The Opening of the Eyes

 

 

Chapter1（Showing three categories of people that all human beings should respect）

THERE are three categories of people that all human beings should respect. They are the sovereign, the teacher, and the parent. There are three types of doctrines that are to be studied. They are Confucianism, Brahmanism, and Buddhism.

 

 

Chapter2（The three virtues of confucianism）

Confucianism describes the Three Sovereigns, the Five Emperors, and the Three Kings, whom it calls the Honorable Ones of Heaven. These men are depicted as the heads of the government officials and the bridges for the populace. In the age before the Three Sovereigns, people were no better than birds and beasts in that they did not even know who their own fathers were. But from the time of the Five Emperors on, they came to know who their fathers and mothers were, treating them according to the dictates of filial piety. Thus Ch’ung-hua¹ served his father with reverence, though the latter was stubborn and hardheaded. Also, the governor of P’ei,² after he became the emperor, continued to pay great respect to his father, the Venerable Sire. King Wu of the Chou dynasty made a wooden image of his father, the Earl of the West,³ and Ting Lan fashioned a statue of his mother.⁴ All of these men are models of filial piety.

The high minister Pi Kan, seeing that the Yin dynasty was on the path to ruin, strongly admonished the ruler, though it cost him his head. Hung Yen, finding that his lord, Duke Yi, had been killed, cut open his own stomach and inserted the duke’s liver in it before he died. These men may serve as models of loyalty.

Yin Shou was the teacher of Emperor Yao, Wu Ch’eng was the teacher of Emperor Shun, T’ai-kung Wang was the teacher of King Wen,⁵ and Lao Tzu was the teacher of Confucius.⁶ These teachers are known as the four sages. Even the Honorable Ones of Heaven bow their heads to them in respect, and all people press their palms together in reverence. Sages such as these have left behind writings that run to over three thousand volumes in such works as the Three Records, the Five Canons, and the Three Histories. But all these writings in the end do not advance beyond the three mysteries. The first of the three mysteries is Being. This is the principle taught by the Duke of Chou and others. The second mystery is Non-Being, which was expounded by Lao Tzu. The third is Both Being and Non-Being, which is the mystery set forth by Chuang Tzu. Mystery denotes darkness. Some say that, if we ask what existed before our ancestors were born, we will find that life was born out of the primal force, while others declare that eminence and ignobility, joy and sorrow, right and wrong, gain and loss occur simply as part of the natural order.

These are theories that are cleverly argued, but that fail to take cognizance of either the past or the future. Mystery, as we have seen, means darkness or obscurity, and it is for this reason that it is called mystery. It is a theory that deals with matters only in terms of the present. Speaking in terms of the present, the Confucians declare that one should abide by the principles of benevolence and righteousness,⁷ and thereby insure safety to oneself and peace and order to the state. If one departs from these principles, they say, then one’s family will be doomed and one’s house overthrown.

 

Notes

1. Also known as Yü Shun. He is the last of the Five Emperors, legendary rulers of ancient China.

2. The governor of P’ei refers to Liu Pang (247–195 b.c.e.), the founder of the Former Han dynasty.

3. When King Wu decided to overthrow the tyrant Chou of the Yin dynasty, before setting out on his campaign, he carved a wooden figure of his father, who had cherished the same desire to save the people. The Earl of the West refers to King Wen of the Chou dynasty, the third of the Three Kings who reigned after the Five Emperors.

4. During the Later Han dynasty, Ting Lan, who had lost his mother at the age of fifteen, made a statue of her and served it as if she had been still alive.

5. Yin Shou and Wu Ch’eng are legendary figures. T’ai-kung Wang was a general who served King Wen and, after the king’s death, served King Wu, Wen’s son. He fought valorously with King Chou of the Yin dynasty and contributed to the prosperity of the Chou dynasty.

6. This assertion is found in Chuang Tzu and Records of the Historian.

7. The principles refer to the first two of the five constant virtues taught by Confucius.

 

 

 

Chapter3（Indicating that non-Buddhist texts should be regarded as a first step toward Buddhist doctrine）

But although the wise and worthies who preach this doctrine are acclaimed as sages, in their lack of knowledge about the past they are like ordinary people unable to see their own backs, and in their understanding about the future they are like a blind man unable to see what lies before him.

If, in terms of the present, one brings order to one’s family, carries out the demands of filial piety, and faithfully practices the five constant virtues, then one’s associates will respect one, and one’s name will become known throughout the country. If there is a worthy ruler on the throne, he will invite such a person to become his minister or his teacher, or may even cede his position to him. Heaven too will come to protect and watch over such a person. Such were the so-called Five Elders⁸ who gathered about and assisted King Wu of the Chou dynasty, or the twenty-eight generals of Emperor Kuang-wu of the Later Han, who were likened to the twenty-eight constellations of the sky. But since such persons know nothing about the past or the future, they cannot assist their parents, their sovereign, or their teacher in making provisions for their future lives, and are therefore unable to repay the debt they owe them. Such persons are not true worthies or sages.

Confucius declared that there were no worthies or sages in his country, but that in the land to the west there was one named Buddha who was a sage.⁹ This indicates that non-Buddhist texts should be regarded as a first step toward Buddhist doctrine. Confucius first taught propriety and music¹⁰ so that, when the Buddhist scriptures were brought to China, the concepts of the precepts, meditation, and wisdom¹¹ could be more readily grasped. He taught the ideals of ruler and minister so that the distinction between superior and subordinate could be made clear, he taught the ideal of parenthood so that the importance of filial piety could be appreciated, and he explained the ideal of the teacher so that people might learn to follow.

The Great Teacher Miao-lo says, “The propagation of Buddhism truly depends on this. First the teachings on propriety and music were set forth, and later the true way was introduced.”¹² T’ien-t’ai states, “In the Golden Light Sutra it is recorded that ‘all the good teachings that exist in the world derive from this sutra. To have a profound knowledge of this world is itself Buddhism.’”¹³ In Great Concentration and Insight we read, “I [the Buddha] have dispatched the Three Sages¹⁴ to educate the land of China.” In The Annotations on “Great Concentration and Insight” we read: “The Practice of the Pure Law Sutra states that Bodhisattva Moonlight appeared in that land under the name Yen Hui, Bodhisattva Bright Pure appeared there as Confucius, and Bodhisattva Kāshyapa appeared as Lao Tzu. Since the sutra is speaking from the point of view of India, it refers to China as ‘that land.’”

 

Notes

8. Their names are unknown.

9. This is found in Lieh Tzu, an early Taoist text.

10. Propriety and music were regarded as instrumental in enhancing people’s sense of morality, and in maintaining social order.

11. The three types of learning or disciplines essential for the Buddhist practitioner.

12. The Annotations on “Great Concentration and Insight.” “The true way” here refers to Buddhism.

13. Great Concentration and Insight.

14. Confucius, his disciple Yen Hui, and Lao Tzu.

 

 

 

Chapter4（The three virtues of the non-Buddhist teachings of India）

Secondly, we come to the non-Buddhist teachings of India. In Brahmanism we find the two deities: Shiva, who has three eyes and eight arms, and Vishnu. They are hailed as the loving father and compassionate mother of all living beings and are also called the Honorable Ones of Heaven and sovereigns. In addition, there are three men, Kapila, Ulūka, and Rishabha,¹⁵ who are known as the three ascetics. These ascetics lived somewhere around eight hundred years before the time of the Buddha. The teachings expounded by the three ascetics are known as the four Vedas and number sixty thousand.

Later, in the time of the Buddha, there were the six non-Buddhist teachers who studied and transmitted these non-Buddhist scriptures and acted as tutors to the kings of the five regions of India. Their teachings split into ninety-five or ninety-six different lines, forming school after school. The banners of their pride were raised higher than the heaven where there is neither thought nor no thought,¹⁶ and their dogmatic rigidity was harder than metal or stone. But in their skill and depth of understanding, they surpassed anything known in Confucianism. They were able to perceive two, three, or even seven existences, a period of eighty thousand kalpas, into the past, and they likewise knew what would happen eighty thousand kalpas in the future. As the fundamental principle of their doctrine, some of these schools taught that causes produce effects, others taught that causes do not produce effects, while still others taught that causes both do and do not produce effects. Such were the fundamental principles of these non-Buddhist schools.

The devout followers of the non-Buddhist teachings observe the five precepts and the ten good precepts, practice the kind of meditation that is still accompanied by outflows, and, ascending to the worlds of form and formlessness,¹⁷ believe they have attained nirvana when they reach the highest of the heavens. But although they make their way upward bit by bit like an inchworm, they fall back from the heaven where there is neither thought nor no thought, and descend instead into the three evil paths. Not a single one succeeds in remaining on the level of the heavens, though they believe that once having attained that level they will never descend from it. Each approves and practices the doctrines taught by his teacher and firmly abides by them. Thus some of them bathe three times a day in the Ganges even on cold winter days, while others pull out the hairs on their head, fling themselves against rocks, expose themselves to fire, burn their bodies, or go about stark naked. Again there are those who believe they can gain good fortune by sacrificing many horses, or who burn grasses and trees, or make obeisance to every tree they encounter.

Erroneous teachings such as these are too numerous to be counted. Their adherents pay as much respect and honor to the teachers who propound them as the heavenly deities pay to the lord Shakra, or the court ministers pay to the ruler of the empire. But not a single person who adheres to these ninety-five types of higher or lower non-Buddhist teachings ever escapes from the cycle of birth and death. Those who follow teachers of the better sort will, after two or three rebirths, fall into the evil paths, while those who follow evil teachers will fall into the evil paths in their very next rebirth.

And yet the main point of these non-Buddhist teachings constitutes an important means of entry into Buddhism. Some of them state, “A thousand years from now, the Buddha will appear in the world,”¹⁸ while others state, “A hundred years from now, the Buddha will appear in the world.”¹⁹ The Nirvana Sutra remarks, “All of the non-Buddhist scriptures and writings in society are themselves Buddhist teachings, not non-Buddhist teachings.” And in the Lotus Sutra it is written, “Before the multitude they seem possessed of the three poisons or manifest the signs of distorted views. My disciples in this manner use expedient means to save living beings.”²⁰

 

Notes

15. Kapila and Ulūka were the respective founders of the Sāmkhya and Vaisheshika schools, two of the six major schools of Brahmanism in ancient India. Rishabha’s teachings are said to have prepared the way for Jainism. They were called the three ascetics.

16. The world of formlessness being divided into four realms, this refers to the uppermost.

17. “Outflows” here means illusions or defilements. The worlds of form and formlessness are the two highest worlds of the threefold world.

18. Possibly a rephrasing of a passage in the Nirvana Sutra.

19. Possibly a rephrasing of a passage in the Nirvana Sutra.

20. Lotus Sutra, chap. 8.

 

 

 

Chapter5（Judging teachings relative to Buddhism and non-Buddhism）

Thirdly, we come to Buddhism. One should know that the World-Honored One of Great Enlightenment is a great leader for all living beings, a great eye for them, a great bridge, a great helmsman, a great field of good fortune. The four sages and three ascetics of the Confucian and Brahmanical scriptures and teachings are referred to as sages, but in fact they are no more than ordinary people who have not yet been able to eradicate the three categories of illusion. They are referred to as wise men, but in fact they are no more than infants who cannot understand the principles of cause and effect. With their teachings for a ship, could one ever cross over the sea of the sufferings of birth and death? With their teachings for a bridge, could one ever escape from the maze of the six paths? But the Buddha, our great teacher, has advanced beyond even transmigration with change and advance, let alone transmigration with differences and limitations.²¹ He has wiped out even the very root of fundamental darkness, let alone the illusions of thought and desire that are as minor as branches and leaves.

