Chapter4(Demonstrating the Absence of the Bestowal of Buddhahood on Persons of the Two Vehicles and the Attainment of Buddhahood in the Remote Past in the Mahavairocana and Other Sutras)
Although the Lotus Sutra does not mention mudras and mantras, it has the merit of declaring that persons of the two vehicles can attain Buddhahood and even records the kalpas when this will happen, the lands where it will take place, and the names that they will bear when they become Buddhas. It also declares that Shakyamuni attained enlightenment in the distant past. The Mahāvairochana Sutra may describe mudras and mantras, but it says nothing about the attainment of Buddhahood by those of the two vehicles, or the Buddha’s original enlightenment in the far distant past.
If we compare this doctrine of the attainment of Buddhahood by persons of the two vehicles with the matter of mudras and mantras, we will see that they are as far apart in importance as heaven and earth. In all the various sutras that the Buddha preached in the more than forty years before the Lotus Sutra, persons of the two vehicles are described as rotten seeds that will never sprout. They are condemned not merely in a word or two but in innumerable passages in sutra after sutra. In the Lotus Sutra, however, all these passages are refuted; it is proclaimed that persons of the two vehicles can in fact attain Buddhahood.
As for mudras and mantras, where in any sutra has one ever encountered a passage condemning them? And since they have never been condemned, the Mahāvairochana Sutra, as with many other sutras, does not avoid mentioning mudras and mantras, and therefore teaches them.
A mudra is a gesture made with the hand. But if the hand does not become Buddha, how can mudras made with the hand lead one to Buddhahood? A mantra is a motion made with the mouth. But if the mouth does not become Buddha, how can mantras made with the mouth lead one to Buddhahood? If the persons of the two vehicles do not encounter the Lotus Sutra, then even though they may perform the mudras and mantras of the twelve hundred and more honored ones for innumerable kalpas, they will never attain Buddhahood in body, mouth, or mind.
One who would declare as superior a text that contains no mention of the fact that persons of the two vehicles can attain Buddhahood, though this is a highly superior teaching, but that instead describes mudras and mantras, though these are matters of inferior significance, must be a thief in terms of principle and a non-Buddhist who regards inferior things as superior in terms of practice. Because he committed this error, Shan-wu-wei was censured by Yama, the lord of hell. Later he repented of it, revered the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai, and put his faith in the Lotus Sutra; so he escaped the path of evil.
The Buddha’s original enlightenment in the far distant past is not even hinted at in the Mahāvairochana Sutra. And yet this original enlightenment is the source of all Buddhas. Thus if we take the vast ocean as a symbol of the Buddha’s original enlightenment in the distant past, then the fish and birds that inhabit it are comparable to the twelve hundred and more honored ones of the True Word teachings. Without the revelation of the Buddha’s enlightenment countless ages ago, the twelve hundred and more honored ones would become like so many bits of floating weed that lack any root, or like the nighttime dew that lasts only until the sun rises.
People of the Tendai school fail to understand this matter and thus allow themselves to be deceived by the True Word teachers, and the True Word teachers themselves, unaware that their own school is in error, go on vainly accumulating distorted ideas that can only lead to the evil paths.
Notes
12. The twelve hundred and more honored ones are Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and others inscribed on the two mandalas of the Diamond and Womb realms.
13. The story of Shan-wu-wei’s escape from hell appears in The Tripitaka Master Shan-wu-wei (pp. 173–75).
Lecture
This chapter refutes the Shingon doctrine, clarifying that although the Lotus Sutra does not feature mudras (ritual hand seals) or mantras (sacred incantations), it expounds the attainment of Buddhahood by persons of the two vehicles and the Buddha’s attainment of enlightenment in the remote past—profound principles that far surpass all pre-Lotus Sutra teachings. To claim that the Mahavairocana Sutra is superior in concrete practice (ji) merely because it expounds inferior mudras and mantras without teaching the superior doctrine of the two vehicles attaining Buddhahood makes its proponents thieves with respect to principle (ri), and non-Buddhists harboring the warped view that the inferior is superior with respect to practice (ji)—to say nothing of the doctrine of the attainment of Buddhahood in the remote past, which is utterly beyond its grasp.
