The Blessings of the Lotus Sutra

(Daibyakurenge, Nov. 2010—based on the sensei’s lecture)

“To Stand Up Alone”—the Spirit of Our Founding

President Toda spoke with a deep, unwavering resolve:

“Even if no one else takes action—even if I am the only one—I will fight.”

I am President Toda’s disciple. Therefore, come what may, I too have stood up alone, fought for the widespread propagation of the Law, and opened new paths.

“Let it begin with me.”
“Let it begin now.”

If one has the lion-king spirit to “stand up alone,” one can achieve absolute victory over any adversity. The grand undertaking of kosen-rufu began from the solitary, life-risking struggle of Nichiren Daishonin, who rose with the vow to save the people.

The current worldwide tide of propagation likewise began when Mr. Makiguchi and Mr. Toda faithfully practiced Nichiren Buddhism and founded the Soka Gakkai.

This spirit of “standing up alone” is precisely the very “founding spirit” of our Soka Gakkai.

With that meaning in mind, let us study the “Letter to the Venerable Myōmitsu,” which preserves the Daishonin’s spirit of rising alone in the Latter Day of the Law to save the people.

The “Letter to the Venerable Myōmitsu” was written in the third month of Kenji 2 (1276). From the contents, we see that the Venerable Myōmitsu repeatedly made offerings to the Daishonin.

This writing records how the Daishonin, alone, took the lead in initiating a struggle to save all living beings throughout the ten thousand years of the Latter Day of the Law. It also solemnly declares that the time will arrive when all people will chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Furthermore, it powerfully promises that the great benefit of kosen-rufu will without fail extend to the couple—Venerable Myōmitsu and his wife—who protected the Daishonin and supported the propagation.

Main Text

The first of the five precepts is not to take life, and the first of the six pāramitās is that of almsgiving. The ten good precepts, the two hundred and fifty precepts, the ten major precepts, and all the other rules of conduct begin with the prohibition against the taking of life.

Every being, from the highest sage on down to the smallest mosquito or gnat, holds life to be its most precious possession. To deprive a being of life is to commit the gravest kind of sin.

When the Thus Come One appeared in this world, he made compassion for living things his basis. And as an expression of compassion for life, to refrain from taking life and to provide sustenance for living beings are the most important precepts.

In providing another with sustenance, one obtains three kinds of benefit. First, one sustains one’s own life. Second, one brings color to one’s face. Third, one gains strength.

Lecture

The Merit of Supporting the Practitioner of the Lotus Sutra

This teaching shows that the supreme Mystic Law can manifest in all people.

At the outset, this writing declares that life is the highest treasure. Even mosquitoes or gadflies cherish their lives. Above all, the Buddha himself cherishes and protects the “lives” of living beings. Therefore, at the head of the precepts—including the Five Precepts—stands the prohibition against taking life, and, to support life, “offering food” is emphasized.

The writing begins this way to praise the greatness of the offerings made by Venerable Myōmitsu—offerings that protected and sustained the life of the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra.

The Daishonin continues, teaching that giving food brings three benefits: “extending life,” “enhancing color (vitality),” and “imparting strength.” In other words, giving food sustains life, brings a vigorous, lively condition, and fills people with the power to live. He further teaches that those who make such offerings will receive splendid rewards when born among humans or gods, and likewise when they attain Buddhahood.

Concerning benefits in the human and heavenly realms: by conferring the merit of “extending life,” the giver gains the reward of longevity; by conferring “imparting strength,” the giver acquires dignity and character, attracting the trust of many; by conferring “enhancing color,” the giver gains auspicious physical marks and a handsome, flower-like appearance.

Regarding the benefits upon becoming a Buddha, these are explained in relation to the Buddha’s three bodies (Trikāya): the merit of “extending life” appears as the Dharma body—vast and boundless like space; “imparting strength” appears as the Reward body—replete with the radiance of pure wisdom; “enhancing color” appears as the Manifested body—overflowing with compassion like Shakyamuni.

