Yesterday I had only nice things to say about Rev. Ryuei Michael McCormick’s, “On the Opening of the Eyes: Annotated Translation with Glossary of the Kaimoku-sho.” Now I’d like to add a “But…”

The glossary included in Ryuei’s new book is a first look at what may be Ryuei’s next book, a dictionary of Nichiren Buddhism. Ryuei has finished the project, which was funded by Nichiren Shu, and submitted it to the powers governing such things at Nichiren Shu headquarters. There’s no release date yet.

The goal of the dictionary is to include the Nichiren Shu perspective on the basics of Buddhism. This example from the glossary exemplifies the concept:

accommodative-body: (S. nirmāṇa-kāya; J. ōjin) One of the three bodies of a buddha. Also known as the transformation-body. The accommodative-body is the physical body that a buddha assumes in a specific time and place in order to lead people to awakening through his compassionate actions and teaching. Shakyamuni Buddha, viewed as the buddha of history in our world, is an example of a buddha appearing with an accommodative-body. Accommodative-bodies seem to have finite lifespans, because they appear as buddhas who are born as human beings, attain buddhahood, turn the Wheel of the Dharma, and when they are done teaching they enter final nirvana.

The Tiantai school of Buddhism distinguishes between a superior accommodative-body that appears in a pure land and an inferior accommodative-body that appears in an impure land.

According to Nichiren Shonin, the accommodative-body is like the reflection of the moon in water, while the Dharma-body is like the moon itself, and the reward-body is like the moonlight. (WNS6, p. 131) He also taught that while the accommodative-body buddhas of the provisional Mahayana teachings are finite, the accommodative-body that is an aspect of the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha has no beginning or end. (WNS3, p. 250)

Ryuei has given the basics, added the Tiantai perspective and finished with Nichiren’s interpretation.

Unfortunately when I tried to explore the topic of three thousand realms in a single thought-moment I was disappointed. Missing was an explanation of how Nichiren’s concept of the Ichinen Sanzen differed from Tiantai’s.

In Ryuei’s translation of the Kaimoku-sho we get this discussion:

From page 16

15. Twenty important doctrines are in the Lotus Sutra. Such schools as the Abhidharma Treasury, Completion of Reality, Discipline, Dharma Characteristics, and Three Treatises do not know even their names, while the Flower Garland and Mantra schools plagiarized them to build their own fundamental structure. The three thousand realms in a single thought-moment doctrine is hidden in the depths of the sixteenth, “The Duration of the Life of the Tathagata,” chapter in the Original Gate of the Lotus Sutra. Although Nagarjuna and Vasubandhu were aware of it, they did not speak of it. It is only our Tiantai Zhizhé who embraced it.

16. The teaching of the “three thousand realms in a single thought-moment” is based on the mutual possession of the ten realms. The Dharma Characteristics and Three Treatises schools established the eight realm teaching. Not even knowing ten realms, how could they know of their mutual possession? The Abhidharma Treasury, Completion of Reality, and Discipline schools, based on the Agama sutras, expound only the six realms, ignoring the other four realms. They insist on the existence of only a single buddha throughout the ten directions, denying the existence of buddhas in each of the directions. It is only natural that they leave out the concept of every sentient being having the buddha-nature. They do not recognize that anyone possesses the buddha-nature. Nevertheless, the Discipline and Completion of Reality schools today speak of the existence of buddhas throughout the ten directions and that sentient beings have the buddha nature. It must have been that scholars after the cessation of the Buddha plagiarized the Mahayana doctrines to the advantage of their own schools.

From page 29

63. The Flower Garland, Prajna, and Mahavairochana sutras conceal not only the attainment of buddhahood by people of the two vehicles but also the attainment of buddhahood in the remotest past. Those sutras have two faults. In the first place, as they preserve distinctions, they fail to open the provisional and reveal the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single thought-moment expounded in the Trace Gate. In the second place, they have not yet outgrown the Trace Gate because they fail to reveal the remotest past expounded in the Original Gate. These two great Dharmas are the backbone of the teaching of the Buddha throughout his life, and the essential heart of all the sutras.

