The Actions of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra

Chapter9(The Tsukahara Debate and the Calamity of Internal Strife)

Main Text

In the yard around the hut the snow piled deeper and deeper. No one came to see me; my only visitor was the piercing wind. Great Concentration and Insight and the Lotus Sutra lay open before my eyes, and Nam-myoho-renge-kyo flowed from my lips. My evenings passed in discourse to the moon and stars on the fallacies of the various schools and the profound meaning of the Lotus Sutra. Thus, one year gave way to the next.

One finds people of mean spirit wherever one goes. The rumor reached me that the observers of the precepts and the Nembutsu priests on the island of Sado, including Yuiamidabutsu, Shōyu-bō, Inshō-bō, Jidō-bō, and their followers—several hundred of them—had met to decide what to do about me. One said: “Nichiren, the notorious enemy of Amida Buddha and an evil teacher to all people, has been exiled to our province. As we all know, exiles to this island seldom manage to survive. Even if they do, they never return home. So no one is going to be punished for killing an exile. Nichiren lives all alone at a place called Tsukahara. No matter how strong and powerful he is, if there’s no one around, what can he do? Let’s go together and shoot him with arrows!” Another said, “He was supposed to be beheaded, but his execution has been postponed for a while because the wife of the lord of Sagami is about to have a child. The postponement is merely temporary, though. I hear he is eventually going to be executed.” A third said, “Let’s ask Lord Rokurō Saemon to behead him. If he refuses, we can plan something ourselves.” There were many proposals about what to do with me, but the third proposal [mentioned above] was decided on. Eventually several hundred people gathered at the constable’s office.²⁰

Rokurō Saemon addressed them, saying: “An official letter from the regent directs that the priest shall not be executed. This is no ordinary, contemptible criminal, and if anything happens to him, I, Shigetsura, will be guilty of grave dereliction. Instead of killing him, why don’t you confront him in religious debate?” Following this suggestion, the Nembutsu and other priests, accompanied by apprentice priests carrying the three Pure Land sutras, Great Concentration and Insight, the True Word sutras, and other literature under their arms or hanging from their necks, gathered at Tsukahara on the sixteenth day of the first month [in 1272]. They came not only from the province of Sado but also from the provinces of Echigo, Etchū, Dewa, Mutsu, and Shinano. Several hundred priests and others gathered in the spacious yard of the hut and in the adjacent field. Rokurō Saemon, his brothers, and his entire clan came, as well as lay priest farmers,²¹ all in great numbers. The Nembutsu priests uttered streams of abuse, the True Word priests turned pale, and the Tendai priests called loudly to vanquish the opponent. The lay believers cried out in hatred, “There he is—the notorious enemy of our Amida Buddha!” The uproar and jeering resounded like thunder and seemed to shake the earth. I let them clamor for a while and then said, “Silence, all of you! You are here for a religious debate. This is no time for abuse.” At this, Rokurō Saemon and others voiced their accord, and some of them grabbed the abusive Nembutsu followers by the neck and pushed them back.

The priests proceeded to cite the doctrines of Great Concentration and Insight and the True Word and the Nembutsu teachings. I responded to each, establishing the exact meaning of what had been said, then coming back with questions. However, I needed to ask only one or two at most before they were completely silenced. They were far inferior even to the True Word, Zen, Nembutsu, and Tendai priests in Kamakura, so you can imagine how the debate went. I overturned them as easily as a sharp sword cutting through a melon or a gale bending the grass. They not only were poorly versed in the Buddhist teachings but contradicted themselves. They confused sutras with treatises or commentaries with treatises. I discredited the Nembutsu by telling how Shan-tao fell out of the willow tree, and refuted the story about the Great Teacher Kōbō’s three-pronged diamond-pounder and of how he transformed himself into the Thus Come One Mahāvairochana.²² As I demonstrated each falsity and aberration, some of the priests swore, some were struck dumb, while others turned pale. There were Nembutsu adherents who admitted the error of their school; some threw away their robes and beads on the spot and pledged never to chant the Nembutsu again.

