Diagram of the Five Periodsof the Buddha’s Lifetime Teachings

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Though they read the Lotus Sutra or carry out True Word practices, these actions are all regarded as supplementary practices. Their primary practice they believe to be the Nembutsu. Can they fail to be regarded as slanderers of the Law?

Background

THE Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom says that Shakyamuni left household life at age nineteen and gained enlightenment at age thirty.

Diagram
Tu-shun
Chih-yen
Fa-tsang
Ch’eng-kuan
Flower Garland Sutra Flower Garland school
provisional Mahayana Precepts, meditation, and wisdom
[preached for] 21 days or 14 days1
Diagram
Dharma Analysis Treasury school
Āgama sutras Precepts, meditation, and wisdom
Hinayana Establishment of Truth school
[preached for] 12 years Precepts, meditation, and wisdom
Precepts school Reverend Ganjin
Precepts, meditation, and wisdom
Diagram
Correct and Equal sutras
provisional Mahayana
Great Collection Sutra
Profound Secrets Sutra Dharma Characteristics school Hsüan-tsang
Tz’u-en
Precepts, meditation, and wisdom
Lankāvatāra Sutra Zen school
Meditation Sutra PureLand school Shan-tao
Two-Volumed Sutra
Amida Sutra
Diamond Crown Sutra True Word school
Mahāvairochana Sutra
Susiddhikara Sutra Precepts, meditation, and wisdom

————————————–～（omitted)～————————————————-

The Great Teacher Dengyō in his work An Essay on the Protection of the Nation states: “None of the students of Buddhism should believe and accept doctrines that are incorrect. Why? Because the place that the teachers of these doctrines fall into in their next existence the disciples will likewise fall into, and the lay supporters will likewise fall into. Should one not therefore take care to abide by the teachings clearly enunciated by the golden mouth of the Buddha? Should one not?”

Diagram
Hōnen
principal disciple Chōraku-ji school Ryūkan,14 his disciples—Namu-bō and all his followers in Kamakura
doctrine of many-times recitation
principal disciple Kosaka school Zenne-bō,15 his temple in Kyoto and all its followers
principal disciple Shōkō and all his followers in the nine provinces of Tsukushi
Kakumyō of Ichijō16 present-day Dōami and others
Jōkaku17 doctrine of one-time recitation
Hōhon18 doctrine of one-time recitation

These eighty or more disciples of Hōnen, and all the Nembutsu priests throughout the country of Japan, along with their lay supporters, as well as all the persons of the Tendai, True Word, and other schools, cannot surpass the wisdom of Hōnen. Though they may observe the practices of their various different schools, in their hearts they are all alike Nembutsu believers. Though they read the Lotus Sutra or carry out True Word practices, these actions are all regarded as supplementary practices. Their primary practice they believe to be the Nembutsu. Can they fail to be regarded as slanderers of the Law?

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    1. Main Text
  1. Background
  2. Notes

Background

This work, consisting primarily of diagrams or charts and quotes from sutras and commentaries, presents an outline of the five periods of teachings—a classification of Shakyamuni Buddha’s lifetime teachings as set forth by the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai. No recipient is indicated or known, but the document was probably intended as reference material for Nichiren Daishonin’s disciples.

It is thought to have been written in 1260. Another writing by the same name (p. 736) is also extant; the work discussed here is known as the extended version and the other, as the abbreviated version.

The five periods are the Flower Garland period, the Āgama period, the Correct and Equal period, the Wisdom period, and the Lotus-Nirvana period. T’ien-t’ai’s system of five periods identifies the Lotus Sutra as the teaching expounded by the Buddha during the final eight years of his life, and the Nirvana Sutra as that preached in just one day and one night prior to his death. The Daishonin cites the passage from the Immeasurable Meanings Sutra “In these more than forty years, I have not yet revealed the truth,” and identifies the teachings of the preceding four periods as not revealing the truth. They are classified as “Hinayana” or “provisional Mahayana.” Nine of the ten schools of Buddhism in Japan are based on the sutras preached during the four periods, the one exception being the Tendai school.

The diagrams at the beginning show the first four of the five periods, indicating the period name, the length of time the Buddha spent expounding its teachings, and the sutras, treatises, schools, and Chinese patriarchs of each school.

Next, the fifth period, the Lotus-Nirvana period, is equated with the Lotus and Nirvana sutras. The Daishonin quotes a number of passages from the Lotus Sutra indicating that it represents the true teaching of the Buddha, that the teachings preached prior to it are expedient means to lead people to an understanding of the Lotus Sutra, and that if they do not believe this sutra but slander it, they will fall into hell.

