On Repaying Debts of Gratitude

Nichiren

Introductory Lecture

Introduction

In giving a lecture on the On Repaying Debts of Gratitude (Hōon-shō), I will first, as a preliminary talk, briefly explain the following three points:

1. The circumstances under which this treatise was composed

2. The general purport of the treatise

3. The original intent and inner meaning of the treatise

I. The Circumstances of the Treatise’s Composition

This treatise was written by Nichiren Daishonin on the 21st day of the 7th month of Kenji 2 (1276), at Mount Minobu.
It was sent to Jōken-bō and Gijō-bō for the sake of posthumous offerings for the late Dōzen-bō of Seichō-ji in Awa.

At that time, three years had passed since Nichiren Daishonin had taken up residence at Minobu, and he was fifty-five years of age.
The original autograph of the treatise was kept at Minobu, but it was lost in a fire in 1875 (Meiji 8).

In On the Heritage of the One Single Transmission at Fuji by Nikko Shōnin, among the so-called “Ten Major Writings,” the entry for the Treatise on Repaying Debts of Gratitude is as follows:

“One fascicle, Hōon-shō.
Now opened and divided into an upper and lower section.
Written at Mount Minobu for the departed spirit of the master Dōzen-bō and sent to Seichō-ji.
I have heard that it is now in the possession of Hyūga.
The copy held by Nikko is a second-generation transcription and has not yet been collated against the original manuscript.” (1604)

From the above, it is clear that this treatise was written after Nichiren Daishonin heard of Dōzen-bō’s passing, in order to repay his kindness and express gratitude, and that it was sent to Jōken-bō and Gijō-bō.

(1) The Former Teacher, Dōzen-bō

Nichiren Daishonin, from the age of twelve, went up to Seichō-ji in Awa Province and devoted himself to study.
His teacher at that time was Dōzen-bō, and his two senior fellow disciples were Jōken-bō and Gijō-bō.

On the 28th day of the 4th month of Kenchō 5 (1253), in the Buddha hall of the priests’ quarters at Seichō-ji, facing south, he first expounded the Three Great Secret Laws of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

However, the local steward (jitō), Tōjō Saemon Kagenobu, was a fervent Nembutsu believer and persecuted Nichiren Daishonin.
Most of the monks within Seichō-ji also opposed the Daishonin’s correct doctrine.
Nichiren Daishonin only barely managed to escape because Jōken-bō and Gijō-bō hid him and helped him flee.

The On Repaying Debts of Gratitude states:

However, it often happens with worthies that, although they do not think of themselves as having retired from the world, other people assume that they have, and therefore, if they were to come rushing out of retreat for no good reason, people would suppose that they had failed to accomplish their purpose. For this reason, no matter how much I might wish to visit his grave, I feel that I cannot do so.

Now you two, Jōken-bō and Gijō-bō, were my teachers in my youth. You are like the administrators of priests Gonzō and Gyōhyō, who though they were at one time the teachers of the Great Teacher Dengyō, later instead became his disciples. When Kagenobu was bent on harming me and I decided that I must leave Mount Kiyosumi [on which Seichō-ji is located], you helped me escape in secret. You have performed an unrivaled service for the Lotus Sutra. There can be no doubt about the reward that awaits you in your next rebirth. (WND1, p.729)

And in Questions and Answers on the Object of Devotion (Honzon Mondō-shō) it says:

At the time when the steward displayed his anger toward me, you, Jōken-bō, along with Gijō-bō, helped me to escape from Seichō-ji unharmed. Without doing anything further, you have already performed a service for the Lotus Sutra. I hope you will therefore take this opportunity to free yourselves from the sufferings of birth and death. (WND2, p.798)

Toward such Jōken-bō and Gijō-bō, their teacher Dōzen-bō, however, was timid and faint-hearted, fearing the authority of the steward and clinging above all to his own position as chief priest of Seichō-ji.
He thought Nichiren Daishonin’s teaching was correct and, especially in his later years, felt drawn to it, yet for the sake of his own safety he could not abandon the Nembutsu.
His attitude was such that he seemed to think, “Even if I fall into hell, it cannot be helped.”

The On Repaying Debts of Gratitude says:

The late Dōzen-bō treated me as one of his favorite disciples, so I cannot believe that he bore any hatred toward me. But he was a timid man, and he could never bring himself to give up his position at the temple where he lived, Seichō-ji. Moreover, he was fearful of what Kagenobu, the steward of the region, might do if he gave ear to my teachings. And at Seichō-ji he had to live in the midst of priests like Enchi and Jitsujō, who were as evil as Devadatta or Kokālika, and to put up with their intimidations, so that he became more fearful than ever. As a result, he turned a deaf ear to the longtime disciples he was fondest of. I wonder what will become of such a man in the next life.