The members of the group all began to leave, as did Rokurō Saemon and his men. As they were walking across the yard, I called the lord back to make a prophecy. I first asked him when he was departing for Kamakura, and he answered that it would be around the seventh month, after his farmers had finished their work in his fields. Then I said: “For a warrior, ‘work in the fields’ means assisting his lord in times of peril and receiving fiefs in recognition of his service. Fighting is about to break out in Kamakura. You should hasten there to distinguish yourself in battle, and then you will be rewarded with fiefs. Since your warriors are renowned throughout the province of Sagami, if you remain here in the countryside tending to your farms and arrive too late for the battle, your name will be disgraced.” I do not know what he thought of this, but Homma, dumbfounded, did not utter a word. The Nembutsu priests and the observers of the precepts and lay believers looked bewildered, not comprehending what I had said.

Notes

20. The constable of Sado Province was Hōjō Nobutoki, the lord of Musashi Province, who lived in Kamakura. Homma Rokurō Saemon, the steward of Niiho in Sado, served in the office as the deputy constable of the province.

21. Lay priest farmers were individuals who, though they take religious vows, do not enter a temple but continue to farm and live in their own homes.

22. The Chinese Pure Land leader Shan-tao (613–681) was said to have so earnestly desired rebirth in the Pure Land that he attempted to hang himself on a willow tree, but instead fell out of the tree and mortally injured himself. According to legend, when Kōbō was about to leave China to return to Japan, he threw his three-pronged diamond-pounder in the air; it was later found on top of Mount Kōya in Japan. On another occasion, when he was debating with eminent Buddhist leaders at court, he is said to have transformed himself into Mahāvairochana Buddha, the Buddha revered by the True Word school.

Lecture

This chapter illustrates the famous “Tsukahara Debate” and the Daishonin’s prophecy concerning the “persecution of internal strife.”

Upon learning that “Nichiren, the arch-enemy of Amida Buddha and a person of evil influence to all living beings,” had been exiled to Sado, hundreds of Nembutsu priests and observers in the province became incensed, shouting that he must not be allowed to live. However, Honma Rokuro Saemon cautioned them, saying, “I have strict orders from the authorities. You must not harm him physically. Instead, confront him with your doctrines.” Thus, they gathered to engage in a religious debate. Not only from Sado, but from vast regions—Echigo, Etchu, Dewa, Oshu, and Shinano—priests of various sects descended upon him. The scale of this gathering proves how far Nichiren Daishonin’s name had already resonated throughout Japan.

Overwhelming and defeating hundreds of hostile and hateful opponents in debate is a feat of extreme difficulty. In this victory, we cannot help but marvel at the Daishonin’s immense life-force as the True Buddha.

Furthermore, as the priests were departing, the Daishonin called out to Honma Rokuro Saemon and clearly prophesied the “persecution of internal strife,” commonly known as the “February Rebellion.” Remarkably, this prophecy was fulfilled within less than a month. Despite being in exile and cut off from all information, the Daishonin observed the true aspect of heaven and earth. This wisdom of the “Buddha of the Self-Enjoyment Body” (jiseuyu hoshin) is nothing other than the “immovable wisdom of the void” (koku fudo-e) inherent in life. His overwhelming life-force during the debate was the manifestation of the “Manifested Body” (musa ojin), and his survival in the freezing cold of Sado without sufficient food, clothing, or shelter fully demonstrated the “Dharma Body” (musa hosshin).

Thus, the Daishonin’s conduct as the “Object of Devotion in terms of the Person,” embodying “three thousand realms in a single moment of life” (ichinen sanzen) through actual practice, was clearly manifested to the world at the beginning of his Sado exile.

“Scanning the Great Concentration and Insight and the Lotus Sutra with his eyes, while chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with his mouth”

This is a vital piece of documentary evidence showing that while Nichiren Daishonin read the Lotus Sutra from a scholarly standpoint, his actual practice was the chanting of Daimoku, rather than the recitation of the entire Lotus Sutra.

