The Doctrine of Three Thousand Realms in a Single Moment of Life

Background

WHY is the Lotus Sutra superior to all other sutras? Because this sutra contains the doctrines of threefold contemplation in a single mind and three thousand realms in a single moment of life.

The bodhisattva Medicine King appeared in the world in the land of China, going by the name of the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai, and gained enlightenment into these doctrines. But although he set forth many different doctrines in such works as The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra in ten volumes, The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra in ten volumes, The Mind-Perceiving Meditation, The Essentials of Concentration and Insight, commentaries on the Vimalakīrti Sutra, The Four Meditations, and The Teaching of the Practice of Meditation, he did not in these works expound the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life, but merely discussed the doctrines relating to the hundred worlds and the thousand factors.

Then, in the summer of his fifty-seventh year, around the fourth month, at a place called Yü-ch’üan-ssu temple in Ching-chou, he expounded to his disciple, the Great Teacher Chang-an, a work in ten volumes entitled Great Concentration and Insight.

The first four volumes of the work still held back the secret, dealing only with the six stages of practice and the four forms of meditation. But in the fifth volume he expounded the ten objects of meditation, the ten meditations, and the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life, asserting that life at each moment is endowed with all three thousand realms.

Two hundred years later, the Great Teacher Miao-lo stated in his commentary on this work: “You should understand that one’s life and its environment at a single moment encompass the three thousand realms. Therefore, when one attains the Buddha way, one puts oneself in accord with this fundamental principle, and one’s body and mind at a single moment pervade the entire realm of phenomena.”1

These doctrines of three thousand realms in a single moment of life and threefold contemplation in a single mind are based on the ten factors, or ten thusnesses, enumerated in the first volume of the Lotus Sutra, in the passage the heart of which deals with the hundred worlds and thousand factors, and the three thousand realms.

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Therefore living beings whose ears are touched by the daimoku are living beings who will gain merit. And when we speak of all living beings, this category of all living beings includes plants and trees, tiles and pebbles. (Both sentient and insentient things.) Regarding such plants and trees, The Diamond Scalpel states: “A plant, a tree, a pebble, a speck of dust—each has the Buddha nature, and each is endowed with cause and effect and with the function to manifest and the wisdom to realize its Buddha nature.”

And at the beginning of the “Teacher of the Law” chapter of the Lotus Sutra, we read: “[Medicine King, do you see in this great assembly] the immeasurable number of heavenly beings, dragon kings, yakshas, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kimnaras, mahoragas, human and nonhuman beings, as well as monks, nuns . . . ? Upon these various kinds of beings who listen to one verse or one phrase of the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law and for a moment think of it with joy I will bestow on all of them a prophecy that they will attain supreme perfect enlightenment.”

The words “nonhuman beings” refer to all those sentient beings outside the world of human beings who possess a mind. And if they are included, then how much more certain is it that those in the world of human beings are included.

If votaries of the Lotus Sutra carry out religious practice as the sutra directs, then every one of them without exception will surely attain Buddhahood within his or her present lifetime. To cite an analogy, if one plants the fields in spring and summer, then, whether it be early or late, one is certain to reap a harvest within the year.

Votaries of the Lotus Sutra fall into three categories, superior, middling, and inferior, depending upon their capacities, and yet all will invariably attain enlightenment within a single lifetime. Thus the first volume of Profound Meaning states: “Whether of superior, middling, or inferior capacity, all will be given a prophecy of the attainment of Buddhahood.”

Those who seek to attain Buddhahood solely through the contemplation of the mind are following a one-sided approach. And how much truer is this of those who practice the Zen style of seated meditation and speak of a “separate transmission outside the sutras.”

In the “Teacher of the Law” chapter of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha states: “Medicine King, though there may be many persons, those still living in the household and those who have left it, who practice the way of the bodhisattva, if they are not willing to see, hear, read, recite, copy, embrace, and offer alms to this Lotus Sutra, then you should know that such persons are not yet practicing the bodhisattva way in a fitting manner. But if there are those who will listen to this sutra, then they are capable of practicing the bodhisattva way in a fitting manner.”

If the sutra meant that one could attain Buddhahood through contemplation of the mind alone, then why would it speak of “seeing, hearing, reading, reciting”? This sutra makes “hearing” the sole basis of practice.

In this sutra, the Lotus, evil persons, women, persons of the two vehicles, and icchantikas are not discriminated against. Thus, as the sutra says, “all attain the Buddha way.”18 This is also known as the great wisdom of equality.

Once one has heard the sutra teaching that good and evil are not two, that correct and erroneous are as one, then one gains inner enlightenment and attains Buddhahood. Therefore this is called the attainment of Buddhahood in one’s present form. And because one gains enlightenment in a single lifetime, it is called perfect enlightenment in one lifetime.

Though there may be persons who are unaware of the principle involved, if they chant the daimoku, they will experience the joy that can only be shared between Buddhas. This is what the sutra means when it says, “I will surely rejoice and so will the other Buddhas.”19

Though one may possess medicine blended from hundreds and thousands of ingredients, if one does not drink it, one’s illness will never be cured. Though one may have riches in one’s storehouse, if one does not know enough to open the storehouse, one may go hungry; and though one may have medicine in the breast of one’s robe, if one does not know enough to drink it, one may die. And this is also true of the benefits of this Lotus Sutra, which are like those of the wish-granting jewel described in the “Five Hundred Disciples” chapter.

