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Shingyō Hikkei

In 1966, Nichiren Shu established what it called the Protect the Dharma Movement. This movement sought to create a unity of faith and training that would focus and thus amplify efforts to propagate the Lotus Sutra. To that end, Watanabe Kōin, Chief Administrator of the  Nichiren Sect Headquarters, created the Shingyō Hikkei, a handbook for members of the Nichiren Sect.

Writing in the Preface to the handbook in April 1972, Kōin said:

Sufferings of people today could be said to arise from a spiraling egotism. Only the way of Bodhisattva as expounded in the Lotus Sutra can put an end to it. Today the ideal world still seems out of our reach. Once believers of the Lotus Sutra unite themselves, and receive divine response, however, it is next to nothing to overcome worldly interests and desires. Unfortunately there has not been concerted effort among the members of the Nichiren Sect although many have distinguished themselves in scholarship and training. Therefore, just as Japan had established a unified public education system, we intend to focus our efforts in strengthening faith and training of all members of Nichiren Sect through a unified system of faith and training. Beginning with the 750th anniversary (1972) of the birth of our Founder we hope to carry out a great revolution in order to establish the faith and training for the members of the Nichiren Sect.

We realize that opinions differ, but we earnestly urge you to have a broad outlook and join us in a movement which has just been started to bring about the unified system of faith and training so that all Nichiren Sect members who believe in the same faith, no matter which temple or church they may belong to, may be able to learn this unified basic program and be worthy as “Followers of Nichiren,” as Nichiren Shonin put it. We believe that all members of the Nichiren Sect should be able to perform services together, join in discussion sessions, and live together with the same goal of “obtaining Buddhahood together.”

In 1978, the Nichiren-shū Shūmin, the Nichiren sect headquarters, published the first English translation of the Shingyō Hikkei.

In September 1978, Matsumura Juken, Chief Administrator, Nichiren Sect Headquarters, wrote in the introduction to the English translation:

When our Founder Nichiren Daishonin spread the Odaimoku “Namu Myoho Renge-kyo” representing the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, which is the essence of the Buddha’s heart, he pointed out that it should be spread not only in Japan but also throughout the world. In accordance with this, I believe that the Protect the Dharma unity of faith and training movement should also be widely spread overseas. I therefore urged the prompt publication of an English translation of the Shingyō Hikkei. Reverend Kyotsu Hori, Bishop of Hawaii Nichiren Mission, kindly took responsibility for translating it into English. As a result of his efforts we have finally come to greet the day of its publication. I would like to express my deep gratitude to him.

I sincerely hope that those overseas arm themselves with this Shingyō Hikkei and strive to practice the faith and training by reciting (by mouth), keeping (in mind), and practicing (by body) the heart of the Lotus Sutra and the teachings of our Founder, so that this world may become bright and secure, and that everyone may enjoy the life in the land of the Buddha.

I pray from the bottom of my heart that each of the overseas ministers may engage in active missionary works.

I found several copies of the English translation of the Shingyō Hikkei on a dusty shelf in a classroom of the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. I gave a copy to my son, who recently joined the church. I’ve also put the text of the book on the church website. You can find it here.

Given that (before I published this article) a Google search for “Protect the Dharma Movement” would get you exactly zero articles, one can assume the movement fizzled out. Whether Nichiren Shu headquarters lost interest, or the overseas ministers dropped the ball, the result is the same.

That’s unfortunate.

While I have many doctrinal arguments with Nichiren Shoshu and Soka Gakkai, one cannot fault the top-down direction of this global organization that focuses members on their practice.  Go to any group meeting at a home or a chapter session at a community center and you feel right at home.  It’s like going to Starbucks. No matter where you go, you know you’re in Starbucks and you know what you’ll get.

That’s not what you get with the confederation of temples that is Nichiren Shu. Less like Starbucks, the temples in America (the only ones I have experience with) are more like independent Italian restaurants. The restaurants are recognizable as Italian, but each has a different focus and flavor. The shami who left to strike out on his own focusing solely on Shodaigyo services has established the first pizzeria of the bunch.

