirations. An episode in these years of retirement may serve as an illustration of this union. As has been mentioned in connection with Nichiren’s execution, one of his warrior disciples, Shijō Kingo, was always a great favorite of Nichiren. In the sixth month of 1277, Kingo was slandered to his lord by religious opponents. Nichiren wrote to his disciple, admonishing him never to waver in his faith on account of the accusation, and composed for him a defense to be presented to his lord. The lord remained inflexible, and Kingo was finally deprived of his position and emoluments; yet the faithful warrior not only remained steadfast in his religion but continued to show admirable fidelity to the lord who had done him injustice. This fidelity made such an impression on his lord that in the following year he restored Kingo to his former position.
All Nichiren’s letters about this affair, especially the last ones, expressing his great joy at hearing of Kingo’s restoration, exhibit his affection for his disciples, as well as the way in which he counselled and encouraged them. The most touching of these letters is that which was written after Kingo’s visit at Minobu, whither he had come to express his gratitude to the spiritual father after the lord had reinstated him. Nichiren had been anxious about Kingo’s return journey to Kamakura, fearing that his enemies might attempt his life on the way through mountain-passes. News had now come of his safe arrival, and Nichiren rejoiced at the tidings, but advised continued caution.
“When you left me here to go back, my soul almost died in me; and now I hear of your return to Kamakura without any danger. What a joy and relief it is to me! I was so anxious about you that I asked everybody that came from along your route. My anxiety was relieved, step by step, when I was told that you had been seen at Yumoto, then at Kōzu, and at last at Kamakura. Hereafter, you must not come over here, unless on urgent business. If you have anything to consult me about, send a messenger! Indeed, your coming here the last time caused me too much anxiety; think of my concern about you!
“Commonly, your enemies have their eye on you when you are beginning to forget them. If you should hereafter go on a journey, never leave your horse behind you! Select your retainers and furnish them with armor! You yourself must go on horseback.
“It is said, ‘The protection of the gods is given to those who are strong and prepared.’ The Lotus of Truth is a sharp sword, but its effectiveness rests with the one who uses it. … Therefore, be strong and discipline your mind! … If your faith in the Lotus of Truth be firm and strong, all perils will vanish before it. Thus thinking, be steadfast in your faith!”
One month before this visit, when Nichiren was informed of Kingo’s restoration, he wrote him a letter of encouragement, which well shows how human sentiment and religious aspiration were connected in Nichiren’s mind.
“He who endures constant persecutions, in the beginning, in the middle, and to the end, is the messenger of the Tathāgata. I, Nichiren, am not quite the messenger of the Tathāgata, for I am a common man. Yet something like the messenger am I, who have twice been exiled on account of the hatred of the three classes of my opponents. I am something like the messenger, because my mouth utters the Sacred Title of the Lotus, although, for my person, I am just a common mortal, inflamed by the three kinds of passions. To seek a parallel in the past, I am like the Bodhisattva Sadāparibhūta; and in my present life are being fulfilled the prophecies about the one who should suffer from sticks, and swords, and stones. Can I, then, entertain any doubt about the fulfilment of the promise of being taken to the Holy Place? How, then, shall not those who are nourishing me (like you) enjoy the communion of the Land of Purity?”
Thus, all those who live in communion, united by the Adoration of the Lotus of Truth [Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō], are fellows of the universal and eternal fraternity. Within the communion, however, there are relations of parents and children, of master and disciples – the aspects of human life which remain through eternity, as in the case of the primeval Buddha and his disciples, and similarly in that of the prophet and his followers. Yet this relation does not mean mere subordination on the part of the disciples, but gratitude, and its fruit, the perpetuation of the truth transmitted and committed to them. This idea has already come out in the relations between Buddha and other beings, when we were considering Nichiren’s conception of the Supreme Being. Applied to the fellowship of believers in the Buddhist Church, the same kind of reciprocity of benefaction and gratitude, of entrusting and perpetuation, exists between Nichiren and his followers forever. Consequently, the Church is the organ for perpetuating Nichiren’s ideals through the efforts of his followers. Seen in this light, every quickening and inspiring legacy of thought left to his disciples was Nichiren’s preparation for the future establishment of the Holy See; and he believed that the approaching Mongol invasion would hasten the realization of his ideal, which was to come about through the repentance and conversion of the Japanese people.