There is one thing to be thankful for. Kagenobu, Enchi, and Jitsujō all died before Dōzen-bō did, and that was something of a help. These men all met an untimely death because of the chastisement of the ten demon daughters who protect the Lotus Sutra. After they died, Dōzen-bō began to have some faith in the Lotus Sutra. But it was rather like obtaining a stick after the fight is over, or lighting a lantern at midday—the proper time had already passed.

In addition, whatever happens, one ought to feel pity and concern for one’s own children or disciples. Dōzen-bō was not an entirely helpless man, and yet, though I was exiled all the way to the province of Sado, he never once tried to visit me. This is hardly the behavior of one who believes in the Lotus Sutra. (WND1, p.729)

In Questions and Answers on the Object of Devotion we also read:

The late priest Dōzen-bō was my teacher. In his heart he felt kindly toward me. But he was afraid that some trouble might arise between himself and the steward of the region³¹ because of the Lotus Sutra, and therefore he acted outwardly as though he were my enemy. I heard later that he seemed to manifest a certain degree of faith in the Lotus Sutra. But I do not know just what his condition was when he was on the point of death. (WND2, p.798)

And in The Tripitaka Master Shan-wu-wei (Zenmui Sanzō-shō):

 To repay the debt that I owe to my former teacher Dōzen-bō, I desired to spread the teachings of the Buddha on Mount Kiyosumi and lead my teacher to enlightenment. But he is a rather ignorant man, and in addition he is a believer in the Nembutsu, so I did not see how he could escape the three evil paths. Moreover, he is not the kind of person who would listen to my words of instruction.

Nevertheless, in the first year of the Bun’ei era (1264), on the fourteenth day of the eleventh month, I met with him at the priests’ lodgings of Hanabusa in Saijō. At that time, he said to me: “I have neither wisdom nor any hope for advancement to important position. I am an old man with no desire for fame, and I claim no eminent priest of Nembutsu as my teacher. But because this practice has become so widespread in our time, I simply repeat like others the words Namu-Amida-butsu. In addition, though it was not my idea originally, I have had occasion to fashion five images of Amida Buddha. This perhaps is due to some karmic habit that I formed in a past existence. Do you suppose that as a result of these faults I will fall into hell?”

At that time I certainly had no thought of quarreling with him. But because of the earlier incident with the lay priest Tōjō Saemon Renchi, I had not seen my teacher for more than ten years, and thus it was in a way as though we had become estranged and were at odds. I thought that the proper and courteous thing would be to reason with him in mild terms and to speak in a gentle manner. On the other hand, when it comes to the realm of birth and death, neither young nor old know what fate awaits them, and it occurred to me that I might never again have another opportunity to meet with him. I had already warned Dōzen-bō’s elder brother, the priest Dōgi-bō Gishō, that he was destined to fall into the hell of incessant suffering if he did not change his ways, and they say that his death was far worse than what he had hoped. When I considered that my teacher Dōzen-bō might meet a similar fate, I was filled with pity for him and therefore made up my mind to speak to him in very strong terms.

I explained to him that, by making five images of Amida Buddha, he was condemning himself to fall five times into the hell of incessant suffering.(WND1, p.176)

From all this we see that Dōzen-bō was, in summary, a foolish, timid, small-minded Nembutsu believer.
The steward Tōjō Kagenobu, for his part, was not only stubborn in his attachment to heretical teachings but, as indicated in another writing, a villain who even killed Seichō-ji’s tame deer.
Moreover, within Seichō-ji there were priests such as Enchi-bō and Jitsujō-bō who strongly opposed Nichiren Daishonin.
Amid such circumstances, Dōzen-bō did show some faint signs of awakening to faith toward the end,
but he ultimately concluded his life in a most unreliable and pitiable manner.

Originally, Dōzen-bō and indeed the entire community of Seichō-ji should have been moved to profound admiration for the Daishonin’s virtue, especially in light of the following event.

Letter to the Priest of Seicho-ji states:

Above all, if the priests of Mount Kiyosumi treat me with less respect than they show their own parents or the three treasures, they will become wretched beggars in this life and will fall into the hell of incessant suffering in the next. I will explain why. The villainous Tōjō Saemon Kagenobu once hunted the deer and other animals kept by Seichō-ji, and tried to force the priests in the various lodging temples to become Nembutsu believers. At that time I pitted myself against Tōjō and supported the lord of the manor. I composed a fervent oath that read, “If the two temples Kiyosumi and Futama should come into Tōjō’s possession, I will discard the Lotus Sutra!” Then I tied it to the hand of the object of devotion, to which I prayed continuously. Within a year, both temples had been freed from Tōjō’s grasp.  (WND1, p.652)

At that time the steward Tōjō Kagenobu, backed by Nembutsu followers such as Gokuraku-ji, sought to turn all of Seichō-ji—originally a Tendai temple—into a Nembutsu stronghold.
Moreover, he tried to take Nima-dera away from its estate-holders.
The killing of the tame deer can be seen as a kind of show of force against Seichō-ji.