I regularly attend services at four different temples. In order to do that I am required to  have four different service books. Woe be to the random online visitor to another temple. Yes, for the most part, one can count of reciting Hoben Pon and Jiga Ge, but not always. Never at that pizzeria and only occasionally at restaurants that like to vary the menu each week.

All things are possible if people are united in one spirit. Nothing can be accomplished if they are not united.

It’s ironic that this quote from Nichiren comes from his Treatise on Cooperation.

The original Protect the Dharma Movement had an element that sought to bind everyone together in the effort to propagate the Lotus Sutra.

At eight o’clock every morning we, members of the Nichiren Sect, wherever we are and whatever we are doing, should direct our hearts towards Lord Sakyamuni Buddha and Nichiren Shonin, who reside on Mt. Minobu, and recite the Odaimoku and say a prayer for the protection of the Dharma.

Let us all practice this prayer and encourage our neighbors to join us.

The way you recite the Odaimoku is up to you. It may be voiced or silent; it may be said three times or ten times. The point is for everybody, no matter where he lives, to say a prayer at the same time in one mind.

If Nichiren Shu in America is going to continue to act as independent Italian restaurants, it would be nice if they could settle on a single act such as the Protect the Dharma Movement prayer to establish a little more itai doshin.

Nichijo, Blog, Books

Nichijo: The Testimony of John Provoo

I first heard the name Nichijo Shaka in 2017. It came up in a discussion about a one-time shami of Rev. Kenjo Igarashi of the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. As far as I know this was  Rev. Igarashi’s first and last attempt to train an American to become a Nichiren Shu priest. It did not end well. When the shami left, he became a follower of Nichijo Shaka of Hawaii. The impression I was given was that  Nichijo Shaka was a Nichiren priest who sought to strip out everything Japanese from Nichiren Buddhism and to create an American Lotus Sutra teaching. He called his effort the Buddhist School of America. I imagined a renegade Japanese priest running an unsanctioned operation. I was wrong on several counts.

nichijo-bookcover
Available for purchase on Amazon

Wanting to know more, I found Nichijo: The Testimony of John Provoo, a book published in 2014. Reading the book in 2021, I learned that Nichijo Shaka, who was born John David Provoo on Aug. 6, 1917, in San Francisco, had another connection to the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. Before Provoo sailed to Minobu in 1966 to complete his training as a Nichiren Shu priest, he spent the last five months of 1965 studying with Bishop Nippo Aoyagi Shaku, who served in the Sacramento Church from 1964  to 1968. According to the book, Provoo conducted Sunday school in English at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church, lectured to English-speaking groups outside the church and worked at a local hospital during that period.

I have tried to find collaborating information on the life of John Provoo and especially Nichijo Shaka’s efforts to create an American Buddhism, but I haven’t found anything. No one who attends the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church today remembers a blue-eyed Caucasian priest-in-training running the Sunday school 55 years ago. Rev. Igarashi, who came to Sacramento in 1989, dismisses Nichijo Shaka as a trouble-maker. I’m told followers of Nichijo Shaka still gather, but I’ve been unable to find one who who is willing to talk to me about his teachings. Nichijo Shaka died in 2001.

But these connections to Sacramento are not what makes John David Provoo famous. As the book’s back-cover blurb explains:

This is the personal saga of John David Provoo. In 1940, the young American Buddhist studying at an ancient monastery in Japan was urged by the U.S. Embassy to return home. In 1941, he enlisted in the US Army in San Francisco, and was soon stationed in the Philippines. Within six months of the outbreak of war, he was captured along with thousands of others on the island fortress of Corregidor, in the mouth of Manila Bay.

In the early months after capture, the Japanese used him as an interpreter, a role that created suspicion in the minds of some that he had become a collaborator. After years of privations in POW camps in Taiwan, he was moved to Bunkwa Camp in downtown Tokyo, and forced to make propaganda broadcasts with others, including Iva Toguri, from Radio Tokyo, until the end of the war.

In the post war years, he was continually harassed by the FBI throughout a second Army enlistment. In 1949, he was discharged, taken immediately into federal custody and charged with treason for events on Corregidor and taking part in radio programs. His trial was foreshadowed by the conviction of Iva Toguri, cast by the government as the non-existent “Tokyo Rose”.

