The Letter of Petition from Yorimoto

Chapter2(The Kuwagayatsu Debate (1): Refuting the Errors of the Various Schools)

In any event, during his sermon, Ryūzō-bō said, “If anyone among you has a question about the Buddhist teachings, please do not hesitate to ask.” Thereupon Sammi-kō, the disciple of the priest Nichiren, raised the following question: “That death is inevitable from the time of birth is certainly no cause for surprise; in addition, especially in recent times, countless people in Japan have perished in calamities. No one can fail to realize this transience, which lies before our very eyes. Under these circumstances I heard that you, a respected priest, had come from Kyoto to dispel the doubts of the people, so I came to listen. I was feeling hesitant, thinking it rude to ask a question in the middle of your sermon, so I am happy that you have invited anyone who has doubts to speak freely.

“What puzzles me first of all is this: I am a lowly person, born in the Latter Day of the Law in a remote land [far from the birthplace of Buddhism]. Yet fortunately Buddhism, which originated in India, has already been introduced to this country. One should embrace it by all means. However, the sutras amount to no less than five thousand or seven thousand volumes. Since they are the teachings of a single Buddha, they must essentially be one sutra. But Buddhism is divided into eight schools, if one includes Flower Garland and True Word, or ten schools, if one includes Pure Land and Zen. Although these schools represent different gates of entry, I would presume that their truth must ultimately be one.

“However, the Great Teacher Kōbō, the founder of the True Word school in Japan, said, ‘The Lotus Sutra, when compared with the Flower Garland and Mahāvairochana sutras, not only represents a different gate but is a doctrine of childish theory, and the Buddha who expounded it is still in the region of darkness.’³ He also stated, ‘The Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai of the Lotus school and others vied with one another to steal the ghee [of the True Word school].’ The Great Teacher Tz’u-en, the founder of the Dharma Characteristics school, said, ‘The Lotus Sutra is an expedient means while the Profound Secrets Sutra represents the truth; those sentient beings without the nature of enlightenment can never attain Buddhahood.’⁴

“Ch’eng-kuan of the Flower Garland school said, ‘The Flower Garland Sutra represents the root teaching, and the Lotus Sutra, the branch teachings.’⁵ He also said, ‘The Flower Garland Sutra is the teaching of enlightenment for the people of the sudden teaching, and the Lotus Sutra, the teaching of enlightenment for the people of the gradual teaching.’⁶ The Great Teacher Chia-hsiang of the Three Treatises school said, ‘Of all the Mahayana sutras, the Wisdom sutras are supreme.’ The Reverend Shan-tao of the Pure Land school said, ‘[If people practice the Nembutsu continuously until the end of their lives,] then ten persons out of ten and a hundred persons out of a hundred will be reborn in the Pure Land. . . . However, not even one person in a thousand can be reborn there’⁷ through the Lotus and other sutras. The Honorable Hōnen urged people to ‘discard, close, ignore, and abandon’ the Lotus Sutra in favor of the Nembutsu, and also likened the votaries of the Lotus Sutra to ‘a band of robbers.’⁸ And the Zen school declares itself to represent ‘a separate transmission outside the sutras, independent of words or writing.’⁹

“Shakyamuni, the lord of teachings, said of the Lotus Sutra, ‘The World-Honored One has long expounded his doctrines and now must reveal the truth.’¹⁰ And Many Treasures Buddha declared, ‘The Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law . . . all that you [Shakyamuni] have expounded is the truth!’¹¹ The sutra also states that the Buddhas of the ten directions, who were emanations of Shakyamuni, extended their tongues to the Brahmā heaven.¹²

“The Great Teacher Kōbō wrote that the Lotus Sutra is a doctrine of childish theory. Yet Shakyamuni Buddha, Many Treasures Buddha, and the Buddhas of the ten directions unanimously declared that all its teachings are true. Which of all these statements are we to believe?

“The Reverend Shan-tao and the Honorable Hōnen said of the Lotus Sutra that not even one person in a thousand can be saved by it, and that one should ‘discard, close, ignore, and abandon’ it. However, Shakyamuni Buddha, Many Treasures Buddha, and the Buddhas of the ten directions who are emanations of Shakyamuni assert that, of those who hear the Lotus Sutra, ‘not a one will fail to attain Buddhahood,’¹³ and that all will achieve the Buddha way. Shakyamuni, Many Treasures, and all the other Buddhas are in their statements as far apart from the Reverend Shan-tao and the Honorable Hōnen as fire and water, or clouds and mud.

“Which of them are we to believe? Which are we to reject?

“In particular, of the forty-eight vows of the monk Dharma Treasury mentioned in the Two-Volumed Sutra, which both Shan-tao and Hōnen revere, the eighteenth one states that, if he attains Buddhahood, only those who commit the five cardinal sins and those who slander the correct teaching will be excluded [from salvation]. Surely this means that, even if Amida Buddha’s original vow is true and enables one to attain rebirth in his Pure Land, those who slander the correct teaching are excluded from rebirth in the land of Amida Buddha?