High Priest Nikkan refuted the erroneous views of the Minobu sect and others who, contrary to the Daishonin’s intent, emphasized the recitation of the entire sutra. In his work The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings Concerning the Essential Meaning of the Lotus Sutra (Mappo Sosho Sho), he quotes the Daishonin:

“Great Concentration and Insight and the Lotus Sutra lay open before my eyes, and Nam-myoho-renge-kyo flowed from my lips.“

Those who blindly cling to the recitation of the entire Lotus Sutra without understanding the essence of the Daishonin’s Buddhism do so because they are ignorant of the immense power of the Gohonzon.

What, then, is the Buddhist practice that accords with the Daishonin’s true intent? For us in the Latter Day of the Law, there are two aspects: the Primary Practice and the Auxiliary Practice. The Auxiliary Practice consists of reciting the Hoben (2nd) and Juryo (16th) chapters from the standpoint of “discarding the transient and using the essential.” The Primary Practice is the chanting of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, the Law of Ichinen Sanzen hidden in the depths of the text. Even these two key chapters are used only to aid and manifest the profound benefit of the Primary Practice.

The fact that the Daishonin’s copy of the Lotus Sutra was worn and soiled by his hands was not due to constant recitation, but because he used it for study and preaching. Even in study, the true intent remained the five characters of the Daimoku; the Lotus Sutra served as “supporting evidence.”

“Nichiren shall state a wonder”

On the 16th day of the 1st month, 1272, in Sado, Nichiren Daishonin prophesied the “persecution of internal strife” to Honma Rokuro Saemon. On the 11th day of the 2nd month, actual battle broke out. This was the “February Rebellion,” a conspiracy involving Hojo Tokisuke, the elder half-brother of the Regent Hojo Tokimune.

Because Tokisuke was not the son of the main wife, the leadership of the clan had gone to his younger brother, Tokimune. Harboring resentment, Tokisuke’s plot for rebellion was discovered, leading to a clash. Although the conflict was eventually suppressed, the sight of the Regent and his brother fighting so uglily reflected the state of society—the people’s hearts were shaken, and chaos escalated.

Honma, far removed from Kamakura and separated by the sea, had no inkling of such military conflict. He had been leisurely planning for the farming season in the 7th month. When the Daishonin’s prophecy was fulfilled with such accuracy, striking at the very foundation of the Shogunate, Honma was utterly astounded and began to feel a sense of awe toward the Daishonin.

This “wonder” was not based on the spells or supernatural powers used by ordinary fortune-tellers or exorcists. As indicated in the Rissho Ankoku Ron (On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land) submitted to Hojo Tokiyori in 1260, this prophecy was based on a rigorous penetration of Buddhist philosophy. Buddhism is a “Great Philosophy of Life” and a “Science of Life” that fully explains the life of the vast universe. Thus, the True Buddha’s profound insight was proven as a flawless prophecy.

In the Letter to the Sage Nichimyo, written from Sado in the 5th month of 1272, the Daishonin describes the social climate:

“From Kamakura in Sagami Province to the northern province of Sado is a journey of more than a thousand ri over treacherous mountains and raging seas. There are sudden onslaughts of wind and rain, bandits lurk in the mountains, and pirates lie in wait on the sea. The people at every stage and every post town are as bestial as dogs or tigers, and you must have felt as though you were undergoing the sufferings of the three evil paths in this life. Moreover, we live in troubled times. Since last year rebels have filled our country, and finally, on the eleventh day of the second month of this year, a battle broke out. It is now almost the end of the fifth month, but society has not yet been restored to peace and security.” (WND-1, p. 325 / GZ, p.1217)

Through his travels and the reports brought by his visiting disciples, the Daishonin saw that society was deteriorating exactly as he had warned. Of the seven disasters, only one remained: “the disaster of invasion from foreign lands.”

In The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings (Ongi Kuden), the Daishonin states:

” The varied sufferings that all living beings undergo—all these are Nichiren’s own sufferings.” (OTT, p.138, GZ, p.758)

Because of this great compassion and sense of responsibility to lead the suffering masses to happiness and prosperity, the Daishonin carried out the “Great Shakubuku” (great refutation) without a moment’s rest, even in the midst of severe persecution. Herein lies the true essence of Nichiren Daishonin’s prophecy.