By Imperial Edict and Shogunal Decree, p201-202[Following the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)] Tanaka consciously shifted his efforts from internal reform of the Nichiren sect to “study of the national essence” (kokutaigaku), by which name he termed his attempt to interpret the Japanese kokutai from the standpoint of Nichirenshugi. The notion of Japan’s unique national essence formed the ideological pillar of the modern state; its key elements included the myth of an unbroken imperial line, descended directly from the Sun Goddess and her grandson, Emperor Jinmu, and the concept of the emperor as benevolent father to the “family” of his subjects. …
Tanaka first seriously addressed this issue in a lecture delivered in Nara in 1904, shortly before the war’s outbreak, to some two hundred participants in a study training session whom he had taken on a visit to Emperor Jinmu’s tomb. It was published as a pamphlet titled Seikai tōitsu no tengyō (The divine task of world unification), and several thousand copies distributed to soldiers departing for the front. Its central argument, in Buddhist terms, was that the kokutai is the truth to be interpreted (shoshaku), and Nichirenshugi, that which interprets it (nōshaku). Tanaka’s hermeneutical strategy, here and in later writings, was to homologize the Lotus Sūtra, or, more specifically, Nichirenshugi, with the Japanese national essence through a logic of analogy and numerical correspondence. From the legendary account of Emperor Jinmu’s founding of the Yamato kingdom, as related in the eighth-century chronicle Nihon Shoki, Tanaka drew three phrases describing Jinmu’s achievements—”fostering righteousness, accumulating happiness, and increasing glory”—which he identified as the three original acts that had established the Japanese kokutai. These he in turn equated with the three imperial regalia—the sword, mirror and jewel—and with Nichiren’s three great secret Dharmas: the daimoku, the object of worship, and the ordination platform. The mission of Japan was the divine task of world unification inherited from Emperor Jinmu, to extend the blessings of the kokutai to all people. It would be spearheaded by the emperor, who was at once both Jinmu’s lineal heir and also the “wheel-turning monarch” of Buddhist tradition, who supports and protects the Dharma. At the same time, its fulfillment required the spiritual basis provided by Nichirenshugi; incomplete religions, such as Christianity or other forms of Buddhism, could never supply it. “Nichirenism is precisely Japanism,” Tanaka wrote. “Nichiren Shōnin appeared in order to interpret Japan’s spiritual essence as Buddhist doctrine, providing all humanity throughout the ten thousands years of the Final Dharma age with the ultimate refuge. The great teaching of Nichiren is the religion for Japan, and the religion for Japan is the religion for the world.”
From this point, Tanaka’s writings increasingly suggest that the underlying purpose of the Lotus Sūtra and Nichiren’s teaching was to explicate the Japanese national essence.
Monthly Archives: August 2023
Daily Dharma – Aug. 6, 2023
It is difficult to keep this sūtra.
I shall be glad to see
Anyone keeping it even for a moment.
So will all the other Buddhas.
The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Eleven of the Lotus Sūtra. He is well aware of how hard it is to move from expedient teachings to the Wonderful Dharma. We have habits and attachments built up over many lifetimes, and live in a world that does not always support our practice. Still, one cannot underestimate the importance of trying, even for the briefest amount of time, to hold on to this teaching and bring it to life in this world.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 11
Day 11 continues Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City
Having last month considered the reaction of the Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion worlds in the southeast, we consider the reaction of the Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion worlds in the south.
“Bhikṣus! The great Brahman-[heavenly-]kings of the five hundred billion worlds in the south, who saw their palaces illumined more brightly than ever, also danced with joy. They wondered why [their palaces were so illumined]. They visited each other and discussed the reason, saying, ‘Why are our palaces illumined so brightly?’ There was a great Brahman-heavenlyking called Wonderful-Dharma among them. He said to the other Brahmans in gāthās:
Our palaces are illumined so brightly.
There must be some reason.
Let us find [the place]
[From where the light has come].We have never seen this [light]
For the past one hundred thousand kalpas.