64. The second chapter, “Expedients,” in the Trace Gate makes up for one of the two faults of the prior sutras by revealing the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment and the attainment of buddhahood by adherents of the two vehicles. Yet, this chapter is not outgrowing the traces and revealing the origin. Its teaching about the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment and attaining buddhahood by adherents of the two vehicles is not fully established. They are like the reflections of the moon in the water or rootless grass floating on waves.

65. In the Original Gate, the attainment of awakening for the first time [under the Bodhi tree] is disproven and the effects of the four doctrinal teachings are thereby eliminated. As the effects resulting from the four doctrinal teachings are eliminated, the causes leading to those effects shown in the four doctrinal teachings are eliminated. Thus, the cause and effect of the ten realms expounded in the prior sutras and the Trace Gate was eliminated and the doctrine of the cause and effect of the ten realms as expounded in the Original Gate was established. This is the doctrine of the original cause and original effect. In this relationship, the beginningless nine realms are all included in the beginningless buddha-realm. This is the true mutual possession of the ten realms, one hundred realms and one thousand aspects, and three thousand realms in a single thought-moment.

The glossary explanation for three thousand realms in a single thought-moment: (J. ichinen sanzen;)

The Tiantai school doctrine taught in the Great Calming and Contemplation by Zhiyi maintaining that three thousand realms of existence are contained in every single thought-moment of an ordinary sentient being at any given moment. It is based on the teaching of the ten suchnesses of all phenomena taught in the second, “Expedients,” chapter of the Lotus Sutra. The three thousand realms (conditions under which all things exist and phenomena take place) is arrived at by squaring the ten realms, because of the mutual possession of the ten realms, multiplying the resulting one hundred realms by the ten suchnesses, and then multiplying the resulting one thousand realms by the three categories of existence (five aggregates, sentient beings, and their environments). As it is shown that three thousand realms are included in an individual’s every thought-moment and therefore at least potentially accessible, it follows that practitioners of the two vehicles, who have been denied the possibility that they can attain buddhahood in the prior teachings, as well as ordinary people, can enter the world of buddhahood attained by the Buddha.

Nichiren Shonin advocated that chanting the daimoku of “Namu Myoho Renge Kyo” is the only practical way for ordinary people in the Latter Age of Degeneration to attain buddhahood.

What I was looking for was something like this:

Ichinen Sanzen established by Grand Master T’ien-tai is called Ichinen Sanzen of Ri or Ichinen Sanzen of the theoretical section of the Lotus Sutra. On the other hand, Ichinen Sanzen understood by Nichiren Shōnin is called Ichinen Sanzen of Ji or Ichinen Sanzen of essential section of the Lotus Sutra. … [T]he core of Nichiren Shōnin’s religion is Ichinen Sanzen, especially the mutual possession of the ten realms. T’ien-tai’s Ichinen Sanzen is focused on the ten suchnesses of Chapter 2, Expedients, of the Lotus Sutra. In Nichiren Shōnin’s understanding of Ichinen Sanzen, it is most important that nine realms possess the realm of Buddha and also that the realm of Buddha possesses the other nine realms. Without this mutual possession between the realm of Buddha and the nine realms, Sokushin Jōbutsu (attaining Buddhahood with one’s current body) and Juji Jōbutsu (attaining Buddhahood by upholding the Dharma) would not be possible.

This is a quote from Buddha Seed, Understanding the Odaimoku, which was adapted from “Odaimoku go Wakaru Hon,” the dictation of Rev. Taiko Seno’s lecture and translated by Nichiren Buddhist International Center.

I asked Ryuei about my concern that there was no clear explanation of how Nichiren both adopted and rejected Tiantai’s understanding of the 3000 realms in a single thought moment.

