Reply to the Wife of Gyōbu Saemon-no-jō Chapter3
The father of the Venerable Maudgalyāyana was Kissen Shishi and his mother was Shōdai-nyo.7 After his mother died, she was reborn in the realm of hungry spirits. Her son Maudgalyāyana, being at this time an ordinary mortal, had no knowledge of this. Later, when he attained the degree of enlightenment that goes with a person in the two vehicles, he became endowed with the heavenly eye,8 and looking about him, saw that his mother had fallen into the realm of hungry spirits. He was so startled that he could not even cry out at the pity of it.
He went to the realm of hungry spirits and offered rice to his mother, but no sooner had a morsel of it entered her mouth than it would turn into flames. Her mouth was like a cauldron and the rice like bits of live coals. Her whole body burned like a flaming torch, but when Maudgalyāyana, employing his transcendental powers, produced water to put out the fire, the water changed into flames and the fire burned more fiercely than ever.
Maudgalyāyana, realizing that it was beyond his power to effect a remedy, hastened to appear before the Buddha and report the situation. [Then, just as the Buddha had instructed him] he made offerings of rice to the sage monks of the ten directions and, taking some of this rice and offering it to his mother, he was only just barely able to bring her some relief from the sufferings of the realm of hungry spirits.
On the seventh day after Shakyamuni Buddha was born, his mother, Lady Māyā, left him and departed from this life. Shakyamuni, being no more than a common mortal at that time, did not know where she had been reborn. After he became a Buddha at the age of thirty, he converted his father, King Shuddhodana, to his teachings in this present life and led him to become an arhat who obtained the fruit of emancipation. Meanwhile, the Buddha for his mother’s sake ascended to the heaven of the thirty-three gods and preached the Māyā Sutra for her. Thus both his father and mother were able to attain the stage of arhat.
Because of the facts I have described above, in the sutras preached before the Lotus Sutra Maudgalyāyana was regarded as a man of the two vehicles who was marked by filial devotion, and Shakyamuni as a Buddha marked by filial devotion. But if we take the longer view of things, then Maudgalyāyana was in fact an unfilial voice-hearer and Shakyamuni an unfilial Buddha. As much as a sage as the Venerable Maudgalyāyana was, he did not guide his mother into the path that leads to Buddhahood. And as truly great a sage as Shakyamuni was, he merely led his father and mother into the path of the two vehicles, where they would lament more sorrowfully than ever the fact that they could never attain Buddhahood. Can this be called filial devotion, or does it deserve to be called unfilial conduct?
Therefore the layman Vimalakīrti criticized Maudgalyāyana, calling him a disciple of the six non-Buddhist teachers. And the Buddha spoke reproachfully of himself, saying, “[If I used a lesser vehicle to convert even one person], I would be guilty of stinginess and greed, but such a thing would be impossible.”9 Maudgalyāyana did not know any better, and so his guilt is somewhat less weighty. But the Buddha knew of the teachings that were to be set forth in the Lotus Sutra, yet he stingily withheld them from his father while the latter was still alive. And when he was reunited with his mother, who had died earlier, he did not preach them to her. Could we find anyone guilty of greater stinginess than this?
Background
Nichiren Daishonin wrote this letter in response to an offering of twenty thousand coins from the wife of Gyōbu Saemon-no-jō in Owari Province, which she had made to honor the thirteenth anniversary of her mother’s death. The identity of her husband is not certain, but from the large offering of coins she was able to provide, it appears he was a samurai of considerable rank.
Though the year is not indicated, the letter is thought to have been written in 1280.
The Daishonin begins by citing a story from a sutra about an exchange between the Buddha and the earth gods on the importance of filial piety, the commitment and actions to repay the debt of gratitude one owes to one’s parents. He emphasizes that the debt owed to one’s mother is especially profound, describing in moving detail the sufferings a mother endures in giving birth to and caring for her children.
He then praises as extraordinary the filial devotion of the wife of Gyōbu Saemon-no-jō in making offerings on behalf of her late mother. While parents’ devotion to their children is not uncommon, it is rarer for the child to respond in kind. Next, he delves more deeply into the concept of filial piety in Buddhism. The Classic of Filial Piety, a Confucian text, addresses only devotion to one’s living parents, while failing to consider their next existence. Buddhism, on the other hand, deals p.899with saving one’s parents not only in this life, but also after their death. However, he asserts, there are distinctions in the Buddhist teachings.
To illustrate this, he cites the famous story from Buddhist scriptures of Maudgalyāyana’s efforts to rescue his deceased mother from the realm of hungry spirits. This story is held as a model of Buddhist filial devotion. But although Maudgalyāyana relieved his mother of the agony of hunger, there is no mention of his enabling her to attain Buddhahood.
The Daishonin explains that even Shakyamuni Buddha could not save his own departed parents until he preached the Lotus Sutra. He expresses his conviction, therefore, that Shakyamuni Buddha preached the Lotus Sutra in order to enable all people to help their deceased parents attain Buddhahood.
The Daishonin closes by confirming that the filial devotion of Gyōbu’s wife based on faith in the Lotus ensures that her mother “will make her way to the pure land of Eagle Peak,” that is, attain Buddhahood.
Notes
7. Kissen Shishi and Shōdai-nyo are the Japanese names for this couple. Their Sanskrit names are unknown.
8. One of the five types of vision. The heavenly eye means the ability of heavenly beings to see beyond the physical limitations of darkness, distance, or obstruction.
9. Lotus Sutra, chap. 2. During the first more than forty years of his preaching life, Shakyamuni Buddha expounded only provisional teachings, and had never revealed the true teaching, or the Lotus Sutra.