Thus, because protecting and cherishing life is the core of Buddhist practice, the merit of “offering food” becomes great good fortune in either human or heavenly birth, and ultimately enables one to attain Buddhahood—the perfect unity of the three bodies in a single Buddhic life.

Offerings carry the merit of helping others accomplish good; ultimately they enable the highest good—Buddhahood. The key, then, is to whom offerings are made. The Lesser Vehicle teaches that offering to sages leads to birth in human or heavenly realms; in contrast, only by making offerings to the Lotus Sutra—the teaching of Buddhahood—can one accomplish the three bodies. Therefore, how great is the act of protecting and supporting the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra, who expounds and spreads the fundamental Law of attaining Buddhahood!

From here, the writing turns to the Daishonin’s struggle of “standing up alone,” the first to chant the universal Law of attaining Buddhahood in the Latter Day.

Main Text

If we inquire into the origin of Mount Sumeru, we find that it began with a single speck of dust; and likewise, the great ocean began with a single drop of dew. One added to one becomes two, two becomes three, and so on to make ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand, or an asamkhya. Yet “one” is the mother of all.

　　　　　　　　—–(excerpt omitted)—–

Bodhisattva Superior Practices, who is entrusted with the daimoku, the core of the essential teaching, had not yet appeared in the world.

But now he will appear in the Latter Day of the Law and propagate the five characters of Myoho-renge-kyo to all the nations and people throughout Jambudvīpa. Surely it will spread just as the invocation of Amida’s name has spread throughout Japan at the present time.

I, Nichiren, am not the founder of any school, nor am I a latter-day follower of any older school. I am a priest without precepts, neither keeping the precepts nor breaking them. I am an ordinary creature like an ox or a sheep, who is neither particularly wise nor ignorant.

Why did I first begin to chant as I do? Bodhisattva Superior Practices is the one destined to make his advent in this world to propagate the five characters of Myoho-renge-kyo. But before he had even appeared, I began, as though speaking in a dream, hardly aware of what I was doing, to utter the words Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, and so I chant them now. 

Lecture

The Mission of Superior Practices to Spread the Daimoku in the Latter Day

Even the colossal Mount Sumeru is composed from one speck of dust; the boundless ocean from one drop. Everything begins from that one—this is the theme.

“One is the mother of ten thousand.”

The writing says, “The mother of asamkhya is only ‘one.’” Kosen-rufu in the Latter Day began from the one person—Nichiren Daishonin.

To make this clear, the text reviews Japanese Buddhist history, focusing on propagation of the Lotus Sutra. Though the Lotus Sutra as a scripture received respect, and names such as Amida, Dainichi, and Shakyamuni spread widely, “no one encouraged people to chant the title Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.” The Lotus Sutra did not truly become the refuge of the common people’s faith.

Looking back to India and China, even among those who elucidated the Lotus Sutra’s profound principles, some chanted the title themselves, but none spread it among the people. In the Former and Middle Days, believers relied on the names of Amida, Dainichi, the Eternal Shakyamuni, Kannon, Yakushi, and so on.

Why, then, was the daimoku not spread in those two thousand years? The Daishonin gives two reasons: the “time” had not yet come, and there was as yet no person entrusted to spread it.

In the Former and Middle Days, people’s delusions were lighter, so provisional Buddhas and bodhisattvas could function as medicine. But to those gravely ill with the great malady of slandering the Law in the Latter Day, only the five characters of Myoho-renge-kyo—the great medicine—can effect a fundamental cure.

Chanting the names of Buddhas outside oneself fosters dependence and does not transform one’s life. The daimoku of the Lotus Sutra is the very Law that made all Buddhas Buddhas; only this seed enables fundamental salvation in the Latter Day. Thus there is no path to Buddhahood apart from chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

As for “entrustment,” the Lotus Sutra confers the propagation in the Latter Day upon Bodhisattva Superior Practices (Jōgyō). The emerging-from-the-earth bodhisattvas are original disciples who “possess the fundamental Law,” appearing with the seed of Buddhahood—Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Though their conduct is that of bodhisattvas, they possess the fundamental Law that made the Buddhas Buddhas; therefore they can rightly guide people in this evil age.