He replied:

About those passages – Nichiren never repudiated the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment as taught by Tiantai, in fact he opens with a part of the passage where it is taught in the Great Calming and Contemplation in the beginning of Kanjin Honzon-sho. However, Nichiren does distinguish between ichinen sanzen in principle and ichinen sanzen in actuality, the latter having its basis in chapter 16 and the Original Gate. Here are the definitions for those:

principle of the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment: (J. ri-no-ichinen-sanzen; 理の一念三千) See actuality of the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment.

actuality of the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment: (J. ji-no-ichinen-sanzen; 事の一念三千) Nichiren Shonin distinguishes between the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment in terms of principle and in terms of actuality. The practice of chanting the daimoku would be the actuality of the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment, in contrast to contemplating it in silent meditation. Of this contrast between the principle and actuality of the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment Nichiren Shonin wrote in Toki Nyūdō-dono Go-henji: Chibyō-shō (A Response to Lay Priest Lord Toki: Treatise on Healing Sickness):

There are two ways of observing the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment. One is in terms of principle, the second is in terms of the actual phenomena. At the time of Tiantai and Dengyo and so on, it was [observed in] principle. Now it is [observed in] actual phenomena. Since [the latter form of] contemplation is superior, the great difficulties [accompanying it] are also superior. The former is the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment of the provisional teaching [of the Lotus Sutra], and the latter is the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment of the original teaching [of the Lotus Sutra]. They are as different as Heaven and Earth, and at the time of death, you should keep this in mind. (WNS2, p. 257 adapted)

Ryuei provided the dictionary’s full entry on three thousand realms in a single thought-moment: (J. ichinen sanzen; 一念三千) The Tiantai school doctrine taught in the Great Calming and Contemplation by Zhiyi maintaining that three thousand realms of existence are contained in every single thought-moment of an ordinary sentient being at any given moment. It is based on the teaching of the ten suchnesses of all phenomena taught in the second, “Expedients,” chapter of the Lotus Sutra. The three thousand realms (conditions under which all things exist and phenomena take place) is arrived at by squaring the ten realms, because of the mutual possession of the ten realms, multiplying the resulting one hundred realms by the ten suchnesses, and then multiplying the resulting one thousand realms by the three categories of existence (five aggregates, sentient beings, and their environments). As it is shown that three thousand realms are included in an individual’s every thought-moment and therefore at least potentially accessible, it follows that practitioners of the two vehicles, who have been denied the possibility that they can attain buddhahood in the prior teachings, as well as ordinary people, can enter the world of buddhahood attained by the Buddha.

Nichiren Shonin advocated that chanting the daimoku of “Namu Myoho Renge Kyo” is the only practical way for ordinary people in the Latter Age of Degeneration to attain buddhahood based on the actuality of the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment. Nichiren Shonin’s On the Contemplation of the Mind and the Focus of Devotion opens with his particular way of understanding and applying this concept. (WNS2, pp. 127-132)

While the dictionary apparently will include entries for the principle of and actuality of the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment, I doubt anyone will find them without a reference to this distinction in the main entry for three thousand realms in a single thought-moment. And while Nichiren did not reject Tiantai’s teaching he did expand and refocus it and a dictionary of Nichiren Shu should make that explicit.

As explained in Buddha Seed:

Theoretically Ichinen Sanzen of Ri [T’ien-tai’s teaching] tells us that we can attain Buddhahood and that all realms of existence, including Buddhahood, can be recognized in every moment of conscious awareness. However, Ichinen Sanzen of Ji [Nichiren’s teaching] tells us that we are in the process of becoming Buddhas and that Buddhahood is a reality already at work in our lives. Even a single moment of taking faith in and rejoicing in this teaching allows us to understand the reality of the Buddha’s presence in our lives.

I am looking forward to using the glossary in my studies to better understand the teachings of Nichiren Shu and I eagerly await the publication of Ryuei’s full dictionary.