This book is his personal narrative of the events that led up to his prosecution and his final return to the training for the Buddhist priesthood.

Nichijo: The Testimony of John Provoo is written as a first-person tale told by John David Provoo, but the final version of the book was rewritten by John Oliver. Here’s the About the Author blurb:

John Oliver earned Bachelor degrees in Political Science and Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1969. In the 1970s, he discovered his passion for homebuilding, and has spent most of his life as an artisan building contractor in California and Hawaii. In a chance encounter with Bishop Nichijo Shaka on the rural Big Island in 1983, he found a direct use for his liberal arts education. His collaboration with Rev. Shaka resulted in the biography, “Nichijo”, copyrighted in 1986, but never published. In 2014, living in semi-retirement in Sonoma County, California, he finally found the time to complete the thoughtful rewrite that was begun nearly 30 years before. “Nichijo: The Testimony of John Provoo” was released in October of 2014.

Nichijo: The Testimony of John Provoo, p248

 

Having read the book for a second time, I’m going to attempt to set aside by journalistic skepticism, and accept as fact what is written in Nichijo: The Testimony of John Provoo. There are some fascinating aspects of how Provoo came to be a Nichiren Shu Buddhist priest.

Table of Contents

Nichijo: The Path to the Lotus Sutra
Nichijo: The Disciple Finds His Master
Nichijo and Nippo
Nichijo: A Novice Priest at War
Nichijo: The Right Reverend
Nichijo: The Buddhist School of America
Nichijo: The Missing Piece of Provoo’s Story

Nichijo: Errata

Stone: Tanaka Millennialism, Blog, Books

Japanese Lotus Millennialism

millennialism_persecution_violence_bookcover
Download PDF copy of “Japanese Lotus Millennialism”

From Militant Nationalism to Contemporary Peace Movements
In 2000, the Syracuse University Press published “Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence: Historical Cases,” an anthology of articles edited by Catherine Wessinger. Inside, is a chapter written by Jaqueline I. Stone entitled, “Japanese Lotus Millennialism: From Militant Nationalism to Contemporary Peace Movements.”

Having just finished reprinting quotes from Stone’s article on Chigaku Tanaka’s efforts to establish the Honman No Kaidan “By Imperial Edict and Shogunal Degree,” I want to add some additional discussion of Tanaka’s efforts to leverage Nichiren’s doctrines to enhance the cause of Japanese nationalism in the early 20th century.

As Stone explains in the article:

During Japan’s modern imperial period, intense nationalism, militarism, and war were assimilated to new millennial visions of a world harmoniously united under Japanese rule. Certain elements in the teachings of the medieval Buddhist teacher Nichiren were appropriated to these visions. His discourse about Japan as the place where a new Dharma would arise to illuminate the world was given an imperialist reading; his advocacy of assertive proselytizing or shakubuku—which for Nichiren had meant preaching and debate—was adopted as a metaphor for armed force; and his emphasis on giving one’s life for the Lotus became a celebration of violent death in the imperial cause. Such millennialist appropriations inspired not only extremists committed to political assassination or coups but also broadly legitimated the violence that pitted Japan as a whole against other Asian countries and the West.

Japanese Lotus Millennialism, p274

And after Japan’s defeat in the Pacific War, Nichiren’s teachings were again sought:

It is little exaggeration to say that ultranationalistic Lotus millennialism died in August 1945 in the flames of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But even before these ruined cities had been rebuilt, a new Lotus millennialism had risen to take its place. Postwar Lotus millennialism envisions a time when, by awakening to the universal Buddha nature, people everywhere will live in harmony and with mutual respect. Different Nichiren- and Lotus-related religious groups offer variations on this basic theme, but on one point they all agree: in that future time, there will be no war. Nuclear weapons, in particular, will be abolished.