Nichiren Daishonin therefore sided with the estate-holders and the Seichō-ji faction, while Tōjō’s side brought suit.
Within a year the case was won in favor of Seichō-ji and the estate-holders.

The estate-holders had also shown kindness to the Daishonin’s parents.
Thus this was a difficult problem that the Daishonin himself resolved.

(2) The Recitation at Kasagamori

Although Dōzen-bō generally took positions contrary to Nichiren Daishonin’s guidance, and the situation at Seichō-ji was as described,
when the Daishonin heard of Dōzen-bō’s passing, he nevertheless said:

In On Repaying Debts of Gratitude:

In spite of all that, I thought a great deal of him, and when I heard the news of his death, I felt as though, whether I had to walk through fire or wade through water, I must rush to his grave, pound on it, and recite a volume of the Lotus Sutra for his sake.

However, it often happens with worthies that, although they do not think of themselves as having retired from the world, other people assume that they have, and therefore, if they were to come rushing out of retreat for no good reason, people would suppose that they had failed to accomplish their purpose. For this reason, no matter how much I might wish to visit his grave, I feel that I cannot do so. (WND1, P.729)

In the accompanying letter to the treatise he writes:

A sketchy report of the passing of the Reverend Dōzen-bō reached me last month. I felt that I should go in person as quickly as possible, as well as sending the priest who bears this letter. However, though I do not think of myself as one who has retired from the world, other people seem to look at me in that way, and so I make it a rule not to leave this mountain. (WND1, p.737)

Since the Daishonin himself could not leave Minobu under these circumstances,
he selected among his disciples Minbu Nikō (Hyūga), who was from the Bōsō region, to carry the treatise to Seichō-ji.
There he was to read it on the summit of Kasagamori and in front of Dōzen-bō’s grave.

The same letter says:

Therefore, I ask that just the two of you, you and Gijō-bō, have the work read aloud two or three times at the summit of Kasagamori, with this priest to do the reading. Please have him read it once before the grave of the late Dōzen-bō as well. (WND1, p.737)

These instructions of Nichiren Daishonin were carried out exactly as directed.

In Flowering and Bearing Grain (Keka Jōju-gosho) we read:

But I was very pleased to learn that you had read at Kasagamori the two documents I wrote in the Kenji era in memory of the late Sage Dōzen-bō. (WND1, p.909)

As for the term “Kasagamori” appearing in this sending letter, many older editions of the writings read it as “on the high mountain forest” or “on the high forest of the mountain,”
but these are serious misreadings.

II. The General Purport of the Treatise

(1) The Title of the Treatise

The title Hōon-shō (“Treatise on Repaying Debts of Gratitude”) contains both a general and a specific meaning.

In general, it means repaying the four debts of gratitude;
in its specific sense, it means repaying the debt owed to one’s teacher.

The four debts referred to here differ somewhat from the four debts listed in The Four Debts of Gratitude (Shion-shō), as follows:

• The four debts in this treatise:

  1. The debt to one’s parents

  2. The debt to one’s teacher

  3. The debt to the Three Treasures

• The four debts in The Four Debts of Gratitude:

  1. The debt to all living beings

  2. The debt to one’s parents

  3. The debt to the sovereign

  4. The debt to the Three Treasures

Why then does this treatise single out the debt to one’s teacher and omit explicit mention of the debt to all living beings?
It is because this writing was composed specifically to repay the kindness of his former teacher, Dōzen-bō;
therefore, Nichiren Daishonin especially highlights the teacher’s kindness.

At the same time, the debt to all beings is included within the debt to one’s parents.
In the Letter to Horen (Hōren-shō) it says:

Among the living beings of the six paths and the four forms of birth there are both men and women. And these men and women all were our parents at some point in our past existences. (WND1, p.512)

Thus, to repay the debt to one’s parents is to repay the debt to all living beings.

In its more specific aspect, the title indicates repaying the kindness of one’s teacher.
As stated earlier, the Daishonin composed this treatise to mourn the passing of his former teacher Dōzen-bō and to repay his kindness, and had it read on Kasagamori and before his grave.

At the conclusion of the treatise he writes:

Thus the flower will return to the root and the essence of the plant will remain in the earth. The benefit that I have been speaking of will surely accumulate in the life of the late Dōzen-bō. (WND1, p.737)

The Daishonin’s feelings as he remembered his teacher are far beyond what we ordinary people, with our shallow insight, can fathom.

For us in the Soka Gakkai, we have our own great teachers who devoted their entire lives to the propagation of the great Law—President Makiguchi and President Toda.
When we contemplate the Daishonin’s spirit in repaying even the “ignorant and timid” Dōzen-bō,
we must deeply reflect on how we ourselves can possibly repay even a ten-thousandth of the kindness of these noble mentors.

