The Selection of the Time

Nichiren, disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha

Chapter23(Rebuking the Great Teacher Kōbō of the True Word)  

The Great Teacher Kōbō went to T’ang China during the Enryaku era, when the Great Teacher Dengyō went.¹⁰⁹ There he studied the teachings of the True Word school under Hui-kuo of the temple called Ch’ing-lung-ssu. After returning to Japan, he pronounced judgment on the relative merits of the doctrines preached by Shakyamuni in the course of his life, declaring that the True Word teachings ranked first, the Flower Garland second, and those of the Lotus Sutra third.

The Great Teacher Kōbō enjoys a quite unusual amount of respect among the people of our time. However, although I hesitate to touch on such matters, in questions of the Buddhist teaching, he committed a rather unusual number of errors. If we stop to consider the matter in general, it would appear that when he went to China he merely learned the ritual mudras and mantras that are used by the True Word school and introduced these to Japan. But he does not seem to have delved into the doctrines of the school to any great extent. After he returned to Japan and observed the situation at the time, he saw that the Tendai school was flourishing to an unusual degree, and he concluded that it would be difficult to propagate the True Word doctrines that he himself adhered to. Therefore, he adopted the viewpoint of the Flower Garland school, whose doctrines he had studied earlier in Japan, declaring that the Flower Garland Sutra was superior to the Lotus Sutra. But he realized that, if he simply asserted the superiority of the Flower Garland Sutra over the Lotus Sutra in the same manner as the Flower Garland school, people would not be likely to pay much heed to his words. He consequently gave a new twist to the Flower Garland doctrine,¹¹⁰ declaring that his argument represented the true intent of the Mahāvairochana Sutra, Mind Aspiring for Enlightenment by Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna, and Shan-wu-wei, thus bolstering his position with absurd falsehoods. And yet the followers of the Tendai school failed to speak out strongly against him.

Question: In his Treatise on the Ten Stages of the Mind, The Precious Key to the Secret Treasury, and A Comparison of Exoteric and Esoteric Buddhism, the Great Teacher Kōbō makes such statements as: “Each vehicle that is put forward is claimed to be the vehicle of Buddhahood, but when examined from a later stage, they are all seen to be mere childish theory”;¹¹¹ “[Shakyamuni Buddha] is in the region of darkness, not in the position of enlightenment”;¹¹² “[The various exoteric Mahayana sutras such as the Lotus Sutra] are comparable to the fourth flavor, that of butter”;¹¹³ and “The Buddhist teachers of China vied with one another to steal the ghee [or True Word] and claim that it is the possession of their own school.”¹¹⁴ What are we to make of such statements put forth in these commentaries?

Answer: I have been greatly astonished at the statements in these commentaries and have accordingly searched through the various sutras, including the three attributed to the Thus Come One Mahāvairochana. But I do not find a single word or phrase in the sutras to indicate that, in comparison to the Flower Garland and Mahāvairochana sutras, the Lotus Sutra is mere “childish theory,” that with regard to the Six Pāramitās Sutra T’ien-t’ai acted as a thief, or that the Protection Sutra describes Shakyamuni Buddha as being “in the region of darkness.” These are all utterly ridiculous assertions. And yet for the past three hundred or four hundred years, a sufficiently large number of intelligent persons in Japan accepted them, so that they have now come to be looked upon as perfectly reasonable and well founded. I would like for a moment, therefore, to discuss some of the more patently false opinions put forth by Kōbō and point out other absurdities in his thinking.

It was during the period of the Ch’en and Sui dynasties that the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai likened the Lotus Sutra to ghee, the finest flavor. It was [some two hundred years] later, in the middle years of the T’ang dynasty, that the Tripitaka Master Prajnā¹¹⁵ translated the Six Pāramitās Sutra and introduced it to China. Only if the Six Pāramitās Sutra—which compares the dharani teachings to ghee—had existed in China during the Ch’en and Sui dynasties would it make any sense to claim that the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai “stole the ghee of the True Word teachings.”

A similar example exists in the case of the priest Tokuitsu of Japan. He bitterly criticized the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai for rejecting the doctrine of the teachings of the three periods that is set forth in the Profound Secrets Sutra, declaring that T’ien-t’ai had used his three-inch tongue to destroy the Buddha’s five-foot body.¹¹⁶ The Great Teacher Dengyō in turn attacked Tokuitsu, pointing out that the Profound Secrets Sutra was first introduced to China by Hsüan-tsang in the early decades of the T’ang dynasty. In other words, it was brought to the country a number of years after T’ien-t’ai Chih-che, who lived during the Ch’en and Sui, had already passed away. How then could he have rejected a doctrine that was not introduced to China until the period after his passing? Faced with such an argument, not only was Tokuitsu reduced to silence, but his tongue broke into eight pieces, and he died.

