The Hero of the World

Background

Around the third year of Kenji (1277), when this letter was written, Shijō Kingo was in great personal danger, having incurred the wrath of his lord Ema. Lord Ema’s antagonism toward Shijō Kingo dated back to the Kuwagayatsu Debate, which took place in the sixth month, 1277. Taking advantage of their discord, Kingo’s colleagues were watching for a chance to do away with him. In response to Kingo’s report on the plight in which he was placed, Nichiren Daishonin wrote a petition to Lord Ema on Kingo’s behalf, explaining what had happened at the Kuwagayatsu Debate and the relative superiority of the Buddhist teachings.

In the present letter, the Daishonin clarifies the difference between Buddhism and government. Reward and punishment are means that a government employs to pursue its goals, while there is no such conscious manipulation in the world of Buddhism. Buddhism, based on an absolute Law, means victory or defeat—in other words, happiness or unhappiness—depending on whether one supports it or opposes it. In the last part of the letter, the Daishonin strongly advises Kingo to take great care to avoid being attacked by his enemies.

Chapter1(The Distinction Between Buddhism and Secular Authority)

Main Text

HAVING glanced through your letter, I feel as relieved as if the day had finally broken after a long night, or as if I had returned home after a long journey.

Buddhism primarily concerns itself with victory or defeat, while secular authority is based on the principle of reward and punishment. For this reason, a Buddha is looked up to as the Hero of the World,¹ while a king is called the one who rules at his will. India is called the Land of the Moon,² and our country, the Land of the Sun. Of the eighty thousand countries in the land of Jambudvīpa, India is one of the largest, and Japan, one of the smallest. When it comes to the auspiciousness of their names, however, India ranks second and Japan first. Buddhism began in the Land of the Moon; it will reside in the Land of the Sun. It is in the natural course of events that the moon appears in the west³ and travels eastward while the sun proceeds from east to west. This truth is as inalterable as the fact that a magnet attracts iron, or that the ivory plant⁴ is nourished by the sound of thunder. Who could possibly deny it?

Notes

1. The Hero of the World is another name for the Buddha, so called because he valiantly confronts all sufferings and leads all people to enlightenment. The “Parable of the Phantom City” chapter of the Lotus Sutra reads, “World hero without peer, you who adorn yourself with a hundred blessings, you have attained unsurpassed wisdom.”

2. Land of the Moon: (Chin Yüeh-chih) A name for India used in China and Japan. In the late third century b.c.e., there was a tribe called Yüeh-chih who ruled a part of India. Since Buddhism was brought from India to China via this territory, the Chinese seem to have regarded the land of the Yüeh-chih (moon tribe) as India itself.

3. “The moon appears in the west” refers to the fact that the new moon is first seen in the west just after sunset. Of course, the moon rises in the east and sets in the west each day just as the sun and stars do, but because its orbital motion is from west to east, it appears to move incrementally in retrograde, from west to east, each day.

4. A kind of plantain. The ivory plant is so called because its petals are large and ivory in color. In the Nirvana Sutra, it is said to grow with the sound of thunder.

Lecture

Nichiren Daishonin encourages Shijo Kingo, who was in dire straits, by demonstrating the difference between Buddhism and secular authority (the law of the king), and how Buddhism is certain to win, using historical facts. The historical facts cited here are two examples: when Buddhism was introduced to Japan, and when it was introduced to China. In both cases, there was a fierce rejection by the indigenous religions tied to secular authority—that is, political power—against Buddhism, which was an external and newly arrived religion. Ultimately, however, Buddhism triumphed through the inherent power of the Law itself.

The persecution Shijo Kingo now faces from his lord, Ema, and the people of Kamakura, because he has embraced Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism ahead of others, is exactly the same as when Buddhism was first introduced and about to spread in Japan and China. No matter how severe the hardships may be, Buddhism is certain to triumph over secular authority, and the time will come when his current suffering turns into the glory of a pioneer. Within this encouragement, offered with his whole soul, we can perceive the Daishonin’s deep affection for his beloved disciple and his immense conviction in the kosen-rufu of the great Buddhism that saves the people into the eternal future of ten thousand years.

“Buddhism primarily concerns itself with victory or defeat, while secular authority is based on the principle of reward and punishment. For this reason, a Buddha is looked up to as the Hero of the World, while a king is called the one who rules at his will.“

The phrase “Buddhism primarily concerns itself with victory or defeat” must be understood in contrast with “secular authority concerns itself with reward and punishment.” “Victory or defeat” means determining which is superior and which is inferior, and which can better serve human happiness and dignity, based not on authority, but on the power of the Law itself and the person who upholds it. On the other hand, “reward and punishment” means rewarding those with merit and punishing those with guilt through authority and social power.