Did a god of great virtue or a Buddha appear
Somewhere in the universe?“Thereupon the Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion [worlds] went to the north, carrying flower-plates filled with heavenly flowers, in order to find [the place from where the light had come]. Their palaces also moved as they went. They [reached the Well-Composed World and] saw that GreatUniversal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathāgata was sitting on the lionlike seat under the Bodhi-tree of the place of enlightenment, surrounded respectfully by gods, dragon-kings, gandharvas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, men and nonhuman beings. They also saw that the sixteen princes were begging the Buddha to turn the wheel of the Dharma. They worshipped the Buddha with their heads, walked around him a hundred thousand times, and strewed heavenly flowers to him. The strewn flowers were heaped up to the height of Mt. Sumeru. The Brahman-heavenly-king offered flowers also to the Bodhi-tree of the Buddha. Having offered flowers, they offered their palaces to the Buddha, saying, ‘We offer these palaces to you. Receive them and benefit us out of your compassion towards us!’ In the presence of the Buddha, they simultaneously praised him in gāthās with all their hearts:
It is difficult to see a World-Honored One.
You, the World-Honored One, eliminated all illusions.
We have not seen a World-Honored One
For the past one hundred and thirty kalpas.Send the rain of the Dharma
On the hungry and thirsty beings!
Possessor of immeasurable wisdom,
We have never seen anyone wiser than you.
You are as rare as an udumbara-flower.
Now we have met you today.Our palaces are beautifully adorned
With your light.
World-Honored One, receive them
Out of your great compassion towards us!“Thereupon the Brahman-heavenly-kings, having praised the Buddha with these gāthās, said, ‘World-Honored One! Turn the wheel of the Dharma so that Mara, Brahman, the other gods, śramaṇas, and brahmanas of the world may be peaceful, and that they may be saved!’ They simultaneously praised the Buddha in gāthās with all their hearts:
Most Honorable of Gods and Men!
Turn the wheel of the unsurpassed Dharma,
Beat the drum of the Great Dharma,
Blow the conch-shell horn of the Great Dharma,
Send the rain of the Great Dharma,
And save innumerable living beings!
Devoting ourselves to you, we beg you.
Resound your profound teaching!“Thereupon Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathāgata gave his tacit consent to their appeal.
Nichiren Buddhism, Japan and the World
By Imperial Edict and Shogunal Decree, p200-201The appeal of [Tanaka’s] vision to followers and sympathizers … lay not merely in its immediacy but in the central role it assigned to Japan and its resonance with both official ideology and the popular patriotic sentiments of the day, which had been fanned by Japanese victories in the wars with China (1894-1895) and Russia (1904-1905), the annexation of Korea (1910) and later imperial expansion on the Asian continent. The “Buddhahood of the land,” in the sense of peace, just rule, and the manifestation of the Lotus Sūtra’s blessings in all spheres of human activity, was something Nichiren himself had envisioned. But neither Nichiren nor his medieval followers had understood this goal as necessarily allied to any specific regime or form of government; whether court or Bakufu, any government that upheld the Lotus Sūtra would serve to help realize this ideal. For Tanaka, however, “the Buddhahood of the land” was to be exemplified, mediated, and extended to all humanity by the imperial Japanese state. Already in Shūmon no ishin, he had written:
At that time [when the kaidan is established]—being exhaustively interpreted in connection with our holy founder Nichiren, who in his own person manifested the original Buddha Śākyamuni and the original Dharma of the Lotus Sūtra—the sacred plan of the divine ancestors of great Japan, her wondrous and unsurpassed national essence [kokutai], and her imperial house, divinely descended in a direct line, will manifest their true worth. Thus the authority of our teaching and the light of our country will fill the universe and instruct the people of all nations. This will accomplish the spiritual unification of the world, without need of a single soldier or sword.
Nichiren Buddhism and Japan, in Tanaka’s view, shared a divine mission to unite the world.
Daily Dharma – Aug. 5, 2023
These men and women are great Bodhisattvas. They should be considered to have appeared in this world by their vow to expound the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma out of their compassion towards all living beings, although they already attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi [in their previous existence].
The Buddha declares these lines to Medicine-King Bodhisattva at the beginning of Chapter Ten of the Lotus Sūtra. In the teachings of Nirvāṇa, the goal is to remove suffering so that we can be reborn in a peaceful realm. In this Sūtra, the Buddha reminds us that we who keep this Sūtra have given up the privilege of higher realms so that we can benefit beings where we find ourselves now. We do not fear rebirth in lower realms since our compassion takes us even there so we can benefit beings in those realms.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 10
Day 10 concludes Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood, and opens Chapter 7, The Parable of a Magic City.
