RATIONALE FOR REMONSTRATION WITH HACHIMAN

The Sūtra of Transmission of the Buddhist Teaching, fascicle 1, speaks of the previous life of Venerable Kāśyapa:

Once upon a time there lived a Brahman named Nyagrodha in the Kingdom of Magadha. Because of the great merit of his good acts for a long time in a previous life… , he was immensely rich and piled up vast wealth in this life … , which was worth a thousand times more than that of the king of Magadha. ( … ) Although he was very wealthy, he was childless, so the Brahman said to himself, “My days are numbered, but I have nobody to inherit my treasures filled in the warehouse. I wish to have a child. ” Thus, the Brahman prayed to the forest god in the neighborhood for good luck of having a child. Having prayed for years without any luck, he became furious and said to the forest god: “I have prayed to you for the last several years to no avail. I am going to pray to you from the bottom of my heart for seven more days. If it does not do any good, I am going to burn down your shrine.” Hearing this, the forest god in agony relayed his problem to the Four Heavenly Kings, who in turn reported the matter to Indra.

Indra looked around all over the world but could not find anyone worthy of being Nyagrodha’s child, so he went to the King of the Brahma Heaven for help. With his divine eye, the King of the Brahma Heaven then closely observed the whole world, finding a heavenly being in the Brahma Heaven who was about to die. The King told him that if he was to be reborn in the human world, he should be born as a child of Nyagrodha Brahman in Jambudvīpa. The dying being answered that he did not want to be reborn in a family of a Brahman because Brahman dharma includes many evil and false views. The King of the Brahma Heaven told him again: “Nyagrodha Brahman is a powerful man of virtue that there is no one in the world worthy to be born as his child. If you are reborn to his family, I will protect you lest you should fall into ‘evil view.’  ” Thereupon the heavenly being in the Brahma Heaven answered, “I will respectfully follow your words.”

The King of the Brahma Heaven then reported the turn of events to Indra, who in turn informed the forest god. Elated by the good news, the forest god called upon the Brahman at home saying, “You should no longer have a grudge against me. Your wish will be fulfilled in seven days. As expected, the wife of the Brahman became pregnant in seven days and gave birth to a baby boy ten months later. (…) This is Venerable Kāśyapa today.

It is stated in this sūtra that Nyagrodha became furious when his prayers were not answered. Ordinarily, those who get furious at the community deity will destroy themselves in this life and fall into evil realms in the next life. Nevertheless, Millionaire Nyagrodha was able to achieve his great wish of having a child as wise as Kāśyapa by getting very angry at the community deity and speaking ill of him. You should know that anger may be both good and evil. My remonstration with the Great Bodhisattva Hachiman today is anger for a good cause.

For the past 28 years since the 28th of the fourth month in the fifth year of Kenchō (1253) till the 12th month in the third year of Kōan (1280), I have devoted myself to nothing but encouraging all the people in Japan to recite the daimoku, the five or seven character title of the Lotus Sūtra. This is exactly like the compassion of a mother trying to breast feed her baby. Now is the time for us to expound the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra as predicted by the Buddha to be spread in the fifth 500-year period, the beginning of the Latter Age of Degeneration after His death. The days of Grand Masters T’ien-t’ai and Dengyō were still in the Age of the Semblance Dharma prior to the time for the propagation of the Lotus Sūtra. Nevertheless, as there were some people whose capacity to understand and believe the Lotus Sūtra was ripe, the sūtra was spread a little. How much more it should be spread today, the Latter Age of Degeneration! How can we not spread the Lotus Sūtra even if very few people have the capacity for it while most people contradict it like water against fire? When we single-mindedly spread the Lotus Sūtra, there is no doubt that we will eventually succeed even if we should encounter such great difficulties as those that have befallen Never-Despising Bodhisattva.

Kangyō Hachiman-shō, Remonstration with Bodhisattva Hachiman, the Buddha’s Disciple, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Pages 270-272

This tale of how babies are conceived – a man and a woman and the cooperation of a suitable child – is one of my favorites. It is second only to the story of the calligrapher Wu-lung and his son, I-lung (here and here).

As for the point of this quote – When we single-mindedly spread the Lotus Sūtra, there is no doubt that we will eventually succeed – I have no doubt that the Lotus Sūtra will continue to spread for years to come.

A colt, one or two-years old, does not look sick even if its joints grow long, legs become round and thin, and upper legs are long. When it becomes seven or eight years old and is heavier, all kinds of trouble become apparent as the blood vessels become larger and the upper part of the body grows bigger while the lower part remains small. The horse is no longer useful to people, as it is weak in strength and short in longevity. It is like a small boat loaded with huge rocks or a tiny tree with huge fruits.

The same is true with heavenly beings. At the beginning of the Kalpa of Construction, when the world is being created, gods were born with excellent rewards of virtuous acts in previous lives, and men were not evil. Therefore, heavenly beings were shiny in body, pure in spirit, as bright as the sun and moon, and as brave as the lion and elephant. When the Kalpa of Construction was over and the world entered the Kalpa of Continuance, heavenly beings from the previous period grew old and declined like the waning moon, newly born gods were mostly equipped with inferior rewards of actions in their previous lives. As a result, the three calamities and seven disasters occurred all over the world and people everywhere began experiencing sufferings and joys.

Then the Buddha appeared in this world and prepared the panacea of life, that is Buddhism, for the gods and people. Like oil added to a lamp or a cane supporting an elderly person, heavenly beings regained the authority and power they possessed in the Kalpa of Construction.

Kangyō Hachiman-shō, Remonstration with Bodhisattva Hachiman, the Buddha’s Disciple, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Pages 257-258

As the descendant of Irish and European stock and the child of Christian parents in post-World War II America, one of my favorite aspects of Buddhism is this understanding that gods are just beings with really good karma and that they – just as we in the realm of humans – benefit from the appearance of the Buddha like oil added to a lamp or a cane supporting an elderly person.

QUESTION: How did the great earthquake of the Shōka Era and the great comet of the Bun’ei Era happen?

ANSWER: T’ien-t’ai has said, “Men of knowledge know the causes of phenomena, and only snakes know the way of snakes.”

QUESTION: What does that mean?

ANSWER: It means that when Bodhisattva Superior Practice emerged from the earth as described in the fifteenth chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, even such bodhisattvas as Maitreya, Mañjuśrī, Avalokiteśvara, and Medicine King, who had reached only one step below Buddhahood by conquering the forty-one steps of darkness of mind, did not know that he had been called upon to spread “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō,” the essence of the “Life Span of the Buddha” (16th) chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, in the Latter Age of Degeneration. It was because they had not yet conquered the fundamental darkness of mind and therefore were still considered ignorant.

Senji-shō, Selecting the Right time: A Tract by Nichiren, the Buddha’s Disciple, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1,
Pages 195-197

This idea that Maitreya, Mañjuśrī, Avalokiteśvara, and Medicine King were lacking and therefore unsuitable for propagating the Lotus Sūtra is one measure of the importance of Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.