It must be admitted … that to our ears [Nichiren’s] four admonitions sound very negative and sectarian. However, in reading the record of the Buddha’s last days in the Pāli Canon I believe that I have found statements corresponding to the four admonitions in the teachings of the historical Śākyamuni Buddha.
According to the Mahāparinibbāna-sutta of the Long Discourses of the Buddha, the Buddha spent his last year giving final instructions to Ānanda and his other followers to make sure that the Dharma would be taught correctly after his passing. Let’s examine them one by one.
On their last teaching tour together, Ānanda noticed how weak the Buddha had become due to old age and illness. He remarked that he was sure the Buddha would make some statement about the Sangha regarding a successor. The Buddha told him that he had no statement to make and that in fact they had already been taught all that they needed to know. He said, “I have taught the Dharma, Ānanda, making no inner and outer: the Tathāgata has no teacher’s fist in respect of doctrines.” (Walshe, p. 245
By this the Buddha meant that he had held nothing back or concealed in a closed fist. There were to be no secret teachings to be doled out by any successor. There were no further revelations. This basically undercuts the claims of any group that would claim that in order to practice Buddhism one needs not just the Buddha’s teachings but special initiations or empowerments, or to be taught special esoteric rituals. This was the essence of Nichiren’s critique of Mantra, or esoteric Buddhism: in the Lotus Sūtra we have been taught everything that we need to know, nothing is missing. Through our faith in the Lotus Sūtra we are initiated directly into buddhahood and empowered to actualize the qualities of the Buddha’s insight and virtue in our daily lives.
The Buddha then said, ”Therefore, Ānanda, you should live as islands unto yourselves, being your own refuge, with no one else as your refuge, with the Dharma as an island, with the Dharma as your refuge, with no other refuge.” (Ibid, p. 245) Here the Buddha is saying that we will find the Dharma, the true nature of things, within our own lives by putting his teachings into practice for ourselves. It is not something that will be given to us by some external savior. He says nothing here of having to die and be reborn in a pure land. Nichiren believed that to live one’s life alienated from the chance to realize the Lotus Sūtra’s teaching that this world itself is the true pure land where buddhahood is actualized would in fact lead to a hellish existence. In saying that the practice of nembutsu or calling upon Amitābha Buddha will lead to hell, Nichiren is pointing out that true refuge is found in the Dharma within our own lives here and now.
On his deathbed beneath the Sala trees, the Buddha said, “Ānanda, it may be that you will think: ‘The Teacher’s instruction has ceased, now we have no teacher!’ It should not be seen like this, Ānanda, for what I have taught and explained to you as Dharma and discipline will, at my passing, be your teacher.” (Ibid, p. 269-70) According to this account the Buddha did not appoint a successor or patriarch. He believed that the teachings he gave were sufficient guidance. In fact, earlier the Buddha stated that after his passing any teaching put forward as the Dharma, even those by elder monks, should be verified by comparing it to the Buddha’s actual discourses. In calling Zen the school of heavenly devils, Nichiren was criticizing what he perceived as the arrogant claims made by some Zen Masters that their own personal enlightenment superseded the Buddha’s teachings in the sūtras. The point made is that in Buddhism we have the objective criteria of the sūtras to determine what Buddhism actually teaches and we do not have to rely on middlemen. In fact, in Nichiren Buddhism it is taught that we each inherit the Dharma directly from the scrolls of the Lotus Sūtra. This is not to say that we should not seek teachers and mentors for guidance and encouragement, but it means that in the end we cannot go by hearsay. We must discern for ourselves what the Dharma is through our own reading of the sūtras and we must validate the teachings for ourselves through our own practice.
The Buddha also told Ānanda, “If they wish, the Sangha may abolish the minor rules after my passing.” (Ibid, p. 270) Unfortunately Ananda was too distraught to ask the Buddha which of the precepts were to be considered minor rules. At the first Buddhist council, it was decided to keep all the precepts in place because a) circumstances had not changed so there was no reason to change anything, b) changing them would cause the householder supporters of the Sangha to accuse them of laxness after the Buddha’s passing, c) they could not agree on which precepts could be considered minor. In Nichiren’s time the Ritsu or Discipline school championed the practice of all the precepts just as they had been laid down in fourth century BCE India. Nichiren could see that this was no longer appropriate to the time and place, and that such external observance was in any case to miss the true point of Buddhism as taught in the Lotus Sūtra. As we can see, the historical Buddha did not want Buddhism to become a religion bound up in the external observance of increasingly irrelevant rules. As Nichiren Buddhists we do not formally take precepts, but we endeavor to live in the spirit of Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō. This is actually a more demanding course than simply following a list of rules. We must be honest with ourselves, attentive to our actual circumstances, and always try to find the best way to bring the spirit of our devotion to the Lotus Sūtra’s teaching of universal and immanent buddhahood into our work, family, and other significant relationships, in fact into every aspect of our lives.
Open Your Eyes, p350-352
I have scanned and uploaded to the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church’s Brochures page a copy of a small biography of Nichiren published in 1968. The Lotus Sutra and Nichiren was written by the Rev. Eisen Hosino, who at the time was Chief Priest of Jitsujoji Temple, Jomkuji, Achi-ken. The book was translated into English by Senchu Murano, then a Rissho University professor.