On Reprimanding Hachiman Chapter13

Now for the past twenty-eight years, since the fifth year of the Kenchō era [1253], cyclical sign mizunoto-ushi, the twenty-eighth day of the fourth month,²⁵ until the present, the twelfth month of the third year of the Kōan era [1280], cyclical sign kanoe-tatsu, I, Nichiren, have done nothing else, but have labored solely to put the five or seven characters of Myoho-renge-kyo into the mouths of all the living beings of the country of Japan. In doing so, I have shown the kind of compassion that a mother does when she labors to put milk into the mouth of her infant child.

Moreover, this is the very time for such efforts, for we have already entered the fifth five-hundred-year period, the time in which the Buddha predicted the Lotus Sutra would be propagated. At the time when T’ien-t’ai and Dengyō lived, the fifth period had not yet begun, but because a certain number of persons already possessed the requisite capacity, these men to some extent propagated the teachings of the Lotus Sutra. But now that the fifth period has begun, it is even more appropriate that such teachings be propagated. Even though there are those who have no capacity to receive them, but who oppose them as water opposes fire, how can one fail to propagate them?

Now, although one should meet with the kind of persecution experienced by Bodhisattva Never Disparaging, they must be propagated; there can be no doubt of that. But because of the slanderous accusations of the True Word, Zen, and Nembutsu believers, the ruler and those around him in their ignorance make difficulties for one who does so. And the patron deity, Great Bodhisattva Hachiman, who ought to correct them, fails to punish them for their grave faults. Therefore, when Nichiren reprimands this patron deity, is he doing anything in any way unreasonable? He is doing no different from what the rich man Nyagrodha did when he reproached the god of the tree.

The Susiddhikara Sutra says, “One chastises the object of worship in the same manner as one would a demon or evil spirit.” The meaning of this passage is that if one is making a request of the deity in the manner dictated by the sutras, and if one carries out the proper practices for a period of several years, but fails to elicit the desired response, then one should punish the object of worship by binding it with cords or whipping it. Thus when the Reverend Sō’ō²⁶ tied up the image of the wisdom king Immovable with cords, he was probably acting in accordance with this passage in the sutra.

But my situation cannot be compared with these others. All the good persons in the country of Japan abide by the precepts or distribute alms, found temples and pagodas for the sake of their parents as an act of filial piety, or skimp on funds for their wives and children and instead donate the money to priests in hopes of attaining Buddhahood or gaining the way. But because these priests are in fact slanderers of the correct teaching, it is as though they were unwittingly providing shelter to rebels or taking as a mate a person lacking in filial piety. As a result, they invite calamity in their present lives and are destined to fall into the evil paths in their next existences. I am doing all I can to help such persons, and yet the benevolent deities who are supposed to be protecting the country of Japan ally themselves with those slanderous priests and act as enemies of the correct teaching. Therefore it is perfectly reasonable that I reproach them as the sutra instructs one to do.