Condolences on a Deceased Husband Chapter5

Having realized these things, I made a rough examination of the sutras and treatises, and came to the conclusion that Japan at the present time is in quite a similar situation. Since we are living in a latter age, there are imperfections in the way the affairs of government are conducted and the times are fraught with peril. But in Japan, unlike the case in other countries, the Buddhist teachings are widely propagated and we might suppose that a condition of relative peace and order would prevail. In fact, however, although the Buddhist teachings are widely propagated, we find that the age is one of marked decline and that there are many persons who fall into the evil paths of existence.

The reason is that although in Japan we find more Buddhist halls and pagodas than we would in the lands of India and China, the great majority of these are halls dedicated to Amida. In addition, each family fashions a wooden image of Amida Buddha or makes a painting of him, and each person recites the Nembutsu sixty thousand or eighty thousand times. Moreover, even in the eyes of the most ignorant persons it is considered laudable to abandon all thought of other Buddhas and to fix one’s hopes upon the western region of Amida. Even wise men all agree that such conduct is admirable and join in praising it.

Moreover, in the reign of Emperor Kammu, the fiftieth sovereign, a sage known as the Great Teacher Kōbō was born in Japan. He studied and introduced from China the new and unusual teachings of the True Word school, served as a teacher to Emperors Heizei, Saga, and Junna, and founded the temples of Tō-ji and Mount Kōya. In addition, the sages known as the Great Teacher Jikaku and the Great Teacher Chishō studied and spread abroad the teachings of the same school, propagating them at Mount Hiei and Onjō-ji, until all the temples throughout Japan came to be centers of these same True Word teachings. Even today the True Word doctrines are practiced, bells are tinkled, and prayers are offered up for the courtier and warrior families. This is done by the superintendents in charge of Nikai-dō, Ōmi-dō, and Wakamiya.⁷ Such prayers were relied upon in earlier times, and they are likewise relied upon by the sovereigns of our present age, who look on them as equal in importance to the pillars of a house, to the sun and moon in the heavens, to a bridge across a river or a ship to carry one over the sea.

Again, in the case of the Zen school, observers of the precepts have been appointed to positions of honor in Kenchō-ji and other Zen temples, where they are treated with greater respect than people’s own parents and relied upon more fervently than the gods themselves. As a result, ordinary people all bow their heads before them and join hands in reverent salute.

In an age such as this, we find that for some reason, strange occurrences take place in the heavens, comets trailing across the sky to east and west, or there are prodigies of the earth, the great earth heaving as though it were a ship on the ocean that was encountering fierce winds and was being overturned by huge waves. Strong winds blow, parching the plants and trees, famines occur year after year, plagues and diseases arise month after month, and terrible droughts dry up all the rivers and ponds, the paddies and farm fields.

In this way the three calamities and the seven disasters have continued for several decades on end, and half the people have been wiped out. Those who remain are parted from their parents, their brothers and sisters, or their wives and children, and cry out in voices no less pitiful than those of autumn insects. Family after family has been scattered and destroyed like plants and trees broken down by the snow of winter.

And when we examine the sutras and treatises and ask why these things should happen, we find the Buddha predicting that when people slander the Lotus Sutra and fail to heed his words, the country where this takes place will suffer in this way. And this prediction of the Buddha has been fulfilled without the slightest deviation.