Having last month concluded today’s portion of Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood, we begin Chapter 7, The Parable of a Magic City, and consider the Buddha called Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence.
The Buddha said to the Bhikṣus:
“A countless, limitless, inconceivable, asaṃkhya number of kalpas ago, there lived a Buddha called Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence, the Tathāgata, the Deserver of Offerings, the Perfectly Enlightened One, the Man of Wisdom and Practice, the Well-Gone, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed Man, the Controller of Men, the Teacher of Gods and Men, the Buddha, the World-Honored One. His world was called Well-Composed; and the kalpa in which he became that Buddha, Great-Form.
“Bhikṣus! It is a very long time since that Buddha passed away. Suppose someone smashed all the earth-particles of one thousand million Sumeru-worlds into ink-powder. Then he went to the east[, carrying the ink-powder with him]. He inked a dot as large as a particle of dust [with that ink-powder] on the world at a distance of one thousand worlds from his world. Then he went again and repeated the inking of a dot on the world at every distance of one thousand worlds until the ink-powder was exhausted. What do you think of this? Do you think that any mathematician or any disciple of a mathematician could count the number of the worlds [he went through]?”
“No, we do not, World-Honored One!”
“Bhikṣus! Now all the worlds he went through, whether they were inked or not, were smashed into dust. The number of the kalpas which have elapsed since that Buddha passed away is many hundreds of thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas larger than the number of the particles of the dust thus produced. Yet I remember [the extinction of] that Buddha by my power of insight as vividly as if he had passed away today.”
Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
According to my remembrance,
There lived a Buddha, an Honorable Biped,
Called Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence,
Countless kalpas ago.Suppose someone smashed
All the earth-particles
Of one thousand million Sumeru-worlds
Into ink-powder.He went, [carrying the ink-powder with him,]
And inked a dot as large as a particle of dust
On the world at a distance of one thousand worlds.
He repeated the inking until the ink-powder was exhausted.Suppose the worlds
Through which he went,
Whether they were inked or not,
Were smashed into dust.It is innumerable• kalpas,
More than the number
Of the particles of dust thus produced,
Since that Buddha passed away.I remember the extinction of that Buddha
As vividly as if he had passed away just now,
By my unhindered wisdom; I also remember
The Śrāvakas and Bodhisattvas who lived [with him].Bhikṣus, know this!
My wisdom is pure, wonderful,
Free from āsravas and from hindrance.
I know those who lived innumerable kalpas ago.
The Daily Dharma from June 3, 2023, offers this:
Bhikṣus! It is a very long time since that Buddha passed away. Suppose someone smashed all the earth-particles of one thousand million Sumeru-worlds into ink-powder. Then he went to the east[, carrying the ink-powder with him]. He inked a dot as large as a particle of dust [with that ink-powder] on the world at a distance of one thousand worlds from his world. Then he went again and repeated the inking of a dot on the world at every distance of one thousand worlds until the ink-powder was exhausted. What do you think of this? Do you think that any mathematician or any disciple of a mathematician could count the number of the worlds [he went through]?
The Buddha gives this explanation in Chapter Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. Our concept of time can be limited to what happens in the brief existence we enjoy in this world. We often feel we have no time for what is necessary, much less what we enjoy. With this limited viewpoint, we can find it hard to believe that we have enough time to become enlightened. The Buddha reminds us that there is no shortage of time, and that in all of our existence, we will have opportunities to increase our capacity to benefit others.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Realization of Buddhahood by the Land
By Imperial Edict and Shogunal Decree, p200Tanaka’s vision underwent elaboration in his lectures and writings over the … years. He divided the mappō era, the Final Dharma age for which the Lotus Sūtra was intended, into three periods: the founding period, when Nichiren had lived and declared his teaching; the era of dissemination, when faith in the Lotus Sūtra was destined to spread; and the era of unification, when all people would embrace it. For Tanaka, this era of unification would be the “golden age” of ōbutsu myōgō—the merging of the ruler’s dharma with the Buddha Dharma—another phrase he derived from the Sandai hihō shō. At this time, a majority of the nation having been converted, the Diet would pass an amendment revising the constitutional article allowing for freedom of religion and make Nichiren Buddhism the state creed, and an imperial edict would be issued to build the kaidan, thus formalizing the merger of Buddhism and government. Politics, society, ethics, thought—all would all be unified on the basis of the Lotus Sūtra, a goal that Tanaka referred to as the “realization of Buddhahood by the land” (kokudo jōbutsu). This goal was “not like heaven or the Pure Land, which are never actually expected to appear before our eyes. We predict, envision, and aim for it as a reality that we will definitely witness.”