Japanese Lotus Millennialism, p274

The importance of Nichiren in the aspirations of Japan is emphasized in Stone’s conclusion:

What also strikes one in considering modern Lotus millennialism is how close it lies to mainstream aspirations. Perhaps a romantic advocate of direct imperial rule, such as Kita Ikki, whose ideas were appropriated in the service of a military insurrection, cannot be considered a mainstream figure; nor perhaps can the followers of Nihonzan Myōhōji, who advocate passive resistance and reject violence even in self-defense. But their millennial visions were at the moment of their emergence not so very remote from the hopes of large segments of the population, being intimately connected to widespread desires, respectively, for a strong Japanese empire in the 1930s and for abolition of the atomic threat in the immediate postwar period. This is all the more true in the case of the large Nichiren Buddhist lay movements, such as the Kokuchūkai, Risshō Kōsei-kai, and Sōka Gakkai. Tanaka gave voice to the patriotic sentiments of many and elevated them to a holy status in his rhetoric of Nichirenshugi; the support his movement won from government bureaucrats and military leaders shows that his vision was useful to official agendas. In the postwar period, Risshō Kōsei-kai and Sōka Gakkai articulate a widespread revulsion against war and fears about the continuing nuclear threat, offering a path by which the common citizen can contribute to their eradication. Such examples suggest that millennial thinking is by no means limited to the marginal or disenfranchised, but can serve to legitimize the actions of armies and politicians, and also give expression— albeit in intensified form—to aspirations shared by a majority.

Japanese Lotus Millennialism, p280

Beginning today and continuing through Aug. 18, I will publish quotes that explain how Nichiren’s teachings have been adapted to promote both war and peace.

Stone: Honmon No Kaidan, Blog, Books

‘By Imperial Edict and Shogunal Decree’

For the past 26 days I’ve been reviewing and commenting on the adaptation of Nichiren Buddhism by Chigaku Tanaka. As described by Tanaka’s son, Kishio Satomi, the most significant difference between traditional Nichiren Buddhist doctrine and Tanaka’s Nichirenism was the focus on the “Holy Altar,” the kaidan or precepts platform. This is one of the Three Great Secret Dharmas.

In 2003, Jacqueline I. Stone, at the time a professor of Japanese Religions in the Religion Department of Princeton University, wrote a paper entitled, “By Imperial Edict and Shogunal Decree: Politics and the Issue of the Ordination Platform in Modern Lay Buddhism.” You can download a PDF copy here. The paper became a chapter in “Buddhism in the Modern World: Adaptations of an Ancient Tradition” edited by Steven Heine and Charles S. Prevish.

As Stone explains:

One aspect of the medieval Nichiren Buddhist vision … has proved difficult for modern practitioners. This is the tradition that, someday, a great ordination platform (kaidan) would be erected “by imperial edict and shogunal decree,” symbolizing the fusion of Buddhism and worldly rule and the conversion of the sovereign and his people to Nichiren’s teaching. One might expect that this ideal, framed in such obviously medieval terms, might be allowed to lapse into obscurity, or be interpreted in purely symbolic fashion. Such has, indeed, been the mainstream tendency within the various Nichiren Buddhist temple denominations. Nonetheless, there have also been two significant attempts within the last century to reframe the goal of establishing the kaidan in a literal sense, in the context of political milieus that Nichiren’s medieval followers never imagined: the militant imperialism of the first part of the twentieth century and the parliamentary democracy instituted after the Pacific War.

By Imperial Edict and Shogunal Decree, p193-194

Beginning today and running through Aug. 7 I will publish quotes from Stone’s article illustrating the background and nature of Tanaka’s Nichirenshugi and the importance of Manifesting This World as an Ideal Realm.

satomi nichirenism, Blog, Books

Nichirenism and the Japanese National Principles

In May I published a number of quotes from Bruno Petzold’s book, Buddhist Prophet Nichiren–A Lotus In The Sun, examining the Tendai view of Nichiren’s doctrine. Petzold based his understanding of Nichiren and his doctrine on three books:

satomi-bookcover-web
Japanese Civilization: Its Significance and Realization, Nichirenism and the Japanese National Principles
  • Nichiren, the Buddhist Prophet by Anesaki Masaharu, 1916
  • Japanese Civilization: Its Significance and Realization, Nichirenism and the Japanese National Principles by Satomi Kishio, 1923
  • Nichiren-shū kōyō (Manual of the Nichiren Sect), Shimizu Ryōzan, 1928

Since I already have Anesaki Masaharu on this website, I went looking for the other two books. I couldn’t find Shimizu Ryōzan’s “Nichiren-shū kōyō” (Manual of the Nichiren Sect), but Satomi Kishio’s book is available online and in print. (Download a PDF copy.)