To the end of his life, Nichiren never ceased to express these convictions in the strongest terms; but his faith in the destiny of Japan was in no way shaken, nor his self-confidence. On the contrary, the dangers threatening the country and the consternation of the people only strengthened his belief in his great cause and in his own mission. In one of the writings from his years of retirement, he says:
“So far as, and so much as, my – Nichiren’s – compassion is vast and comprehensive, the Adoration of the Lotus of the Perfect Truth shall prevail beyond the coming ages of ten thousand years, nay, eternally in the future. This is the merit I have achieved, which is destined to open the blind eyes of all beings in Japan (the world), and to shut off the ways to the nethermost Avici hell. These merits surpass those of Dengyō and T’ien T’ai, and are far beyond those of Nāgārjuna and Kāśyapa. Is it not true that one hundred years’ training in a heavenly paradise does not compare with one day’s work in the earthly world, and that all service done to the Truth during the two thousand years of the ages of the Perfect Law and the Copied Law is inferior to that done in one span of time in the ages of the Latter Law? All these differences are due, not to Nichiren’s own wisdom, but to the virtues inherent in the times. Flowers bloom in spring, and fruits are ripe in autumn; it is hot in summer, and cold in winter. Is it not time that makes these differences? Buddha announced, “This Truth shall be proclaimed and perpetuated in the whole Jambudvīpa, in the fifth five hundred years after my death; and it will avail to save all kinds of devils and demons, celestial beings and serpent tribes,” etc. If this prediction should not be fulfilled, all other prophecies and assurances will prove false, the Lord Śākyamuni will fall to the Avici hell, the Buddha Prabhūtaratna will be burned in the infernal fires, while all other Buddhas in the ten quarters will transfer their abodes to the eight great hells, and all Bodhisattvas will suffer from pains, one hundred and thirty-six in kind. How should all this be possible? If it is not, the whole of Japan (the world) will surely be converted to the Adoration of the Lotus of the Perfect Truth.
“Flowers finally return to the root, and the essence abides in the earth. Let all these merits be dedicated to the soul of the deceased master Dōzen (who had once instructed Nichiren, and is the earth which had nourished Nichiren’s wisdom). Adoration be to the Lotus of the Perfect Truth!”
This letter illustrates Nichiren’s idea that his best attainment should be dedicated to all those to whom he was in any way indebted. But he regarded any such dedication as vain, unless associated with, and practised as a part of, the highest ideal of his religion, the establishment of the Three Great Mysteries. Thus, preceding this conclusion, he reaffirms his own mission to achieve that great task, and expresses his confidence in the approaching fulfilment of his ideal.
The curse and the sense of sinfulness, individual and national
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Although he saw in the coming Mongol invasion an agency working for his cause, the final burden of converting the nation was laid upon him. He thus inseparably linked the threatening danger with his idea of the future of Japan as well as with his own expiation – the remorseful expiation of his sin of not having thus far accomplished all that he was set to do for the Unique Truth.
