On Reprimanding Hachiman Chapter10

In the 11,037 temples in the sixty-six provinces and two islands [of Iki and Tsushima] that make up the country of Japan, there are various Buddha images, some painted, some made of wood, some in temples established before the introduction of the True Word doctrines, some in temples established after their introduction. All these Buddhas are born from the Lotus Sutra, and all have the Lotus Sutra as their eyes. As the sutra quoted above says, “This correct and equal sutra is the eye of the Buddhas.” And Miao-lo says, “This [Lotus] sutra has the constantly abiding Buddha nature as its throat, the wonderful practice of the single vehicle as its eyes, the renewal of life in the decayed seeds as its heart, and the revelation of the Buddha’s original enlightenment and his immeasurable life span as its life.”²²

Despite this fact, however, it has become the custom in Japan, not only in True Word temples but in temples of all the other schools as well, to perform the mudra of the Honored One Buddha Eye in order to “open the eyes” of the Buddha image, and to recite the mantra of the Buddha Mahāvairochana in order to endow it with the five kinds of wisdom. This is in effect to make an offering of the provisional sutras of the True Word doctrine to living beings who have become Buddhas through the Lotus Sutra. Persons who carry out such acts are on the contrary killing the Buddhas, gouging out their eyes, depriving them of their lives, and cutting their throats. How do they differ from Devadatta, who was summarily punished for shedding the blood of Shakyamuni, the lord of teachings, or King Ajātashatru, who was similarly punished for making Devadatta his teacher?

Great Bodhisattva Hachiman was Emperor Ōjin, a ruler of a small country, while King Ajātashatru was the powerful ruler of the great kingdom of Magadha, the one as superior to the other as heavenly beings are to humans or kings are to commoners. Yet King Ajātashatru, because of the enmity he showed toward Shakyamuni Buddha, was punished by having virulent sores break out on his body. How then can Great Bodhisattva Hachiman hope to escape punishment for the offenses he has committed?

In the eleventh year of the Bun’ei era [1274], when the Mongol forces attacked Japan, not only were many Japanese warriors killed in the fighting, but the buildings of Hachiman Shrine were burned down as well. At that time, why did Hachiman not punish the warriors of the invading nation? It is clear from his failure to do so that the great ruler of that foreign land is superior in power to Hachiman, this deity of our country. King Hsiang was the foremost deity of China in ancient times, but despite that fact he was cut in two by the sharp sword of the governor of P’ei. This is something to think about!