Satomi was born in 1897, the youngest son of Chigaku Tanaka and his second wife, Ogawa Hiroko. He died in 1974. In writing the book, Satomi sought to bring his father’s work to the Western world. As he explains in the Author’s Preface:

The chief object of the present work is to make accessible to Western scholars and all people one of the very important aspects of Japanese spiritual civilization which is, in a sense, a result of our synthetic creation by harmonization and unification of several elements. The Author has treated Nichiren’s Religion, known as the True Mahayana Buddhism, and the Japanese National Principles in this volume, to which he begs to draw the attention of readers.

The book’s objective is detailed in an Introduction written by G.F. Barwick in 1923.

Professor Satomi, although so far unknown in England, is well known in Japan, both as an author of works relating to Nichirenism and as the youngest son of Mr. Chigaku Tanaka, the leading authority on the life and writings of the apostle of Buddhist reformation. There is a powerful society in Japan, the Kokuchukai, of which Mr. Chigaku Tanaka is the president. It is composed entirely of laymen, and its object is to present the ideal religious life, as revealed by Nichiren, free from any obscurities which formalism and the misdirected zeal of various sects may have induced. The activities of this society are mainly directed towards spreading the idea of practical religion over every aspect of life and bringing the religious influence to bear not only on personal work like art and science, but on the collective work of politics, economics, and military affairs. Mr. Chigaku Tanaka is the one who may be said to be the most active since Nichiren’s death in 1282 in spreading the doctrine, or perhaps one ought rather to say the ideas, of Nichiren; and his son is an enthusiastic worker in the same field.

Of Nichiren’s religion it may suffice to say here that its main ideas are: the communion of those living now and henceforth with all who have gone before, and the restoration of primeval connection with the eternal Buddha; and that it is not the worship of an abstract truth, but a life to be lived by every being, human or other, in the identity of man with nature. Nichiren was imbued with the strongest faith that Japanese Buddhism would spread from East to West, and his disciples are earnestly endeavoring to make his prophetic vision a present reality. The Nichirenians count their temples by thousands and their adherents by millions, and may claim recognition as one of the religious forces of the world.

At the time Barwick wrote this he was the “Assistant-Keeper of Printed Books and Superintendent of Reading-room of the British Museum.” I’ve found no explanation of his connection to Satomi or his expertise in Japanese religions. His claim that “Nichirenians count their temples by thousands and their adherents by millions, and may claim recognition as one of the religious forces of the world” only stands if “Nichirenians” include all of the various sects who see Nichiren as their founder. Tanaka’s Kokuchukai, Pillar of the Nation Society, which he founded in 1880 as Rengekai (Lotus Blossom Society), certainly never counted it’s adherents by the millions nor did it possess any temples.

For my purposes, I’ll be publishing quotes from the book illustrating where I see Nichirenism (Nichirenshugi in Japanese) diverges from modern Nichiren Buddhism but also where it points to weaknesses in today’s implementation of Nichiren’s teachings. I’m particularly moved by the desire of Tanaka and his son to “emancipate religion from the dark interior of the church right into joyful human life.”

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Nichirenian and Nichirenism
The Importance of Japan
Nichiren’s Times
Nichiren’s Early Motivation
Dengyo, the Hokekyo and Nichiren
Nichiren’s Life in Kamakura
Nichiren as Honge Jogyo
A Religious Man Worthy of the Name
Transmission of the Three Great Secret Laws
Realization of Buddha’s Kingdom
A Military Role in Spreading Nichiren’s Teaching
Religionizing the Country to Propagate the Lotus Sutra
Vows for the Protection and Enlargement of the Law
Japanese National Principles and the Holy Altar
The Essences of the Japanese National Principles
Adoration to Myōhōrengekyō
Five Reasons for Chanting Daimoku
The Law of the Sacred Title
The Object of Worship in Nichirenism
The Meaning of the Sun Goddess and Hachiman on the Gohonzon
The Path Reaching the Summit
The Importance of the Lotus Sutra in Nichirenism
Good and Evil and Lust All Together
Kishio Satomi’s Odd Interpretations of the Lotus Sutra
A Religion Founded With A Future Aim
Books