This Buddha, from the time of his enlightenment at the age of thirty until his passing at the age of eighty, expounded his sacred teachings for a period of fifty years. Each word, each phrase he spoke is true; not a sentence, not a verse is false. The words of the sages and worthies preserved in the scriptures and teachings of Confucianism and Brahmanism, as we have noted, are free of error, and the words match the spirit in which they were spoken. But how much more true is this in the case of the Buddha, who had spoken not a false word for countless kalpas! In comparison to the non-Buddhist scriptures and teachings, the doctrines that he expounded in a period of fifty or so years represent the great vehicle, the true words of the great man.²² Everything that he preached, from the dawn of his enlightenment until the evening that he entered into nirvana, is none other than the truth.

 

Notes

21. “Transmigration with differences and limitations” refers to the transmigration of unenlightened beings through the six paths. In this repeating cycle of rebirth through the six lower deluded worlds, living beings are born with limited spans of life and in different forms in accordance with their karma. “Transmigration with change and advance” refers to the transmigration of voice-hearers, cause-awakened ones, and bodhisattvas. In this transmigration, they change, or emancipate, from the body subject to transmigration of delusion with differences and limitations, while gradually removing illusions leading to sufferings.

22. The great man refers here to the Buddha.

 

 

 

Chapter6（Judging teachings relative to provisional and true sutras）

However, when we examine the eighty thousand teachings of Buddhism expounded during a period of fifty or so years and recorded in scriptures, we find that they fall into various categories such as Hinayana and Mahayana, provisional and true sutras, exoteric and esoteric teachings, detailed and rough discourses, true words and false words, correct and incorrect views. But among these, the Lotus Sutra alone represents the correct teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings, the truthful words of the Buddhas of the three existences and the ten directions. The World-Honored One of Great Enlightenment designated a specific period of the preceding forty years and more, and defined the various sutras preached during that period, numerous as the sands of the Ganges, as the sutras in which he had “not yet revealed the truth.”²³ He designated the Lotus Sutra preached during the eight years as the sutra in which he “now must reveal the truth.”²⁴ Thus Many Treasures Buddha came forth from beneath the earth to testify that “all that you have expounded [in the Lotus Sutra] is the truth,”²⁵ and the Buddhas who are emanations of Shakyamuni gathered together and extended their long tongues up to the Brahmā heaven in testimony.²⁶ These words are perfectly clear, perfectly understandable, brighter than the sun on a clear day, or like the full moon at midnight. Look up to them and believe them, and when you turn away, cherish them in your heart!

 

Notes

23. A passage from the Immeasurable Meanings Sutra that reads, “In these more than forty years, I have not yet revealed the truth.”

24. Lotus Sutra, chap. 2. It reads, “The World-Honored One has long expounded his doctrines and now must reveal the truth.”

25. Ibid., chap. 11.

26. This is described in chapter 21 of the Lotus Sutra.

 

 

 

Chapter7（Identifying the truth buried beneath the Lotus Sutra）

The Lotus Sutra contains two important teachings.²⁷ The Dharma Analysis Treasury, Establishment of Truth, Precepts, Dharma Characteristics, and Three Treatises schools have never heard even so much as the name of these teachings. The Flower Garland and True Word schools, on the other hand, have surreptitiously stolen these doctrines and made them the heart of their own teachings. The doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life is found in only one place, hidden in the depths of the “Life Span” chapter of the essential teaching of the Lotus Sutra. Nāgārjuna and Vasubandhu were aware of it but did not bring it forth into the light. T’ien-t’ai Chih-che alone embraced it and kept it ever in mind.

The doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life begins with the concept of the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds. But the Dharma Characteristics and Three Treatises schools speak only of eight worlds and know nothing of the entirety of the Ten Worlds, much less of the concept of their mutual possession. The Dharma Analysis Treasury, Establishment of Truth, and Precepts schools derive their teachings from the Āgama sutras. They are aware only of the six worlds and know nothing of the other four worlds. They declare that in all the ten directions there is only one Buddha, and do not even preach that there is any other Buddha in any of the ten directions. Of the principle that “all sentient beings alike possess the Buddha nature,”²⁸ they of course say nothing at all. They refuse to acknowledge that even a single person possesses the Buddha nature. In spite of this, one will sometimes hear members of the Precepts and Establishment of Truth schools declaring that there are Buddhas in the ten directions, or that all living beings possess the Buddha nature. This is because the teachers of these schools who appeared after the passing away of the Buddha had stolen these Mahayana doctrines and incorporated them into the teachings of their own schools.

 

Notes

27. This refers to the theory of three thousand realms in a single moment of life based on the theoretical teaching (first half) of the Lotus Sutra, and the actuality of three thousand realms in a single moment of life based on the essential teaching (latter half) of the sutra.

28. Nirvana Sutra.

 

 

 

 

Chapter8（Revealing that the Buddhist teachings were incorporated into the non-Buddhist teachings）

To illustrate, in the period before the appearance of Buddhism, the proponents of the non-Buddhist teachings in India were not so bound up in their own views. But after the appearance of the Buddha, when they had listened to and observed the Buddhist teachings, they became aware of the shortcomings of their own doctrines. They then conceived the clever idea of appropriating Buddhist teachings and incorporating them into their own doctrines, and as a result they fell into even deeper error than before. These are examples of the errors known as “appropriating Buddhism” or “plagiarizing Buddhism.”²⁹

The same thing occurred in the case of non-Buddhist scriptures in China. Before Buddhism was brought to China, Confucianism and Taoism were rather naive and childish affairs. But in the Later Han, Buddhism was introduced to China and challenged the native doctrines. In time, as Buddhism became more popular, there were certain Buddhist priests who, because they had broken the precepts, were forced to return to secular life, or who elected to join forces with the native creeds. Through such men, Buddhist doctrines were stolen and incorporated into the Confucian and Taoist teachings.

In volume five of Great Concentration and Insight we read: “These days there are many devilish monks who break the precepts and return to lay life. Fearing that they will be punished for their action, they then go over to the side of the Taoists. Hoping to gain fame and profit, they speak extravagantly of the merits of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, usurping Buddhist concepts and reading them into their erroneous scriptures. They twist what is lofty and force it into a mean context; they destroy what is exalted and drag it down among the base, striving to put the two on an equal level.”

On “Great Concentration and Insight” comments on this passage as follows: “Though they are monks, they destroy the teachings of Buddhism. Some break the precepts and return to lay life, as Wei Yüan-sung did. Then, as laymen, they work to destroy the teachings of Buddhism. Men of this kind steal and usurp the correct teachings of Buddhism and use them to supplement and bolster the erroneous writings. The passage on ‘twisting what is lofty . . .’ means that, adopting the outlook of the Taoists, they try to place Buddhism and Taoism on the same level, to make equals of the correct and the erroneous, though reason tells us that this could never be. Having once been followers of Buddhist teachings, they steal what is correct and use it to bolster what is incorrect. They twist the lofty eighty thousand teachings of the twelve divisions of the Buddhist canon and force them into the mean context of Lao Tzu’s two chapters and five thousand words, using them to interpret the base and mistaken teachings of that text. This is what is meant by ‘destroying what is exalted and dragging it down among the base.’” These comments should be carefully noted, for they explain the meaning of the foregoing description of events.

 

Notes

29. “Appropriating Buddhism” refers to the incorporating of the Hinayana teachings by non-Buddhists into their own doctrine, claiming it as their own teaching. “Plagiarizing Buddhism” refers to the plagiarizing of Buddhist teachings by non-Buddhists who set forth Mahayana teachings as the doctrine of their own school. They are described in Great Concentration and Insight.

 

 

 

Chapter9(Buddhism was introduced to China)

The same sort of thing happened within Buddhism itself. Buddhism was introduced to China during the Yung-p’ing era (c.e. 58–75) of the Later Han dynasty, and in time established its supremacy over Confucian and Taoist teachings. But differences of opinion developed within Buddhism, resulting in the three schools of the south and seven schools of the north, which sprang up here and there like so many orchids or chrysanthemums. In the time of the Ch’en and Sui dynasties, however, the Great Teacher Chih-che defeated these various schools and returned Buddhism once more to its primary objective of saving all living beings.

Later, the teachings of the Dharma Characteristics and True Word schools were introduced from India, and the Flower Garland school also made its appearance. Among these schools, the Dharma Characteristics school set itself up as an arch opponent of the T’ien-t’ai school, because their teachings are as contradictory to each other as fire is to water. However, when the Tripitaka Master Hsüan-tsang and the Great Teacher Tz’u-en closely examined the works of T’ien-t’ai, they came to realize that the views of their own school were in error. Although they did not openly repudiate their own school, it appears that in their hearts they switched their allegiance to the T’ien-t’ai teachings.

From the beginning the Flower Garland and True Word schools were both provisional schools based upon provisional sutras. But the Tripitaka masters Shan-wu-wei and Chin-kang-chih [who introduced the esoteric True Word teachings to China] usurped the T’ien-t’ai doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life and made it the core of the teachings of their school, adding the practice of mudras and mantras and convincing themselves that their teachings surpassed T’ien-t’ai’s. As a result, students of Buddhism, unaware of the real facts, came to believe that the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life was to be found in the Mahāvairochana Sutra that had been brought from India. Similarly, in the time of the Flower Garland patriarch Ch’eng-kuan, the T’ien-t’ai doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life was surreptitiously incorporated and used to interpret the passage in the Flower Garland Sutra that reads, “The mind is like a skilled painter.” People were unaware that this was what had happened.

 

 

 

Chapter10(Buddhism was introduced to Japan)

In the case of our own country of Japan, the Flower Garland and the other schools that comprised the six schools of Nara were introduced to Japan before the T’ien-t’ai (or Tendai) and True Word schools. The Flower Garland, Three Treatises, and Dharma Characteristics schools argued and contended, as inimical to one another as water and fire. When the Great Teacher Dengyō appeared in Japan, he not only exposed the errors of the six schools, but also made it clear that the True Word school had stolen the principles of the Lotus Sutra as expounded by T’ien-t’ai and made them the heart of the teachings of its own school. The Great Teacher Dengyō set aside the various tenets propounded by the leaders of the other schools and, solely in the light of the sutras, attacked their views. As a result, he was able to defeat eight eminent priests of the six schools, then twelve priests, then fourteen, then over three hundred, as well as the Great Teacher Kōbō. Soon there was not a single person in all Japan who did not acknowledge allegiance to the Tendai school, and the great temples of Nara, Tō-ji, and other temples throughout all the provinces became subordinate to the head temple of the Tendai school at Mount Hiei. The Great Teacher Dengyō also made it clear that the founders of the various other schools in China, by acknowledging allegiance to the doctrines of T’ien-t’ai, had escaped committing the error of slandering the correct teachings of Buddhism.