If, along with contemplation of the mind, one recites the sutra, then of course one will gain these benefits. And even without practicing meditation, as I explained earlier, when one recites the words “This reality consists of zesōnyo (this appearance is thus) . . . ,” the word “thus” represents the principle of non-substantiality. Therefore the non-substantiality of the appearance, nature, entity, power, and so forth acquired by one’s life through the karma of past existences, and of the eighty-eight types of illusions of thought and eighty-one kinds of illusions of desire inherent in them—the non-substantiality of all these is the Thus Come One of the reward body.

When one recites the words “This reality consists of nyozesō (“thus appearance,” or appearance like this) . . . ,” this is the principle of temporary existence. Therefore the appearance, nature, entity, power, and so forth acquired by one’s life through the karma of past existences, along with the illusions innumerable as particles of dust and sand inherent in them—all these are the Thus Come One of the manifested body.

And when one recites the words “This reality consists of sōnyoze (appearance is thus) . . . ,” this is the principle of the Middle Way. Accordingly, the appearance, nature, and so forth acquired by one’s life through karma, as all the illusions about the true nature of life inherent in them are swept away, are opened up as none other than the Thus Come One of the Dharma body.

When the passage on the ten factors is given these three different readings, this represents the principle of the three bodies in a single body, the single body that comprises the three bodies. Though divided into three, they are truly one; though posited as one, they are at the same time three.

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Background

Nichiren Daishonin wrote The Doctrine of Three Thousand Realms in a Single Moment of Life in 1258. Earlier the same year he had written The Meaning of the Sacred Teachings of the Buddha’s Lifetime, in which he said, “I will discuss the principle of three thousand realms in a single moment of life in more detail on another occasion” (p. 63). Subsequently, he produced On the Principle of Three Thousand Realms in a Single Moment of Life, On the Ten Factors, and this work; taken together, they address the three thousand realms in a single moment of life from a broad perspective and in considerable detail.

p.90Japan’s Tendai school by the Daishonin’s time had distorted the doctrines of T’ien-t’ai, which Dengyō employed as the basis of the school he founded. Some Tendai priests held the following view: the practice of meditation advocated by T’ien-t’ai mainly in his work Great Concentration and Insight—that of observing, or contemplating, the mind—is superior to the practice of either the theoretical teaching or the essential teaching of the Lotus Sutra; therefore one should reject the practice of the Lotus Sutra and carry out only the practice of mind-contemplation. On the other hand, the adherents of the Zen school, founded in China by Bodhidharma and growing in popularity in Japan at this time, exclusively advocated seated Zen meditation. As a practice, the Zen teachers claimed, this surpassed even the meditation set forth by T’ien-t’ai.

With the growing influence of these views, the Daishonin saw a need to refute, based on a correct understanding of T’ien-t’ai’s teachings, the erroneous opinion that meditation alone constitutes the path to Buddhahood.

The Daishonin begins by declaring that what makes the Lotus Sutra superior to the other sutras is the fact that it contains two teachings in particular: the threefold contemplation in a single mind, and the principle of three thousand realms in a single moment of life.

He points out that the principle of three thousand realms is based upon the ten factors, also translated as the ten thusnesses, set forth in the “Expedient Means” (2nd) chapter of the Lotus Sutra. He introduces three ways to read these ten factors, connecting each factor to its accompanying term “thus” or “like this” (Jpn nyoze) in three different ways.

These three readings, he says, correspond to the three virtues of the Buddha (the Dharma body, wisdom, and emancipation), to the three truths (non-substantiality, temporary existence, and the Middle Way), and to the three bodies (the reward body, the manifested body, and the Dharma body) that together constitute the one body of the Thus Come One of original enlightenment. The significance of these three readings is that one’s own body is one and identical with the three bodies that are the one body of the Thus Come One, or the Buddha.

In addition, he states that the principle of the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds corresponds to the truth of temporary existence, the principle of the thousand factors to the truth of non-substantiality, and the three thousand realms to the truth of the Middle Way. He also describes the ten factors as indicating that there is no distinction between the Buddha and ordinary people, and that the relationship between the two is like that of parent and child. The Buddha, he says, is like the child to whom ordinary people give birth.

Addressing the question of whether one can attain Buddhahood through meditation alone, he says, “The fact is that the meditation on three thousand realms in a single moment of life and the method of meditation known as threefold contemplation in a single mind are contained within the five characters Myoho-renge-kyo,” and that the chanting of Myoho-renge-kyo is the essential practice for attaining Buddhahood.

He goes on to refute the erroneous assertion made by Tendai scholars and Zen priests that meditation is the correct Buddhist practice. In this regard, he says, “This sahā world is a land in which one gains the way through the faculty of hearing,” thereby clarifying the Lotus Sutra’s emphasis on “hearing the Law.” Moreover, he says, from the standpoint of the Lotus Sutra, which states that “all living beings” can attain Buddhahood, the words “all living p.91beings” include all things, sentient or insentient, alive or dead. If this is true, then surely people who practice as the sutra teaches are certain to attain Buddhahood in this lifetime. The Daishonin closes by emphasizing again the significance of the three different readings of the ten factors.

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Notes

1. The Annotations on “Great Concentration and Insight.”

17. Lotus Sutra, chap. 2.

18. Ibid.

19. Ibid., chap. 11.

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