On the Proper Way to Preach the Doctrine

Main Text

Regarding the proper way to preach the doctrine, you should leave aside for the moment The Nembutsu Chosen above All. In general, you should begin by citing the passage in the second volume of the Lotus Sutra in which the Buddha states, “Now this threefold world is all my domain, and the living beings in it are all my children.” Make certain your listeners understand that Shakyamuni is our father.

On the Proper Way to Preach the Doctrine

 

 

Background

REGARDING the proper way to preach the doctrine, you should leave aside for the moment The Nembutsu Chosen above All. In general, you should begin by citing the passage in the second volume of the Lotus Sutra in which the Buddha states, “Now this threefold world is all my domain, and the living beings in it are all my children.”1 Make certain your listeners understand that Shakyamuni is our father.

What kind of Buddha is this parent of ours? The three thousand and more volumes of the non-Buddhist classics speak in great detail of the two concepts of loyalty and filial piety, and they state that loyalty is a principle that derives from that of filial piety. Thus the non-Buddhist texts can serve as a first step toward the sacred writings of Buddhism, for the gist of these teachings is not at variance with what is found in the Buddhist texts. All these texts make clear that, although some persons are exalted and some humble, some of high social rank and some of low, all should treat their parents with proper filial piety.

Shakyamuni Buddha is our parent, and all the sacred teachings of his lifetime are sutra texts that he, the parent, has bestowed on his children in order to instruct them.

In the realm of heaven, in the palaces of the dragon kings, and in India there are countless and boundless numbers of sutras, but in China and Japan we possess only five thousand or seven thousand sutra volumes. With regard to these various sutras, it is not up to us to put forth our private opinions as to which came first and which later, which are superior and which inferior. It is unlikely that the wisdom of people living in this latter age of ours can surpass that of the scholars, great teachers, and persons of outstanding virtue of earlier times, and therefore we would do well to rely on the judgments that they have handed down.

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A sage, it is said, speaks in unadorned language. Moreover, one who knows those things that have not yet made their appearance may be called a sage. Nichiren is thus in some sense a sage. But because I delivered my doctrinal pronouncements on these matters, I was driven from place to place twenty and more times and in the end was condemned to exile. I suffered numerous bodily injuries and many of my disciples were killed. This is worse than what was done to Pi Kan, and no less than what Wu Tzu-hsü had to undergo. I have been treated as badly as Bodhisattva Āryadeva, who was killed by a non-Buddhist, or the Venerable Āryasimha, whose head was cut off by King Dammira.

If I am treated in such fashion and Great Bodhisattva Hachiman leaves my head, whose head will he dwell on? If this country does not heed Nichiren, what is to become of it?

Nichiren grieves at the thought of this—so you should tell your listeners. And tell them also that the priest Nichiren has this to say: If you would call the Buddha and bodhisattvas and the great benevolent deities back to this country, there is only one way to do so. You must abandon your support of every temple belonging to the Zen and Nembutsu schools, reprimand their priests, build a lecture hall on Mount Hiei, and install in it the spirit of Shakyamuni Buddha of Eagle Peak. There is no other way to call back the gods and persuade the Buddhas to come to the aid of this country!

    1. Main Text
  1. Background
  2. Notes

Background

This letter is considered to have been written in 1269 while Nichiren Daishonin was in Kamakura, and sent to a priest named Sammi-bō Nichigyō, a disciple of the Daishonin who had gone to Kyoto to study. While some theories hold that it was written earlier, that seems unlikely. Statements found in it such as “foreign nations are now attempting to destroy our country” and “the great empire of the Mongols has risen up against us” indicate it must have been written after Japan received a missive from the Mongol Empire demanding that Japan acknowledge fealty to the Mongol emperor and threatening a military attack if the demand was not met. That missive arrived in Japan during the first intercalary month of 1268.

The title On the Proper Way to Preach the Doctrine, taken from the letter’s first line, was given in later times. The recipient of this letter, Sammi-bō Nichigyō, was one of the Daishonin’s earliest disciples. A native of the Daishonin’s home region, Shimōsa Province, Sammi-bō at the time of this letter was residing in Kyoto, where he had gone to study Buddhist doctrines. He was esteemed among the Daishonin’s followers for his learning and debating skill. Such skill was evident in his victory over Ryūzō-bō, a priest of the Tendai school, in what is known as the Kuwagayatsu Debate of 1277.

However, Sammi-bō showed signs of arrogance and a desire for social status and recognition. It also appears that he at times ignored advice he received from the Daishonin. In this letter, the Daishonin responds to Sammi-bō’s report that he had delivered a lecture at the Buddha hall of a court noble, giving Sammi-bō clear and stern instruction with regard to how to propound the teachings, and how to conduct himself as a disciple.

Later the priest was sent to Atsuhara to aid Nikkō in spreading the Daishonin’s teachings in the Fuji area, but discarded his faith during the Atsuhara Persecution. Sammi-bō appears to have died soon after that, as in several letters the Daishonin refers to his untimely death. For example, in On Persecutions Befalling the Sage, he writes, “There was something very strange about Sammi-bō. . . . In time his wicked ambition led to treachery and, finally, to his doom” (I, p. 998). And in On Establishing the Four Bodhisattvas as the Object of Devotion he states, “The priest [Sammi-bō] Nichigyō’s death was indeed pitiful. I recited the Lotus Sutra and chanted Nam-myoho-renge-kyo for him here in Minobu, sincerely praying to Shakyamuni, Many Treasures, and the Buddhas of the ten directions to receive him on Eagle Peak” (I, p. 978).

As its opening line suggests, this letter explains how best to introduce the doctrines of the Daishonin’s teachings and offer responses in the context of debate with those representing the other Buddhist schools of the time. The Daishonin states that Sammi-bō should set aside discussion of Hōnen’s Nembutsu Chosen above All and begin by emphasizing the principle that one should rely on the Law rather than on persons. Progressing in accordance with what the Buddha has taught, he should then explain that Shakyamuni is the Buddha who possesses the three virtues of sovereign, teacher, and parent, and the Lotus Sutra alone represents the truth among all of the sutras expounded by the Buddha over his lifetime. To accept and believe in the Lotus Sutra, then, is to carry out true filial piety in the context of Buddhism. The Daishonin then instructs Sammi-bō how to proceed in refuting the Nembutsu school.

In the latter portion of this letter, the Daishonin refutes the errors of the esoteric tradition within the Tendai school at Mount Hiei, which confused the provisional Mahayana sutras with the true Mahayana sutra, the Lotus Sutra, going against the teachings of its founder, Dengyō. The priests of Mount Hiei, the Daishonin points out, had fallen into slander of the Law by recognizing as valid the teachings of the Nembutsu and Zen schools. As a result, they are bringing about the destruction of the nation. The Daishonin, on the other hand, has shown himself to be a sage by speaking directly about what steps ought to be taken to protect the nation, and predicting the calamity that would come about if his advice went unheeded.

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Notes

1. Lotus Sutra, chap. 3.

2. Ibid., chap. 2.

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