Later, however, conditions in the world declined, and people became increasingly shallow in wisdom. They no longer studied or understood the profound doctrines of the Tendai school, and the other schools became more and more firmly attached to their own prejudiced views. Eventually, the six schools and the True Word school turned upon and attacked the Tendai school. The latter, growing ever weaker, in the end found that it was no match for the other schools. To aggravate the situation, absurd new schools such as Zen and Pure Land appeared and began attacking the Tendai school as well, and more and more of its lay supporters transferred their allegiance to these erroneous schools. In the end, even those priests of the Tendai school who were looked up to as men of eminent virtue all admitted defeat and lent their support to these schools. Not only Tendai but True Word and the six schools as well were forced to yield their lands and estates to these new misguided schools, and the correct teachings [of the Lotus Sutra] fell into oblivion. As a result, the Sun Goddess, the god Hachiman, the Mountain King of Mount Hiei, and the other great benevolent deities who guard the nation, no longer able to taste the flavor of the correct teaching, departed from the land. Demons came forward to take their place, and it became apparent that the nation was doomed.

 

 

 

Chapter11(Considering the differences between the provisional teachings and the teachings of the truth)

Here, with my humble outlook, I have considered the differences between the teachings expounded by the Buddha Shakyamuni during the first forty and more years and those expounded in the Lotus Sutra during the last eight years of his life. Although both differ in many ways, contemporary scholars have already expressed the opinion, and it is my conviction as well, that the chief difference lies in the fact that the Lotus Sutra teaches that persons of the two vehicles can attain Buddhahood, and that the Buddha Shakyamuni in reality attained enlightenment at an inconceivably distant time in the past.

 

 

 

Chapter12(One Buddha with two words, the phase of difficulty to believe)

When we examine the text of the Lotus Sutra, we see that it predicts that Shāriputra will become the Thus Come One Flower Glow, that Mahākāshyapa will become the Thus Come One Light Bright, Subhūti will become the Thus Come One Rare Form, Kātyāyana will become the Thus Come One Jambūnada Gold Light, Maudgalyāyana will become Tamalapattra Sandalwood Fragrance Buddha, Pūrna will become the Thus Come One Law Bright, Ānanda will become Mountain Sea Wisdom Unrestricted Power King Buddha, Rāhula will become the Thus Come One Stepping on Seven Treasure Flowers, the five hundred and seven hundred voice-hearers will become Thus Come Ones Universal Brightness, the two thousand who have more to learn or do not have more to learn will become Thus Come Ones Jewel Sign, the nuns Mahāprajāpatī and Yashodharā will become Thus Come Ones Gladly Seen by All Living Beings and Endowed with a Thousand Ten Thousand Glowing Marks, respectively.

Thus, if we examine the Lotus Sutra, we will realize that these persons are worthy of great honor. But when we search through the scriptures expounded in the period previous to the Lotus Sutra, we find to our regret that the situation is far different.

The Buddha, the World-Honored One, is a man of truthful words. Therefore, he is designated the sage and the great man. In the non-Buddhist scriptures of India and China, there are also persons called worthies, sages, or heavenly ascetics because they speak words of truth. But because the Buddha surpasses all these, he is known as the great man.

[When he expounded the Lotus Sutra,] this great man said, “The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear in the world for one great reason alone.”³⁰ He also said, “I have not yet revealed the truth,”³¹ “The World-Honored One has long expounded his doctrines and now must reveal the truth,”³² and “Honestly discarding expedient means, [I will preach only the unsurpassed way].”³³ Many Treasures Buddha added his testimony to the words of the Buddha, and the emanations of the Buddha put forth their tongues as a token of assent. Who, then, could possibly doubt that Shāriputra will in the future become the Thus Come One Flower Glow, that Mahākāshyapa will become the Thus Come One Light Bright, or that the other predictions made by the Buddha will come true?

Nevertheless, all the sutras preceding the Lotus Sutra also represent the true words of the Buddha. The Great and Vast Buddha Flower Garland Sutra states: “There are only two places where the Great Medicine King Tree, which is the wisdom of the Thus Come One, will not grow and bring benefit to the world. It will not grow in the vast void that is the deep pit into which persons of the two vehicles fall, or in the profoundly distorted and craving-filled waters wherein drown beings unfit for Buddhahood who destroy their own roots of goodness.”

This passage may be explained as follows. In the Snow Mountains, there is a huge tree that has numberless roots. It is called the Great Medicine King Tree and is the monarch of all the trees that grow in the land of Jambudvīpa. It measures 168,000 yojanas in height. All the other trees and plants of Jambudvīpa depend upon the roots, branches, flowers, and fruit of this tree to attain their own flowering and fruition. Therefore, this tree is employed as a metaphor for the Buddha nature, and the various other trees and plants stand for all living beings. But this great tree will not grow in a fiery pit or in the watery circle.³⁴ The fiery pit is used as a metaphor for the mind of persons of the two vehicles, and the watery circle is used as a metaphor for the mind of icchantikas, or persons of incorrigible disbelief. The scripture is saying that these two categories of beings will never attain Buddhahood.

The Great Collection Sutra states: “There are two types of persons who are destined to die and not to be reborn, and who in the end will never be able to understand or repay their obligations. One is the voice-hearer, and the other is the cause-awakened one. Suppose that a person falls into a deep pit. That person will be unable to benefit himself or to benefit others. The voice-hearer and the cause-awakened one are like this. They fall into the pit of emancipation and can benefit neither themselves nor others.”

The more than three thousand volumes of Confucian and Taoist literature of China on the whole stress two principles, namely, filial piety and loyalty to the sovereign. But loyalty is nothing more than an extension of filial piety. Filial piety may be described as lofty. Though heaven is lofty, it is no loftier than the ideal of filial piety. Filial piety may be called deep. Though earth is deep, it is no deeper than filial piety. Sages and worthies are the product of filial piety. It goes without saying, therefore, that persons who study the teachings of Buddhism must also [observe the ideal of filial piety and] understand and repay their obligations. The disciples of the Buddha must without fail understand the four debts of gratitude³⁵ and know how to repay them.

In addition, Shāriputra, Mahākāshyapa, and the other disciples who were persons of the two vehicles carefully observed the two hundred and fifty precepts and the three thousand rules of conduct, mastered the three types of meditation—known as flavor meditation, pure meditation, and free-of-outflows meditation—and the Āgama sutras, and freed themselves from the illusions of thought and desire in the threefold world. They must therefore have been models in the understanding and repaying of obligations.

And yet the World-Honored One declared that they were men who did not understand obligation. He said this because, when a man leaves his parents and home and becomes a monk, he should always have as his goal the salvation of his father and mother. But these men of the two vehicles, although they thought they had attained emancipation, did nothing to benefit others. And even if they had done a certain amount to benefit others, they had led their parents to a path whereby they could never attain Buddhahood. Thus, contrary to what one might expect, they became known as men who did not understand their obligations.

 

Notes

30. Lotus Sutra, chap. 2.

31. Immeasurable Meanings Sutra. See n. 23.

32. Lotus Sutra, chap. 2.

33. Ibid.

34. According to ancient Indian cosmology, the watery circle is one of three circles, made respectively of gold, water, and wind, that supported Mount Sumeru and the surrounding continents.

35. The debts owed to one’s parents, teacher, sovereign, and the three treasures of Buddhism.

 

 

 

Chapter13(Revealing that the Vimalakīrti Sutra and other texts stated that the persons of the two vehicles would never attain Buddhahood)

In the Vimalakīrti Sutra we read: “Vimalakīrti once more questioned Manjushrī, saying, ‘What are the seeds of Buddhahood?’ Manjushrī replied, ‘All the delusions and defilements are the seeds of Buddhahood. Even though a person commits the five cardinal sins and is condemned to the hell of incessant suffering, he is still capable of conceiving the great desire for the way.’”

The same sutra also says: “Good man, let me give you a metaphor. The plains and highlands will never bring forth the stems and blossoms of the blue lotus or the water lily. But the muddy fields that are low-lying and damp—that is where you will find these flowers growing.”

It also says: “One who has already become an arhat and achieved the level of truth that goes with arhatship can never conceive the desire for the way and gain Buddhahood. He is like a man who has destroyed the five sense organs and therefore can never again enjoy the five delights that go with them.”

The point of this sutra is that the three poisons of greed, anger, and foolishness can become the seeds of Buddhahood, and the five cardinal sins such as the killing of one’s father can likewise become the seeds of Buddhahood. Even if the high plains should bring forth blue lotus flowers, the persons of the two vehicles would never attain Buddhahood. The text is saying that, when the goodness of the persons of the two vehicles is compared with the evils of ordinary people, it will be found that, though the evils of ordinary people can lead to Buddhahood, the goodness of the persons of the two vehicles never can. The various Hinayana sutras censure evil and praise good. But this sutra, the Vimalakīrti, condemns the goodness of persons of the two vehicles and praises the evils of ordinary people. It would almost appear that it is not a Buddhist scripture at all, but rather the teachings of some non-Buddhist school. But the point is that it wants to make absolutely clear that the persons of the two vehicles can never become Buddhas.

The Correct and Equal Dhāranī Sutra states: “Manjushrī said to Shāriputra, ‘Can a withered tree put forth new blossoms? Can a mountain stream turn and flow back to its source? Can a shattered rock join itself together again? Can a scorched seed send out sprouts?’ Shāriputra replied, ‘No.’ Manjushrī said, ‘If these things are impossible, then why do you come with joy in your heart and ask me if Buddhahood has been predicted for you in the future?’”

The passage means that, just as a withered tree puts forth no blossoms, a mountain stream never flows backward, a shattered rock cannot be joined, and a scorched seed cannot sprout, so the persons of the two vehicles can never attain Buddhahood. In their case the seeds of Buddhahood have been scorched.

 

 

 

 

Chapter14(Indicating that The Larger Wisdom Sutra, etc. rebuked the people of two vehicle)

The Larger Wisdom Sutra reads: “All you sons of gods, if you have not yet conceived a desire for perfect enlightenment, now is the time to do so. If you should once enter the realm of the enlightenment of voice-hearers, you would no longer be capable of conceiving such a desire for perfect enlightenment. Why is this? Because you would be outside the world of birth and death, which itself would constitute an obstacle.” This passage indicates that the Buddha³⁶ is not pleased with the persons of the two vehicles because they do not conceive the desire for perfect enlightenment, but that he is pleased with the heavenly beings because they do conceive such a desire.

The Shūramgama Sutra states: “If a person who has committed the five cardinal sins should hear of this shūramgama meditation and should conceive the desire for supreme enlightenment, then he would still be capable of attaining Buddhahood. But, World-Honored One, an arhat who has put an end to outflows is like a broken vessel, and will never be capable of receiving and upholding this meditation.”³⁷

The Vimalakīrti Sutra says, “Those who give alms to you are cultivating for themselves no field of good fortune. Those who give alms to you will fall into the three evil paths.” This passage means that the human and heavenly beings who give alms to the sage monks such as Mahākāshyapa and Shāriputra will invariably fall into the three evil paths. Sage monks such as these, one would suppose, must be the eyes of the human and heavenly beings and the leaders of all living beings, second only to the Buddha himself. It must have been very much against common expectation that the Buddha spoke out time and again against such men before the great assemblies of human and heavenly beings, as we have seen him do. Was he really trying to reprimand his own disciples to death? In addition, he employed countless different metaphors in expressing his condemnation of the persons of the two vehicles, calling them donkey’s milk as compared to cow’s milk, clay vessels as compared to vessels of gold, or the glimmer of a firefly as compared to the light of the sun.