Therefore, “Buddhism concerns itself with victory or defeat” means that Buddhism values the fundamental power of human life and seeks to strengthen it. The subject of this process is the individual human being. In contrast, secular authority is a reflection of social power supported by social authority and the loyalty of the people who submit to that authority. Whether its leader is an individual like a king or dictator, or a collective group like a cabinet, its subject is ultimately a collective power rather than an individual human being. In this way, by presenting the principle of Buddhism as victory or defeat in contrast to the reward and punishment of secular authority, we can read the spirit of Buddhism that focuses on the human being and centers on human potential.

Furthermore, though it may seem like a subtle detail, attention must also be paid to the choice of words: Buddhism makes victory or defeat its “priority” (saki), while secular authority makes reward and punishment its “basis” (hon). “Priority” (saki) here does not simply mean “before” in terms of order. It stands in contrast to the “basis” (hon); it corresponds to the treetops or the tips of leaves of plants, while the root is the “basis.” Therefore, making victory or defeat the priority does not mean that one should prioritize winning over everything else, but rather that it ultimately manifests as a matter of victory or defeat as a result.

What is vital in the practice of Buddhism is to protect the justice of the Law and to practice it with all one’s soul. One must never fixate on winning or employ schemes that distort justice in the slightest degree. This battle of sincerity will be proven to result in ultimate victory when viewed from a long-term perspective.

That secular authority makes reward and punishment its “basis” means that by rewarding those who truly have merit and punishing those who are truly guilty, it serves to maintain order and becomes a norm that governs the people’s behavior. In other words, reward and punishment are standards and cannot encompass the outcomes of all people’s actions. No matter how meticulously a king’s power reaches over the people, it is impossible to encompass every action of every person. Among those who are not rewarded, there may be those with greater merit than those who were. There may also be those who commit far greater crimes than those who are punished, yet escape punishment. This can be said to be the limitation of secular authority, which governs overall control. In any case, herein lies the fundamental difference between secular authority and Buddhism.

“It is in the natural course of events that the moon appears in the west and travels eastward while the sun proceeds from east to west.“

From an astronomical perspective, the moon’s diurnal motion causes it to rise in the east and set in the west of the Earth. However, the moon as seen with the naked eye changes in various ways depending on whether it is a new moon, first quarter, full moon, or last quarter. The moon advances along its orbit (the white path) at an average of 13.2 degrees per day, which causes the times of moonrise and moonset to be delayed by an average of about 51 minutes each day.

In other words, around the time of a new moon, the moon rises and sets at roughly the same time as the sun. Gradually falling behind, around the first quarter, it rises from the east at noon, reaches the southern sky in the evening, and sets at midnight. Around the full moon, it becomes opposite to the sun, rising in the east in the evening and setting at dawn. The last quarter moon rises at midnight and sets at noon.

By the way, the light of the moon, which is weaker than the sun, is difficult for our eyes to perceive during the hours when the sun is out, regardless of when it rises in the east and sets in the west. Therefore, because we regard the evening hour when the sun sets and the moon begins to appear as moonrise, the position where the moon begins to shine shifts from west to east from the new moon to the full moon.

Around the new moon, its position is in the west at sunset because it aligns with the sun. Since the time the moon sets in the west is delayed by 51 minutes each day, the next day at sunset, the moon’s position shifts slightly south from the west. That is, the time the moon sets in the west is delayed. Day by day, it shifts southward in this manner, reaching due south around the first quarter. Furthermore, it gradually moves eastward, so that around the full moon, the moon’s position at sunset is in the east. Moreover, since the moon does not emit light on its own but shines by reflecting the sun’s light, it appears to rise from the west and illuminate the east.

On the other hand, it goes without saying that the sun rises in the eastern sky every morning, shines in the southern sky during the day, and sets in the western sky in the evening.

Similar to these movements of the moon and the sun, Shakyamuni’s Buddhism originated in India—the land of the moon, located to the west—and was transmitted further and further east. It spread to China, was transmitted to the Korean Peninsula, and eventually crossed over to Japan. Now, the Daishonin expresses his immense conviction that it is a principle of nature that his Buddhism, originating from Japan in the east, will spread like the sun to the western lands of China and India, illuminating the entire world.