How Those Initially Aspiring to the Way Can Attain Buddhahood through the Lotus Sutra

Chapter7(Revealing the Teaching of the Propagation of the Nembutsu in the Latter Day of the Law)

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The people of the Pure Land school claim, “In the ten thousand years of the Latter Day of the Law, all the other sutras will perish. Only this one teaching of Amida will remain.” They also say, “This Latter Day of the Law we now face is an evil age stained by the five impurities. Only this doctrine of the Pure Land offers a road by which one can gain admittance.” Though they falsely attribute these statements to the Great Collection Sutra, no such passages appear in that sutra. Moreover, there is no reason why they should. It is logically apparent that while he was in the world the Buddha would have had no reason for declaring that, in the present, the Latter Day of the Law, an evil age stained by the five impurities, only the Pure Land teachings would offer a path to [rebirth in the Pure Land].

Their basic sutra states, “In the age to come, the scriptural path will perish . . . I [Shakyamuni] leave this one sutra, which shall endure a hundred years.” But nowhere does it state that those hundred years fall within the ten thousand years of the Latter Day of the Law. Moreover, if we examine the Universal and Impartial Enlightenment Sutra and the Larger Amida Sutra, it appears that the hundred-year period referred to represents the hundred years that follow the first millennium after the Buddha’s passing. But people all regard Shan-tao’s mistaken interpretation as quite reasonable, though in fact they are all biased in their thinking.

Perceptive people should consider the matter in the light of everyday reason. In a time of severe drought, is it the great ocean that dries up first, or is it the little streams? The Buddha himself explained this, likening the Lotus Sutra to the great ocean, and the Meditation Sutra, Amida Sutra, and similar texts to little streams. Therefore, the pure Law of the little streams that are the Nembutsu and similar teachings will surely disappear first, as a sutra passage states. When the Great Collection Sutra says that, in the fifth five-hundred-year period, the pure Law will become obscured and lost, and when the Two-Volumed Sutra says that “the scriptural path will perish . . . ,” they are simply stating the same thing. Therefore, we are to understand that, from the very beginning of the Latter Day of the Law, the scriptural path that includes the Two-Volumed Sutra and sutras of that type will perish. “The scriptural path will perish” means that the sutras will lose their power to benefit living beings. It does not mean that the actual scrolls of the sutras will cease to exist. At present, more than two hundred years have passed since the time began when the scriptural path is to perish. In this period, the Lotus Sutra alone can benefit people and lead them to enlightenment.

Notes

31. On Resolving Doubts regarding Rebirth in the Western Paradise by Tz’u-en of the Dharma Characteristics school.

32. The Collected Essays on the World of Peace and Delight by Tao-ch’o.

33. Buddha Infinite Life Sutra.

34. In his Praising Rebirth in the Pure Land, Shan-tao interprets the “hundred years” mentioned in the Buddha Infinite Life Sutra as referring to the period following the Latter Day of the Law. He says, “After the ten thousand years following the Buddha’s passing, the three treasures will perish, and this sutra will remain for a period of a hundred years.”

35. Chapter 23 of the Lotus Sutra states, “Just as the ocean is foremost among all bodies of water such as rivers and streams, so this Lotus Sutra will likewise be foremost.”

36. A reference to a passage in the Brahmā Excellent Thought Sutra. It states that, just as the rivers and streams will evaporate before the great ocean does in the fire at the kalpa’s end, so the inferior way will die out before the bodhisattva teachings when Buddhism perishes.

37. Here the Daishonin interprets the passage of the Buddha Infinite Life Sutra as referring to conditions at the beginning of the Latter Day of the Law.

Lecture

Here, the Daishonin cites the claim of the Pure Land (Jodo) school that in the Latter Day of the Law all other sutras will perish and only the three Pure Land sutras will spread, and he refutes this erroneous doctrine.

The Pure Land school asserted, “In the ten thousand years of the Latter Day of the Law, all other sutras will perish, and only the one sutra of Amida will remain,” and also claimed, “The present Latter Day of the Law is an evil world of the five impurities; the Pure Land gate alone offers a path through which one can enter.”

The former passage is based on Resolutions of Doubts Concerning the Western Pure Land (Saiho Yoketsu) by Jion (Kuiji) of the Dharma Characteristics (Hosso) school, which states: “The Larger Sutra of Immeasurable Life says that the way of the sutras will perish completely… In the ten thousand years of the Latter Day of the Law, all other sutras will perish, and the single teaching of Amida alone will increasingly benefit living beings.” It was likely treated as a Pure Land text because it begins with “The Larger Sutra of Immeasurable Life says,” describing the contents of the Sutra of Immeasurable Life—a foundational scripture of the Pure Land school—because this work was frequently used within the Pure Land school, and because Hymns of Praise to Birth in the Pure Land (Ojo Raisan) by Zendo (Shan-tao) of the Chinese Pure Land tradition contains a passage to the same effect: “After ten thousand years the three treasures will perish, and this sutra will remain for a hundred years.” The latter passage is from Collection of Passages on the Land of Peace and Bliss (Anrakushu) by Doshaku (Tao-ch’o) of the Chinese Pure Land tradition.