He did not speak of this in one word or two, in one day or two, in one month or two, in one year or two, or in one sutra or two, but over a period of more than forty years, in countless sutras, addressing himself to great assemblies of countless persons, condemning the persons of the two vehicles without a single extenuating word. Thus everyone learned that his condemnation was true. Heaven learned it and earth learned it. Not only one or two, but hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of people; the heavenly beings, dragon gods, and the asuras of the threefold world; all the human and heavenly beings, persons of the two vehicles, and great bodhisattvas gathered in assembly from the five regions of India, the four continents, the six heavens of the world of desire, the worlds of form and formlessness, and the worlds of the ten directions, and learned and heard of it. Then all these beings returned to their own lands, explaining the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha of the sahā world one by one to the inhabitants of their respective lands, so that there was not a single being in the countless worlds of the ten directions who did not understand that Mahākāshyapa, Shāriputra, and those like them would never attain Buddhahood, and that it was wrong to give them alms and support.

 

Notes

37. This is the statement that the heavenly beings made with tears of joy, when they heard the Buddha preaching. The shūramgama meditation is supposed to prevent one from being troubled by earthly desires and illusions.

 

 

 

 

Chapter15(Indicating a proof of the Thus Come One Many Treasures)

In the Lotus Sutra preached during the last eight years of his life, however, the Buddha suddenly regretted and retracted his earlier position and instead taught that persons of the two vehicles can in fact attain Buddhahood. Could the human and heavenly beings gathered in the great assembly to listen to him be expected to believe this? Would they not rather reject it and in addition begin to entertain doubts about all the sutras preached in this and earlier periods? They would wonder if all the teachings put forward in the entire fifty years of the Buddha’s preaching were not, in fact, false and erroneous doctrines.

To be sure, there is a sutra passage that says, “In these more than forty years, I have not yet revealed the truth.”³⁸ Nevertheless, one might wonder if the heavenly devil had not taken on the Buddha’s form and preached this sutra of the last eight years, the Lotus. In the sutra, however, the Buddha describes quite specifically how his disciples of the two vehicles will attain Buddhahood and reveals the kalpas and the lands in which they will appear, the names they will bear, and the disciples they will teach. Thus it becomes apparent that Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings, is saying two different things. This clearly means that he is contradicting his own words. This is why the Brahmanists laugh at the Buddha and call him the great prevaricator.

But just as the human and heavenly beings in the great assembly were feeling downcast in the face of this contradiction, the Thus Come One Many Treasures, who dwells in the World of Treasure Purity in the east, appeared in a huge tower adorned with the seven kinds of treasures and measuring five hundred yojanas high and two hundred and fifty yojanas wide. The human and heavenly beings in the great assembly accused Shakyamuni Buddha of contradicting his own words, and although the Buddha answered in one way or another, he was in considerable embarrassment, being unable to dispel their doubts, when the treasure tower emerged out of the ground before him and ascended into the sky. It came forth like the full moon rising from behind the eastern mountain in the dark of night. The tower of seven kinds of treasures ascended into the sky, clinging neither to the earth nor to the roof of the heavens, but hanging in midair, and from within the tower a pure and far-reaching voice issued, speaking words of testimony. [As the Lotus Sutra describes it:] “At that time a loud voice issued from the treasure tower, speaking words of praise: ‘Excellent, excellent! Shakyamuni, World-Honored One, that you can take the great wisdom of equality, a Law to instruct the bodhisattvas, guarded and kept in mind by the Buddhas, the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law, and preach it for the sake of the great assembly! It is as you say, as you say. Shakyamuni, World-Honored One, all that you have expounded is the truth!’”³⁹

[Elsewhere the Lotus Sutra says:] “At that time the World-Honored One, in the presence of Manjushrī and the other immeasurable hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions of bodhisattvas mahāsattva who from of old had dwelled in the sahā world, as well as . . . human and nonhuman beings—before all these he displayed his great supernatural powers. He extended his long broad tongue upward till it reached the Brahmā heaven, and from all his pores [he emitted immeasurable, countless beams of light that illuminated] all the worlds in the ten directions.

“The other Buddhas, seated on lion seats underneath the numerous jeweled trees, did likewise, extending their long broad tongues and emitting immeasurable beams of light.”⁴⁰

And it also says: “Shakyamuni Buddha caused the Buddhas who were emanations of his body and had come from the ten directions to return each one to his original land, saying, ‘[Each of these Buddhas may proceed at his own pleasure.] The tower of Many Treasures Buddha may also return to its former position.’”⁴¹

In the past, when the World-Honored One of Great Enlightenment first attained the way,⁴² Buddhas appeared in the ten directions to counsel and encourage him, and various great bodhisattvas were dispatched to him. When he preached the Wisdom Sutra, he covered the major world system with his long tongue, and a thousand Buddhas appeared in the ten directions. When he preached the Golden Light Sutra, the four Buddhas⁴³ appeared in the four directions, and when he preached the Amida Sutra, the Buddhas of the six directions⁴⁴ covered the major world system with their tongues. And when he preached the Great Collection Sutra, the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions gathered in the Great Treasure Chamber.

But when we compare the auspicious signs that accompanied these sutras with those accompanying the Lotus Sutra, we find that they are like a yellow stone compared to gold, a white cloud to a white mountain, ice to a silver mirror, or the color black to the color blue—the bleary-eyed, the squint-eyed, the one-eyed, and the wrong-viewed will be likely to confuse them.

Since the Flower Garland Sutra was the first sutra to be preached, there were no previous words of the Buddha for it to contradict, and so it naturally raised no doubts. In the case of the Great Collection Sutra, the Larger Wisdom Sutra, the Golden Light Sutra, and the Amida Sutra, the Buddha, in order to censure the ideal of the two vehicles demonstrated in the various Hinayana sutras, described the pure lands of the ten directions, and thereby inspired ordinary people and bodhisattvas to aspire to attain them. Thus he caused the persons of the two vehicles to feel confounded and vexed.

Again, because there are certain differences between the Hinayana sutras and the Mahayana sutras mentioned above, we find that in some cases Buddhas appeared in the ten directions, in others great bodhisattvas were dispatched from the ten directions, or it was made clear that the particular sutra was expounded in the worlds of the ten directions, or that various Buddhas came from the ten directions to meet in assembly. In some cases, it was said that Shakyamuni Buddha covered the major world system with his tongue, while in others it was the various Buddhas who put forth their tongues. All of these statements are intended to combat the view expounded in the Hinayana sutras that in the worlds of the ten directions there is only one Buddha.

But in the case of the Lotus Sutra, it differs so greatly from the previous Mahayana sutras that Shāriputra and the other voice-hearers, the great bodhisattvas, and the various human and heavenly beings, when they heard the Buddha preach it, were led to think, “Is this not a devil pretending to be the Buddha?”⁴⁵ And yet those bleary-eyed men of the Flower Garland, Dharma Characteristics, Three Treatises, True Word, and Nembutsu schools all seem to think that their own particular sutras are exactly the same as the Lotus Sutra. That is what I call wretched perception indeed!

 

Notes

38. Immeasurable Meanings Sutra, regarded as an introduction to the Lotus Sutra.

39. Lotus Sutra, chap. 11.

40. Ibid., chap. 21.

41. Ibid., chap. 22.

42. This indicates the preaching of the Flower Garland Sutra.

43. The four Buddhas are Akshobhya (east), Jewel Sign (south), Infinite Life (west), and Subtle and Wonderful Voice (north).

44. The six directions refer to east, west, north, south, up, and down.

45. Lotus Sutra, chap. 3.

 

 

 

 

Chapter16(Showing the appearance of difficult to belive the Lotus Sutra after the Buddha passed away)

While the Buddha was still in this world, there were undoubtedly those who set aside the sutras he had taught during the first forty and more years of his teaching life and embraced the Lotus Sutra. But after he passed away, it must have been difficult to find persons who would open and read this sutra and accept its teachings. To begin with, the sutras preached earlier run to countless words, while the Lotus Sutra is limited in length. The earlier sutras are numerous, but the Lotus Sutra is no more than a single work. The earlier sutras were preached over a period of many years, but the Lotus Sutra was preached in a mere eight years.

Moreover, the Buddha, as we have seen, has been called the great liar, and therefore one can hardly be expected to believe his words. If one makes a great effort to believe the unbelievable, one can perhaps bring oneself to believe in the earlier sutras but not in the Lotus Sutra. The people today appear to believe in the Lotus Sutra, but in fact they do not really believe in it. The reason is this: When someone assures them that the Lotus Sutra is the same as the Mahāvairochana Sutra, or that it is the same as the Flower Garland Sutra or the Amida Sutra, they are pleased and place their faith in this person. If someone tells them that the Lotus Sutra is completely different from all the other sutras, they will not listen to him, or even if they should listen, they would not think that the person was really speaking the truth.

 

 

 

Chapter17(Deducing a clearing testimony and recommending the faith of difficult to believe)

Nichiren has this to say. It is now over seven hundred years since Buddhism was introduced to Japan. During that time, only the Great Teacher Dengyō truly understood the Lotus Sutra, but no one is willing to heed this fact that Nichiren has been teaching. It is just as the Lotus Sutra says: “If you were to seize Mount Sumeru and fling it far off to the measureless Buddha lands, that too would not be difficult. . . . But if after the Buddha has entered extinction, in the time of evil, you can preach this sutra, that will be difficult indeed!”⁴⁶

The powerful assertions I am putting forward are in complete accord with the sutra itself. But as the Nirvana Sutra, which is intended to propagate the Lotus Sutra, states: in the defiled times of the latter age, those who slander the correct teaching will be as numerous as the specks of dirt in all the lands of the ten directions, while those who uphold the correct teaching will be as few as the specks of dirt that can be placed on a fingernail. What do you think of that? Would you say that the people of Japan can be squeezed into the space of a fingernail? Would you say that I, Nichiren, occupy the ten directions? Consider the matter carefully.

In the reign of a worthy ruler, what is reasonable will prevail, but when a foolish ruler reigns, then what is unreasonable will have supremacy. One should understand that, in similar fashion, when a sage is in the world, then the true significance of the Lotus Sutra will become apparent.

In my remarks here, I have been contrasting the early sutras with the theoretical teaching of the Lotus Sutra, and it would appear as though the early sutras are in a position to prevail. But if they really win out over the theoretical teaching, then it means that Shāriputra and the other persons of the two vehicles will never be able to attain Buddhahood. That would surely be lamentable!

 

Notes

46. Lotus Sutra, chap. 11.

 

 

 

 

Chapter18(Judging teachings with the theoretical one and the essential one relatively)

I turn now to the second important teaching of the Lotus Sutra.⁴⁷ Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings, was born in the kalpa of continuance, in the ninth period of decrease, when the span of human life measured a hundred years. He was the grandson of King Simhahanu and the son and heir of King Shuddhodana. As a boy he was known as Crown Prince Siddhārtha, or the Bodhisattva All Goals Achieved. At the age of nineteen he left his family, and at thirty he attained enlightenment. At his place of enlightenment, the World-Honored One first revealed the ceremony of Vairochana Buddha of the Lotus Treasury World, a Land of Actual Reward, and expounded the ten mysteries, the six forms, the perfect interfusion of all things, and the subtle and wonderful great teaching for immediate attainment of the ultimate fruit. At that time the Buddhas of the ten directions appeared on the scene, and all the bodhisattvas gathered about like clouds. In view of the place where Shakyamuni preached, the capacity of the listeners, the presence of the Buddhas, and the fact that it was the first sermon, is there any reason the Buddha could have concealed or held back the great doctrine? Therefore, the Flower Garland Sutra says, “He displayed his power freely and expounded a sutra of perfection and fullness.”

