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The Buddha’s Pure and Immaculate Voice

Yesterday I wrote about Senchu Murano’s penchant for inserting his twist on tales from the Lotus Sutra (“Questions and Fantasy Answers“). I also posted that article on the Nichiren Shu Group on Facebook and asked if anyone could offer a defense for the use of “fantasy” stories in place of actual Lotus Sutra verses in teaching Nichiren Buddhism.

Judging from the comments I received, my original post failed to make clear my point. Let me try again.

In Nichiren’s Treatise on Opening the Eyes of Buddhist Images, Wooden Statues or Portraits (Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 91), he writes:

The written words of the Lotus Sutra express in a visible and tangible form the Brahma’s voice of the Buddha, which is invisible and intangible, so that we can see and read them with our eyes. The Buddha’s pure and immaculate voice, which had disappeared, is resuscitated in the form of written characters for the benefit of humankind.

Shinkyo Warner, in his Daily Dharma post on this quote, says:

Living in this world, 2500 years after the Buddha Śākyamuni walked the Earth, it is difficult to hear his voice leading us to enlightenment and encouraging us to let go of our attachments. In the Lotus S̄ūtra we have an instrument for creating the Buddha’s voice in our own time. This is his highest teaching. It brings all beings to liberation, whether they are clever or dull, stupid or wise, focused or distracted. It reminds us of our true nature as Bodhisattvas who chose this life out of our determination to benefit all beings. It shows us how to transform the poison of suffering into the medicine of compassion, and the poison of ignorance into the medicine of wisdom.

When Senchu Murano inserts his words and ideas into his “fantasy” about the Lotus Sutra, what do we hear?

In Murano’s 1997 booklet, The Gohonzon, he tells this tale about the Buddha Many Treasures (Prabhutaratna, Taho):

The fantastic narration of the Lotus Sutra begins with the story of Prabhutaratna (Many-Treasures, Taho) Buddha, as follows:

There lived a Buddha called Taho many kalpas ago in a world called Treasure-Pure, which was located far to the east of the Saha World. Taho Buddha knew the Wonderful Dharma, but did not expound it by himself because he thought that the Wonderful Dharma should be expounded by a Buddha who would emanate from himself as many Replica-Buddhas as there are worlds in the universe, dispatch them to those worlds, and then expound the Wonderful Dharma in a sutra called the Lotus Sutra. Taho Buddha decided to wait for the advent of such a Buddha, and to approve the truthfulness of the Lotus Sutra expounded by that Buddha.

In Murano’s 1998 booklet, Questions and Answers on Nichiren Buddhism, he suggests this is how Chapter 11 starts:

Sakyamuni Buddha did what he had never done before at the beginning of Chapter XI of the Lotus Sutra. He produced innumerable Replica Buddhas of his own from himself, told them to expound what he was going to expound from that moment, and dispatched them to the worlds of the ten quarters: the four quarters, the four intermediate quarters, zenith, and nadir. After he saw them having reached their assigned worlds, Sakyamuni Buddha expounded the teaching of the One Vehicle, that is the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. Obedient to their Original Buddha, his Replica-Buddhas expounded the same teaching throughout the universe and as a result the universal validity of the Wonderful Dharma was revealed.

The stupa of the seven treasures sprang up from underground and hung in the sky before the Buddha at the opening of Chapter 11. There is no discussion of emanations of Śākyamuni until the congregation asks Śākyamuni to open the stupa. As for whether other Buddhas can create emanations, that is clearly the case in The Sutra of Contemplation of the Dharma Practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva, which is the concluding portion of the Threefold Lotus Sutra. (See this post.)

If the tale of the Stupa of Treasures, as Murano says, is where “the fantastic narration of the Lotus Sutra begins,” then what of the earlier 10 chapters?

In Chapter 11, Śākyamuni explains to the congregation what has happened:

“The perfect body of a Tathāgata is in this stūpa of treasures. A long time ago there was a world called Treasure-Purity at the distance of many thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of worlds to the east [of this world]. In that world lived a Buddha called Many-Treasures. When he was yet practicing the Way of Bodhisattvas, he made a great vow: ‘If anyone expounds a sūtra called the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in any of the worlds of the ten quarters after I become a Buddha and pass away, I will cause my stūpa-mausoleum to spring up before him so that I may be able to prove the truthfulness of the sūtra and say ‘excellent’ in praise of him because I wish to hear that sūtra [directly from him].”

