The Actions of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra

Chapter15(Proving Slander of the Lotus Sutra Through the Phase of Death)

Main Text

Many people wonder why anyone should pay heed to a person like myself who speaks ill of Kōbō, Jikaku, and others of their group. I do not know about other regions, but I know that the people everywhere in the province of Awa have good reason to believe what I say. They have seen the proof right before their eyes. Endon-bō of Inomori, Saigyō-bō and Dōgi-bō of Kiyosumi, and Jitchi-bō of Kataumi were all eminent priests; but one should inquire what kind of deaths they met with. However, I will say no more of them. Enchi-bō spent three years in the great hall of Seichō-ji copying the text of the Lotus Sutra in a laborious fashion, bowing three times as he copied each character. He had memorized all ten volumes, and every day and night recited the entire sutra twice for a period of fifty years. Everyone said that he would surely become a Buddha. But I alone said that he, along with Dōgi-bō, was even more certain to fall into the depths of the hell of incessant suffering than were the Nembutsu priests. You would do well to inquire carefully just how these men met death. If it had not been for me, people would have believed that these priests had attained Buddhahood.

You should realize from this that the manner of the death of Kōbō, Jikaku, and the others indicated that a truly miserable fate was in store for them. But their disciples contrived to keep the matter secret, so that even the members of the imperial court never learned of it. Hence these men have been looked up to with increasing reverence in later times. And if there had been no one like me to reveal the truth, they would have gone on being honored in that manner for endless ages to come. The non-Buddhist teacher Ulūka [turned to stone at his death], but eight hundred years later [his errors were brought to light and] the stone melted and turned to water. And in the case of another non-Buddhist teacher, Kapila, a thousand years passed before his faults were brought to light.³⁵

People are able to be born in human form because they have observed the five precepts in a previous existence. And if they continue to observe the five precepts in this life, then the twenty-five benevolent deities will protect them, and Same Birth and Same Name, the two heavenly messengers who have been with each of them since birth on their shoulders, will guard them. So long as they commit no fault, the demons will have no chance to do them harm. And yet in this country of Japan, there are countless people who cry out in misery. We know, too, that the people on the islands of Iki and Tsushima had to suffer at the hands of the Mongols, and what befell the defenders of the Dazaifu. What fault were the people of this country guilty of that they should meet with such a fate? One would surely like to know the answer. One or two of the persons there may have been guilty of evil, but is it possible that all of them could have been?

The blame lies entirely in the fact that this country is filled with the disciples of those who despised the Lotus Sutra—True Word priests who follow the doctrines handed down from Kōbō, Jikaku, and Chishō; Nembutsu priests who are latter-day disciples of Shan-tao and Hōnen; and the followers of Bodhidharma and the other patriarchs of the Zen school. That is why Brahmā, Shakra, the four heavenly kings, and the other deities, true to the vows they took when the Lotus Sutra was expounded to split into seven pieces the head [of anyone who troubles a preacher of the sutra],³⁶ have sent down this punishment.

Notes

35. Kapila was the founder of the Sāmkhya school, one of the six main schools of Brahmanism in India. According to The Annotations on “Great Concentration and Insight,” he transformed himself into a stone because he was afraid of death. But when Bodhisattva Dignāga wrote a verse of admiration on the stone, it cracked into pieces, thereby revealing the falsity of Kapila’s teachings a thousand years after his death.

36. Lotus Sutra, chap. 26. It states, “If there are those who fail to heed our spells and trouble and disrupt the preachers of the Law, their heads will split into seven pieces.”

Lecture

“ one should inquire what kind of deaths they met with“

People today, especially the youth, tend not to believe in life after death, and the terror of the Great Avici Hell is likely beyond their imagination. If that is the case, how should we interpret the passage from the “Similitude and Parable” (Hiyu) chapter of the Lotus Sutra, which states: “If a person fails to have faith but instead slanders this sutra, he will immediately destroy all the seeds for becoming a Buddha in this world… When his life comes to an end, he will enter the Avici Hell”?