The statement, “Although they falsely cite the Great Collection Sutra, no such passage exists anywhere in that sutra,” refutes the Pure Land school’s fabrication. While the Great Collection Sutra (Daishutsu Kyo) teaches that in the fifth five-hundred-year period—namely, the beginning of the Latter Day of the Law—”the pure Law will become obscured and lost” (byakuho onmotsu), meaning Shakyamuni’s correct teaching will perish, the Pure Land school uses this concept to claim that all other teachings will perish in the Latter Day of the Law and only the Pure Land teachings will spread, falsely pretending that this is stated in the Great Collection Sutra itself.

For example, Doshaku’s Collection of Passages on the Land of Peace and Bliss states, “The Moon Treasury section of the Great Collection Sutra says, ‘Out of billions of living beings in my Latter Day of the Law who undertake practices and cultivate the way, not a single one will attain enlightenment,'” yet no such passage exists in the Great Collection Sutra. By following this immediately with the aforementioned passage regarding living beings in the Latter Day of the five impurities, it creates the false impression that the Great Collection Sutra itself states that only the Pure Land teachings will spread.

“Their fundamental sutra” (honkyo) refers to the Sutra of Immeasurable Life (Muryoju Kyo), one of the three Pure Land sutras, which teaches contemplation on the Pure Land and was also called the Two-Volumed Contemplation Sutra or Two-Volumed Sutra (Sokan Gyo) because it consists of two volumes. The Sutra of Immeasurable Life merely states, “In a future age, when the way of the sutras perishes completely, out of compassion and pity I will especially allow this sutra to remain and endure for a hundred years.” It does not mean “a hundred years into the ten thousand years of the Latter Day of the Law”—that is, it does not mean that this sutra will spread and possess benefit during the first hundred years after entering the ten-thousand-year period of the Latter Day of the Law.

Moreover, the Sutra of Equal Enlightenment (Byodogaku Kyo), an alternative translation of the Sutra of Immeasurable Life, states: “After I pass into parinirvana, the way of the sutras will remain for a thousand years, and after a thousand years the way of the sutras will be cut off.” Similarly, the Larger Amida Sutra (Dai Amida Kyo) states: “After I pass into parinirvana, the way of the sutras will remain for a thousand years, and after a thousand years the way of the sutras will be cut off. Out of compassion for all, I will solely allow this sutra and teaching to remain and endure for a hundred years.” Judging from the meaning of both sutras, it is clear that this refers to the hundred years following the first thousand years after the Buddha’s passing—namely, the first hundred years of the Middle Day of the Law after the thousand years of the Former Day of the Law have elapsed.

Nevertheless, as mentioned above, Zendo stated, “After ten thousand years the three treasures will perish, and this sutra will remain for a hundred years,” claiming that only the Pure Land teachings would spread in the Latter Day of the Law. The Daishonin refutes this as an egregious error of mistaking such a distorted view for the truth. He states that such matters should be inferred from ordinary reason in the secular world: during a great drought, it is self-evident whether the great ocean dries up first or a small river dries up first.

“The Buddha preached this” refers to the passage in the twenty-third chapter of the Lotus Sutra, “Former Affairs of the Bodhisattva Medicine King” (Yakuo Bosatsu Honji Hon), which compares the Lotus Sutra to the ocean and all other sutras to rivers: “Just as among all the streams, rivers, and other bodies of water, the ocean is foremost, so too is this Lotus Sutra.”

Furthermore, “the sutra passage” likely refers to what is taught in the Brahma Excellent Thought Sutra (Shiyaku Kyo): “When the correct teaching perishes, it is also like this: the correct teaching of the lesser paths of various practices is exhausted first, and only afterward does the correct teaching of the ocean-like mind of the bodhisattva perish.”

He states that when a time of drought arrives, it is only natural that small rivers such as the Meditation Sutra (Kammuryoju Kyo) dry up before the great ocean of the Lotus Sutra.

He further explains that the Great Collection Sutra‘s teaching that “the pure Law will become obscured and lost” in the fifth of the five five-hundred-year periods and the Sutra of Immeasurable Life‘s statement that “the way of the sutras perishes completely” have the exact same meaning. In the Latter Day of the Law, the three Pure Land sutras have already undergone the “complete extinction of the way of the sutras”; the fact that the physical sutra scrolls still exist today is an entirely separate matter.

Therefore, because the Daishonin’s lifetime corresponded to more than 220 years after the beginning of the Latter Day of the Law, he declares, “More than two hundred years have passed since the time when the way of the sutras perished completely,” affirming that it is now the time when the Lotus Sutra alone benefits living beings and enables them to receive benefit.