But this is nothing compared to the evil accusations made by Kōbō. In his writings he labels as thieves Fa-tsang of the Flower Garland school, Chia-hsiang of the Three Treatises, Hsüan-tsang of the Dharma Characteristics, and T’ien-t’ai, as well as other various Buddhist leaders of northern and southern China, and in fact all the Tripitaka masters and Buddhist teachers who have lived since the time when Buddhism was first introduced to China in the Later Han.

In addition, it should be noted that likening the Lotus Sutra to ghee was by no means a comparison invented by T’ien-t’ai on his own initiative. The Buddha himself said in the Nirvana Sutra that the Lotus Sutra is like ghee, and later Bodhisattva Vasubandhu wrote that the Lotus Sutra and the Nirvana Sutra are comparable to ghee.¹¹⁷ And Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna terms the Lotus Sutra a “wonderful medicine.”¹¹⁸ So if one who compares the Lotus Sutra to ghee is a thief, then are not Shakyamuni, Many Treasures, the Buddhas of the ten directions, Nāgārjuna, and Vasubandhu thieves?

Though Kōbō’s disciples and the True Word priests of Tō-ji temple in Japan may be so poor-sighted that they cannot distinguish black from white with their own eyes, they should trust the sight of others¹¹⁹ and recognize the misfortunes invited by their own faults. Moreover, where are the precise passages in the Mahāvairochana and Diamond Crown sutras that refer to the Lotus Sutra as a “childish theory”? Let them produce them! Even if these sutras should perhaps refer to the Lotus Sutra in those terms, it may quite possibly be an error in translation. Such matters should be examined with great care and attention before they are put forward.

We are told that Confucius thought nine times before saying one word, and that Tan, the Duke of Chou, would bind up his hair three times in the course of washing it and spit out his food three times in the course of a meal [in order not to keep callers waiting].¹²⁰ Thus we see that, even among the men depicted in the non-Buddhist writings who studied ephemeral, worldly affairs, those who were wise proceeded with great caution. How then can men like Kōbō be so careless and shallow in judgment in matters pertaining to the Law?

Notes

109. Kōbō went to China in 804. Dengyō sailed to China in the same fleet, though on a different ship.

110. The Flower Garland school adopts a comparative classification called the “ten doctrines,” ranking the Flower Garland teachings in the tenth and highest place, and the Lotus Sutra in the ninth. Kōbō, imitating the “ten doctrines,” formulated the “ten stages of the mind.” The tenth stage is the stage of the realization of esoteric truth, that is, Buddhahood. Kōbō asserted that only the True Word school’s teachings correspond to this stage and relegated the Flower Garland and Tendai doctrines to the ninth and eighth stages, respectively.

111. Precious Key to the Secret Treasury. This statement implies that each of the many schools claims to be the vehicle of Buddhahood, but that their doctrines prove to be shallow when compared with the doctrine of the True Word school.

112. Ibid. This statement represents a comparison of Shakyamuni Buddha and Mahāvairochana Buddha.

113. Exoteric and Esoteric. On the basis of the Six Pāramitās Sutra, Kōbō divided all the Buddhist teachings into five categories, which he compared to the five flavors of fresh milk, cream, curdled milk, butter, and ghee. He likened the Mahayana sutras, including the Lotus Sutra, to the fourth flavor, butter, and the True Word teachings, to ghee, the finest flavor.

114. Ibid. Kōbō especially slanders T’ien-t’ai, who set forth “the five periods and eight teachings” and compared the period of the Lotus and the Nirvana sutras to the finest flavor of ghee. Kōbō on this basis accused T’ien-t’ai of stealing the True Word doctrine.

115. Prajnā (Chin Pan-jo) was a native of Kashmir who arrived in Canton in 781 and in Ch’ang-an in 790. He translated a large number of works, including the Six Pāramitās Sutra.

116. The Dharma Characteristics priest Tokuitsu’s condemnation is cited in Dengyō’s Essay on the Protection of the Nation. Dengyō’s rebuttal also appears in the same work.

117. Treatise on the Lotus Sutra.

118. Great Perfection of Wisdom.

119. “Others” refers to Shakyamuni, Nāgārjuna, Vasubandhu, and others who compared the Lotus Sutra to ghee.

120. These anecdotes are mentioned in Records of the Historian. Tan, the Duke of Chou, was a younger brother of Emperor Wu of the Chou dynasty. He implemented a number of reforms in state affairs and established a firm foundation for the dynasty. He was so eager to find able persons and anxious not to overlook anyone that he would receive visitors even while washing his hair or during the course of a meal. The Daishonin cites this example to explain the importance of being conscientious.