Dharma Flower: The Faith, Teaching, and Practice of Nichiren Buddhism

The original title page

This excerpt is from Rev. Ryūei Michael McCormick’s “Dharma Flower: The Faith, Teaching, and Practice of Nichiren Buddhism,” which is available online at nichirenbayarea.org

This “Page” will provide the links to the various parts and chapters of my manuscript Dharma Flower: The Faith, Teaching, and Practice of Nichiren Buddhism. I first wrote it back in the late 90′s as a collection of notes for lectures I was giving in San Francisco. Those notes became Dharma Flower by the year 2000, and since then I have sent out copies of it on request. It has since been translated into Danish, and French, Spanish, and Italian. Someone once requested permission to do a Vietnamese translation. I now wish to make the English version more widely available via this blog.

I wrote it when I was just a Shami (which is to say a novice or minister-in-training in the Nichiren Shū. I had been practicing some form of Nichiren Buddhism since the mid-1980′s and these writings were an attempt to digest everything I had learned and present it in the form of a coherent system. So it is what it is because it is what I needed at the time. Hopefully it will be helpful to others.

Again, I hope that this product of a certain stage in my spiritual journey will be helpful to others and I offer it in a spirit of humility to other Nichiren Buddhists in the hopes that it will illuminate and encourage. Oh but first:

Copyright ©2000 by Ryūei Michael McCormick. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without the written permission of the author except for brief passages quoted in review.

Petzold Nichiren, Books

Buddhist Prophet Nichiren–A Lotus In The Sun

Below is Senchu Murano’s Preface to Bruno Petzold’s book, Buddhist Prophet Nichiren–A Lotus In The Sun. This English translation was published in 1978. It is unclear when Petzold, a German author and Tendai priest, wrote the book. He died in 1949.

Petzold book cover

Nichiren founded a Japanese Buddhist school in which the most important practice was to chant “Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō.” This chanting formula literally means, “I devote myself to the Myōhō-renge-kyō.” The Myōhō-renge-kyō is the Japanese pronunciation of the title of the Chinese translation of the Saddharma-puṇḍarīka-sūtra by Kumārajīva, and is popularly known as the Lotus Sūtra. This formula is called Daimoku, which means “Title.” Nichiren Buddhists honor the Daimoku, and in most cases they prefix an honorific “O” to it, making it “O-daimoku,” and prefer “The Sacred Title” as the English translation of it. In formal rituals they sometimes call it Gendai, which means “The Title Having Profound Meaning.”

Nichiren Buddhism is, however, not so simple as it appears. Instead of “Myōhō-renge-kyō,” Nichiren sometimes used the expression “Myōhō-goji,” which means “The Five Words Beginning with Myōhō.” When he used this expression, he meant that the Myōhōrengekyō is something more than the title of a sūtra. Nichiren never clearly defined this “something.” He sometimes identified it with the Truth itself, and at other times used it as the expression of the Most Honorable One. It is no exaggeration to say that the development of the philosophy of Nichiren Buddhism was accelerated by the controversies about the definition of the Myōhō-goji as conceived by Nichiren.

In the earlier period of his ministerial life, Nichiren was an ardent follower of Tendai Daishi and Dengyō Daishi. It may be safely said that he attempted at first to revive the genuine form of Tendai Buddhism. He was basically a Tendai priest in his younger days. It was a natural consequence that Bruno Petzold, a student of Tendai Buddhism, would be interested in Nichiren’s religion in his later years.

Bruno Petzold (1873-1949) was one of the few foreigners who studied Japanese Buddhism early in the twentieth century. He came to Japan in 1910, and soon afterwards he was attracted by Japanese Buddhism. He visited various Buddhist temples and observed Buddhist rituals and festivals. He especially studied the Tendai Sect, which was the springhead of almost all the Buddhist sects of Japan. He contributed many articles on the tenets of the sect to English and German Buddhist periodicals published in Japan, Germany, and other countries.