Daily Dharma – Aug. 4, 2023
Ajita! The good men or women who hear of my longevity of which I told you, and understand it by firm faith, will be able to see that I am expounding the Dharma on Mt. Gṛdhrakūṭa, surrounded by great Bodhisattvas and Śrāvakas. They also will be able to see that the ground of this Sahā-World is made of lapis lazuli, that the ground is even, that the eight roads are marked off by ropes of jāmbūnada gold, that the jeweled trees are standing in lines, and that the magnificent buildings are made of treasures.
The Buddha gives this explanation to Maitreya Bodhisattva, whom he calls Ajita – Invincible, in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. We can hear this explanation as a promise of some great otherworldly vision which will be revealed to us if our faith is strong enough. We can also hear it as a promise that we will learn to deny that all the terrible things in the world as as bad as we think. But when we remember the Buddha telling us, “I do not see the world as others do,” then we realize that our faith brings us to the Buddha’s own mind, where we can accept this frightening and dangerous world for what it is, and work to make it better for all beings.
The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com
Day 9
Day 9 covers Chapter 5, The Simile of Herbs, and introduces Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood.
Having last month considered how the Buddha is like the cloud that gave rain to everyone, we consider how various followers are like various plants.
Those who live among gods and men,
Or those who live with a wheel-turning-holy-king,
Or with King Sakra or with King Brahman,
May be likened to the small herbs.Those who know the Dharma-without-āsravas,
Who attained Nirvana,
And who obtained the six supernatural powers,
Including the three major supernatural powers,
May be likened to the middle herbs.
So may those who live alone in mountains or forests,
Who practice dhyāna-concentrations,
And who attained the enlightenment of cause-knowers.Those who seek the stage of the World-Honored One,
Who practice endeavors and concentration of mind,
And who wish to become Buddhas,
May be likened to the large herbs.My sons [, that is, the Bodhisattvas]
Who seek
The enlightenment of the Buddha exclusively,
Who believe that they will become Buddhas definitely,
And who have compassion towards others,
May be likened to the short trees.The Bodhisattvas
Who turn the irrevocable wheel of the Dharma
By their supernatural powers,
And who save many thousands of myriads
Of millions of living beings,
May be likened to the tall trees.Although my teachings are of the same content to anyone
Just as the rain is of the same taste,
The hearers receive my teachings differently
According to their capacities
Just as the plants receive
Different amounts of the rain water.
Tanaka’s 50-Year Plan
By Imperial Edict and Shogunal Decree, p199-200Central to Tanaka’s millenarian vision was the honmon no kaidan, the ordination platform of the origin teaching, to be established, according to the Sandai hihō shō, by “imperial edict and shogunal decree.” Substituting the relevant political structure of his own day, Tanaka argued that the mandate for the kaidan’s establishment would now have to come from the Imperial Diet; it would be, in his terms, a kokuritsu kaidan, a “national kaidan” or, literally, a “kaidan established by the state.” To win a majority of sympathizers in both Diet houses, it would be necessary to convert a majority of the Japanese populace by shakubuku. Tanaka depicted a scenario in which, one by one, other religions acknowledging the superior righteousness of the Lotus Sūtra, would declare their own dissolution and convert. Within Buddhism, Hossō and Kegon would capitulate first; their temples, passing to the Nichiren sect, would be respectfully preserved and offered to the state as national treasures. Tendai and Shingon would follow suit, and so, after some initial resistance, would Jōdo and Zen. Jōdo Shinshū and Christianity would resist mightily, and a great Dharma battle would ensue, but before the fifty years were out, the whole nation would embrace the one vehicle, and establishment of the kaidan would be proclaimed.