The Ryūsen-ji Petition Chapter4
Next we would like to speak regarding assertions that one should carry out devotions to the Amida Sutra at certain fixed times. Considering the matter, we see that blossoms and the moon are admired, water or fire is used at times when such actions are appropriate; their use does not abide by previously fixed rules. And the same applies to the various Buddhist doctrines; they are adopted or laid aside depending upon what is appropriate to the time.
Moreover, the Amida Sutra,20 the four-sheet text that you adhere to, is only a minor sutra preached in the period about which the Buddha said, “In these more than forty years, I have not yet revealed the truth.”21 The Venerable Shāriputra, known as the wisest person in the continent of Jambudvīpa, read and recited this sutra over a period of many years but in the end was never able to attain Buddhahood. Later, however, he discarded this sutra, and eventually, when the Lotus Sutra was preached, he was told that he would become a Buddha named Flower Glow Thus Come One. How, then, could ignorant persons living in this evil age of the Latter Day hope, simply by reciting the invocation Namu-Amida-butsu, to be reborn in the Pure Land in their next existence?
Therefore the Buddha was warning us when he said in the Lotus Sutra, “Honestly discarding expedient means, I will preach only the unsurpassed way.”22 Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings, is in effect saying that he has discarded the Amida Sutra.
Again, the Nirvana Sutra states: “Though the Thus Come One does not speak untruths, if I knew that by speaking falsely [I could help living beings gain the benefits of the Law, then for their sake I would go along with what is best and speak such words as an expedient means].” This passage is saying in effect that recitation of the name of Amida Buddha is an empty practice.
The Lotus Sutra states: “desiring only to accept and embrace the sutra of the great vehicle and not accepting a single verse of the other sutras.”23 The Great Teacher Miao-lo says, “Moreover, the Flower Garland Sutra [contains a passage similar to that of the Lotus Sutra on the six difficult and nine easy acts, but] it is a series of comparisons of the blessings to be received and not in terms of the teaching to be propagated, as set forth in the Lotus Sutra. Therefore the Lotus Sutra says, ‘not accepting a single verse of the other sutras.’”24
The Flower Garland Sutra was preached at the place where the Buddha achieved enlightenment and expounds the doctrine that the phenomenal world is the creation of the mind alone.25 The superior text contains as many chapters as the dust particles of ten major world systems. The middle grade text contains 498,000 verses. The inferior text contains 100,000 verses in 48 chapters.26 But if we examine the extant editions of the complete collection of sutras, we see that there are only an eighty-volume version, a sixty-volume version, and a forty-volume version of this sutra.
In addition, there are various other exoteric and esoteric Mahayana sutras such as the Correct and Equal sutras, the Wisdom sutras, the Mahāvairochana Sutra, and the Diamond Crown Sutra. But when we compare them with the Lotus Sutra, we see that the Buddha himself has said that they were preached when he had “not yet revealed the truth,” and that they represent a path “beset by numerous hindrances and trials.”27
Therefore we should close the door on them, should abandon them.28 And how much more should we do so in the case of the Amida Sutra! To compare it to the Lotus Sutra is like putting an ant hill beside a great mountain and asking which is higher, or pitting a fox or a rabbit against a lion and asking which is stronger!
We, Nisshū and the others of our group, have now abandoned these lesser sutras and read and recite only the Lotus Sutra, recommending this practice to all the world and chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Are we not expressing fervent loyalty in doing so?
If there are any details relating to this matter that remain unclear, we request that the authorities will summon various eminent Buddhist priests so that we may debate with them and settle the rights and wrongs of the affair. This was the practice followed earlier in India, China, and Japan in determining what is superior and what inferior in matters relating to the Buddhist teachings. Now, when we live in an age of enlightened government, should this time-honored practice of these three nations be discarded?
Notes
20. The one-volume Amida Sutra consisted of only four sheets.
21. Immeasurable Meanings Sutra.
24. The Treatise of Five Hundred Questions.
25. This statement is based on a passage in the Flower Garland Sutra that says: “The mind is like a skilled painter, who creates various forms made up of the five components. Thus of all the phenomena throughout the entire world, there is not a single one that is not created by the mind.”
26. This refers to the three versions of the Flower Garland Sutra said to be kept at the dragon palace, and which are mentioned in The Annotations on “The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra.” Concerning the middle text, however, the commentary says, “The middle grade text contains 498,800 verses.”
27. Immeasurable Meanings Sutra. It says, “Though immeasurable, boundless, inconceivable asamkhya kalpas may pass, they [living beings] will in the end fail to gain unsurpassed enlightenment. Why? Because they will not know about the great direct way to enlightenment, but will travel perilous byways beset by numerous hindrances and trials.”
28. A rephrasing of Hōnen’s statement in The Nembutsu Chosen above All. He asserted that one should discard, close, ignore, and abandon all teachings and practices other than those relating to Amida Buddha.