Condolences on a Deceased Husband Chapter2
In the Buddha’s Successors Sutra,2 the Buddha describes how his teachings will be handed down in the years following his demise. In this work, the Buddha explains that in the thousand years following his death, the period known as the Former Day of the Law, he will send his envoys one after another to transmit the teachings.
The first of these successors will be the Venerable Mahākāshyapa, who will transmit the doctrine for twenty years. The second will be the Venerable Ānanda, who will transmit it for twenty years. The third will be Shānavāsa, who will transmit it for twenty years, and so on down to the twenty-third successor, the Venerable Āryasimha.
The Buddha, speaking of Shānavāsa, the third successor, made the following prediction. The name Shānavāsa refers to a type of robe. A miraculous event will take place, for this person will be born wearing a robe.
Of the six paths of existence, persons born into the first five, from the realm of hell to that of human beings, are all invariably born naked. Only those who are born into the sixth path, that of heavenly beings, are born wearing a robe. Thus, no matter what kind of sage or worthy person one is destined to be, so long as one is born as a human being, one invariably comes into the world naked. Even Bodhisattva Maitreya, who will succeed Shakyamuni in the future as a Buddha,3 was born in this way, to say nothing of other types of persons.
Despite this fact, however, this man Shānavāsa was born wearing a wonderful robe called shāna. This robe of his was not stained by blood or other impurity. It was like a lotus flower that grows up out of a muddy pond, or the wings of a mandarin duck that are not wet by the water.
Moreover, as Shānavāsa grew older and larger, the robe bit by bit expanded in size. In winter it was thick, in summer thin; in spring it was green in color, but turned white in autumn. Since Shānavāsa was a man of wealth, he lacked for nothing, and in time he came to fulfill all the predictions that the Buddha had made concerning him. Thus he entered the Buddhist Order and became a disciple of the Venerable Ānanda. At that time, this robe that he had been wearing changed into monk’s robes of five-, seven-, and nine-strip widths.
The Buddha explained these wondrous events by saying that innumerable kalpas ago, in the far distant past, this man had been a merchant. In company with five hundred other merchants, he set out by ship upon the great ocean in search of trade. At that time on the seaside there was a man suffering from a grave illness. The man was a pratyekabuddha, a person worthy of high esteem, but perhaps because of some deed in his past, he had fallen victim to illness. His body was emaciated, his mind distracted, and he was covered with filth. The merchant, taking pity on the man, nursed his illness with great care and brought him back to health. Washing away the filth, the merchant placed a robe of coarse plant fiber around the sage.
The latter, moved to joy, said, “You have aided me and covered the shame of my body. I promise you that I will wear this robe in this existence and in existences to come.” Then the man at last entered nirvana.
Because of the merit gained by this act, during countless kalpas in the past, each time that the former merchant was reborn in the realms of human or heavenly beings, this robe was always wrapped around his body and never left him.
In a time to come, explained the Buddha, after he himself has passed away, this man will be reborn as a sage named Shānavāsa and will become the third successor to the teachings. He will build a great temple at Mount Urumanda in the kingdom of Mathurā and will labor for twenty years, converting countless persons and propagating the teachings of the Buddha.
Thus, as the Buddha made clear, all the joys and wondrous events associated with this monk named Shānavāsa came about as a result of this robe that he gave to the sick man.
Background
Nichiren Daishonin, having received from the lay nun Myōhō an offering of an unlined robe, a gift from her elder brother’s wife, and a report about Jirō Hyōe’s recent death, sent this reply to the lay nun. It is dated the sixth day of the ninth month in 1278. The lay nun is thought to have lived in Okamiya in Suruga Province. Her husband had died of an illness in the seventh month of the same year.
The Daishonin begins this letter by expressing his appreciation for the offering and closes it by expressing sympathy for Jirō Hyōe’s wife. Concerning the robe given in offering, he cites the Buddhist story of the monk Shānavāsa, the third in the line of Shakyamuni Buddha’s twenty-three successors, who in a previous existence offered his robe to an ailing sage. Explaining the profound benefit that derived from this offering, the Daishonin speaks of the even greater benefit that will arise from offering a robe to him, the votary of the Lotus Sutra.
Next, he recalls major events of his life dedicated to spreading the Lotus Sutra, beginning with his resolve to grasp the essential doctrines of the various Buddhist schools. He realized that, though people believed any Buddhist teaching could save them from the sufferings of birth and death, “in fact if one approaches the Buddhist teachings and practices them incorrectly, then one is likely to fall into the great pit known as slander of the Law.” Though unaware of the negative consequences of such slander, they suffer them nonetheless.
The Daishonin then addresses the p.780source of this slander, the great support and respect given to the leaders of the Pure Land, True Word, and Zen schools. Because these schools slander the Lotus Sutra, which represents the enlightenment of Shakyamuni Buddha, belief in their teachings has brought about the three calamities and seven disasters. The Daishonin cites the prayers of the misguided True Word priests that resulted in the exile of the Retired Emperor of Oki, and expresses his belief that the same prayers conducted in his time will bring about the destruction of Japan by a neighboring country. Therefore he submitted a petition to the lay priest of Saimyō-ji, or Hōjō Tokiyori, entitled On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land. When his repeated remonstrations went unheeded, however, he left Kamakura to live in seclusion at Minobu.
The Daishonin describes the harsh conditions that beset him at Minobu, where this letter was written, as well as his situation of being estranged from both his home province and the land of his exile where he had gained followers.
He then compares himself with Bodhisattva Never Disparaging, who also spread the Lotus Sutra. While the Daishonin was wounded, condemned to exile, and nearly put to death, the bodhisattva was merely cursed and beaten. The people who persecuted him, the Daishonin says, are doomed to the hell of incessant suffering. In contrast, to have encountered the votary of the Lotus Sutra and presented him with offerings is a cause for great benefit.
Finally, concerning the death of Jirō Hyōe, apparently a Pure Land believer, the Daishonin expresses his sorrow and sympathy for the wife’s loss and endeavors to alleviate her grief.
Notes
2. Also known as A History of the Buddha’s Successors. A record of the twenty-three monks in India said to have successively inherited Shakyamuni Buddha’s teachings and propagated them.
3. Maitreya is said to have been reborn in the Tushita heaven, where he teaches the heavenly beings. He is to reappear in the world 5,670 million years after Shakyamuni Buddha’s death, attain Buddhahood, and save the people in his stead.