The sense of sin lay heavy upon Nichiren’s mind, in view of the approaching danger. Japan would certainly suffer from the invaders, as the western islands had been devastated. Was not this because the nation still remained blind to the true Buddhism? Was not he himself chiefly or solely responsible for its blindness? Would not all these perils have been averted, if he had established the Holy See? “All the sufferings that befall my fellow-beings are, after all, my own sufferings.” This was his great remorse, caused by the sense of his own sinfulness as well as by concern for his countrymen. His curse was not a product of mere self-righteousness nor of mere hatred of others, but an expression of his deep regret for his country and of his own ideal. There was always, for him, a link between the present danger and the future destiny, between the nation’s curse and his own expiation; and this connection was a result of his view of the inseparable tie uniting the individual to the community in which he lives. We have already touched on this point, in discussing Nichiren’s ideas about the meaning of the community in human life and in religion. Now, in his grave concern about the threatening invasion, this thought found emphatic expression. A letter which he wrote to a warrior follower, in 1280, is particularly instructive. After dwelling much on the offence committed by the nation against the Lotus of Truth, he goes on to show how his sufferings were a part of his mission, while he himself cannot but be responsible for the people’s folly and their calamities. The individual is never apart from his family and nation; how much more then, must the leader of the nation, the spiritual father of the coming ages, regret and hate his people’s folly and suffering! Further, he says:
“While Japan is being threatened by the attacks of the Great Mongols, its people are having recourse to the mysteries which are doomed to perish (the Shingon rituals). Are not the ominous records (of their failures) plain in many previous cases? How can a man who knows this remain indifferent to the fact? How sad it is that we have to encounter great calamities, having been born in a country offending and degrading truth and righteousness! Even if we could be personally acquitted of the sin of degrading the truth, how could we be freed from the responsibility for the offense committed by our families and country? If you would be exempt from the offense committed by your family, endeavor to convert your parents and brothers and sisters! The issue will be either that you will be hated by them, or that you will finally convert them all. If you would be free from the offence committed by the country as a whole, make remonstrance to the rulers, and be yourself prepared for death or exile! Is it not said in the [Lotus Sutra], ‘Never shrink from sacrificing the body for the sake of the Incomparable Way’? This is explained (by a commentator) as follows: ‘Insignificant is the bodily life compared with the grave and important cause of the Truth; therefore strive to perpetuate the Truth even at the sacrifice of the body!’ That we have, from the remotest past down to the present, not attained Buddhahood, is simply due to our cowardice, in that we have always been afraid of these perils and have not dared to stand up publicly for the Truth. The future will never be otherwise, so long as we remain cowards. All this is deeply impressed upon me by my personal experience.
“Even among my followers there are those who dare not to proclaim the Truth, but are content with personal faith alone, and even some who desert the cause, all because they are afraid of the dangers, and care too much for the bodily life, which is, in fact, as evanescent as the dew. Indeed, as is said in the [Lotus Sutra], ‘difficult to believe and hard to grasp’ is the Truth, and I know by my own experience how difficult it is to live the life of the Truth. Traitors are as innumerable as the dust of the earth in all the world, while real believers are as rare as motes on the fingernails. The offenders are like the waters of the ocean, while the defenders are only but a few drops of water.
“Those who remain silent before the opponents of the Lotus of Truth … will surely sink to the nethermost hells. Men who, being cognizant of a treasonable plot, do not inform the rulers, are traitors, even if they themselves were not involved in the plot. … Remonstrances were made by me, Nichiren, because I knew this truth. A sentence of death, and repeated banishment, were the consequence. Seven years have now passed since I retired among these mountains, wishing to be redeemed from sins, and freed from offences.”
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.
Nichiren’s faith in his own mission was firmly established; all the events of his life proved to him the truth of Buddha’s prophecies concerning the messenger of the Tathāgata in the Latter Days. In the later years, his thoughts turned more to the future of his religion and his country. His serene delight among the mountains of Minobu was an earnest of the terrestrial paradise that should come in all the world. Probably he offered prayers to Buddha for the fulfilment of this expectation, but he certainly did not lay much weight on any special form of prayer, much less on any ritual such as was employed by the Buddhists of the time. For him, his life in silent retirement was the greatest of prayers, because he believed that the concentrated thought of a true Buddhist ruled the realm of truth, and that by his thought and desire the fulfilment would be hastened.
Though thus living for the future, the present could not be excluded from his mind. In the autumn of the year in which Nichiren retired from the world, the Mongols invaded outlying islands in western Japan, devastated them, and massacred the inhabitants. The invaders, further, succeeded in landing on the larger island of Kyushu, the seat of the government of western Japan and, for a while, occupied that part of the country. The people were in consternation, and the government appealed for help to Shinto and Buddhist deities by dedicating offerings and celebrating mysteries. Nichiren watched the passing events with anxiety, but with a confident faith. His anxiety was of a different nature from the apprehension of the people. He was sure that his country was destined to be a fountain of blessing for the whole world through all coming ages. Yet the government and the people were actually rebels against the true religion of the Lotus, and had not repented as yet of their grave sin in persecuting the prophet, the messenger of Buddha. Therefore, he was no less convinced that Japan was to suffer still greater calamities at the hands of the Mongols. He could welcome the Mongol invaders as instruments of chastisement for the sinful nation, yet he could not harden his heart to the fate of his people in their distress. Righteous indignation and yearning compassion were in conflict within him. He often expressed himself in words like the following: “Behold, now, the danger impending from the fierce Mongols! When they occupy the imperial residence and massacre the people as they did in the western islands, you will undoubtedly ask the help of Nichiren. But it will then be too late. Repent, and be converted to the true faith before the hour of the utmost disaster arrives!”