The work, which consists of sixty volumes, is indeed a sutra of perfection and fullness in its every character and stroke. It may be compared to the wish-granting jewel that, though it is a single jewel, is the equal of countless such jewels. For the single jewel can rain down ten thousand treasures, which are equal to the treasures brought forth by ten thousand jewels. In the same way, one character of the Flower Garland Sutra is equal to ten thousand characters. The passage that expounds the identity of “the mind, the Buddha, and all living beings” represents the core not only of Flower Garland teachings, but of the teachings of the Dharma Characteristics, Three Treatises, True Word, and Tendai schools as well.

In such a superb sutra, how could there be any truths that are hidden from the hearer? And yet we find the sutra declaring that persons of the two vehicles and icchantikas can never attain Buddhahood. Here is the flaw in the jewel. Moreover, in three places the sutra speaks of Shakyamuni Buddha as attaining enlightenment for the first time in this world. It thus hides the fact that Shakyamuni Buddha actually attained enlightenment in the remote past, as revealed in the “Life Span” chapter of the Lotus Sutra. Thus, the Flower Garland Sutra is in fact a chipped jewel, a moon veiled in clouds, a sun in eclipse. A strange thing indeed!

The sutras of the Āgama, Correct and Equal, and Wisdom periods, such as the Mahāvairochana Sutra, since they were expounded by the Buddha, are splendid works, and yet they cannot begin to compare with the Flower Garland Sutra. Therefore, one could hardly expect that doctrines concealed even in the Flower Garland Sutra would be revealed in these sutras. Thus we find that the Miscellaneous Āgama Sutra speaks of Shakyamuni Buddha as having attained the way for the first time in his present existence; the Great Collection Sutra says, “It is sixteen years since the Thus Come One first attained the way”; and the Vimalakīrti Sutra states, “For the first time the Buddha sat beneath the bodhi tree and through his might conquered the devil.” Likewise, the Mahāvairochana Sutra describes the Buddha’s enlightenment as having taken place “long ago when I sat in the place of meditation,” and the Benevolent Kings Wisdom Sutra refers to it as an event of “twenty-nine years” in the past.

 

Notes

47. The revelation that Shakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment countless kalpas in the past. This appears in the “Life Span” chapter of the essential teaching of the Lotus Sutra. The first important teaching is that persons of the two vehicles can attain Buddhahood. This is explained in the theoretical teaching of the Lotus Sutra.

 

 

 

 

Chapter19(Revealing the fact that the Buddha attained enlightenment countless kalpas in the past in the essential teaching)

It is hardly surprising that these sutras should speak in this fashion. But there is something that is an astonishment to both the ear and the eye. This is the fact that the Immeasurable Meanings Sutra also speaks in the same way. In the Immeasurable Meanings Sutra, the Buddha denies the great doctrines, such as the Flower Garland Sutra concept of the phenomenal world as created by the mind alone, the concept of the ocean-imprint meditation set forth in the sutras of the Correct and Equal period, and the Wisdom Sutra concept of mutual identification and nonduality, when he declares, “I have not yet revealed the truth.” The Immeasurable Meanings Sutra regards the practices taught in the previous sutras as practices that require many kalpas to complete. However, the same sutra says, “In the past I sat upright in the place of meditation for six years under the bodhi tree and was able to gain supreme perfect enlightenment,” using the same type of language as the Flower Garland Sutra, the first sutra Shakyamuni preached after his enlightenment, when it talks of the Buddha having attained enlightenment for the first time in this world.

Strange as this may seem, we may suppose that, since the Immeasurable Meanings Sutra is intended to serve as an introduction to the Lotus Sutra, it deliberately refrains from speaking about doctrines to be revealed in the Lotus Sutra itself. But when we turn to the Lotus Sutra, we find that, in the sections where the Buddha discusses in both concise and expanded form the replacement of the three vehicles with the one vehicle, he says, “The true aspect of all phenomena can only be understood and shared between Buddhas,”⁴⁸ “The World-Honored One has long expounded his doctrines [and now must reveal the truth],” and ”Honestly discarding expedient means, [I will preach only the unsurpassed way].” Moreover, Many Treasures Buddha testifies to the verity of the eight chapters⁴⁹ of the theoretical teaching, declaring that these are all true. We would suppose, therefore, that in them there would be nothing held back or concealed. Nevertheless, the Buddha hides the fact that he attained enlightenment countless kalpas ago, for he says, “I first sat in the place of meditation and gazed at the tree and walked around it.”⁵⁰ This is surely the most astounding fact of all.

In the “Emerging from the Earth” chapter, a multitude of bodhisattvas who had not been seen previously in the more than forty years of the Buddha’s preaching life suddenly appear, and the Buddha says, “I taught and converted them, and caused them for the first time to set their minds on the way.” Bodhisattva Maitreya, puzzled by this announcement, says: “[World-Honored One], when the Thus Come One was crown prince, you left the palace of the Shākyas and sat in the place of meditation not far from the city of Gayā, and there attained supreme perfect enlightenment. Barely forty years or more have passed since then. World-Honored One, how in that short time could you have accomplished so much work as a Buddha?”

In order to dispel this doubt and puzzlement, Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings, then preaches the “Life Span” chapter. Referring first to the version of the events presented in the earlier sutras and the theoretical teaching of the Lotus Sutra, he says: “In all the worlds the heavenly and human beings and asuras all believe that the present Shakyamuni Buddha, after leaving the palace of the Shākyas, seated himself in the place of meditation not far from the city of Gayā and there attained supreme perfect enlightenment.” But then, in order to dispel their doubts, he says, “But good men, it has been immeasurable, boundless hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions of nayutas of kalpas since I in fact attained Buddhahood.”

All the other sutras such as the Flower Garland, Wisdom, and Mahāvairochana not only conceal the fact that people of the two vehicles can attain Buddhahood, but they also fail to make clear that the Buddha attained enlightenment countless kalpas in the past.

 

Notes

48. Lotus Sutra, chap. 2. In this chapter Shakyamuni expounded the ten factors to indicate that all people are endowed with the Buddha nature; this provided a theoretical basis for the assertion that all people can become Buddhas. Later in the same chapter Shakyamuni declares that all the teachings he expounded serve to reveal the one vehicle leading all to Buddhahood.

49. The eight chapters from the “Expedient Means” (2nd) chapter to the “Prophecies” (9th) chapter.

50. Lotus Sutra, chap. 2.

 

 

 

Chapter20(Revealing the flaws of the provisional and the theoretical teachings)

These sutras have two flaws. First, because they teach that the Ten Worlds are separate from one another, they fail to move beyond the provisional doctrines and to reveal the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life as it is expounded in the theoretical teaching of the Lotus Sutra. Second, because they teach that Shakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment for the first time in this world, referring only to his provisional aspect, they fail to reveal the fact stressed in the essential teaching that the Buddha attained enlightenment countless kalpas ago. These two great doctrines are the core of the Buddha’s lifetime of teachings, and the very heart and marrow of all the sutras.

The “Expedient Means” chapter, which belongs to the theoretical teaching, expounds the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life, making clear that persons of the two vehicles can achieve Buddhahood. It thus eliminates one of the two errors found in the earlier sutras. But it nevertheless retains the provisional aspect, and fails to reveal the eternal aspect, of the Buddha’s enlightenment. Thus the true doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life remains unclear, and the attainment of Buddhahood by persons of the two vehicles is not properly affirmed. Such teachings are like the moon seen in the water, or rootless plants that drift on the waves.

When we come to the essential teaching of the Lotus Sutra, then the belief that Shakyamuni first obtained Buddhahood during his present lifetime is demolished, and the effects of the four teachings are likewise demolished. When the effects of the four teachings are demolished, the causes⁵¹ of the four teachings are likewise demolished. Thus the cause and effect of the Ten Worlds as expounded in the earlier sutras and the theoretical teaching of the Lotus Sutra are wiped out, and the cause and effect of the Ten Worlds⁵² in the essential teaching are revealed. This is the doctrine of original cause and original effect. It reveals that the nine worlds are all present in beginningless Buddhahood and that Buddhahood is inherent in the beginningless nine worlds. This is the true mutual possession of the Ten Worlds, the true hundred worlds and thousand factors, the true three thousand realms in a single moment of life.

When we consider the matter in this light, we can see that Vairochana Buddha seated on the lotus pedestal of the ten directions as described in the Flower Garland Sutra, the little Shakyamuni described in the Āgama sutras,⁵³ and the provisional Buddhas described in the sutras of the Correct and Equal and the Wisdom periods such as the Golden Light, Amida, and Mahāvairochana sutras are no more than reflections of the Buddha of the “Life Span” chapter. They are like fleeting reflections of the moon that float on the surfaces of various large and small bodies of water. The scholars of the various schools of Buddhism, confused as to [the nature of the Buddhas of] their own school and, more fundamentally, ignorant of [the Buddha of] the “Life Span” chapter of the Lotus Sutra, mistake the reflection in the water for the actual moon, some of them entering the water and trying to grasp it in their hands, others attempting to snare it with a rope. As T’ien-t’ai says, “They know nothing of the moon in the sky, but gaze only at the moon in the pond.”⁵⁴

 

Notes

51. The “causes” refers to the practice of the four teachings—the Tripitaka, connecting, specific, and perfect teachings—leading to the attainment of enlightenment. See also eight teachings in Glossary.

52. By revealing that the Buddha still retains all the nine worlds even after achieving enlightenment, the “Life Span” chapter of the essential teaching demonstrates that cause (nine worlds) and effect (Buddhahood) exist simultaneously.

53. In the Āgama sutras Shakyamuni preaches Hinayana or lesser teachings. Hence the “little Shakyamuni.”

54. The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra.

 

 

 

Chapter21(Indicating the phase that it is difficult to believe the Buddha’s attaining enlightenment in the remote past)

Having pondered this, I am of the opinion that, though the Lotus Sutra teaches that persons of the two vehicles can attain Buddhahood, this view tends to be overshadowed by the opposite view propounded in the sutras that precede the Lotus. How much more so is this the case with the doctrine that the Buddha attained enlightenment in the remote past! For in this case, it is not the Lotus Sutra as a whole that stands in contradiction to the earlier sutras, but the essential teaching of the Lotus Sutra that stands in contradiction both to the earlier sutras and to the first fourteen chapters of the theoretical teaching of the Lotus. Moreover, of the latter fourteen chapters of the essential teaching, all of them with the exception of the “Emerging from the Earth” and “Life Span” chapters retain the view that the Buddha first attained enlightenment in his present lifetime.