The major works by Bruno Petzold have not yet been published. They consist of the following manuscripts: Dengyō Daishi; the Quintessence of Tendai Teaching; the Tendai Teaching; Shō Shikan, all written in German, and the Classification of Buddhism in English.

During the life of Bruno Petzold, two important English books of Japanese authorship were published to introduce Nichiren Buddhism: Nichiren, the Buddhist Prophet by Anesaki Masaharu, 1916, and Japanese Civilization: Its Significance and Realization, Nichirenism and the Japanese National Principles by Satomi Kishio, 1923. Bruno Petzold must have been much influenced by Satomi, judging from the fact that he used the edition of Nichiren’s works compiled by Satomi’s teacher, Tanaka Chigaku, under the title of Ruisan-kōso-ibunroku. As regards the doctrines of Nichiren Buddhism, Bruno Petzold used as his text Shimizu Ryozan’s Nichirenshū-kōyō to the extent that his understanding of Nichiren’s thought was flavored by the philosophy of Shimizu Ryozan. As far as his presentation of the life of Nichiren is concerned, some legendary traditions are given side by side with historically-proven facts. But the influences of Satomi Kishio and Shimizu Ryozan and the interpolation of legends into the life story of Nichiren do not adversely affect his outline of Nichiren Buddhism, which even today involves problems.

Nichiren Buddhism, which began seven centuries ago, and was about to be eliminated in the first few decades after its founding, obtained prosperity second to the Zen Sect in the capital Kyoto about a century after the death of Nichiren. It was suppressed by the government early in the Tokugawa Period, but was soon revived. The vitality of Nichiren Buddhism comes not only from the philosophy of Nichiren but also from his personality. Bruno Petzold was probably the best qualified person for an introduction of Nichiren Buddhism in which the Chinese Tendai Buddhist terms are abundantly employed. But he spent more time on the presentation of the personality of Nichiren, lest the characteristics of Nichiren Buddhism should be overshadowed by merely doctrinal argumentations.

Senchu Murano
Kamakura, Japan 1977

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Tendai Lotus, Books

The Collected Teachings of the Tendai Lotus School

bdkt_collected_teachings_tendai_lotus-bookcover
Available for purchase and download as PDF

The Collected Teachings of the Tendai Lotus School by Gishin was translated from the Japanese by Paul L. Swanson and published in 1995 as part of the BDK English Tripiṭaka (97-II).

From the Translator’s Introduction

The Collected Teachings of the Tendai Lotus School (Tendai Hokkeshū Gishū) is an introduction to the doctrine and practice of the Japanese Tendai school. It was compiled by Gishin (781-833), the monk who accompanied Saichō (767-822) to T’ang China as his interpreter, so that he might help to transmit the Chinese T’ien-t’ai tradition to Japan. He later succeeded Saichō as head of the Tendai establishment on Mt. Hiei. The content of this work consists, for the most part, of extracts from the writings of Chih-i (538-97), the founder of Chinese T’ien-t’ai Buddhism; and it concisely outlines the basic tenets of Tendai doctrine and practice. Except for the introduction and colophon, it takes the form of a catechism. It is divided into two major sections, on doctrine and on practice. The section on doctrine contains a discussion of the Four Teachings, the Five Flavors, the One Vehicle, the Ten Suchlikes, Twelvefold Conditioned Co-arising, and the Two Truths. The section on practice discusses the Four Samādhis and the Three Categories of Delusions.

The Collected Teachings of the Tendai Lotus School was compiled in response to an imperial request that each Buddhist school prepare a description and defense of its own doctrine for submission to the court. The resulting texts are often referred to as “The Six Sectarian Texts Compiled by Imperial Request in the Tenchō. …

The exact date of compilation of this present work is uncertain. The Tendai zasu ki, an ecclesiastical history of the Tendai prelates, claims that Gishin compiled it in 823; but the closing verse in the Collected Teachings itself mentions the Tenchō era (824-34). It was probably submitted to the court in 830 along with the other five works.