When comparing the attainment of Buddhahood by the two vehicles and the attainment of enlightenment in the remote past taught in the Lotus Sutra with the mudras and mantras taught in the Mahavairocana Sutra, the difference in superiority is as vast as that between heaven and earth. Throughout the teachings expounded prior to the Lotus Sutra, persons of the two vehicles were consistently condemned as being eternally incapable of attaining Buddhahood. Only in the Lotus Sutra was their attainment of Buddhahood revealed for the first time, conferring prophecies of future enlightenment that specifically designated their future kalpas, lands, and Buddha names. By contrast, mudras and mantras were never rejected in any of the earlier teachings; they were simply expounded in the Mahavairocana Sutra as they were elsewhere. In short, while the attainment of Buddhahood by the two vehicles and the enlightenment in the remote past are teachings unique to the Lotus Sutra that transcend all other scriptures, mudras and mantras are not unique to the Mahavairocana Sutra, but are merely elements common to many teachings. Thus, the superiority of the Lotus Sutra is beyond question.
Furthermore, persons of the two vehicles cannot attain Buddhahood across the three categories of action—body, mouth (speech), and mind—without relying on the Lotus Sutra. Because mudras are formed with the hands, one cannot achieve Buddhahood through mudras unless one’s hands themselves attain Buddhahood. And because mantras are chanted with the mouth, one cannot achieve Buddhahood through mantras unless one’s mouth itself attains Buddhahood. Therefore, regardless of how diligently one practices mudras and mantras, the attainment of Buddhahood remains unattainable.
Moreover, if persons of the two vehicles cannot attain Buddhahood, it means that not a single living being in the Ten Worlds can ever attain Buddhahood. High Priest Nichikan explained this in his treatise Sanju Hiden Sho (The Triple Secret Teaching): “If the attainment of Buddhahood by persons of the two vehicles is not clarified, then neither bodhisattvas nor ordinary people can become Buddhas. This is because the world of bodhisattvas inherently possesses the two vehicles; if the two vehicles that are possessed cannot become Buddhas, how could the bodhisattva who possesses them ever do so? Therefore, Juppōkai Shō (On the Ten Worlds) states: ‘Because bodhisattvas possess the two vehicles within themselves, if the two vehicles sink into the void and are annihilated, it means that bodhisattvas likewise sink into the void and are annihilated.’ If this holds true for bodhisattvas, it is equally true for ordinary people. Consequently, none of the nine worlds could attain Buddhahood. And because the principle that ‘the nine worlds are in themselves the Buddha world’ would be lost, the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life could never be revealed. Conversely, if the attainment of Buddhahood by the two vehicles is clarified, then even the two vehicles—previously deemed eternally incapable of enlightenment—can attain Buddhahood; how much more so for bodhisattvas and ordinary people! Thus, the nine worlds are indeed the Buddha world, the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds is realized, and the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life shines forth brilliantly.”
Because the Shingon masters asserted that the principle of three thousand realms in a single moment of life was identical despite the Mahavairocana Sutra lacking the attainment of Buddhahood by the two vehicles, they were condemned as “thieves in regard to principle.” And because they claimed that the Mahavairocana Sutra was superior to the Lotus Sutra in terms of concrete practice on the grounds of its inferior mudras and mantras, they were branded as “non-Buddhists holding the distorted view that the inferior is superior.”
Thus, the false doctrine of “equal in principle, superior in practice” asserted by Shan-wu-wei and others is thoroughly demolished, and its groundless nature is exposed in broad daylight.