“He attained enlightenment[, and became a Buddha]. When he was about to pass away, he said to the bhikṣus in the presence of the great multitude of gods and men, ‘If you wish to make offerings to my perfect body after my extinction, erect a great stūpa!’

“If anyone expounds the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in any of the worlds of the ten quarters, that Buddha, by his supernatural powers and by the power of his vow, will cause the stūpa of treasures enshrining his perfect body to spring up before the expounder of the sūtra. Then he will praise [the expounder of the sūtra], saying, ‘Excellent, excellent!’

“Great-Eloquence! Now Many-Treasures Tathāgata caused his stūpa to spring up from underground in order to hear the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma [directly from me]. Now he praised me, saying, ‘Excellent, excellent!’ ”

Senchu Murano’s words are pure fabrication, a whole cloth that muffles the Buddha’s pure and immaculate voice.

How does one defend such an act, especially when the book was written in English for an audience that knew little if any of the teachings of the Lotus Sutra?

Previous: Questions and Fantasy Answers

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Perils in the Latter Age of Degeneration

The first thousand years following the Buddha’s extinction are called the Age of the True Dharma. During this period, many people kept the precepts and some attained Buddhahood. The next thousand years are called the Age of the Semblance Dharma. During this period, many people broke the precepts, and only a few attained Buddhahood. After the Age of the Semblance Dharma comes the Latter Age of Degeneration. This period is filled with people who neither keep nor break the precepts, but the country is filled with people who have no precepts.

Moreover, we live in a defiled and chaotic world. In the pure world, people abandon evil things and take on the right things, just as a bent tree is straightened with a straight rope. The five defilements (of the age, evil passions, people, views and life) began to increase in the Ages of the True and Semblance Dharmas, becoming furious and chaotic in the Latter Age of Degeneration. It is like when a strong wind creates big waves and they hit, not only the shore, but also each other. Defilement of views did not cause much trouble in the Ages of the True and Semblance Dharmas, but in the Latter Age of Degeneration, a few evil teachings spread, causing the destruction of the True Dharma; as a result there seems to be more people who fall into the evil realms due to their wrong beliefs than people who fall into evil paths due to worldly crimes.

Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō-dono Gosho, A Letter to Lord Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 140.

d15b, d16b, WONS

Preparation for Revealing the Eternal Buddha

Now in the “Appearance of the Stupa of Treasures,” the eleventh chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, a step was taken in preparation for revealing the Eternal Buddha in the sixteenth chapter on “The Life Span of the Buddha.” It is stated in the “Appearance of the Stupa of Treasures” chapter that Śākyamuni Buddha, who had attained enlightenment for the first time only forty years or so before under the bodhi tree at Buddhagayā, India, called the crowd of Buddhas, who had obtained Buddhahood as far before as a kalpa or ten, “My manifestations.” This was against the principle of equality among Buddhas and greatly surprised everyone. If Śākyamuni Buddha had attained enlightenment only forty years or so before, large crowds of people all over the universe would not be waiting for His guidance. Even if He was capable of appearing in manifestation to guide them in various worlds, it would have been of no use. Grand Master T’ien-t’ai said in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 9, “Since there are so many of His manifestations, we should know that He has been the Buddha for a long time.” It represents the consternation of the great assembly, men and gods who were surprised at the great number of Buddhas in manifestation (funjin).

To add to their surprise, the numerous great bodhisattvas, who had been guided by the Original Buddha in the past, sprang out of the earth of the whole world, according to the “Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground,” the fifteenth chapter of the Lotus Sūtra. They looked incomparably superior to Bodhisattvas Fugen (Universal Sage) and Monju, (Mañjuśrī), who had been regarded as ranking disciples of Śākyamuni Buddha. Compared to these bodhisattvas coming from underground, those great bodhisattvas, who had gathered upon the preaching of the Flower Garland Sūtra, Hōdō sūtras, and Wisdom Sūtra and of the “Appearance of the Stupa Of Treasures” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, or the sixteen bodhisattvas such as Bodhisattva Vajrasattva in the Great Sun Buddha Sūtra and other sūtras, looked like monkeys waiting on Indra or woodcutters associating with court nobles. Even Bodhisattva Maitreya, successor to Śākyamuni Buddha, did not know who they were, not to speak of gods and men below him.

Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 69-70

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Something Shining Like the Moon Flew Like a Ball

Just at the time when I was thinking this must be the place where I would be beheaded, the soldiers began to get excited, gathering around me. Shijō Kingo began to cry saying, “The last moment has come!” Looking at this, I uttered, “How cowardly you all are! I am glad you are laughing at such a wonderful occasion as this when I am now going to present my malodorous head to the Lotus Sūtra. Why do you break the promise you had made?” Just at this moment, something shining like the moon flew like a ball from Enoshima Island from southeast to northwest. It was before daybreak, the night of the twelfth and was still too dark to see the faces of people. However, the night was brightened by the shining object for us to see our faces as clearly as on a moonlit night. The executioner who was ready to kill Nichiren fell down on the ground blinded. The soldiers became frightened. Some ran away as far as one hundred meters, others dismounted from horses and squatted down on the ground, and still others remained stiff on horseback.

I, Nichiren, shouted, “Why do you stay away from a felon like me? Come back here quickly.” None of them, however, came near me in a hurry. “Daybreak is coming very soon; what can you do if it gets light? If you have to kill me, do it right away. It would be unsightly when it gets lighted.” Thus I shouted to them, but there was no response.

Shuju Onfurumai Gosho, Reminiscences: from Tatsunokuchi to Minobu, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Biography and Disciples, Volume 5, Pages 28-29

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Śrāvakas are Bodhisattvas

Some of the pre-Lotus sūtras expound that bodhisattvas can become Buddhas but not śrāvakas, which pleases the bodhisattvas, disappoints the śrāvakas, and causes others below, such as men and gods, to be in despair. Other sūtras preach that the Two Vehicles try to escape from the sufferings of the Six Realms by eliminating delusions in view and thought, while bodhisattvas dare not eliminate evil passions in order to be reborn in the Six Realms and save ordinary people. Some sūtras say that bodhisattvas gain enlightenment immediately and become Buddhas while others say that it takes a long time for them to do so. Still others preach that when bodhisattvas and śrāvakas hear the teaching that ordinary people can reach Buddhahood, they think that the teaching is not applicable to themselves. Other people’s inability to become a Buddha is your inability to become a Buddha; for others to become a Buddha means for you to become a Buddha. The elimination of delusions in view and thought by sages means our elimination of delusions in view and thought. Forty-two years have passed without knowing this doctrine of the mutual possession of the Ten Realms in the pre-Lotus sūtras.

However, when the doctrine of the mutual possession of the Ten Realms is expounded, the realm of bodhisattvas is added to the realm of śrāvakas. Śrāvakas are therefore given the merits acquired through numerous difficult practices which every bodhisattva had striven to achieve without practicing the Six Pāramitā or practicing for long periods. Then, unexpectedly, śrāvakas are called bodhisattvas and even a greedy person or a prison guard who tortures people are so called, too. Likewise, we can say that the Buddha with the rank of Perfect Enlightenment is a bodhisattva with the rank of Equivalent Enlightenment as he had once been while practicing the bodhisattva way. “The Simile of Herbs” chapter in the Lotus Sūtra says of śrāvakas, “What you are now practicing is the Way of Bodhisattvas.” The Sūtra of Infinite Meaning states, “Though you have yet to practice the Six Pāramitā, the merit of practicing the Six Pāramitā is naturally provided and placed in front of you.” This proves that we ordinary people are bodhisattvas who have completely accomplished the Six Pāramitā even though we have not practiced them. Proof that we ordinary people are called those who keep the precepts though we do not observe them is provided in the “Appearance of the Stupa of Treasures” chapter in the Lotus Sūtra, which says, “He will be a man of valor, a man of endeavor. He should be considered to have already observed the precepts and practiced the rules of frugal living.”