He even went so far as to say that the Mongols were the messengers of Buddha, sent for the chastisement of the unbelievers living in his country. But he did not curse his fellow-countrymen and wish their ruin, nor did he believe that Japan was doomed to such a fate. For example, in a letter addressed to a lady he says:
“You would perhaps rejoice to see my prophetic warning fulfilled, and the Mongols occupying this country. But such a sentiment befits only the common herd (and should not be cherished by my followers). Every faithful follower of the Lotus of Truth should know that he is living in a winter, but also that spring is sure to come after winter.”
His thoughts concerning the threatening catastrophe seem to be somewhat conflicting, though his course was clear. He was a fervent patriot, but the country and nation he hoped to see was one completely purged from the sin of rejecting the Truth – the Japanese nation reconstructed and transformed according to his own ideal; while the actual nation was still false to Buddha and his religion. The prospective chastisement of the nation by a foreign invasion was something like a radical cure for a cancer. He saw in the invaders the surgeons, but he never believed that the patient would succumb to the operation. He cursed Japan, but exalted her at the same time, according to these two opposite points of view. This explains the paradoxical character of his expressions in those days of great anxiety. The paradoxes were never, in his own mind, contradictions, but were conceived to be steps toward the fulfilment of his aim.
The treatise on the Three Mysteries begins with the question, What is meant by the following passage in the chapter (21) on the Mysterious Power? “In fine, all the truths possessed by the Tathāgata, all the mysterious powers under the control of the Tathāgata, all the stocks of mysteries cherished by the Tathāgata, all the profound things in the hands of the Tathāgata – all and every one of these have been revealed and proclaimed in this Scripture.” This is the famous legacy entrusted to the keeping of Viśiṣṭacāritra and other Saints-out-of-Earth. It had been explained in various ways by Nichiren’s predecessors, but he interpreted it to mean nothing but the Three Mysteries entrusted to himself, and destined to be fulfilled in the Latter Days, after his time. His interpretation was this: All truths, mysteries, etc., are actuated by the personality of the Tathāgata, while the Tathāgata is a perfect being because he is furnished with the three aspects of personality. The three aspects are: the metaphysical entity (Dharmakāya), which is represented in Nichiren’s religion in the Supreme Being, or Maṇḍala; the blissful manifestation (Sambhogakāya), chiefly consisting in intellectual enlightenment, which is represented by the Sacred Title; and the actual manifestation (Nirmāṇakāya), the realization of Buddha’s mercy, which is to be established and organized in the Holy See, the Sacred Place of Initiation [Kaidan].
Of these three, the first two had already been revealed by Nichiren, and now the foundation of the third was to be laid. He writes about this as follows:
“When, at a certain future time, the union of the state law and the Buddhist Truth shall be established, and the harmony between the two completed, both sovereign and subjects will faithfully adhere to the Great Mysteries. Then the golden age, such as were the ages under the reign of the sage kings of old, will be realized in these days of degeneration and corruption, in the time of the Latter Law. Then the establishment of the Holy See [Kaidan] will be completed, by imperial grant and the edict of the Dictator, at a spot comparable in its excellence with the Paradise of Vulture Peak. We have only to wait for the coming of the time. Then the moral law (kaihō) will be achieved in the actual life of mankind. The Holy See will then be the seat where all men of the three countries (India, China, and Japan) and the whole Jambudvipa (world) will be initiated into the mysteries of confession and expiation; and even the great deities, Brahmā and Indra, will come down into the sanctuary and participate in the initiation.”