Many have read the Lotus Sutra; none arose to spread its daimoku among the people—except Nichiren Daishonin.

The Daishonin states, “I, Nichiren, am not the founder of any existing school.” His position is not on a straight line extending from two thousand years of earlier Buddhism. Free of established religious authority and political backing, standing as a single human being of the Latter Day, he read the Lotus Sutra directly and began the struggle of Superior Practices.

He further says he is neither precept-keeper nor precept-breaker, not even an ordained recipient of precepts; neither of “wisdom” nor “no-wisdom” as categories. In short, free of prior religious frameworks, he faced the Lotus Sutra and Shakyamuni head-on and fought to establish a people’s Buddhism for the Latter Day—showing how a single person, embracing the Buddha’s intent, can leave an immeasurably great human legacy in action for the people’s salvation.

Buddhism rests on action.

“As one is not low because of birth, nor a brahmin because of birth; it is by one’s actions that one becomes a brahmin”—so taught Shakyamuni. Human worth is determined by conduct, not birth: a radiant declaration of equality for our time.

The Daishonin, receiving the Buddha’s mandate, fulfilled the great work of Superior Practices. He experienced persecutions exactly as the sutra predicts and declared that his struggle itself matched that of true saints. He teaches us that when an awakened human being stands up alone to a true mission, he can accomplish a boundless work of salvation for the people.

Main Text

But I am different from such persons. I firmly uphold the teaching that the Lotus Sutra is supreme among the sutras the Buddha has preached, now preaches, and will preach. Moreover, I chant the daimoku, which is the heart and core of the entire sutra, and I urge others to do likewise. Although the mugwort growing in a hemp field or wood marked for cutting with an inked line may not be straight to begin with, they will as a matter of course become so.

In the same way, one who chants the daimoku as the Lotus Sutra teaches will never have a twisted mind. For one should know that, unless the mind of the Buddha enters into our bodies, we cannot in fact chant the daimoku.

Lecture

Upholding the Sutra’s Fundamental Practice

How did the Daishonin become the “first person” to know the “time” and the “Law” and spread the daimoku in the Latter Day? The key is practicing “exactly as taught”—nyosetsu shugyō.

The Daishonin did not rely on later masters and commentators but on the Lotus Sutra itself and its lived practice. The founders of other schools read the Lotus Sutra through their own scriptures and thus strayed from its essence; viewing it through earlier teachings, they could not grasp its heart—universal Buddhahood based on the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds and three thousand realms in a single moment of life.

By contrast, the Daishonin “deeply guarded” the teaching that the Lotus Sutra is the essence of all the Buddha’s teachings and, accordingly, chanted and spread its daimoku himself.

He stresses believing the sutra and practicing exactly as it teaches. Like mugwort straightened among hemp or a board trued by an ink line, if one chants “as the sutra teaches,” crooked or distorting thoughts do not arise. “Unless the Buddha’s mind enters our bodies, we could not chant”—a vital statement.

As the Expedient Means chapter says “honestly casting aside expedients,” the Lotus Sutra is the Buddha’s straightforward teaching of the path to Buddhahood; and as the Life Span chapter says “gentle, honest in intent, seeking only to see the Buddha, not begrudging body or life,” when people abandon attachments and receive the Buddha’s teaching sincerely and courageously, the Buddha’s mind manifests in the lives of those who believe in the Lotus Sutra—even in the Latter Day.

The sutra also states that great persecutions will arise for those who practice as taught—“much hostility and jealousy,” “the three powerful enemies.” The Daishonin experienced them exactly, thus proving the truth of the Buddha’s words: “Were Nichiren not to have been born in Japan, these sutra passages would be mere words and their meaning empty.”

In direct lineage with the Daishonin, the Soka Gakkai has proven these teachings in our age. For eighty years we have advanced straight ahead with faith “directly connected to the Daishonin,” grounded in the Gosho, and have spread his Buddhism correctly to 192 countries and territories.

