It is important to note that Nichiren’s aspiration for achieving the Pure Land of Eagle Peak after death never replaced his conviction that, by the spread of exclusive faith in the Lotus and in accordance with the principle of risshō ankoku, the pure land could be realized in the present world. It also coexists in his thought with his teaching that enlightenment is manifested in the moment of faith and chanting. In other traditions as well, notions of directly accessible or even immanent Buddhahood did not rule out conceptions of an afterlife in a different realm but often existed alongside them: “Even though one knows Amida Buddha to be one’s own mind, one forms a relationship with Amida of the west.” However, unlike some strands of Pure Land thought directed toward Amida, Nichiren’s “Pure Land of Sacred Eagle Peak” lacks a sense of concreteness as an actual place postulated over and against the present world; it is never said to lie in a specific direction, nor does aspiring toward it involve repudiating the present world. In the few passages of Nichiren’s writings where some sort of description is offered, it is usually along the lines of “[M]aster and disciples shall together visit the Pure Land of Sacred [Eagle] Peak and behold the faces of the three Buddhas [Śākyamuni, Many-Jewels, and all the Buddhas who are Śākyamuni’s emanations],” or “If one inquires where the late Abutsu-bō is now, he is within the jeweled stūpa of the Buddha Many-Jewels on Sacred Eagle Peak.” In short, this pure land resembles the assembly in open space depicted on Nichiren’s mandala and may be thought of as an extension of that realm to encompass the faithful dead. (Page 294)

In Nichiren’s thought, aspiration for the Pure Land of Eagle Peak assumes a particular orientation, informed by his exclusive commitment to the Lotus Sūtra. Most Lotus practitioners of the Heian and Kamakura periods recited the sūtra in hopes of achieving Amida’s western Pure Land. Nichiren, however, had so thoroughly rejected any aspect of faith in Amida that he would not have been able to represent the next life in such terms. The “Pure Land of Sacred Eagle Peak” provided him with a needed alternative image, consistent with his Lotus exclusivism, for conceptualizing what happens to believers after death. As others have suggested, Nichiren may also have begun to preach to his followers about this pure land in response to the sense of imminent danger accompanying the Mongol threat, and the concept was no doubt further stimulated by the suppressions experienced by Nichiren and his community. The “Pure Land of Eagle Peak” was thus posited in contrast to, and as recompense for enduring, the hardships occasioned by upholding exclusive faith in the Lotus in this present world. Moreover, during his reclusion on Mt. Minobu, as Nichiren himself grew older, he was also faced increasingly with the need to console followers who had lost parents, spouses, and children; the promise of reunion in the Pure Land of Eagle Peak occurs frequently in his letters on such occasions. (Page 293-294)

THE PURE LAND OF SACRED EAGLE PEAK

Shortly before his exile to Sado, Nichiren began to refer in his letters and other writings to the “Pure land of Sacred [Eagle] Peak” (ryōzen jōdo). These references increase during the Sado period and especially during Nichiren’s retirement on Mt. Minobu. “Sacred Eagle Peak” (or “Sacred Vulture Peak”) translates Ryōjusen (Chn. Ling-chiu-shan), the Chinese translation for Gṛdhrakūṭa (Vulture Peak), the name of the mountain in Rājagṛha where the Lotus Sūtra is said to have been preached. The notion of Eagle Peak as a pure land seems to arise from a conflation of this site with the sūtra’s assertion that this Sahā world is the eternal dwelling place of the original Buddha:

Throughout asaṃkhya-kalpas I am always on Sacred Eagle Peak as well as in other dwelling places. When the beings see the kalpa ending and [the world] being consumed in a great fire, this land of mine is safe and peaceful, always filled with gods and humans.

In it are gardens, groves, halls, and towers . . . wherein the beings play and amuse themselves . . . My pure land is not destroyed, yet the multitude see it consumed in flames.

Worried, they fear the torment of pains. … Those who have cultivated merit, who are gentle and agreeable, straightforward and honest, all do, however, see my body dwelling here and preaching the Dharma.

Kumārajīva (344—413), the sūtra’s translator, is said to have interpreted the lines “My pure land is not destroyed / yet the multitude see it consumed in flames” to mean “the two qualities of purity and defilement dwelling in the same place.” Since his time, “Eagle Peak” was frequently understood as representing the ontological nonduality of delusion and enlightenment, or of the present, Sahā world and the Land of Ever Tranquil Light. This reading clearly informs Nichiren’s understanding of the present world as potentially the Buddha land… . However, “Sacred Eagle Peak” was also known to be a specific place and, in the manner of many continental sacred sites, had manifested itself in Japan. Mt. Hiei, Ōmine, Kasagi, and other locations of mountain ascetic practice were all at times identified with “Eagle Peak.” Nichiren, too, occasionally equated Eagle Peak with Mt. Minobu, where he, the gyōja of the Lotus Sūtra, was living. (Page 292-293)