Ichidai Shōgyō Tai-I, Outline of All the Holy Teachings of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 87-88

LS32, WONS

Day 13

Day 13 covers all of Chapter 8, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Five Hundred Disciples.

Day 13 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the prediction for Pūrṇa Bhikṣu, we hear from twelve hundred Arhats.

Thereupon the twelve hundred Arhats, who had already obtained freedom of mind, thought:

“We have never been so joyful before. How glad we shall be if we are assured of our future Buddhahood by the World-Honored One just as the other great disciples were!”

Seeing what they had in their minds, the Buddha said to Maha-Kāśyapa:

“Now I will assure these twelve hundred Arhats, who are present before me, of their future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi one after another. My great disciple Kauṇḍinya Bhikṣu, who is among them, will make offerings to six billion and two hundred thousand million Buddhas, and then become a Buddha called Universal-Brightness, the Tathāgata, the Deserver of Offerings, the Perfectly Enlightened One, the Man of Wisdom and Practice, the Well-Gone, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed Man, the Controller of Men, the Teacher of Gods and Men, the Buddha, the World-Honored One. The others of the five hundred Arhats, including Uruvilvā-Kāśyapa, Gaya­Kāśyapa, Nadī-Kāśyapa, Kālodāyin, Udāyin, Aniruddha, Revata, Kapphina, Bakkula, Cunda, and Svāgata, also will attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, and become Buddhas also called Universal-Brightness.”

Nichiren writes of Aniruddha in his Letter to Hōren:

A Hinayāna sage known as Pratyekabuddha is incomparably superior to a śrāvaka. He is so great that he can stand in for the Buddha to appear in the world to save its people. It is said that there was once a hunter who in a time of famine gave a bowl of rice mixed with barnyard millet to a pratyekabuddha called Rita, and as a result he was rewarded with rebirth as a man of wealth in the human or heavenly world for as long as 91 kalpa (aeons). Aniruddha, one of the ten great disciples of the Buddha who is reputed to have mastered the divine-eye of heavenly beings to see through everything, is said to have been [the incarnation of) the hunter. Grand Master Miao-lê interprets this, “Although the bowl of barnyard millet rice has little value, the hunter donated all that he owned to a person of great merit. Therefore, the hunter was rewarded with such good fortune.” It means that although a bowl of millet rice was not much in value, it was presented to a noble person of Pratyekabuddha status, and this is the reason why he was able to be reborn with such good luck.

Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 46

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The Appearance of the Stupa of Treasures

Having listened to Lord Śākyamuni preach the Lotus Sūtra, various great bodhisattvas, the King of the Brahma Heaven, Indra, Sun God, Moon God, Four Heavenly Kings, and others have truly become His disciples. Since the Buddha considered them His own disciples, He sternly advised and commanded them as stated in the “Appearance of the Stupa of Treasures” chapter in the Lotus Sūtra: “The Buddha told the great crowd, ‘Anyone who would strive to uphold, read, and recite the sūtra after My death should make sworn statements in front of Me.'” And so those great bodhisattvas and others followed the Buddha just as a gale blows twigs of small trees, as “good fortune” grass is swayed by a gale, or rivers flow into an ocean.

However, since it had not been long since the preaching of the Lotus Sūtra had begun on Mt. Sacred Eagle, it seemed to them dream-like and unreal. Then appeared a Stupa of Treasures, which not only attested to the first half of the preaching of the Lotus Sūtra to be true but also prepared the way for the preaching of the latter half. Referring to all the Buddhas who appeared from all the worlds in the universe, the Buddha declared that they were all His own manifestations (funjin). Śākyamuni Buddha and the Buddha of Many Treasures took seats side by side in the Stupa that hung in the sky, appearing like the sun and the moon rising together up in the blue sky. A large crowd of men and gods appeared in the sky like constellations, while funjin Buddhas took lion-shaped thrones under jeweled trees.

Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 68-69

LS32, WONS

Day 12

Day 12 concludes Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City, and completes the Third Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 12 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered what became of the 16 princes, we consider those who were taught by the śramaṇeras.

