The Refutation of the Three Great Teachers Chapter8
Nichiren
And then, because I, Nichiren, reprove such persons for relying on sutras that will not lead them to enlightenment, they become more and more enraged and, without looking into the truth of the matter, invent great lies and thereby deceive and mislead the ruler and the people of the land, hoping to do me harm. Thus I have not only been forced to endure thousands of hardships, but have twice been condemned to exile and at one point very nearly had my head cut off. These great trials I have been subjected to surpass the sticks and staves that Bodhisattva Never Disparaging had to endure, and are more fearful than the swords and staves described in the “Encouraging Devotion” chapter.
The “Teacher of the Law” chapter states that in the latter age if there are persons who broadly expound the Lotus Sutra, they are envoys of the Thus Come One. Anyone who despises or looks down on such persons is committing a crime graver than that of treating Shakyamuni, the lord of teachings, with contempt for the space of a medium kalpa.
In Japan today there are persons guilty of crimes who, like Devadatta or the Great Arrogant Brahman, are destined to fall into the hell of incessant suffering. The 4,589,659 inhabitants who fill the 3,587 ri of this country are just such persons. And the unspeakably grave faults committed by Devadatta and the Great Arrogant Brahman are among the lightest of light offenses in comparison to the faults of these 4,589,659 persons of this country of Japan.
Question: Why do you say that?
Answer: Because, although Devadatta and the Great Arrogant Brahman were evil men, they were not guilty of slandering the Lotus Sutra. Devadatta was numbered among the second type of persons who enter the Ganges River and the second type is icchantikas, or persons of incorrigible disbelief.22 But the 4,589,659 inhabitants of Japan today are all offenders who belong to the first type of persons who enter the Ganges. Therefore the three cardinal sins that Devadatta committed are in comparison light as a feather, while the grave offenses committed by the persons of Japan I have just mentioned are weighty as a huge stone.
There can be no doubt that as a result, Brahmā and Shakra have abandoned Japan, the gods Same Birth and Same Name have taken leave of its inhabitants, and the Sun Goddess and Great Bodhisattva Hachiman no longer guard and protect this country of ours.
In the Jishō era [1177–1181] and thereafter, five great rulers, the eighty-first, eighty-second, eighty-third, eighty-fourth, and eighty-fifth sovereigns of the imperial line,23 contended with Yoritomo and Yoshitoki for possession of this country; the Son of Heaven and his subjects confronted one another in battle. One would suppose that the Son of Heaven would be as certain to win victory over Yoritomo and the others as a fierce hawk is to overcome a pheasant. And yet all five of these great rulers were in the end defeated. It was as though a lion king had been defeated by a mere hare.
And not only did these rulers suffer defeat. In addition, one drowned in the depths of the sea, while others were banished to distant islands. And all this happened at a time when slandering of the Lotus Sutra was still a recent occurrence. But now it has gone on much longer and spread widely, so that the situation is far graver than it was then.
Those earlier rulers merely faced disasters within the country. But, as I sought to discover to some degree the cause for these misfortunes, I observed that, even before the official announcement came from the Mongols, there had occurred the great earthquake in the Shōka era and the huge comet in the Bun’ei era.24 Regarding these as omens of foreign invasion, I two or three times submitted warnings to the authorities. But the rulers of the nation did not deign to heed my advice.
It would seem, however, that the letters of warning I submitted were in accord with the will of the Buddha. For already we have become engaged in this fierce struggle with the Mongol forces. Thus the inhabitants of this country in their present existence have one and all been plunged into the realm of asuras, and in their next existence will without doubt all enter the great citadel of the Avīchi hell.
Notes
22. The Nirvana Sutra refers to the “seven types of living beings in the Ganges River.” Among these, the Daishonin gives his own interpretation to the first two types. The first type are icchantikas who, according to the sutra, on entering the water, immediately drown and never emerge again; the second type are also icchantikas who are described as emerging but drowning again. The Daishonin regards the first type as icchantikas who slander the Law and the second type as icchantikas who commit the five cardinal sins but do not slander the Law.
23. Emperors Antoku, Gotoba, Tsuchimikado, Juntoku, and Chūkyō, respectively. Antoku, a grandson of Taira no Kiyomori and still a child at the time, drowned in 1185 during a sea battle at Dannoura, where the Taira met their final defeat at the hands of Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate. In 1221, three retired emperors—Gotoba, Tsuchimikado, and Juntoku—together with the reigning emperor Chūkyō, plotted to overthrow the military government in Kamakura. Their forces were defeated by those of the regent Hōjō Yoshitoki. Chūkyō was deposed, and the retired emperors were exiled to distant islands.
24. In 1257 a great earthquake devastated Kamakura, and in 1264 a huge comet, generally considered at that time to be an ominous sign, appeared.