The Unanimous Declaration by the Buddhas of the Three Existencesregarding the Classification of the Teachings and Which Are to Be Abandoned and Which Upheld Chapter13

The Unanimous Declaration by the Buddhas of the Three Existencesregarding the Classification of the Teachings and Which Are to Be Abandoned and Which Upheld Chapter13

Written by Nichiren

The ninth volume of Great Concentration and Insight states: “For example, it is comparable to the phenomenon of sleep that comes over the mind, so that in one instant of thought the mind dreams of countless different worldly affairs . . . With regard to tranquil extinction, the essential truth of things, can there be any question of an order of precedence? . . . All living beings are in a state of great nirvana. There is no question of any further extinction, so how could there be any question of precedence, of higher or lower, of greater or smaller? This state is the birthlessness of the birthless²⁰ and hence cannot be explained in words. But because it involves causes and conditions, it can in a certain sense be explained. The first ten links in the twelve-linked chain of causation constitute a cause for the salvation of living beings. But explaining the various stages of this process is like painting a picture or planting a tree in the empty air, no more than an expedient means adopted in an attempt at explanation.”

The sentient beings and the environment of the Ten Worlds are the Buddha of the Dharma body, one who possesses the virtue of the three bodies in a single entity. Once one has understood this, one will fully realize that all phenomena are the Buddhist Law. This is known as the stage of hearing the name and words of the truth. From the stage of hearing the name and words of the truth one proceeds directly to the attainment of Buddhahood in one’s present form.²¹ Thus in the teaching of perfect and immediate enlightenment there are no successive stages of practice.

Hence Profound Meaning states: “Many scholars in this latter age seize on the various methods for cutting off delusion set forth in the sutras and treatises as an expedient means and argue over them. But as in the case with water, how can you tell whether it is cold or not unless you drink some?”

T’ien-t’ai states the opinion: “The order in which the different stages of religious practice proceed is set forth in the Benevolent Kings and Jeweled Necklace sutras, and the higher and lower degrees to which delusions can be cut off are described in the Larger Wisdom Sutra and The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom.”²²

The Benevolent Kings, Jeweled Necklace, and Larger Wisdom sutras and Great Perfection of Wisdom are all sutras and treatises that belong to the eight teachings that preceded the Lotus Sutra. The religious practices set forth in the provisional teachings require countless kalpas in order to be carried out stage by stage, and hence these texts describe these successive stages.

But the Lotus Sutra represents the perfect teaching that transcends the eight teachings, a type of immediate enlightenment to be quickly achieved. One perceives that the mind, the Buddha, and living beings—these three are all encompassed within a single instant of mind; outside of the mind, nothing else exists. Thus even practitioners of inferior capacity are able within a single lifetime to reach the stage of perfect enlightenment. The one and the many are mutually identical, and hence one stage of religious practice includes within it all stages of practice, and thus one may reach enlightenment within a single lifetime.

If even persons of inferior capacity are able to do so, how much more so, then, in the case of those of middling capacity, or those of superior capacity? Outside of the true aspect there is no other thing that exists, and the true aspect knows nothing of stages or degrees. Hence there is no such thing as a stage of religious practice.