“Bhikṣus! When we were śramaṇeras, we each taught many hundreds of thousands of billions of living beings, that is, as many living beings as there are sands in the River Ganges. Those living beings who followed me, heard the Dharma from me in order to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Some of them are still in Śrāvakahood. I now teach them the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. They will be able to enter the Way to Buddhahood by my teaching, but not immediately because the wisdom of the Tathāgata is difficult to believe and difficult to understand. Those living beings as many as there are sands in the River Ganges, whom I taught [ when I was a śramaṇera], included you bhikṣus and those who will be reborn as my disciples in Śrāvakahood after my extinction. My disciples who do not hear this sūtra or know the practices of Bodhisattvas, after my extinction will make a conception of extinction by the merits they will have accumulated by themselves, and enter into Nirvāṇa as they conceive it. At that time I shall be a Buddha of another name in another world. Those who will enter into Nirvāṇa as they conceive it will be able [to be reborn] in the world I shall live in, seek the wisdom of the Buddha, and hear this sūtra. They will be able to attain [true] extinction only by the Vehicle of the Buddha in that world because there is no other vehicle except when the Tathāgatas expound the Dharma with expedients.

Nichiren discusses this unique relationship between śramaṇera and his disciples in his letter Treatise on the Essence of the Lotus Sūtra:

When we compare Śākyamuni Buddha in the Lotus Sūtra to Buddhas in other sūtras in regard to the period of practicing the Bodhisattva way and saving people, other Buddhas’ length of practice is said to have been three asamkhya kalpa or five kalpa, while Śākyamuni Buddha has been a great Bodhisattva planting the seed of enlightenment in all living beings in the Sahā World since 3,000 dust-particle kalpa ago according to the “Parable of a Magic City” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra. Therefore, none of the living beings in six lower realms in this world have any relationship with any Bodhisattvas in other worlds.

Hokke Shuyō Shō, Treatise on the Essence of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 208

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Your Late Husband Is Your Protective Deity

Your late husband lost his life for the sake of the Lotus Sūtra. His domain, which barely supported his life, was confiscated for the sake of the Lotus Sūtra. Isn’t this equivalent to him sacrificing his life?

The Young Ascetic in the Himalayas sacrificed his own body in order to learn the second half of a verse, and Medicine King Bodhisattva in his previous life burned his own body as an offering to the Buddha for 1,200 years. These are the stories of sages, whose lives continued just as when water is thrown on fire, the firewood is not consumed. However, your late husband was an ordinary man, whose life disappeared just as a piece of paper is consumed by the fire.

Considering all things, I think due to this great merit of your late husband he is now reborn either in the great moon or sun and every moment is watching you, his children and their mother, through the heavenly mirror. Because you and your children are ordinary mortals, you are unable to see and hear him, just like the deaf cannot hear a thunderbolt or the blind cannot see the sun. Have no doubt, though, that your late husband is your protective deity. Moreover, he is probably very close to you all.

Myōichi-ama Gozen Goshōsoku, A Letter to My Lady, the Nun Myōichi, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 135

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Seriousness of a Sin Depends on Party Affected by the Crime

In the final analysis, it does not hurt when we strike the air with a fist, but it hurts when we strike a rock. Likewise, the sin of killing an evil man is light compared to that of killing a virtuous man; or killing an unrelated person is like striking dirt with our fist but murdering our parents is like striking a rock. A dog barking at a deer will not have its skull broken, but a dog barking at a lion will have its entrails rotted. The asura demon that swallows the sun and moon has its head split into seven [pieces], and Devadatta who struck the Buddha fell into hell through a fissure in the ground. Namely, the seriousness of a sin depends on the party affected by the crime. In this sense, the Lotus Sūtra is the eyes of all the Buddhas and the true teacher of Lord Śākyamuni Buddha. Therefore, anyone who abandons even one character or one dot of the sūtra commits a sin more serious than that of murdering 1,000 or 10,000 parents. Accordingly such person will be in the Hell of Incessant Suffering for an innumerably long period of time known as 3,000 or 500 (million) dust-particle kalpa.

Kyōdai-shō, A Letter to the Ikegami Brothers, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 73-74