Now, as we commemorate the seventh anniversary of our mentor Josei Toda’s passing,
we straighten our collars in solemn feeling and our sense of gratitude deepens all the more.

One thing that gives us great confidence, however,
is the fact that after our mentor’s passing we have advanced exactly as he instructed along the broad path of kosen-rufu,
and have carried out a great propagation that has surpassed 4.6 million households worldwide.
I am firmly convinced that our mentor is unquestionably rejoicing over this.

(2) The Essential Message of the Treatise

From what has been said about the circumstances of its composition,
it is evident that the central purport of this treatise is, in general, to explain how to repay the four debts of gratitude,
and in particular, how to repay the debt owed to his former teacher, Dōzen-bō.

How, then, are we to repay such great kindness?

As the treatise itself teaches,
we must “surely learn and thoroughly master the Buddha’s Law and become a person of wisdom.”
If one truly wishes to “learn and exhaust the Buddha’s Law,”
one must renounce the world and study the entire corpus of the Buddha’s lifetime teachings.

However, in Japan ten schools have arisen, each claiming to be supreme.
They argue back and forth, all saying “we are number one,” and it is unclear which is truly in accord with the Buddha’s intent.

Examining them in light of the whole of the Buddha’s lifetime teachings,
the relative superiority and inferiority of Mahayana and Hinayana, provisional and true, trace and origin, seed and harvest become completely clear.
It then becomes evident that, in the Latter Day of the Law, the Buddha of great compassion is Nichiren Daishonin himself,
and that the Great White Law he established is the Three Great Secret Laws.

In this treatise in particular, he strictly refutes the erroneous doctrines of Shingon.
Of the five major writings, On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land (Risshō Ankoku-ron) is a pre-Sado work mainly aimed at refuting Hōnen’s Nembutsu teaching on the basis of the relative standpoint of provisional and true.
In The Opening of the Eyes (Kaimoku-shō), he clarifies the Person as the Object of Devotion through the five levels of comparison;
in The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind (Kanjin no Honzon-shō), he reveals the Great Gohonzon to be propagated in the Latter Day.
Yet even in these works, the name “Three Great Secret Laws” does not explicitly appear.

In The Selection of the Time (Senji-shō), he refutes the errors of the various schools and concludes:

And, unbelievable as it may seem, there clearly appears in the text of the Lotus Sutra a correct Law that is supremely profound and secret,⁹⁴ one that, though expounded in full by the Buddha, in the time since his passing has never yet been propagated by Mahākāshyapa, Ānanda, Ashvaghosha, Nāgārjuna, Asanga, or Vasubandhu, nor even by T’ien-t’ai or Dengyō. (WND1, p.560)

But even there, the Three Great Secret Laws are not fully elaborated.

In this Kenji-era treatise, however, he thoroughly exposes the mistaken doctrines of the three Tripiṭaka Masters—Śubhakarasiṃha, Vajrabodhi, and Amoghavajra—in China,
and those of Kōbō, Jikaku, and Chishō in Japan,
together with their deceptive miracles and ominous dreams.
In general, he refutes Zen and Nembutsu, but in particular he attacks the errors of Shingon,
and especially those of Jikaku and Chishō, who, while occupying the seat of T’ien-t’ai’s successor as heads of the Tendai school, fell into Shingon teachings.

At the same time, he clarifies the Three Great Secret Laws of the Original Doctrine (Honmon) and, out of his vast compassion, concludes that these Three Great Secret Laws will save living beings not only throughout the ten thousand years of the Latter Day, but for all eternity.
Because this treatise reveals the Three Great Secret Laws, the sending letter remarks:

I have written matters of the utmost importance. (WND1, p.737)

Finally, in the concluding passage he states:

The benefit that I have been speaking of will surely accumulate in the life of the late Dōzen-bō. (WND1, p.737)

In this way he makes clear that only by propagating the Three Great Secret Laws and thereby saving all living beings can one truly repay the great kindness of one’s deceased teacher.

III. The Original Intent, That Is, the Inner Realization of the Treatise

(1) Genuine Knowing and Repaying of Debts of Gratitude

As we have seen, the essential method of repaying debts of gratitude lies in believing in and spreading the Three Great Secret Laws.

Thus, although on the surface this treatise discusses repaying the kindness of the late teacher Dōzen-bō,
its deeper intent—its inner realization—is that Nichiren Daishonin, as the Original Buddha of the Latter Day,
has established and will widely propagate the Three Great Secret Laws.

We, the disciples in later ages, must likewise, in a general sense, repay the debts we owe to our parents, teachers, the Three Treasures, and the sovereign,
and in a specific sense, repay the debt to our own teacher.
This is the message being impressed upon us.