Explaining the Causation of the Ten Worlds

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But when we come to the precepts of the Lotus Sutra, we find that they may be administered to persons of the two vehicles and to those who have committed the seven cardinal sins. Moreover, through them even persons in the lowest category of ordinary mortals will enter the stage of Buddhahood within the space of a single lifetime and achieve perfect enlightenment. Thus one may acquire both the merit of practice and the benefit of Buddhahood.

Explaining the Causation of the Ten Worlds

 

Composed by the shramana Nichiren

 

Background

VOLUME sixty-nine of the eighty-volume Flower Garland Sutra states: “When one has entered the way of Universal Worthy, one will fully understand the Ten Worlds.”

Volume six of the Lotus Sutra says: “Voices of hell dwellers, voices of beasts, voices of hungry spirits, asura voices, monks’ voices, nuns’ voices [world of human beings], voices of heavenly beings [world of heavenly beings], voices of voice-hearers, voices of pratyekabuddhas, voices of bodhisattvas, and voices of Buddhas.”1 (Above are the names of the Ten Worlds.)

First, regarding the world of hell, the Meditation on the Buddha Sutra says: “Persons who commit the five cardinal sins, disregard the principle of cause and effect, slander the Mahayana teachings, violate the four grave prohibitions, and waste the alms given to them by believers will fall into this realm of existence” (the Avīchi hell).

The Meditation on the Correct Teaching Sutra states: “Persons who kill, steal, are guilty of sexual misconduct, drink intoxicants, or tell lies will fall into this realm” (the hell of great wailing).

The Meditation on the Correct Teaching Sutra also says: “Those who in the past have given intoxicants to others, causing them to become drunk, and afterward have been in the habit of teasing and beguiling them until they have committed some shameful act will fall into this realm” (the hell of wailing).

The Meditation on the Correct Teaching Sutra also says: “Persons who kill, steal, or are guilty of sexual misconduct will fall into this realm” (the hell of crushing).

The Nirvana Sutra states: “There are three degrees of killings: the lower, middle, and upper degrees. The lower degree constitutes the killing of any humble being, from an ant to any of the various kinds of animals. . . . As a result of a killing of the lower degree, one will fall into the realms of hell . . . and will suffer all the pains appropriate to a killing of the lower degree.”

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

Beings in the three evil paths do not in their present existence observe any precepts at all. In their past lives, when they were born in the human or heavenly realms, they observed the willow leaf precepts of persons in the human and heavenly realms, or the clay vessel precepts of persons of the two vehicles, or the gold and silver vessel precepts of the bodhisattvas. Later, because they violated these precepts, they fell into the three evil paths. But the blessings they gained earlier have not been lost and are still in existence. When such persons in the three evil paths encounter the Lotus Sutra, the power of the earlier precepts is brought to life once more, and hence, although such persons dwell in the three evil paths, they become endowed with the potentiality of all of the Ten Worlds. Thus, when persons in any of the Ten Worlds who abided by the teachings of the sutras prior to the Lotus Sutra come into contact with the Lotus Sutra, they all become observers of the precepts.

This is what the Lotus Sutra means when it says, “This is what is called observing the precepts.”19 The Reverend Annen in his On the Universally Bestowed Bodhisattva Precepts states: “The Lotus Sutra is saying that those who are capable of preaching the Lotus Sutra deserve to be called observers of the precepts.” That is, such persons do not, as described in the sutras prior to the Lotus Sutra, have to observe the precepts under the supervision of a teacher. They have only to put their faith in this sutra to become observers of the precepts.

The sutras preached prior to the Lotus Sutra did not set forth the doctrine of the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds. Therefore, although bodhisattvas might carry out practices over innumerable kalpas, they did not gain any other blessings such as those acquired by observers of the precepts in the two vehicles or the human and heavenly realms; they acquired only the blessings associated with their own one world. And because they acquired the blessings of only one world, they were in the end unable to attain Buddhahood. Therefore [in terms of the doctrine of the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds] they did not even acquire the blessings that pertain to one world.20

But when persons who had previously followed the teachings of the pre-Lotus sutras encounter the Lotus Sutra, the blessings of all the other nine worlds become the possession of beings in any of the Ten Worlds. When this happens, then, the pre-Lotus sutras become synonymous with the Lotus Sutra, and the Lotus Sutra becomes synonymous with the pre-Lotus sutras. The Lotus Sutra is no longer separate from the pre-Lotus sutras, and the pre-Lotus sutras are no longer separate from the Lotus Sutra. This is what is meant by the term “wonderful Law.”

Once one has gained an understanding of this, then though the practitioner may read the Āgama sutras of the Hinayana teachings, one therewith becomes a reader of all the Mahayana sutras and a reader of the Lotus Sutra. Therefore the Lotus Sutra says, “[But if they hear this profound sutra] which defines the Law of the voice-hearer, [if they hear] this king of the sutras . . .”21 This passage is saying that the Āgama sutras are none other than the Lotus Sutra.

The Lotus Sutra says, “[The Buddhas] apply distinctions to the one Buddha vehicle and preach as though it were three.”22 This passage is saying that the Flower Garland, Correct and Equal, and Wisdom sutras are none other than the Lotus Sutra.