The forty volumes of the Mahāparinirvāna Sutra, preached by the Buddha in the grove of sal trees just before his passing, as well as the other Mahayana sutras except the Lotus Sutra, have not one single word [to say about the fact that the Buddha attained enlightenment in the remote past]. They speak of the Dharma body of the Buddha as being without beginning and without end, but they do not reveal the true nature of the other two bodies, the reward body and the manifested body.⁵⁵ How, then, can we expect people to cast aside the vast body of writings represented by the earlier Mahayana sutras, the Nirvana Sutra, and the major portion of the theoretical and essential teachings of the Lotus Sutra, and put all their faith simply in the two chapters “Emerging from the Earth” and “Life Span”?

 

Notes

55. The “Emerging from the Earth” and “Life Span” chapters reveal that Shakyamuni’s enlightenment actually occurred in the far distant past, and that the three bodies—the Dharma body, the reward body, and the manifested body—are eternally inherent in the life of Shakyamuni Buddha.

 

 

 

Chapter22(Here is the incorrect interpretation of the school called Dharma Characteristics)

If we examine the origins of the school called Dharma Characteristics, we find that, nine hundred years after the Buddha passed away in India, there was a great scholar called Bodhisattva Asanga. At night, he ascended to the inner court of the Tushita heaven, where he came before Bodhisattva Maitreya and resolved his doubts concerning the sacred teachings propounded by the Buddha during his lifetime. In the daytime, he worked to propagate the Dharma Characteristics doctrines in the state of Ayodhyā.⁵⁶ Among his disciples were various great scholars such as Vasubandhu, Dharmapāla, Nanda, and Shīlabhadra.⁵⁷ The great ruler, King Shīlāditya, bowed his head in reverence, and the people of all the five regions of India abandoned their arrogance and declared themselves followers of his teaching.

The Tripitaka Master Hsüan-tsang of China journeyed to India, spending seventeen years visiting 130 or more Indian states. He rejected all the other teachings of Buddhism, but brought back the doctrines of the Dharma Characteristics school to China and presented them to the worthy sovereign, Emperor T’ai-tsung. Hsüan-tsang numbered among his disciples such men as Shen-fang, Chia-shang, P’u-kuang, and K’uei-chi. He preached his teachings in Ta-tz’u-en-ssu temple and spread them through more than 360 districts of China.

In the reign of Emperor Kōtoku, the thirty-seventh sovereign of Japan, Dōji, Dōshō, and other priests went to China and studied these doctrines, and on their return preached them at Yamashina-dera temple.⁵⁸ In this way, the Dharma Characteristics school was regarded as the leading school of Buddhism throughout all three lands of India, China, and Japan.

According to this school, in all the teachings of the Buddha, from the Flower Garland Sutra, the earliest of the sutras, to the Lotus and Nirvana sutras, which were preached last, it is laid down that those sentient beings without the nature of enlightenment and those predestined for the two vehicles can never become Buddhas. The Buddha, they say, never contradicts himself. Therefore, if he has once declared that these people will never be able to attain Buddhahood, then, even should the sun and moon fall to the earth or the great earth itself turn upside down, that declaration can never be altered. In the earlier sutras, those sentient beings without the nature of enlightenment and those predestined for the two vehicles were said to be incapable of attaining Buddhahood. Therefore, they conclude, even in the Lotus or Nirvana Sutra it is never said that they can in fact do so.

“Close your eyes and consider the matter,” the members of the Dharma Characteristics school would say. “If it had in fact been plainly stated in the Lotus and Nirvana sutras that those who possess no innate nature of enlightenment or those predestined for the two vehicles can actually attain Buddhahood, then why would the great scholars such as Asanga and Vasubandhu or the Tripitaka masters and teachers such as Hsüan-tsang and Tz’u-en not have taken notice of this fact? Why did they not mention it in their own writings? Why did they not accept the belief and transmit it to later ages? Why did Asanga not question Bodhisattva Maitreya about it? People like you, Nichiren, claim that you are basing your assertions on the text of the Lotus Sutra, but in fact you are simply accepting the biased views of men like T’ien-t’ai, Miao-lo, and Dengyō and interpreting the text of the sutra in the light of their teachings. Therefore, you claim that the Lotus Sutra is as different from the earlier sutras as fire from water.”

 

Notes

56. A state in northeast India. Asanga was a native of Gandhara but lived most of his life in Ayodhyā.

57. Dharmapāla, Nanda, and Shīlabhadra were scholars of the Yogāchāra, or Consciousness-Only school, associated with Nalanda Monastery in India.

58. An old name of Kōfuku-ji, the head temple of the Dharma Characteristics school, one of the seven major temples of Nara.

 

 

 

Chapter23(Pointing out misinterpretations of the Flower Garland and True Word schools)

Again, there are the Flower Garland and True Word schools, which are of an incomparably higher level than the Dharma Characteristics and Three Treatises schools. They claim that the doctrines that persons of the two vehicles may attain Buddhahood and that the Buddha achieved enlightenment in the remote past are to be found not only in the Lotus Sutra, but in the Flower Garland and Mahāvairochana sutras as well.

According to these schools, the Flower Garland patriarchs Tu-shun, Chih-yen, Fa-tsang, and Ch’eng-kuan, and the True Word masters Shan-wu-wei, Chin-kang-chih, and Pu-k’ung were far more eminent than T’ien-t’ai or Dengyō. Moreover, they claim that Shan-wu-wei’s teachings descend in an unbroken line from the Thus Come One Mahāvairochana. How could men like this, who are manifestations of the Buddha, possibly be mistaken? they ask. They point to the passage in the Flower Garland Sutra that reads, “Some people perceive that immeasurable numbers of kalpas have passed since Shakyamuni attained the Buddha way,” or the passage in the Mahāvairochana Sutra that says, “I [Mahāvairochana Buddha] am the source and beginning of all things.” Why, they ask, would anyone claim that it is the “Life Span” chapter of the Lotus Sutra alone that expounds the doctrine that Shakyamuni attained enlightenment long ago? Persons who do so are like frogs at the bottom of a well who have never seen the great sea, or like mountain dwellers who know nothing of the capital. “You people look only at the ‘Life Span’ chapter and know nothing of the Flower Garland, the Mahāvairochana, and the other sutras! Do you suppose that, in India and China, and in Silla and Paekche [in Korea], people believe that these two doctrines are limited to the Lotus Sutra alone?”

As we have seen, the Lotus Sutra, which was preached over a period of eight years, is quite different from the earlier sutras preached over a period of some forty years. If one had to choose between the two, one ought by rights to choose the Lotus Sutra that was preached later, and yet the earlier sutras in many ways appear to carry greater weight.

 

 

 

Chapter24(Concluding a difficulty to believe in the Lotus Sutra in the ages since Buddha’s passing)

While the Buddha was still alive, there would have been good reasons for choosing the Lotus Sutra. But in the ages since his passing, the teachers and scholars have in most cases shown a preference for the earlier sutras. Not only is the Lotus Sutra itself difficult to believe, but in addition, with the coming of the latter age, sages and worthies gradually disappear from the scene, and deluded people increase in number. People are prone to make mistakes even in shallow, worldly affairs, so how much more likely are they to be mistaken about the profound Buddhist teachings that lead to enlightenment?

Vatsa and Vaipulya⁵⁹ were keen and perceptive, but still they confused the Hinayana and Mahayana sutras. Vimalamitra and Mādhava were very clever by nature, but they could not distinguish properly between the provisional teachings and the true teaching. These men lived during the thousand-year period known as the Former Day of the Law, not far removed in time from the Buddha himself, and in the same country of India, and yet they fell into error, as we have seen. How much more likely, therefore, that the people of China and Japan should do so, since these countries are far removed from India and speak different languages from it?

Now human beings have grown increasingly dull by nature, their life span diminishes steadily,⁶⁰ and the poisons of greed, anger, and foolishness continue to multiply. Many ages have passed since the Buddha’s demise, and the Buddhist scriptures are all misunderstood. Who these days has the wisdom to interpret them correctly?

Therefore, the Buddha predicted in the Nirvana Sutra that in the Latter Day of the Law those who abide by the correct teaching will be as few as the specks of dirt that can be placed on a fingernail, while those who slander the correct teaching will be as numerous as the specks of dirt in all the lands of the ten directions.

In the Decline of the Law Sutra we find a passage stating that those who slander the correct teaching will be as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, but those who abide by the correct teaching will be no more than one or two pebbles. Though five hundred or a thousand years go by, it will be difficult to find even a single person who believes in the correct teaching. Those who fall into the evil paths because of secular crimes will be as insignificant in number as the specks of dirt placed on a fingernail, but those who do so because of violations of the Buddhist teachings will be equal in number to the specks of dirt in all the lands of the ten directions. More monks than laymen, and more nuns than laywomen, will fall into the evil paths.

 

Notes

59. Vatsa was the founder of the Hinayana Vātsīputrīya school, and Vaipulya incorporated Mahayana into non-Buddhist teachings. Vimalamitra, who appears in the next sentence, is said to have opposed Vasubandhu, and Mādhava was a scholar of the Sāmkhya school.

60. This age is a period of decrease, in which the human life span was diminishing. According to The Dharma Analysis Treasury, during the kalpa of continuance, the human life span is said to undergo a repeated cycle of increase and decrease.

 

 

 

 

Chapter25(Reason for the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra in the Latter Day of the Law)

Here Nichiren considers as follows: Already over two hundred years have passed since the world entered the Latter Day of the Law. I was born in a remote land, and moreover, I am a person of low station and a priest of humble learning. While being born again and again amid the six paths, I have perhaps at times been born as a great ruler in the human or heavenly world, and have bent the multitudes to my will as a great wind bends the branches of small trees. And yet at such times I was not able to become a Buddha.

I studied the Hinayana and Mahayana sutras, beginning as an ordinary practitioner with no understanding at all and gradually moving upward to the position of a great bodhisattva. For one kalpa, two kalpas, countless kalpas I devoted myself to the practices of the bodhisattva, until I almost reached the stage of non-regression. And yet I was dragged down by the powerful and overwhelming influences of evil, and I never attained Buddhahood. I do not know whether I was among the third group⁶¹ who failed to take faith when the sons of Great Universal Wisdom Excellence Buddha preached the Lotus Sutra and again failed to attain Buddhahood during the lifetime of Shakyamuni Buddha, or whether I faltered and fell away from the teachings that I heard numberless major world system dust particle kalpas ago and thus have been reborn in this age.

While one is practicing the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, one may surmount all kinds of difficulties occasioned by the evil forces of worldly life, or by the persecutions of rulers, non-Buddhists, or the followers of the Hinayana sutras. And yet one may encounter someone like Tao-ch’o, Shan-tao, or Hōnen, priests who seemed thoroughly conversant with the teachings of the provisional and the true Mahayana sutras but who were in fact possessed by devils. Such men seem to praise the Lotus Sutra most forcefully, but in fact they belittle the people’s capacity to understand it, claiming that its principles are very profound but human understanding is slight.⁶² They mislead others by saying that “not a single person has ever attained Buddhahood” through that sutra, or that “not even one person in a thousand”⁶³ can be saved by it. Thus, over a period of countless lifetimes, people are deceived as often as there are sands in the Ganges, until they [abandon their faith in the Lotus Sutra and] descend to the teachings of the provisional Mahayana sutras, abandon these and descend to the teachings of the Hinayana sutras, and eventually abandon even these and descend to the teachings and scriptures of the non-Buddhist doctrines. I understand all too well how, in the end, people have come in this way to fall into the evil paths.