Although Nichiren expressed his idea about the time and place of the establishment of the Holy See [Kaidan] thus vaguely, he was sure that it would come to pass, and it is related that he dispatched the ablest of his disciples to the foot of Fuji to select the spot for it. Whatever truth there may be in this legend, his conception of the Church and its Holy See was at the same time ideal and concrete. In the ideal, he esteemed every place where his religion should be practised as a paradise; the church embraces all beings, and its stage is the whole cosmos. But, on the other hand, the center was to be definitely established in a place considered to be peculiarly the source of light and life, in Nichiren’s own country. Thus, he combined his ideal paradise with the universal church, and spent his days of retirement in silent prayer for the fulfilment of his project. It is no wonder, then, that he pronounced Minobu to be an earthly paradise, and yet planned for the propagation of his religion throughout the world.
This conception of the transfiguration of the world is very important for the understanding of Nichiren’s idea of the Catholic Buddhist Church, and to make it still clearer we may quote another passage from the dictated portions of his lectures on the Lotus [Ongi Kuden].
“It is said in the [Lotus Sutra]: ‘At that time I shall appear on Vulture Peak, together with my congregation.’ Here, ‘time’ means the age of the Latter Law, when the spiritual communion (between us and Buddha) shall be realized; ‘I’ means Śākyamuni; ‘with,’ the Bodhisattvas; ‘congregation,’ the community of Buddha’s disciples; ‘together’ implies the ten realms of existence; and ‘Vulture Peak’ is the Land of Serene Light. … ‘Appear’ means to make a manifestation at Vulture Peak, while ‘Vulture Peak’ means the manifestation of the Supreme Being, that is, the abode of Nichiren’s followers who utter the Adoration of the Lotus of Truth. …
“Any place where men practice the faith in the Sole Road [One Vehicle] of Adoration, the adoration of the Lotus of Truth, there is the castle of the eternal Serene Light, which is Vulture Peak. … Yet the primeval (entity) of Vulture Peak is nowhere else than in this very Sahā world, especially in Japan, the Land of Sunrise; the Sahā world furnished with the perfection of the primeval stage, where the Lotus of Truth is to be realized; the place where the unique Maṇḍala will be revealed and established – the Maṇḍala embodying the primeval import of what is taught in the chapter on the Life-duration, or the Eternal Life, of the Tathāgata.”
Where there lives a true Buddhist, there is manifest in his spirit and life, the Maṇḍala, the cycle embodying the cosmic truth. Where the Truth is manifest, there, is realized the eternal light of Buddhahood, and therefore the place is a paradise. A natural corollary to this idea is that the whole realm of existence ought to be the stage of this realization. But Japan, where the prophet of this gospel has appeared, should be the center of the Kingdom of Buddha. The man has appeared, and the stage is determined. A definite organization must now be provided for effecting the transformation according to the instructions given by the Prophet. This idea gradually crystallized in Nichiren’s mind into a definite plan for establishing the center of the universal church, the Holy See, the Kaidan. He had cherished this idea since his days in Sado, and expressed it, as we have seen, in the first writing after his retirement. More definite expression was given it in “The Perpetuation of the Three Great Mysteries,” which he wrote on the eighth of the fourth month, the day believed to be the birthday of Buddha, in 1281. It is also interesting to notice that this year was made memorable by the remarkable prediction Nichiren made to his followers concerning the threatening Mongol invasion. Of this prediction we shall speak later.
Everyone who realizes the truth of the fundamental unity is a Buddha, and everyone who lives in accordance with this enlightenment and works to propagate the Lotus of Truth is the messenger of the primeval Tathāgata. To such a man, all that surrounds him preaches the truth, and the place of his abode is a paradise. This idea of the connection between the actual life and the primeval enlightenment inspired Nichiren to such a degree that he always regarded his abode as a Buddha land. He voiced this feeling like a lyric poet, glorifying, thus, the hills and waters of Minobu. In a note (as in several others), he gives utterance to these thoughts:
“When the autumn evening draws on, lonesomely, the surroundings of the thatched hermitage are bedewed, and the spiders’ webs hanging from the eaves are transformed into garlands of jewels. Noiselessly, deeply tinged maple leaves come floating on the water that pours from the bamboo pipes, and the water, colored in pattern, seems to stream forth from the fountain of Tatsuta, where the Brocade-weaving Lady is said to abide. Behind the hermitage, the steep peaks rear their heads aloft, where on the slopes the trees bear the fruits of ‘the Unique Truth,’ and the singing crickets are heard among the branches. In front, flow clear rivulets, making music like drums and flutes, and the pools reflect the moonlight of ‘reality as it is.’ When the limitless sky of ‘entity’ is cloudless and the moon shines bright, it seems as if the ‘darkness of the shrouding delusion’ was gone forever.
