The Letter of Petition from Yorimoto
Chapter11(Revealing the Root Cause of Calamities and Celestial Anomalies)
More than four hundred years have now passed since the evil teaching called the True Word school was introduced to Japan. The Great Teacher Dengyō brought it from China in the twenty-fourth year of the Enryaku era (805), but he considered it undesirable for this country, and therefore did not allow it to be designated as a school in its own right, defining it merely as an expedient teaching of the Tendai Lotus school. Later, when the Great Teacher Dengyō had passed away, the Great Teacher Kōbō, not to be outdone by him, took advantage of the opportunity to establish the True Word teaching as an independent school, but Enryaku-ji temple on Mount Hiei would not accept it. However, Jikaku and Chishō were of limited insight, and although they lived on Mount Hiei, their hearts inclined toward Kōbō of Tō-ji temple. Perhaps for this reason, they turned against their teacher Dengyō and for the first time established the True Word school at Enryaku-ji. This marked the beginning of our country’s ruin.
For the more than three hundred years that followed, some insisted on the superiority of the True Word teaching over the Lotus Sutra; others, on the superiority of the Lotus Sutra over the True Word teaching; and still others, on the equality of both teachings. As the dispute continued unresolved, the imperial rule remained unaffected and did not come to an end. However, in the time of the Retired Emperor Goshirakawa, the seventy-seventh sovereign, the chief priest of the Tendai school, Myōun, became exclusively committed to the True Word teaching and was killed by Yoshinaka.41 This is an example of the passage that states, “Their heads will split into seven pieces.”42
Then, in the time of the Retired Emperor of Oki, the eighty-second sovereign, the Zen and Nembutsu schools appeared and spread throughout the land, as had the great evil True Word teaching. So the vows made by the Sun Goddess and the god Hachiman to protect one hundred sovereigns throughout one hundred reigns were broken, and the imperial authority came to an end.43 Through the workings of the Sun Goddess and the god Hachiman, affairs of state then came to be entrusted to the Acting Administrator Yoshitoki of the Kanto region.44
These three evil teachings spread to Kanto, where they gained support within the ruling clan to a surprising degree. Therefore, the two heavenly lords Brahmā and Shakra, the gods of the sun and moon, and the four heavenly kings were enraged and admonished the rulers by means of unprecedented disturbances in the heavens and calamities on earth. When their admonitions went unheeded, they commanded a neighboring country to punish those who slandered the Lotus Sutra. The Sun Goddess and the god Hachiman were powerless to help. The Sage Nichiren alone was aware of all this.
Such being the strictness of the Lotus Sutra, I have set aside all trivial concerns and served you devotedly until this day in my desire to lead my lord to enlightenment. Are not those who accuse me falsely thereby disloyal to you? If I were to leave the clan and abandon you now, you would immediately fall into the hell of incessant suffering. Then, even if I myself were to attain Buddhahood, I could only grieve, feeling that I had done so in vain.
Notes
41. Yoshinaka is Minamoto no Yoshinaka (1154–1184). Also known as Kiso Yoshinaka. A general of the Minamoto clan. He beheaded Myōun, the fifty-fifth and fifty-seventh chief priest of Enryaku-ji, when he attacked Mount Hiei during the struggle between the Minamoto and the Taira clans.
42. Lotus Sutra, chap. 26.
43. During the Jōkyū Disturbance of 1221, the imperial forces were defeated in an attempt to overthrow the shogunate government based in Kamakura. This defeat strengthened the Kamakura government’s hold upon the nation and effectively broke the power of imperial rule. The Retired Emperor Gotoba, who had planned the attempted overthrow, was exiled by the regent Hōjō Yoshitoki to Oki, an island in the Sea of Japan.
44. Hōjō Yoshitoki (1163–1224) was the regent of the Kamakura shogunate during the Jōkyū Disturbance. The Kamakura shogunate made Kanto (eastern Japan) its base, while the imperial court was located in Kyoto in the western part of the country.
Lecture
This passage demonstrates how the evil teachings of the Shingon sect have corrupted the nation of Japan since the Heian period, and furthermore, how the spread of Zen and Nembutsu since the beginning of the Kamakura period has plunged the entire country into a state of critical peril. It declares that Nichiren Daishonin is the only person who recognizes the root cause of these disasters, and that those who slander his follower, Shijo Kingo, are disloyal to their lord. It goes so far as to assert that if Shijo Kingo were to leave the Ema family, his lord would instantly fall into the Avichi hell.
Even as times change, this principle represents the great spirit that must be kept deep within the hearts of all followers of Nichiren Daishonin and passed down through generations. In other words, one must possess the clear awareness that “I am here in this society to serve as a vital pillar to prevent the people and society from falling into the depths of suffering,” and this awareness must be backed by actual practice within society. Such a person can truly be called a genuine disciple of Nichiren Daishonin and a practitioner of the Great Law.
“The Sage Nichiren alone was aware of all this.“
In this passage, through the voice of Yorimoto, the Daishonin like a lion’s roar declares that he alone is the one who has recognized the root cause of the happiness and unhappiness of human life and society.
What, then, is this root cause that Nichiren Daishonin alone recognized? It is the proposition that ideology and religion possess qualities of good and evil, correctness and error, and that these qualities are directly reflected within the life of the human beings who believe in them, thereby governing their happiness and unhappiness.
However, we must understand here that the true significance of Nichiren Daishonin does not lie merely in knowing the root cause of happiness and unhappiness. His ultimate, grand purpose was the establishment of the Gohonzon—the object of devotion for all humankind—to save the people throughout the ten thousand years of the Latter Day of the Law and the endless future, and he revealed the source of happiness and unhappiness as a prerequisite for this purpose.
This is akin to a physician who first examines a patient to diagnose the cause of an illness before administering the appropriate treatment. A physician’s mission is to cure the ailments of the body. The Buddha’s mission is to cure the ailments of the mind—that is, to resolve the fundamental sufferings of human life. In other words, we must understand that this lion’s roar of Nichiren Daishonin is a declaration that inherently contains the manifestation of the Gohonzon, the ultimate entity for enabling the people to enjoy true happiness. It is a declaration that brings the illness of ordinary mortals—the root of unhappiness—into sharp focus prior to the inscription of the Gohonzon; failing to recognize this would be to omit the most vital, finishing touch.
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