We must not confine Nichiren’s Buddhism within the temple parish system of early modern times; we must establish a people’s Buddhism open to the world. Mr. Makiguchi did exactly this, reviving Buddhism as a humanistic way of life that creates value in each person’s daily existence and, emphasizing proof in reality, revived the faith for kosen-rufu. He also upheld strict refutation of slander and refused the wartime demand to accept talismans—an unwavering stand in the orthodox faith of the Daishonin.

Mr. Toda likewise engraved the Gosho in his life, awakened as a Bodhisattva of the Earth, and rose with the vow for kosen-rufu, carrying through a struggle to save the people.

As his disciple, I too have borne full responsibility for kosen-rufu, standing up with our noble comrades. Exactly as the Gosho teaches, we have battled the three obstacles and four devils—in particular the hosts of the Devil King of the Sixth Heaven—and have triumphed over the three powerful enemies. The Soka Gakkai has won in everything.

In modern times, the organization that has read the Daishonin’s writings with its life and proved them is the Soka Gakkai—the sole body that has inherited Nichiren Buddhism. Our eighty years of selfless practice “as taught” constitute an incontrovertible proof of the Gakkai’s legitimacy.

Main Text

In this entire country of Japan, I am the only one who has been chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. I am like the single speck of dust that marks the beginning of Mount Sumeru or the single drop of dew that spells the start of the great ocean. Probably two people, three people, ten people, a hundred people will join in chanting it, until it spreads to one province, two provinces, and all the sixty-six provinces of Japan, and reaches even to the two islands of Iki and Tsushima. Those persons who have spoken slanderously of me will in time chant in the same way; and everyone from the ruler on down to the multitude of common people will, as described in the “Supernatural Powers” chapter of the Lotus Sutra,¹⁶ chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with a single voice. Though the trees may desire to be still, the wind will not cease to blow; though we may wish for spring to linger, it must give way to summer.

Lecture

Everything Begins from the “First Speck,” the “First Drop”

The Daishonin says kosen-rufu began when he alone stood up—“the first mote,” “the first drop.” Through his struggle, the number chanting grew—two, three, ten, a hundred—spreading to one province, then two, then all sixty-six and to the islands of Iki and Tsushima.

Even those who had reviled him changed after his predictions of “internal strife” and “foreign invasion” came true.

He adds: “Though one thinks the trees are still, the wind does not cease; though one would hold back spring, it becomes summer.” Kosen-rufu is inevitable—the Buddha of the Latter Day, Nichiren, assures it.

This also teaches that kosen-rufu is realized as one person encourages another—“two, three, ten.” It is an awakening of one life to the next through one-to-one dialogue.

The Soka Gakkai has advanced exactly in this way—on the foundation of one-to-one encouragement and small discussion meetings. Mr. Makiguchi initiated this tradition, insisting that life’s problems must be addressed through dialogue, as even the Risshō Ankoku-ron is in a question-and-answer form. Mr. Toda likewise said, “Kosen-rufu begins with face-to-face dialogue.” I have consistently done the same. As long as we carry on this warm, human tradition of mutual encouragement, the Gakkai will develop forever.

Main Text

In view of all this, your sincerity in sending a gift of five strings of blue-duck coins whenever the opportunity arises truly entitles you to be known as one who propagates the daimoku of the Lotus Sutra in Japan. As first one person, then two persons, then a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand, and then all the people throughout the country come to chant the daimoku, before you know it, their blessings will accrue to you. Those blessings will be like the drops of dew that gather to form the great ocean, or the specks of dust that pile up to become Mount Sumeru.

The ten demon daughters in particular have vowed to protect those who embrace the daimoku of the Lotus Sutra; it would follow that these deities must look upon you, the Honorable Myōmitsu, and your wife as a mother looks upon an only child. They will prize you as a yak cherishes its own tail, and watch over you day and night. How reassuring, how encouraging!

