On the Importance of the “Expedient Means” and “Life Span” Chapters—Chapter7
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The fact is that the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life that was expounded by the Buddha who attained enlightenment in the remote past was kept secret when the Buddha set forth the teachings that correspond to the first four of the five flavors, and when he preached the first fourteen chapters of the Lotus Sutra, those that embody the theoretical teaching. It was only when he came to the revelation section of the essential teaching as expounded in the “Life Span” chapter that he revealed it.
This priceless gem, the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life, was then placed in a bag diamond-like in its indestructibility, the five characters of Myoho-renge-kyo, and left behind for the sake of us, the troubled and impoverished living beings of this latter age.
The Buddhist scholars and teachers who lived in the Former and Middle Days of the Law were not aware of this most important matter. Only Nāgārjuna and Vasubandhu had some knowledge of it deep in their hearts, but they did not let it show in their faces.
The Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai seems to have kept it hidden when he preached The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra, The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra, and Great Concentration and Insight. For the sake of those in the Latter Day of the Law, in the seventh chapter of the ten chapters that make up Great Concentration and Insight, that entitled “Correct Meditation,” he described it in brief. But he gave only a superficial explanation and left the matter there. He revealed only a portion, the meditation on the true principle, and refrained from discussing the actuality of three thousand realms in a single moment of life.
The Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai was a disciple of the Buddha in his transient status. But I, Nichiren, am a disciple of the Buddha in his true identity,14 and thus I am able to expound in full these matters that pertain to the essential teaching.
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Notes
14. Here the Daishonin identifies himself as one of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth described in the “Emerging from the Earth” (15th) chapter of the essential teaching of the Lotus Sutra, or one of the disciples whom Shakyamuni had taught in his capacity as the Buddha who attained enlightenment in the remote past, or in his true identity. T’ien-t’ai is said to have been a reincarnation of Bodhisattva Medicine King, the disciple whom Shakyamuni taught in his capacity as the Buddha who first attained enlightenment in this lifetime in India, or in his transient identity.