“Now the second volume of the Lotus Sutra reads, ‘If a person fails to have faith [but instead slanders this sutra] . . . When his life comes to an end he will enter the Avīchi hell.’¹⁴ If these scriptural passages are true, then how can Shan-tao and Hōnen, who both regarded the Nembutsu school as representing the essence of Buddhism, escape falling into the great citadel of the Avīchi hell? And if these two priests fall into hell, there can be no doubt that the scholars, disciples, and lay believers who follow in their footsteps will also as a matter of course fall into the evil paths. These are the matters that perplex me. What is your opinion, the Honorable Ryūzō?” In this manner, Sammi-kō posed his question.

Notes

3. This and the following quotation summarize Kōbō’s views as expressed in his Treatise on the Ten Stages of the Mind, Precious Key to the Secret Treasury, and Comparison of Exoteric and Esoteric Buddhism. Ghee means the finest clarified butter, or the last of the five flavors (milk, cream, curdled milk, butter, and ghee). Ghee is used as a metaphor for the highest of all the sutras.

4. On the basis of the Profound Secrets Sutra, the Dharma Characteristics school divides people into five categories called the five natures. “Those sentient beings without the nature of enlightenment” is one of these five. See five natures in Glossary.

5. The Flower Garland school divides the perfect teaching, the highest of the five teachings, into the root teaching and the branch teachings, and asserts that the Flower Garland Sutra is the root and the Lotus Sutra, the branches.

6. Views from Ch’eng-kuan’s Profound Discourse on the Flower Garland Teachings. “The sudden teaching” means those teachings in which the Buddha directly expounded his enlightenment without preparatory instruction. “The gradual teaching” means those teachings that the Buddha expounded to gradually elevate the people’s capacity. Ch’eng-kuan asserted that the Flower Garland Sutra represented the perfect teaching within the sudden teaching, and that the Lotus Sutra represented the perfect teaching within the gradual teaching.

7. Views from Shan-tao’s Praising Rebirth in the Pure Land.

8. Views from Hōnen’s Nembutsu Chosen above All.

9. The Zen school asserted that the essence of Buddhism was transmitted from mind to mind, claiming that the Buddha’s enlightenment was transferred in this way to Mahākāshyapa and then to each successive Zen patriarch.

10. Lotus Sutra, chap. 2.

11. Ibid., chap. 11.

12. Ibid., chap. 21.

13. Ibid., chap. 2.

14. Ibid., chap. 3.

Lecture

This chapter describes the questions posed by Sanmi-bo to Ryuzo-bo during the Kuwagayatsu Debate.

Sanmi-bo had been watching for an opportunity to debate Ryuzo-bo. This was because he had traveled all the way to Kuwagayatsu with the intent to refute Ryuzo-bo’s erroneous teachings in front of a gathering crowd, and furthermore, to dispel the illusions of the common people who were bewildered about the Buddhist teachings. Seizing upon Ryuzo-bo’s invitation—”Anyone who has doubts about Buddhism should feel free to ask questions”—Sanmi-bo stepped forward to begin his questioning.

His questions directly addressed the contemporary social crises and the chaotic reality of the religious community at that time. He raised the most crucial and fundamental question for any practitioner: what kind of religion is the correct one to believe in? With this, he sharply demanded Ryuzo-bo’s view.

At that time, society was continuously ravaged by the three calamities and seven disasters, and the number of deaths was increasing dramatically. Witnessing these fatalities right before their eyes, everyone was forced to deeply confront the harsh reality of the impermanence of life. In a world dominated by this sense of impermanence and eschatological angst (the Latter Day of the Law mindset), people’s hearts desperately yearned and waited for the appearance of a great religion—one that, like a powerful sun, could break through the dark night of their lives and society.

In reality, however, the religions that should have served as the foundation for people’s actions and spiritual pillars were in utter chaos, split into eight or ten different schools. Furthermore, each school and sect rejected the others, claiming that their own was the supreme religion and refusing to yield an inch.

Therefore, from the standpoint of a seeker pursuing the Buddhist way, and on behalf of the common people wishing for happiness, Sanmi-bo asked Ryuzo-bo what kind of religion one should believe in to match the capacity of the era of the Latter Day of the Law. Of course, Sanmi-bo himself already knew perfectly well what constituted the correct religion and what constituted a false one. Thus, his true intention was likely to refute the false teacher Ryuzo-bo for the purpose of guiding the entire audience to the Mystic Law.

Sanmi-bo then demonstrated just how vital the choice of religion is by using the example of the Nembutsu (Pure Land) school, which was widely pervasive in society at the time. He warned that, when judged against the Lotus Sutra and even the Sutra of Two Volumes (on which they themselves relied), the founder of the Nembutsu school had undoubtedly fallen into the Avici hell at the end of his life. Consequently, he cautioned, there was no room for doubt that his disciples and lay patrons would follow the exact same principle and fall into the Avici hell as well.

The implications of this question contain a truly vital problem. That is, if someone practices a religion without confirming whether it is genuinely worthy of belief, they are bound to follow the exact same path to ruin as its founder. For instance, it is like boarding a vehicle without checking its destination, only to realize later that it is heading in a completely wrong direction. This represents a strict principle of the Law: even if one enters the world of Buddhism seeking happiness, making an error in the choice of Buddhist teaching will ultimately invite misfortune into one’s life. If a religion is fundamentally mistaken, no matter how earnestly a person lives their life, it will distort their life force and force them to walk a path of unhappiness.

It is just as a ship navigating the vast ocean indispensably requires a compass. Therefore, for human beings, nothing is more essential than seeking out a powerful religion that can serve as an immovable and steadfast axis for their actions.