Condolences on a Deceased Husband Chapter6

Then, in a spirit of doubt, I said to myself, are there really persons in Japan who slander the Lotus Sutra and Shakyamuni Buddha? And I also said, given perhaps that there were a few persons who slander them, the majority might believe in them.

And yet, as I have said, here in Japan everyone constructs halls to Amida Buddha and recites the Nembutsu. And when I search for the source of these practices, I find that they spring from the pronouncements of three men, the Meditation Master Tao-ch’o, the Reverend Shan-tao, and the Honorable Hōnen. They are the originators of the Pure Land school and the teachers of the people of today.

When these three men spread the practice of the Nembutsu, they declared that “not a single person has ever attained Buddhahood”⁸ by practices other than this, that “not even one person in a thousand”⁹ can be saved, and that one should “discard, close, ignore, and abandon”¹⁰ all other teachings. This means that those who put their trust in Amida Buddha should cast aside all other sutras, all other Buddhas, all deities, and address Amida Buddha alone, repeating the words Namu-Amida-butsu [Homage to Amida Buddha].

In particular, these men urge people to abandon the Lotus Sutra and Shakyamuni Buddha. And since that is easy enough to do, first one person and then another, never stopping to consider, does so. First one person goes along with these teachings, then ten thousand do so. Ten thousand do so, and then the whole population, from the ruler and his great ministers on down to the common people, all do so without exception. And thus, contrary to what one might expect, the people in this country of Japan have become enemies of Shakyamuni Buddha and the Lotus Sutra.

Shakyamuni Buddha has declared, “Now this threefold world is all my domain, and the living beings in it are all my children. Now this place is beset by many pains and trials. I am the only person who can rescue and protect others.”¹¹ For this reason, Shakyamuni acts as the sovereign for all the living beings in this country of Japan, as their teacher, and as their parent.

The seven reigns of the heavenly deities, the five reigns of the earthly deities, and the ninety reigns of human rulers of Japan¹²—all these deities and rulers have been followers of Shakyamuni Buddha, to say nothing of the retainers of these deities and rulers. All the land of this present-day country of Japan, its mountains and rivers, its oceans, its plants and trees are all the treasures of Shakyamuni Buddha. There is not a single jot of them that belongs to the Buddhas of other worlds such as Medicine Master or Amida. Moreover, the heavenly deities, the earthly deities, and the ninety reigns of human sovereigns of Japan, along with the common people, the cows and horses, and in fact every living being that is born, is a child of Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings. In addition, the fact that the heavenly and earthly deities, human rulers, and the common people of Japan can make the proper distinctions regarding heaven and earth, water and fire, parents, sovereign, men and women, wives and children, black and white, is due entirely to the fact that Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings, has been their teacher. It is in no way due to the teachings of any of the other Buddhas such as Medicine Master or Amida.

Therefore we owe a great debt of gratitude to this Shakyamuni Buddha, a debt more weighty than the great earth, broader than the sky, and higher than the heavens. When it comes to such a Buddha as this, both sovereigns, ministers, and common people should honor him more highly than they do their own fathers or mothers, should pay him greater reverence than they pay to the gods. And if they do that much, then even if they should commit some grave offense, heaven will protect them and will not cast them aside, and the earth will not display anger toward them.

Nowadays, however, from the ruler on down to the common people, everyone builds Amida halls and enshrines images of Amida Buddha in them as the object of devotion. This is the reason, it seems, why heaven and earth display their anger. Suppose, for example, that persons in this country of Japan should feel themselves attracted to the rulers of China or Koryŏ. If they then proceeded to turn their backs upon the ruler of Japan, they could not expect to escape harm for long. But now all the people in Japan behave in this very manner. They feel themselves attracted to Amida Buddha, the sovereign of the Western Paradise, and this leads them to turn their backs upon Shakyamuni Buddha, the sovereign of their own country. That is the reason, in my opinion, that the gods who protect this country of Japan are moved to anger.

The people of this country give all their thought to fashioning images of Amida Buddha made of gold, silver, or bronze, or making wooden or painted images, and pay reverence to them. When they make copies of the Lotus Sutra or images of Shakyamuni Buddha, these are done merely in sumi ink, or if the statues are of wood, they have no gold leaf on them, and they are placed in crude, grass-thatched buildings. It is as though one were to pay elaborate attention to a perfect stranger, or show great respect for one’s wife and children while neglecting one’s own parents.