I, Nichiren, am the only person in all Japan who understands this. But if I utter so much as a word concerning it, then parents, brothers, and teachers will surely censure me, and the ruler of the nation will take steps against me.⁶⁴ On the other hand, I am fully aware that if I do not speak out I will be lacking in compassion. I have considered which course to take in the light of the teachings of the Lotus and Nirvana sutras. If I remain silent, I may escape persecutions in this lifetime, but in my next life I will most certainly fall into the hell of incessant suffering. If I speak out, I am fully aware that I will have to contend with the three obstacles and four devils. But of these two courses, surely the latter is the one to choose.

If I were to falter in my determination in the face of persecutions by the sovereign, however, it would be better not to speak out. While thinking this over, I recalled the teachings of the “Treasure Tower” chapter on the six difficult and nine easy acts. Persons like myself who are of paltry strength might still be able to lift Mount Sumeru and toss it about; persons like myself who are lacking in supernatural powers might still shoulder a load of dry grass and yet remain unburned in the fire at the end of the kalpa of decline;⁶⁵ and persons like myself who are without wisdom might still read and memorize as many sutras as there are sands in the Ganges. But such acts are not difficult, we are told, when compared to the difficulty of embracing even one phrase or verse of the Lotus Sutra in the Latter Day of the Law. Nevertheless, I vowed to summon up a powerful and unconquerable desire for the salvation of all beings and never to falter in my efforts.

 

Notes

61. The third group refers to the story of Great Universal Wisdom Excellence Buddha and his sixteen sons, which appears in the “Parable of the Phantom City” chapter of the Lotus Sutra. A major world system dust particle kalpas ago, Great Universal Wisdom Excellence preached the Lotus Sutra to his sixteen sons. These sons then preached the sutra to the people. Among the people, the third group comprises those who heard the Lotus Sutra at that time but did not take faith in it and could not attain enlightenment even when the sixteenth son appeared in India as Shakyamuni Buddha and preached it to them again.

62. The Collected Essays on the World of Peace and Delight, by Tao-ch’o, the second patriarch of the Pure Land school in China.

63. The first quotation is from On the World of Peace and Delight, and the second quotation, from Praising Rebirth in the Pure Land by Shan-tao, the third patriarch of the Pure Land school in China.

64. The Japanese text may also read, “Then the ruler of the nation will surely take steps against my parents, brothers, and teachers.”

65. A world was said to go through a continuous cycle of formation, continuance, decline, and disintegration, each of these four phases lasting one medium kalpa. The end of the kalpa of decline is marked by a great fire that consumes the world.

 

 

 

 

Chapter26(Briefly explaining that Daishonin is the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra)

It is already over twenty years since I began proclaiming my doctrines. Day after day, month after month, year after year I have been subjected to repeated persecutions. Minor persecutions and annoyances are too numerous even to be counted, but the major persecutions number four. Among the four, twice I have been subjected to persecutions by the rulers of the country.⁶⁶ The most recent one has come near to costing me my life. In addition, my disciples, my lay supporters, and even those who have merely listened to my teachings have been subjected to severe punishment and treated as though they were guilty of treason.

In the fourth volume of the Lotus Sutra we read, “Since hatred and jealousy toward this sutra abound even when the Thus Come One is in the world, how much more will this be so after his passing?”⁶⁷ The second volume states, “If this person [should slander a sutra such as this], or on seeing those who read, recite, copy, and uphold this sutra, should despise, hate, envy, or bear grudges against them . . .”⁶⁸ And the fifth volume says, “It [the Lotus Sutra] will face much hostility in the world and be difficult to believe.”⁶⁹ It also states, “There will be many ignorant people who will curse and speak ill of us,”⁷⁰ and “They will address the rulers, high ministers, Brahmans, and householders, [as well as the other monks], slandering and speaking evil of us, saying, ‘These are men of perverted views [who preach non-Buddhist doctrines]!’” It is also stated in the same volume, “Again and again we will be banished,”⁷¹ and [in the seventh volume] “Some among the group would take sticks of wood or tiles and stones and beat and pelt him.”⁷²

The Nirvana Sutra records: “At that time there were innumerable non-Buddhists who plotted together and went as a group to Ajātashatru, the king of Magadha, and said: ‘At present there is a man of incomparable wickedness, a monk called Gautama. . . . All sorts of evil people, hoping to gain profit and alms, have flocked to him and become his followers. These people do not practice goodness, but instead use the power of spells and magic to win over men like Mahākāshyapa, Shāriputra, and Maudgalyāyana.’”

T’ien-t’ai says, “It will be much worse in the future because the principles [of the Lotus Sutra] are so hard to teach.”⁷³ Miao-lo says, “‘Hatred’ refers to those who have not yet freed themselves from impediments, and ‘jealousy,’ to those who take no delight in listening to the doctrine.”⁷⁴ The teachers of the three schools of the south and seven schools of the north in China, as well as the countless other scholars of China, all regarded T’ien-t’ai with resentment and animosity. Thus Tokuitsu said, “See here, Chih-i, whose disciple are you? With a tongue less than three inches long you slander the teachings that come from the Buddha’s long broad tongue that can cover even his face!”⁷⁵

In Tung-ch’un we read: “Question: While the Buddha was in the world, there were many who were resentful and jealous. But in the age after his passing, when someone preaches this [Lotus] sutra, why do so many oppose that person? Answer: It is said that good medicine tastes bitter. This sutra, which is like good medicine, dispels attachments to the five vehicles and establishes the one ultimate principle. It reproaches those in the ranks of ordinary beings and censures those in the ranks of sagehood, denies [provisional] Mahayana and refutes Hinayana. It speaks of the heavenly devils as poisonous insects and calls non-Buddhists⁷⁶ demons. It censures those who cling to Hinayana teachings, calling them mean and impoverished, and it dismisses bodhisattvas as beginners in learning. For this reason, heavenly devils hate to listen to it, non-Buddhists find their ears offended, persons of the two vehicles are dumbfounded, and bodhisattvas flee in terror. That is why all these types of people try to make hindrances [for a practitioner of the Lotus Sutra]. The Buddha was not speaking nonsense when he declared that hatred and jealousy would abound.”

A Clarification of the Precepts states: “The superintendents of priests [in the capital of Nara] say in their memorial to the throne: ‘Just as in a land west of China there was a Brahman named Demon Eloquence, so now in this eastern realm of Japan there is a shavepated monk who spits out crafty words. Evil spirits invisibly invite such people to deceive and mislead the world.’ I [Dengyō] reply to these charges by saying: ‘Just as in the Ch’i dynasty of China we heard of the arrogant superintendent of priests, Hui-kuang, so now in our own country we see these six superintendents of priests.⁷⁷ How true was [the Buddha’s prediction in] the Lotus Sutra that the situation would be much worse after his passing.’”

The Outstanding Principles of the Lotus Sutra states: “Speaking of the age, [the propagation of the true teaching will begin] in the age when the Middle Day of the Law ends and the Latter Day opens. Regarding the land, it will begin in a land to the east of T’ang and to the west of Katsu. As for the people, it will spread among people stained by the five impurities who live in a time of conflict. The sutra says, ‘Since hatred and jealousy toward this sutra abound even when the Thus Come One is in the world, how much more will this be so after his passing?’ There is good reason for this statement.”

 

Notes

66. These persecutions refer to the exiles to the Izu Peninsula and Sado Island.

67. Lotus Sutra, chap. 10.

68. Ibid., chap. 3.

69. Ibid., chap. 14.

70. Ibid., chap. 13. The quotation that follows is from the same chapter.

71. Ibid.

72. Ibid., chap. 20.

73. The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra.

74. The Annotations on “The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra.”

75. An Essay on the Protection of the Nation. Tokuitsu (n.d.), a priest of the Dharma Characteristics school, carried on a long-standing controversy with Dengyō. Chih-i is another name for T’ien-t’ai.

76. Non-Buddhists: This term generally refers to Brahmanists in the text of the sutras and, furthermore, to Confucians and Taoists in the context of Tung-ch’un.

77. The six superintendents of priests were the priests of the temples in the city of Nara, who opposed Dengyō in 819. They were Jō’e of Kōfuku-ji, Buan of Tōshōdai-ji, Shuen of Kōfuku-ji, Taien of Saidai-ji, Sebyō of Gangō-ji, and the Chief Superintendent Gomyō of Gangō-ji.

 

 

 

 

Chapter27(Revealing the correspondence between each and every passage of Lotus Sutras)

When a little boy is given moxibustion treatment, he will invariably resent his mother; when a seriously ill person is given good medicine, he will complain without fail about its bitterness. And we meet with similar complaints about the Lotus Sutra, even in the lifetime of the Buddha. How much more severe is the opposition after his passing, especially in the Middle and Latter Days of the Law and in a far-off country like Japan? As mountains pile upon mountains and waves follow waves, so do persecutions add to persecutions and criticisms augment criticisms.

During the Middle Day of the Law, one man alone, T’ien-t’ai, understood and expounded the Lotus Sutra and the other sutras. The other Buddhist leaders of both northern and southern China hated him for it, but the two sage rulers of the Ch’en and Sui dynasties gave him an audience so he could establish the correctness of his views in debate with his opponents. Thus in time he ceased to have any more opponents. At the end of the Middle Day of the Law, one man alone, Dengyō, grasped the Lotus Sutra and the other sutras just as the Buddha had expounded them. The seven major temples of Nara rose up like hornets against him, but the two worthy sovereigns, Emperor Kammu and Emperor Saga, themselves investigating the views of both sides, made clear which was correct, and thereafter there was no further trouble.

It is now over two hundred years since the Latter Day of the Law began. The Buddha predicted that conditions would be much worse after his passing, and we see the portents of this in the quarrels and wranglings that go on today because unreasonable doctrines are prevalent. And as proof of the fact that we are living in a muddied age, I was not summoned for a doctrinal debate with my opponents, but instead I was sent into exile and my very life imperiled.

When it comes to understanding the Lotus Sutra, I have only a minute fraction of the vast ability that T’ien-t’ai and Dengyō possessed. But as regards my ability to endure persecution and the wealth of my compassion for others, I believe they would hold me in awe. [As a votary of the Lotus Sutra] I firmly believe that I should come under the protection of the gods, and yet I do not see the slightest sign of this. On the contrary, I am subjected to increasingly severe punishments. In view of this, am I perhaps then not a votary of the Lotus Sutra after all? Or have the heavenly gods and benevolent deities perhaps taken leave and departed from this land of Japan? I find myself in much perplexity.

But then I recall the twenty lines of verse in the “Encouraging Devotion” chapter of the fifth volume of the Lotus Sutra.⁷⁸ If I, Nichiren, had not been born in this land of Japan, then the words of the World-Honored One predicting such persecutions would have been a great prevarication, and those eight hundred thousand million nayutas of bodhisattvas would have been guilty of the same offense as that of Devadatta, of lying and misleading others.

The sutra says, “There will be many ignorant people who will curse and speak ill of us and will attack us with swords and staves, with rocks and tiles.”⁷⁹ Look around you in the world today—are there any priests other than Nichiren who are cursed and vilified because of the Lotus Sutra or who are attacked with swords and staves? If it were not for Nichiren, the prophecy made in this verse of the sutra would have been sheer falsehood.