‘In the hermitage thus situated, throughout the day we converse, and discuss the truths of the Unique Scripture, while in the evening and late into the night is heard the gentle murmur of the recitation of passages from the sacred text. Thus, we deem that to this place has been transferred Vulture Peak, where Lord Śākya lived.
“When fog veils the valley, and even when a gale is blowing, we go to gather wood in the forest, or through the bedewed bushes down to the dells to pick parsley leaves. … Reflecting on these conditions of my present life, I often think, so it must have been with Buddha, when he was in search of truth and disciplining himself in expiation and in mortification. …
Thus thinking, I sit on the mat of meditation, and in vision I see every truth present to the mind, so that even the call of a deer to its mate helps me to utter the innermost voice of my heart. Here I realize why, being shrouded by the heavy clouds of illusion, we transmigrate through the nine, while the pure bright moonlight shines within me, the illumination of the threefold aspects of reality fused into one, and the light of the threefold introspection of one and the same soul. Thus, I put my thoughts into verse:
Masses of clouds and thickening fog, Heaping upon me and shrouding the world – Let them be dispelled by a freshening breeze, The wind that perpetually blows from Vulture Peak, Whence streams forth the air of the eternal Truth.
In short, everything in Nichiren’s surroundings suggested to him something related to his ideal, and to his present life in service to the Truth. The poet, however, was never content merely to cherish these thoughts, but interpreted his environment by the [Lotus Sutra]. Thus he writes about his abode in the language of the [Lotus Sutra], and describes his life there, as if it were illuminated by the glories of paradise. Not only Minobu, but every place connected with the life of the prophet, of the one who is living the life of the Lotus of Truth, was glorified by him. In a letter written before he left Sado, he says: “I, Nichiren, am a native of Awa, a province of Japan where the Sun-goddess had her abode in the beginning and founded this nation. … She is indeed the loving mother of the people of this country. There must be some remote and mysterious connection with my life, that I, Nichiren, was born in that province.” In another letter, written after his retirement in Minobu, he repeats the same idea, and says: “Although Awa is a province far away from the center, it is somewhat like the center of Japan, because the Sun-goddess found there her first abode. … And I, Nichiren, began the propagation of the true religion by proclaiming it, for the first time, there in Awa.” Sometimes, he speaks more mystically about his spiritual presence everywhere. He wrote from Minobu to a nun in Sado who had served him during his days of exile there, saying in conclusion: “When you long to see Nichiren, look in reverence at the rising sun, or the moon rising in evening. My person is always reflected in the sun and moon. And moreover, hereafter I shall surely meet you in the Paradise of Vulture Peak.”
It is by mankind, in all kinds of existence, that the ideal perfection is to be achieved, and therefore the stage of its realization is this world, the abode of mankind. The Buddhist ideal of enlightenment is man’s awaking to the fundamental unity of his present existence with the primeval Buddhahood; while the key to make this world a hell or to transform it into a heaven is in our own hands. The use of the key consists in first calling forth the primeval Buddhahood in the innermost recess of our own soul, and in viewing this actual world as a heaven. This transfiguration means not merely imagining that earth is heaven, but living in conformity with the assumption, under the guidance of the enlightened mind. This ideal was realized by Buddha when he preached the Lotus of Truth on Vulture Peak, and the scene of the revelation was transfigured into a paradise. Nichiren had no doubt about the [Lotus Sutra] narrative, and now, in Minobu, he was himself experiencing such a transfiguration of his own abode. In expressing this conviction, he sometimes spoke, as we have seen, like a lyric poet; yet his poetry was never a mere play of fancy, but an earnest belief, founded on the authority of the [Lotus Sutra], as well as on his own experience. The union of poetic idealization and religious speculation can be clearly seen in the passages quoted above. Such was Nichiren’s thought about the paradise on earth, or rather on the proposition that this very world is paradise to those minds illumined by the truth of the primeval enlightenment.
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!”