The Nirvana Sutra, shown in chart form, indicates that it was taught as a follow-up to the Lotus Sutra, reiterating the Buddha’s final instructions to his disciples in order to perpetuate his teachings. The Daishonin summarizes two teachings found in volume six of the Nirvana Sutra. The first concerns the four standards for Buddhist believers, that is, (1) to rely on the Law and not upon persons, (2) to rely on the meaning of the teaching and not on the words, (3) to rely on wisdom and not on discriminative thinking, and (4) to rely on sutras that are complete and final and not on those that are not complete and final. The second is the four ranks of sages—Buddhist teachers to rely on in the ages after the Buddha’s passing, classified into four categories according to their level of understanding and attainment.

The next section charts the Pure Land, or Nembutsu, school, citing its doctrinal origins in The Commentary on the Ten Stages Sutra, which sets forth the ideas of a difficult-to-practice way and an easy-to-practice way, the latter being to call on the names of Buddhas to achieve salvation. The chart then lists the patriarchs of the Pure Land doctrines in China, and finally and most recently, Hōnen in Japan. The diagram that follows outlines, for the purposes of refutation, basic claims put forth by Hōnen in his primary work, The Nembutsu Chosen above All, which places the Nembutsu, or Pure Land, teaching above all other teachings, including those of the Tendai Lotus school.

Next, the Daishonin quotes the Two-Volumed Sutra, another name for the Buddha Infinite Life Sutra and one of the three basic sutras of the Pure Land school, which records Amida Buddha’s forty-eight vows. Quoted is the eighteenth vow—that not even one person who meditates on Amida will fail to be reborn into the Pure Land, with the exception of those who commit the five cardinal sins and those who slander the correct teaching.

The Daishonin points out the inconsistency of Pure Land teachers such as Tao-ch’o, who assert that none at all will fail to be reborn in the Pure Land, while they themselves “slander the correct teaching [the Lotus Sutra].” Next the Daishonin quotes the Lotus and Nirvana sutras to show the gravity of the offense of slandering the correct teaching. Following that is an outline in chart form of traditional Buddhist definitions of evil acts, the ten evil acts, the four grave offenses, and the five cardinal sins.

He points out that the negative karma created by such offenses is relatively light compared to the heavy karma created by committing offenses against the correct teaching. He quotes Dengyō’s statement that Buddhist teachers who act against the correct teaching, as well as their disciples and lay followers, destine themselves for hell. The final diagram lists the disciples of Hōnen, the founder of the Pure Land school in Japan. The Daishonin concludes by pointing out that all priests and lay believers of the time, regardless of their sectarian affiliation, are in effect Nembutsu believers. This is because all accept and embrace the Nembutsu practice, and thus are guilty of slander of the Lotus Sutra.

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Notes

1. According to the Dharma Characteristics school, after attaining enlightenment Shakyamuni Buddha preached the Flower Garland Sutra for fourteen days. The T’ien-t’ai school regards the period of this preaching as twenty-one days.

14. Ryūkan (1148–1227) is known as the founder of the Chōraku-ji branch of the Pure Land school. Though he first studied the Tendai teachings under Jien, chief priest of Enryaku-ji temple, he changed his allegiance to Hōnen, the founder of the Pure Land school.

15. Zenne-bō (1177–1247) is known as the founder of the Nishiyama branch of the Pure Land school. At age fourteen he became a disciple of Hōnen. After Hōnen died, Zenne-bō lived in the Ōjō-in hall of Nishiyama Zempō-ji temple. Because he once lived in Kosaka, Kyoto, his branch is also called the Kosaka branch.

16. Kakumyō (b. 1184) founded the Kuhon branch of the Pure Land school. At age nineteen he became a disciple of Hōnen. After his teacher died, he also studied the Tendai teaching of concentration and insight and the Zen teachings. Ichijō is supposed to be the place in Kyoto where he lived at Kuhon-ji temple. Dōami in the same line was a disciple of Kakumyō.

17. Jōkaku (1163–1247) is another name for Kōsai. At age thirty-six he became a disciple of Hōnen. He upheld the one-time recitation, asserting that one need not chant the name of Amida Buddha many times. For this he was denounced by other priests of the Pure Land school.

18. Hōhon (n.d.) is also known as Gyōkū. A disciple of Hōnen, he and another disciple, Jōkaku, later advocated the one-time recitation. This teaching says that chanting Amida Buddha’s name just once leads to rebirth in his Pure Land. Because this contradicted Hōnen’s teaching, the two men were expelled from the Pure Land school.

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