To put it figuratively, a woman can’t feel her pregnancy in the beginning, but after a while she begins to suspect it until she knows for sure that she is pregnant. An attentive woman can even tell whether she has conceived a boy or a girl.
The same could be said about the doctrines of the Lotus Sutra. If we believe in the merit of “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō,” Śākyamuni Buddha will be conceived in our hearts before we know it, just as a woman is pregnant before she knows it. We can’t feel it in the beginning, but as the months pass we begin dreaming of the Buddha residing in our hearts, until we feel happiness within us.
Matsuno-dono Nyōbō Go-henji, A Response to the Wife of Lord Matsuno
“The Teacher of the Dharma” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra preaches, “The highest and most perfect enlightenment that all bodhisattvas should attain is expounded only in this sūtra.” The bodhisattvas in this passage refer to living beings in the nine realms. It means that all the people, virtuous or wicked or female or male, the śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattvas in the Tripiṭaka teaching, the Three Vehicles (śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattvas) in the Common teaching, the bodhisattvas in the Distinct teaching, and the bodhisattvas in the Perfect teaching of the pre-Lotus sūtras must depend on the power of the Lotus Sūtra for becoming Buddhas.
Ichidai Shōgyō Tai-I, Outline of All the Holy Teachings of the Buddha
[There] once was an ordinary man who strictly observed the precept against telling lies. Although his eyes were gouged out, his skin stripped, his flesh cut off, his blood sucked up, his bones broken, his children killed, and his wife attacked, he refused to lie even once for innumerable kalpa (aeons), and thereby attained Buddhahood. As the Buddha, he then preached the Expedients chapter in the Lotus Sūtra: “There is none who will not become a Buddha.” Namely, he has preached that anyone who said “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō” even once will not fail to become a Buddha. Even if Śākyamuni Buddha alone said this, there should be absolutely no doubt about its veracity. How could the Buddha utter a false statement before the assembly of various Buddhas from all the worlds in the universe? Besides, Śākyamuni Buddha as well as all the Buddhas from the worlds throughout the universe at the same time extended their long tongues to the Mahābrahman Heaven to prove its truthfulness.
When believers of other Buddhist schools thus slander the Lotus Sūtra, how can we induce them to take the excellent medicine of Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō? The Buddha thought that it would be better trying to induce the Two Vehicles (śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha) to the Lotus Sūtra after preaching the Āgama sūtras for a while. When the Two Vehicles, attached to the Āgama sūtras, refused to believe in the Lotus Sūtra, how did the Buddha deal with them? The Buddha explains this in the Vimalakirti Sūtra: “Even those who committed the five rebellious sins, or those who supported such sinners can eventually attain Buddhahood. It is also possible that evil sins can become the seed of Buddhahood. Nonetheless, the meritorious acts of those of the Two Vehicles can never be the seed of Buddhahood.”
Kangyō Hachiman-shō, Remonstration with Bodhisattva Hachiman
QUESTION: What are the merits of chanting only the daimoku?
ANSWER: Śākyamuni Buddha appeared in this world to expound the Lotus Sūtra, but He kept the sūtra’s name in secrecy during the first forty years or so of preaching. From the age of about 30 to 70 or so, the Buddha solely expounded the expedient teachings to prepare the way for preaching the Lotus Sūtra. At the age of 72, the Buddha for the first time called for the title of the Lotus Sūtra. Thus, it is incomparably superior to the titles of other sūtras. Moreover, the two Chinese characters of myō and hō (Wonderful Dharma) in the title of the Lotus Sūtra are equipped with the “3,000 existences contained in one thought” doctrine and the “attainment of Buddhahood by Śākyamuni Buddha in the eternal past” doctrine, the essence of the Lotus Sūtra revealed in the “Expedients” chapter and the “Life Span of the Buddha” chapter respectively.
Shō Hokke Daimoku-shō, Treastise on Chanting the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra
QUESTION: You cannot burn anything by simply uttering the word, “fire,” repeatedly. Indeed, you have to use your hand in order to burn something. You cannot quench your thirst by just saying “water.” You need to use your mouth for drinking water. The same is true with the daimoku. I doubt it is possible to escape from the evil realms through the mere chanting of the daimoku, Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō. Isn’t it necessary to understand what the daimoku means and what it entails?
ANSWER: When the sinew of a lion is used as a string for a koto, the sound is so powerful that all the strings made from other threads will snap. And when hearing of the sourness of a pickled plum, saliva fills the mouth without eating it. Such mysterious things happen even in worldly affairs. How then can it be denied that something wonderful happens with the Lotus Sūtra? Even a parrot is said to have been reborn in the realm of heavenly beings just by repeating the name of the Four Noble Truths of the Hinayāna teaching. Moreover, a man who dedicated himself to the Three Treasures – the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṃgha – was able to escape the attack of a monster fish in the ocean. Imagine the wonders that would occur with the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, the essence of all the 80,000 teachings, and the eye of all the Buddhas. Do you still hold the belief that you cannot escape the four kinds of evil realms by just chanting the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra?
Hokke Daimoku Shō, Treatise on the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra
The Lotus Sūtra tells of a tortoise who lives at the bottom of the ocean and surfaces once in 3,000 years, finds a floating piece of sandalwood with a hole in it, and rests in the hole. This tortoise, moreover, is one-eyed and squints so it sees the west as the east, and the east as the west. It is likened to men and women who are born in the Latter Age of the Decadent Dharma; and the hole in the sandalwood is likened to the Lotus Sūtra and the “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.”
Myōhō Bikuni Go-henji, A Reply to Nun Myōhō, Nyonin Gosho
QUESTION: Is there any difference between those who chant “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō” (I put my faith in the Lotus Sūtra) and those who chant “Namu Daihōkōbutsu Kegongyō” (I put my faith in the Flower Garland Sūtra) without knowing the spirit of those sūtras? Is there any difference in merit between them?
ANSWER: There is a difference. A small river can take in water from dew, drops of water, wells, and creeks, but not from large rivers. A large river can take in water from dew and smaller rivers but not from an ocean. The Āgama sūtras are like a small river which can receive water from dew, drops of water, wells, and creeks. The Hōdō sūtras, the Amitābha Sūtra, the Great Sun Buddha Sūtra, and the Flower Garland Sūtra are like a large river, which can take in water from smaller rivers. The Lotus Sūtra is like an ocean, which can receive all kinds of water such as dew, drops of water, wells, creeks, small rivers, large rivers, and rain.
A drop of ocean water is a delicacy that includes the five elements of flavor. Moreover, whereas a drop of river water is like an ordinary pill, a drop of ocean water is a panacea. In this regard “Namu Amida-butsu” is a drop of river water while “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō” is a drop of ocean water. The Amitābha Sūtra is a drop of minor river water while a character of the Lotus Sūtra is a drop of ocean water.
The Lotus Sūtra has seventeen alternative names. All Buddhas in the past, present and future, however, name it “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.” Various Buddhas such as Amida (the Buddha of Infinite Life) and Śākyamuni meditated on the truth of “3,000 existences contained in one thought in mind and recited “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō” by mouth while performing the bodhisattva practices until they became the Enlightened Ones.
Jisshō-shō, A Treatise on the Ten Chapters of the Great Concentration and Insight