Certainly, for most people today, the word “Hell” only brings to mind scenes from ancient scrolls—mountains of needles, seas of blood, and swirling Great Flames. This is because established Buddhist schools have treated the concept of Hell as a mere fable or fairy tale, leading the public to believe it as such. Consequently, people do not even perceive the contradiction in the common saying that a deceased person “has become a Buddha” even if they “went to Hell.” Much of the responsibility for this confusion lies with these established religions.

In reality, however, Hell is nothing other than a state of suffering within our own lives. A person writhing in the agony of a severe, karmic disease is, in themselves, a manifestation of Hell. The tragedy of a nation engulfed in war—where the land is scorched, lives are lost, and loved ones are torn away—is Hell itself.

Regarding the question of life after death, limiting the existence of life to this world alone gives rise to various doubts. If life were to emerge and vanish purely by chance, why would there be such vast differences in the abilities, personalities, and physical appearances of individuals? While theories of genetics and environment may offer partial explanations, they fail to clarify why a person is born with specific genes or into a particular environment in the first place.

Buddhism teaches: “If you want to understand the causes that existed in the past, look at the results as they are manifested in the present. And if you want to understand what results will be manifested in the future, look at the causes that exist in the present.” Our current state is a result; we must seek its cause in our past actions (karma). Likewise, our future effects reside in our present causes. Therefore, the “phase of death” (rinju-no-so) is the culmination of the causes made during this lifetime, and it is also the manifestation of the reward or retribution that the life will experience after death.

Thus, in his writing The Importance of the Moment of Death, Nichiren Daishonin emphasizes that the moment of death is the most important matter in Buddhism: ” The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom reads, “Those with a dark complexion at the moment of death will fall into hell.” The Protection Sutra reads, “There are fifteen types of signs that appear at one’s death showing that one will fall into hell. There are eight types of signs showing that one will be reborn in the realm of hungry spirits. There are five types of signs showing that one will be reborn in the realm of animals.” The Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai’s Great Concentration and Insight reads, “The body turning dark represents the darkness of hell.”

Looking back, I have been studying the Buddha’s teachings since I was a boy. And I found myself thinking, “The life of a human being is fleeting. The exhaled breath never waits for the inhaled one. Even dew before the wind is hardly a sufficient metaphor. It is the way of the world that whether one is wise or foolish, old or young, one never knows what will happen to one from one moment to the next. Therefore I should first of all learn about death, and then about other things.””(WND-2, p.759, GZ, p.1404)

Furthermore, in The Teaching, Practice, and Proof, he points out that those who propagated distorted doctrines showed signs of falling into Hell at their death, stating: “Nothing is more certain than actual proof. Look at the sudden death of Shan-wu-wei and the unexpected disaster that beset I-hsing, or how Kōbō and Jikaku died. Could they have met such horrible fates if they were actually votaries of the correct teaching?”(WND-1,p.478, GZ, p.1279)

Nothing is more rigorous than the law of cause and effect. There can be no “bonus” and no deception. Whether one upheld and practiced the Correct Law, or adhered to and performed false teachings—the totality of one’s actions in this life is settled at the moment of death.

When we believe in and accept the Mystic Law (Myoho), and live our entire lives based on it, we can manifest a magnificent state at the moment of death. That state leads directly to absolute happiness throughout the eternal future. Therefore, we should strive vibrantly in our faith for attaining Buddhahood in this lifetime.

Leonardo da Vinci once said: “As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well used brings happy death.” These words eloquently express the meaning of life after death.

Seen in this light, modern people should solemnly observe the reality of the signs at the moment of death, and the “actual proof of general punishment” (sobatsu) brought about by the Mongol invasions—all of which arose from false teachings and false teachers, eventually leading to “the head being broken into seven pieces.” We must treat the gravity of slandering the Lotus Sutra with the utmost seriousness.