The Attainment of Buddhahoodin Principle and in Its Actual Aspect Chapter2
Some scholars in society think that the doctrine of attaining Buddhahood in one’s present form as set forth by the True Word school is supreme because the anointment ceremony that confers the status of enlightenment on bodhisattvas of the specific teaching is based on the three True Word sutras, such as the Mahāvairochana Sutra, which are included in the four flavors and three teachings preached by Shakyamuni. Actually this practice merely leads a bodhisattva in the ten stages of devotion, one of the seven groups of bodhisattva stages,1 to move on to the next stage, the stage of joy. In no way is it the doctrine of the attainment of Buddhahood in one’s present form revealed in the perfect teaching.
Even if they should insist that the doctrine is found in the True Word sutras, they would be doing no more than discussing a benefit gained from the practice at the stage of joy. This is little more than a practice carried out as a cause of enlightenment by bodhisattvas at the ten stages of development, but those at the ten stages of development or at the stage of near-perfect enlightenment know nothing at all about the state of Buddhahood. If I discuss the matter from a stricter viewpoint, that of the perfect teaching, it is no different than the state of life in each instant that abides at the two stages of hearing the name and words of the truth, and of perception and action, which are a part of the six stages of practice. And if I view it leniently, it would be the state of the fusion of practice and principle contained in the stage of perception and action. But this by no means compares with the state in the stage of perception and action where the principle and wisdom correspond. And even if the text of The Treatise on the Mind Aspiring for Enlightenment is referred to, or even if the words of the three sutras such as the Mahāvairochana are relied upon, it is still anything but the attainment of Buddhahood in one’s present form. It is a doctrine that fails to measure up even to the stage where one in one’s present body perceives the non-birth and non-extinction of all phenomena.
Nonetheless, people in society are taken in by the passage in Mind Aspiring for Enlightenment that asserts that “only in the True Word teachings [can one attain Buddhahood in one’s present form].” They are convinced that the attainment of Buddhahood in one’s present form is unique to the True Word school. Because of this, they call the Lotus Sutra, which sets forth the correct doctrine on the attainment of Buddhahood in one’s present form, mere “childish theory.”2 This is what the fifth volume of Great Concentration and Insight is referring to when it says, “Even those who turn their backs on the world amuse themselves with an inferior vehicle, clinging to mere branches and leaves. They are like dogs that tag after the servants. They pay honor to apes and monkeys, considering them like the god Shakra; they revere shards and rubble, looking on them as bright gems. With such ignorant and benighted persons, how can one discuss the way?”
It is lamentable indeed. The scholars of the Flower Garland, True Word, and Dharma Characteristics schools are merely wasting their time trying to establish a doctrine of attaining Buddhahood in one’s present form.
Background
Nichiren Daishonin wrote this letter on the fifth day of the tenth month in 1280 at Minobu in answer to a question posed by Myōichi-nyo. Three months earlier he had written an answer to a related question from her, and now he praises her for asking questions “again and again” about the doctrine of attaining Buddhahood in one’s present form. In this letter the Daishonin emphasizes first the vital importance of this doctrine for believers in his teaching, and second, that the true doctrine of attaining Buddhahood in one’s present form is found in the Lotus Sutra alone. In the Lotus, he says, the doctrine is set forth both in principle, in the theoretical teaching, and in its actual aspect, in the essential teaching. Further, he explains, the time to spread Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, the heart of the essential teaching, is now, the Latter Day of the Law. He points to statements by the Great Teachers T’ien-t’ai and Dengyō showing that, in addition to Nāgārjuna and Vasubandhu, they too understood that the heart of the essential teaching, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, would be spread in the Latter Day and that they longed for this time.
Notes
1. “The seven groups of bodhisattva stages” refers to the seven groups of fifty-two stages of bodhisattva practice—ten stages of faith, ten stages of security, ten stages of practice, ten stages of devotion, ten stages of development, the stage of near-perfect enlightenment, and the stage of perfect enlightenment. “The stage of joy” mentioned next in the text is the first of the ten stages of development. It is the stage in which one rejoices at realizing a partial aspect of the truth.
2. The Precious Key to the Secret Treasury, a work by Kōbō, the founder of the True Word school.