There is much more that I would like to say, but I do not have time to go into detail. Please explain these things carefully to your wife. I do not write these words merely to flatter.

The more gold is heated in the flames, the brighter will be its color; the more a sword is whetted, the sharper it will become. And the more one praises the blessings of the Lotus Sutra, the more one’s own blessings will increase. Bear in mind that the twenty-eight chapters of the Lotus Sutra contain only a few passages elucidating the truth, but a great many words of praise.

Lecture

Praising Those Who Uphold the Mystic Law

In closing, the Daishonin encourages the couple who repeatedly offered the “five blue mallards,” supporting his practice for kosen-rufu.

Their very intent is identical with spreading the daimoku throughout Japan. Therefore, as the nation comes to chant, the vast benefit will gather upon them—becoming as great as the ocean and Mount Sumeru, and protected without fail by the protective deities.

He also encourages the wife who supported Myōmitsu. To persevere in faith in this evil age is itself profoundly great. The Daishonin treasured such comrades who fought alongside him.

“Gold shines brighter when refined; a sword cuts more sharply when honed.” So too, the merit of the Lotus Sutra increases as we praise it. Even within the Lotus Sutra, the essential doctrine is brief; much of the twenty-eight chapters consists of praise, encouraging all people to embrace the Mystic Law. From the perspective of the essential teaching, the entire sutra is a hymn of praise to Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Benefit overflows in a heart that praises the Mystic Law, and increases still more in a heart that praises those who uphold and spread it.

Our Supremely Noble Potential—Both Self and Others

Those who “uphold the Mystic Law” are people who become confident that everyone—self and others—possesses a supremely noble Buddhic life. As “envoys of the Buddha” and “disciples of the Buddha,” they chant and encourage the daimoku, spreading the true philosophy of respect for life and bathing the world in the workings of compassion.

This is precisely the kind of person the world now seeks: someone who can, through personal experience and action, convey to all that every human being equally harbors the highest potential. Awakening to this noble potential in self and others breaks the single great evil of discrimination—humanity’s fundamental ignorance. With a deep conviction in the dignity of life in all people, we can also win the struggle to overcome war at its roots.

Buddhism that began in India came to Japan; after seven centuries of decline, the Daishonin appeared and established the “sun of Buddhism” illuminating all humankind, spreading the daimoku across Japan as this writing declares.

Seven centuries later, just as the pure stream of Nichiren’s Buddhism was on the verge of being lost, the Soka Gakkai was born. Mr. Makiguchi and Mr. Toda worked to help as many people as possible take faith in the Gohonzon so they could awaken to their supremely noble lives; Gakkai members proved the power of the Gohonzon and joyfully spread it. The full-fledged propagation of the Gohonzon began with our Soka Gakkai.

With the foundation now secure for worldwide kosen-rufu and the westward return of Buddhism, voices across the world and in every land are rising with expectation for Buddhism’s humanistic democracy. Praise for Gakkai members—who embody the Lotus Sutra’s philosophy of life’s dignity—grows by the day. The time has come for a great, full-scale forward stride in worldwide kosen-rufu.

Those who “uphold the Mystic Law” become convinced that everyone—self and others—possesses a supremely noble Buddhic life. As “envoys of the Buddha” and “disciples of the Buddha,” those who chant and spread the daimoku are precisely the people who can spread the true philosophy of life’s dignity and water the world with compassion.

What matters most is the presence of our members—treasures beyond price—who polish their lives through daily activities. The Daishonin’s spirit and the Gakkai’s eighty-year history and tradition live in each of you. There is no doubt that the Daishonin praises you. Together with my wife, I pray each day for the health and victory of every one of our irreplaceable treasures.

The character “hachi” (eight) means “to open.” Now is a fresh departure. Upon the grand stage of kosen-rufu throughout the entire world (Jambudvīpa), let us begin anew—becoming a new “first speck” for Mount Sumeru and a new “first drop” for the great ocean. Together with our mentor, let us say: “Let it begin with me.” “Let it begin now.” The spirit to “stand up alone” is the very spirit of our founding.