The same passage says, “In that evil age there will be monks with perverse wisdom and hearts that are fawning and crooked,”⁸⁰ and “They will preach the Law to white-robed laymen and will be respected and revered by the world as though they were arhats who possess the six transcendental powers.”⁸¹ If it were not for the priests of the Nembutsu, Zen, and Precepts schools of our present age, then the World-Honored One would have been a teller of great untruths.

The passage likewise says, “Because in the midst of the great assembly . . . they will address the rulers, high ministers, Brahmans, and householders . . . [slandering and speaking evil of us].” If the priests of today did not slander me to the authorities and have them condemn me to banishment, then this passage in the sutra would have remained unfulfilled.

“Again and again we will be banished,” says the sutra. But if Nichiren had not been banished time and again for the sake of the Lotus Sutra, what would these words “again and again” have meant? Even T’ien-t’ai and Dengyō were not able to fulfill this prediction represented by the words “again and again,” much less was anyone else. But because I have been born at the beginning of the Latter Day of the Law, the “age of fear and evil” described in the sutra, I alone have been able to live these words.

As other examples of prophecies that were fulfilled, in the Buddha’s Successors Sutra it is recorded that the World-Honored One said that one hundred years after his passing a ruler named Ashoka the Great would appear. In the Māyā Sutra he said that six hundred years after his passing a man named Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna would appear in southern India. And in the Great Compassion Sutra he said that sixty years after his passing a man named Madhyāntika would establish his base in the dragon palace. All of these prophecies came true. Indeed, if they had not, who would believe in the Buddha’s teachings?

Thus the Buddha decided the time [when the votary of the Lotus Sutra should appear], describing it as “an age of fear and evil,” “the latter age hereafter,” “the latter age hereafter, when the Law is about to perish,” and “the last five-hundred-year period,” as attested by the two Chinese versions of the Lotus Sutra, the Lotus Sutra of the Correct Law and the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law.⁸² At such a time, if the three powerful enemies predicted in the Lotus Sutra did not appear, then who would believe in the words of the Buddha? If it were not for Nichiren, who could fulfill the Buddha’s prophecies concerning the votary of the Lotus Sutra? The three schools of southern China and seven schools of northern China, along with the seven major temples of Nara, were numbered among the enemies of the Lotus Sutra in the time of the Middle Day of the Law. How much less can the Zen, Precepts, and Nembutsu priests of the present time hope to escape a similar label?

With this body of mine, I have fulfilled the prophecies of the sutra. The more the government authorities rage against me, the greater is my joy. For instance, there are certain Hinayana bodhisattvas, not yet freed from delusion, who draw evil karma to themselves by their own compassionate vow. If they see that their father and mother have fallen into hell and are suffering greatly, they will deliberately create the appropriate karma in hopes that they too may fall into hell and share in and take their suffering upon themselves. Thus suffering is a joy to them. It is the same with me [in fulfilling the prophecies]. Though at present I must face trials that I can scarcely endure, I rejoice when I think that in the future I will escape being born into the evil paths.

 

Notes

78. In the “Encouraging Devotion” chapter, eight hundred thousand million nayutas of bodhisattvas describe the persecutions they will endure after the Buddha’s passing for the sake of the Lotus Sutra.

79. In the twenty-line verse of the “Encouraging Devotion” chapter, the countless assembled bodhisattvas vow to brave various hardships in propagating the Lotus Sutra in the Latter Day of the Law. These hardships were later categorized by Miao-lo as the work of the three powerful enemies. This passage refers to the first of the three powerful enemies. The “Encouraging Devotion” chapter itself refers only to “swords and staves.” “Rocks and tiles” is an interpolation from the “Never Disparaging” chapter.

80. This passage refers to the second of the three powerful enemies.

81. This passage refers to the third of the three powerful enemies: monks who enjoy the respect of the general public but, in fear of losing fame and profit, induce the authorities to persecute the votaries.

82. Two of the three extant Chinese versions of the Lotus Sutra are mentioned here. The three are the Lotus Sutra of the Correct Law translated by Dharmaraksha, the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law by Kumārajīva, and the Supplemented Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law by Jnānagupta and Dharmagupta. Among these versions, Kumārajīva’s is by far the most widely used.

 

 

 

 

Chapter28(Raising doubts and explaining why Daishonin is a practitioner of the Lotus Sutra)

And yet the people doubt me, and I too have doubts about myself. Why do the gods not assist me? Heavenly gods and other guardian deities made their vow before the Buddha. Even if the votary of the Lotus Sutra were an ape rather than a man, they should address him as the votary of the Lotus Sutra and rush forward to fulfill the vow they made before the Buddha. Does their failure to do so mean that I am in fact not a votary of the Lotus Sutra? This doubt lies at the heart of this piece I am writing. And because it is the most important concern of my entire life, I will raise it again and again here, and emphasize it more than ever, before I attempt to answer it.

 

 

 

 

Chapter29(Discussing the profound debt of gratitude that the two Vehicles owe to the  Lotus Sutra)

Prince Chi-cha in his heart had promised to give the lord of Hsü the precious royal sword that he wore. Therefore [when he later found that the lord of Hsü had died], he placed the sword on his grave.⁸³ Wang Shou, having drunk water from a river, carefully tossed a gold coin into the water as payment.⁸⁴ Hung Yen, finding that his lord had been killed, cut open his stomach and inserted his lord’s liver in it before he died. These were worthy men, and they knew how to repay a debt of gratitude. How much more so, then, should this be the case with great sages like Shāriputra and Mahākāshyapa, who observed every one of the two hundred and fifty precepts and the three thousand rules of conduct, and had cut themselves off from the illusions of thought and desire and separated themselves from the threefold world? They are worthy to be the leaders of Brahmā, Shakra, and the other heavenly gods, and the eyes of all living beings. During the first forty and more years of the Buddha’s preaching, these men were disliked and pushed aside with admonitions that they could never attain Buddhahood. But when they had tasted the medicine of immortality in the Lotus Sutra, they were like scorched seeds that sprout, a shattered rock joined together again, or withered trees that put forth blossoms and fruit. Through the Lotus Sutra, it was revealed that they would attain Buddhahood after all, though they had yet to enter the eight phases of a Buddha’s existence. How, then, can they not do something to repay the profound debt of gratitude that they owe to the sutra? If they do not do so, they will show themselves to be inferior to the worthy men I mentioned earlier and, in fact, be no more than animals who have no understanding of a debt of gratitude.

The turtle that Mao Pao saved did not forget to repay the kindness of the past.⁸⁵ The great fish of K’un-ming Pond, in order to repay the man who had saved his life, presented a bright jewel in the middle of the night.⁸⁶ Even these creatures understood how to repay a debt of gratitude, so why shouldn’t men who are great sages?

The Venerable Ānanda was the second son of King Dronodana, and the Venerable Rāhula was the grandson of King Shuddhodana. Both men were born into very distinguished families and even attained arhatship. However, they were declared to be unable to attain Buddhahood. And yet, during the eight-year assembly at Eagle Peak [when the Lotus Sutra was preached], it was revealed that they would become Buddhas with names such as the Thus Come One Mountain Sea Wisdom [Unrestricted Power King] and the Thus Come One Stepping on Seven Treasure Flowers. No matter how distinguished their families or what great sages they were, if it had not been for the revelation in the Lotus Sutra, who would have paid them respect?

King Chieh of the Hsia dynasty and King Chou of the Yin dynasty were lords of an army of ten thousand chariots and commanded the allegiance of the entire populace of their kingdoms. But because they governed despotically and brought about the downfall of their dynasties, people speak of Chieh and Chou as the epitome of evil men.⁸⁷ Even a person of low station or a leper, if he is likened to Chieh and Chou, will be enraged at the insult.

If it had not been for the Lotus Sutra, then who would ever have heard of the twelve hundred voice-hearers⁸⁸ and the countless other voice-hearers [who would attain Buddhahood through the sutra, and] who would have listened to their voices? No one would have read the Buddhist sutras compiled by the thousand voice-hearers,⁸⁹ nor would there be any paintings or wooden statues of them set up and worshiped. It is entirely due to the power of the Lotus Sutra that these arhats are revered and followed. If these voice-hearers were to separate themselves from the Lotus Sutra, they would be like a fish without water, a monkey without a tree, a baby without the breast, or a people without a sovereign. How then can they abandon the votary of the Lotus Sutra?

Through the sutras that precede the Lotus Sutra, the voice-hearers have acquired the heavenly eye and the wisdom eye in addition to their physical eyes. Through the Lotus Sutra, they have been provided with the Dharma eye and the Buddha eye.⁹⁰ Their eyesight can penetrate any of the worlds in the ten directions. How then could they fail to see me, the votary of the Lotus Sutra, right here in the sahā world? Even if I were an evil man who had said a word or two against them, or even if I cursed and reviled the voice-hearers for a year or two, a kalpa or two, or a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, or a million kalpas, and went so far as to threaten to take up swords and staves against them, so long as I maintain my faith in the Lotus Sutra and act as its votary, then they should never abandon me.

A child may curse his parents, but would the parents for that reason cast him aside? The young owls eat their mother, but the mother nevertheless does not abandon them. The hakei beast kills its father, but the father does nothing to prevent this. If even animals behave like this, then why should great sages abandon the votary of the Lotus Sutra?

 

Notes

83. In 544 b.c.e. Chi-cha, the son of Shou-meng, king of Wu, was ordered to visit other countries as an envoy. At that time he was given a valuable sword. When he happened to be passing through the country of Hsü, the lord of the state saw Chi-cha’s sword and wanted it, though he did not dare to say so. Chi-cha, however, understood the lord’s desire and in his heart promised to give him the sword after he had fulfilled his mission and returned to Hsü. But when he returned, he found that the lord had already died. True to his promise, he offered the sword at the lord’s grave.

84. The details of the story are unknown; it symbolizes Wang Shou’s deep gratitude for the natural environment and sense of integrity.

85. When Mao Pao was walking along the Yangtze River, he saw a fisherman catch a turtle and prepare to kill it. He bought the turtle and put it back in the water. Later, Mao Pao was defeated by a powerful general named Shih Hu. When he fled in retreat to the Yangtze River, the turtle that he had saved appeared and carried him on its back to the opposite shore.

86. A pond constructed by Emperor Wu of the Former Han dynasty. One day he saw a fish in the pond suffering because of a hook caught in its throat. The emperor felt pity for the fish and removed the hook, putting the fish back into the water. Later, to repay its obligation, the fish offered a bright jewel to the emperor.

87. Because King Chieh, the seventeenth ruler of the Hsia dynasty, tyrannically perpetrated various atrocities, he was overthrown by his enemies, and the Hsia dynasty perished. King Chou, the last ruler of the Yin dynasty, enslaved by his love for his consort Ta Chi, totally misgoverned the country. He was destroyed by King Wu of the Chou dynasty.

88. The twelve hundred voice-hearers refer to the arhats who received a prophecy of attaining Buddhahood in the “Prophecy of Enlightenment for Five Hundred Disciples” chapter of the Lotus Sutra. Each of them was given the same designation: the Thus Come One Universal Brightness.

89. The thousand voice-hearers refer to the disciples who gathered at the First Buddhist Council convened shortly after Shakyamuni’s death in Magadha to compile his teachings.

90. The five types of vision are given here. “Eye” here means perceptive faculty. See five types of vision in Glossary.