And the Lotus Sutra says, “If they should expound some text of the secular world or speak on matters of government or occupations that sustain life, they will in all cases conform to the correct Law.”23 This passage is saying that all the texts of the non-Buddhist teachers, of Lao Tzu and Confucius, are none other than the Lotus Sutra.

The precepts of provisional Mahayana recorded in the Brahmā Net Sutra and similar texts differ in many respects from the Lotus Sutra precepts. First, the former may not be administered to persons of the two vehicles or to those who have committed the seven cardinal sins. Second, the blessings accruing from the former do not include the possibility of attaining Buddhahood. Third, the former are precepts that are designed to be practiced over a period of numerous kalpas. Hence they are faulty in many respects.

But when we come to the precepts of the Lotus Sutra, we find that they may be administered to persons of the two vehicles and to those who have committed the seven cardinal sins. Moreover, through them even persons in the lowest category of ordinary mortals will enter the stage of Buddhahood within the space of a single lifetime and achieve perfect enlightenment. Thus one may acquire both the merit of practice and the benefit of Buddhahood.

Nichiren

The twenty-first day of the fourth month in the second year of Shōgen [1260], cyclical sign kanoe-saru

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Background

Nichiren Daishonin wrote Explaining the Causation of the Ten Worlds in Kamakura on the twenty-first day of the fourth month in 1260. In this work, he cites the Lotus Sutra to introduce the names of the Ten Worlds and offers a detailed explanation of the causal relationships characterizing each of the Ten Worlds. In the discussion of the world of Buddhahood, he describes the differences between the precepts of the sutras preached before the Lotus Sutra and those of the Lotus Sutra, clarifying that only the Lotus Sutra teaches the attainment of Buddhahood in one’s present form for all people.

First, citing the Flower Garland Sutra and the Lotus Sutra, the Daishonin lists the names of the Ten Worlds: the worlds of hell, hungry spirits, animals, asuras, human beings, heavenly beings, voice-hearers, cause-awakened ones, bodhisattvas, and Buddhas, or Buddhahood. Sutras expounded before the Lotus Sutra generally portray the Ten Worlds as ten distinct realms, in which people are said to be reborn due to the causes they create in their present life. The teachings of the Lotus Sutra, however, regard the Ten Worlds as categories representing the state of life of any living being at any given moment.

Next, the Daishonin explains the causal relationships pertaining to each of the Ten Worlds. Concerning the first six worlds, also known as the six paths, he introduces the views of the pre-Lotus Sutra teachings regarding what kind of actions cause one to be reborn in them. Then he explains how slander of the Law causes one to be reborn in the three evil paths and declares that it also accounts for differences among people born in the same world of humanity, citing The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom and the Lotus Sutra.

Concerning the two vehicles, the worlds of voice-hearers and cause-awakened ones, the Daishonin states that voice-hearers such as Shāriputra and Maudgalyāyana “were able for all time to escape rebirth in the six paths, but they were on the other hand never able to become Buddhas or bodhisattvas.” He also states that two groups of cause-awakened ones, one carrying out the Buddha’s Hinayana teachings and the other practicing on their own, “cut off the illusions of thought and desire, but are among those who can never attain Buddhahood.”

Next, concerning the world of bodhisattvas, the Daishonin identifies them as those who “remain among the ordinary mortals of the six paths of existence, thinking little of their own lives but much of the lives of others, aiming always to take evil upon themselves and to dole out good to other beings.” The Daishonin, defining “bodhisattva” as “all sentient beings except those of the two vehicles,” says, “All beings who possess a mind should undertake to observe the ten major precepts. Those who succeed in observing one precept may be called one part a bodhisattva, and those who observe all ten of them deserve to be called complete bodhisattvas.”

Finally, the Daishonin addresses the subject of the world of Buddhas, or Buddhahood, first outlining the causes for its attainment from the standpoint of the pre-Lotus Sutra teachings, which state that one requires countless lifetimes to achieve it. Next he describes the precepts of the Lotus Sutra, of which there are two kinds: the precepts of comparative myō and the precepts of absolute myō. The precepts of comparative myō means to compare the precepts of the Lotus Sutra with those of the other sutras, and regard the former as myō, or “wonderful,” and the latter as so, or “rough.”

With regard to the precepts of absolute myō, the Daishonin says, “Where the Lotus Sutra is concerned, this does not refer to a separate set of precepts. The precepts set forth in the sutras preached prior to the Lotus Sutra constitute, just as they are, the precepts of the Lotus Sutra.” He also says, “When persons in any of the Ten Worlds who abided by the teachings of the sutras prior to the Lotus Sutra come into contact with the Lotus Sutra, they all become observers of the precepts.”　This is what the Lotus Sutra means when it says, “This [to uphold this sutra] is what is called observing the precepts.” Then, the Daishonin concludes, “Even persons in the lowest category of ordinary mortals will enter the stage of Buddhahood within the space of a single lifetime and achieve perfect enlightenment.”

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Notes

19. Lotus Sutra, chap. 11.

20. According to the doctrine of the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds, because one world possesses the other nine worlds, one cannot obtain the benefits that pertain to one’s own world without also obtaining the benefits of the other nine worlds.

21. Lotus Sutra, chap. 10.

22. Ibid., chap. 2.

23. Ibid., chap. 19.

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