On Reprimanding Hachiman Chapter3

How much more is this so when one considers that the Hinayana sutras and schools and the Mahayana sutras and schools of today are not the same as the Hinayana and Mahayana sutras and schools of the past! When Buddhism was brought from India to China, the golden words of the Buddha contained in the various Hinayana and Mahayana sutras became mixed with private speculations. And as for the various schools, the Buddhist scholars and teachers of India and China at times insisted on propounding Hinayana teachings as though they were Mahayana, labeling Mahayana as Hinayana, mixing in Mahayana with Hinayana, or introducing Mahayana ideas into Hinayana. Sutras that were preached earlier in the Buddha’s life they asserted belonged to a later period, those preached later they placed earlier, those preached earlier they assigned to follow a later period. Exoteric sutras they labeled as esoteric, esoteric sutras they called exoteric. It was as though they had added water to milk or mixed medicine with poison.

In the Nirvana Sutra the Buddha, speaking of things to come, says: “At that time the various thieves will take the teachings that are like ghee and will add water to them. And because they add so much water, the teachings that are comparable to fresh milk, to cream, and to ghee will all lose their flavor.”

The Āgama sutras of the Hinayana are comparable to the flavor of fresh milk. The Correct and Equal sutras such as the Great Collection Sutra, Amida Sutra, Profound Secrets Sutra, Lankāvatāra Sutra, and Mahāvairochana Sutra are comparable to the flavor of cream. The Wisdom sutras are comparable to the flavor of curdled milk, the Flower Garland Sutra is comparable to the flavor of butter, and the Lotus and Nirvana sutras are comparable to the flavor of ghee. And even though the Hinayana sutras may only be comparable to the flavor of fresh milk, if one practices them as the Buddha instructed, how could they be anything less than medicine of a sort? How much more so, then, in the case of the various Mahayana sutras, or even that much more so in the case of the Lotus Sutra!

It should be noted, however, that there was a total of 187 translators who carried out the task of transmitting the sutras from India to the land of China. With the exception of one man, the Tripitaka Master Kumārajīva, all the other 186, when they produced their translations, added water to the milk of the teachings and mixed poison with the medicine. But the various teachers and half-baked scholars, failing to understand this fact, do not realize that even if they were to recite the entire body of sutras or commit to memory all the twelve divisions of the scriptures, they would still find it difficult to escape the sufferings of birth and death.

The prayers being offered at present may appear to have a certain measure of effect, but they are not the sort of prayers that can be comprehended by the deities of heaven and earth. Rather it is the devil king and his devil people who are making it seem as though protection is being granted and the doctrine is having an effect. And in the end neither the persons offering such prayers nor their supporters can hope to achieve peace and tranquillity thereby.

They are comparable to the disciples of an elder physician who either steal the medicine that he left mixed with poison or come into possession of it quite unawares and try to heal an ailing person with it. How can they bring about well-being thereby?

In Japan at the present time the scholars of the True Word and the other schools that make up the seven schools,¹ and those of the Pure Land and Zen schools, fail to realize that men like Kōbō, Jikaku, and Chishō have taken the Lotus Sutra, the foremost of all sutras and one that is comparable to the flavor of ghee,² and have demoted it to second or third place, mixing the ghee with the water of their own private speculations.³ If the words of the Buddha’s prediction are true, how can they avoid blame for the major offense of causing “all [the various teachings] to lose their flavor”?

The Mahāvairochana Sutra is inferior to the Lotus Sutra and by comparison stands in seventh place.⁴ And yet Kōbō and the others held a topsy-turvy view and declared that the Mahāvairochana was the foremost of all sutras, spreading this opinion throughout the country of Japan. Thus into one portion of the milk of the Lotus Sutra they have introduced seven parts of the water of the Mahāvairochana Sutra. The result is not water, nor is it milk. It is not the Mahāvairochana Sutra, nor is it the Lotus Sutra, though it somewhat resembles the Lotus Sutra and somewhat resembles the Mahāvairochana Sutra.

Shakyamuni, the World-Honored One of Great Enlightenment, predicted such a situation when he said in the Nirvana Sutra: “After I have passed away and the correct teaching is about to come to an end, at that time there will be monks who do much evil. . . . There will be those who are like milkmaids who sell milk and, greedy for greater profit, dilute it with two parts of water. . . . [A person who wants to buy the milk will say], ‘The milk is greatly diluted with water.’ . . . At that time this sutra will be widely propagated throughout Jambudvīpa. In that age there will be evil monks who will steal this sutra and divide it into many parts, losing the color, scent, and flavor of the correct teaching that it contains. These evil men will read and recite this sutra, but they will ignore and put aside the profound and vital principles that the Thus Come One has expounded in it . . . They will tear off the first part of the sutra and stick it on at the end, tear off the end and put it at the beginning, put the end and the beginning in the middle and the middle at the beginning or the end. You must understand that these evil monks are the companions of the devil.”