Due to the grave offense of degrading the Lotus Sutra through such erroneous doctrines, Shan-wu-wei fell into hell and was tormented by King Yama; only by reciting the passage from the Lotus Sutra that reads, “Now this threefold world [is all my domain],” was he finally able to escape the sufferings of hell.
Regarding Shan-wu-wei’s descent into hell, detailed accounts can be found in Zenmui Sanzo Sho (On Tripitaka Master Shan-wu-wei); please refer to the lectures on that writing.
For the Mahavairocana Sutra, which fails to expound even the attainment of Buddhahood by the two vehicles taught in the theoretical teaching (shakumon) of the Lotus Sutra, the doctrine of the attainment of Buddhahood in the remote past revealed in the essential teaching (honmon) is completely beyond conception. The attainment of Buddhahood in the remote past reveals the true original status of all Buddhas of the ten directions and the three existences. By way of analogy, if the attainment of Buddhahood in the remote past is likened to the vast ocean, the more than 1,200 honored Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the Shingon pantheon are like the fish and birds dwelling within it. Without the revelation of the attainment of Buddhahood in the remote past, these 1,200 honored ones are as transient as rootless floating weed, or the morning dew that vanishes before sunrise.
It is for this very reason that the Daishonin states in The Opening of the Eyes: “All the other sutras such as the Flower Garland, Wisdom, and Mahāvairochana not only conceal the fact that people of the two vehicles can attain Buddhahood, but they also fail to make clear that the Buddha attained enlightenment countless kalpas in the past. These sutras have two flaws. First, because they teach that the Ten Worlds are separate from one another, they fail to move beyond the provisional doctrines and to reveal the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life as it is expounded in the theoretical teaching of the Lotus Sutra. Second, because they teach that Shakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment for the first time in this world, referring only to his provisional aspect, they fail to reveal the fact stressed in the essential teaching that the Buddha attained enlightenment countless kalpas ago. These two great doctrines are the core of the Buddha’s lifetime of teachings, and the very heart and marrow of all the sutras.
The “Expedient Means” chapter, which belongs to the theoretical teaching, expounds the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life, making clear that persons of the two vehicles can achieve Buddhahood. It thus eliminates one of the two errors found in the earlier sutras. But it nevertheless retains the provisional aspect, and fails to reveal the eternal aspect, of the Buddha’s enlightenment. Thus the true doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life remains unclear, and the attainment of Buddhahood by persons of the two vehicles is not properly affirmed. Such teachings are like the moon seen in the water, or rootless plants that drift on the waves.
When we come to the essential teaching of the Lotus Sutra, then the belief that Shakyamuni first obtained Buddhahood during his present lifetime is demolished, and the effects of the four teachings are likewise demolished. When the effects of the four teachings are demolished, the causes of the four teachings are likewise demolished. Thus the cause and effect of the Ten Worlds as expounded in the earlier sutras and the theoretical teaching of the Lotus Sutra are wiped out, and the cause and effect of the Ten Worlds in the essential teaching are revealed. This is the doctrine of original cause and original effect. It reveals that the nine worlds are all present in beginningless Buddhahood and that Buddhahood is inherent in the beginningless nine worlds. This is the true mutual possession of the Ten Worlds, the true hundred worlds and thousand factors, the true three thousand realms in a single moment of life.
When we consider the matter in this light, we can see that Vairochana Buddha seated on the lotus pedestal of the ten directions as described in the Flower Garland Sutra, the little Shakyamuni described in the Āgama sutras, and the provisional Buddhas described in the sutras of the Correct and Equal and the Wisdom periods such as the Golden Light, Amida, and Mahāvairochana sutras are no more than reflections of the Buddha of the “Life Span” chapter. They are like fleeting reflections of the moon that float on the surfaces of various large and small bodies of water. The scholars of the various schools of Buddhism, confused as to [the nature of the Buddhas of] their own school and, more fundamentally, ignorant of [the Buddha of] the “Life Span” chapter of the Lotus Sutra, mistake the reflection in the water for the actual moon,” (WND-1, P. 235)