The Collected Teachings of the Tendai Lotus School is the shortest of the works submitted to the court by the six Buddhist schools. … Its content is limited to Tendai proper and does not discuss esoteric Buddhism, Zen, or precepts, the other three of the so-called “four pillars of Japanese Tendai.” This was the cause of some controversy, since it ignored both esoteric Buddhism, which was in such great demand at the time, and the important issue of Hinayāna vs. Mahāyāna precepts. Perhaps Gishin felt that a straightforward presentation of the unique features of Tendai proper, as presented in the writings of Chih-i, was most important. Thus the final incorporation of esoteric Buddhism into Japanese Tendai was left to later monks such as Ennin (794-864), Enchin (814-89), and Annen (841-?).

Tendai Lotus School Teachings, p 1-2

At the conclusion of the Preface, Gishin writes:

This compilation first presents the two main topics, Doctrine and Contemplation. Next, under these categories it lists all the essential points and outlines them. However, the doctrine is vast, so that shallow and ignorant people become lost. Mysterious reality is deep and profound, so that fools cannot measure it. It is like scooping up the ocean with a broken gourd or viewing the heavens with a tiny tube. Therefore I clumsily take up this great rope [of the vast Buddha-dharma] and feebly attempt to compose this work. At times the text is brief and the meaning hidden, at times [it is] short or long. If one tried to exhaust all the details, the result would be too complicated. As an incomplete presentation of the essentials of our school, it resembles a crude commentary. The attempts at summation often miss the mark, and the essential content is difficult to outline.

The reason that the Four Teachings and the Five Flavors stand at the beginning is that these are the fundamental doctrines of the original Buddha and the basis of this [Tendai] school’s profound teaching. The other doctrines are numerous, but they depend on and proceed from these first two. This work consists of one fascicle and is called The Collected Teachings of the Tendai Lotus School.

Tendai Lotus School Teachings, p 7

At the end, Gishin offers this verse:

In praise it is said:

After Kuśināgara [where the Buddha entered final Nirvāṇa] ,
In the midst of the era of the semblance Dharma,
The two sages of Mt. Nan-yo and Mt. T’ien-t’ai
And the two leaders Chan-jan and Saichō
Firmly established the Path for the myriad years,
And its doctrine crowned all schools.

In the Tenchō period (824-834) Buddhism again flourished.
The Emperor mercifully requested
A presentation of the admirable [doctrines].
Therefore, of the luxuriant meanings
I have outlined just a few.

Tendai Lotus School Teachings, p 136

The text translated by Swanson was actually copied in the middle of the winter of 1649 by “an anonymous private monk”:

Colophon

The Collected Teachings is a composition by Master [Gi]shin of Mt. Hiei. Whether on teachings or on the practice of contemplation, it is an outline of the 80,000 doctrines in the twelvefold scripture, a summary of the essentials concerning all the subjects of this [Tendai] school, rolled up in many pages. It should be recognized as a substantial vessel of scholarship. It is also a book that has reached the attention of the Emperor. It has already been officially presented to the court. How can it not be transmitted? In the past it was popular, but it became old with the years. Since there are not a few errata [in the text], I am now correcting and editing it, adding punctuation, having catalpa wood plates carved, and bringing it to print. It is hoped that this work by such a virtuous elder will not disappear for a thousand years.

Tendai Lotus School Teachings, p 137

See Tendai Lotus Teachings and Nichiren

Book Quotes

Book List

Lifetime Beginner, Blog, Books

Lifetime Beginner

Lifetime Beginner bookcoverI recently finished reading Nikkyō Niwano’s autobiography Lifetime Beginner and, frankly, I’m glad that I read Buddhism for Today before reading this. The book was originally published in Japan in 1975 and the first English translation published in 1978. As explained by Rissho Kosei-kai:

This is a refreshingly candid account of the author’s life, from his childhood on a small farm in northern Japan, through his years of religious search, and finally to the founding and growth of Rissho Kosei-kai, a lay Buddhist organization with well over six million members throughout the world.

As with all things Rissho Kosei-kai, I’m ambivalent, but rather than dwell on the troublesome aspects I want to underscore the important teaching I found.

Two Halves of the Lotus Sutra

The Lotus Sutra is divided into two sections. In the first half, defined as the “Law of Appearance,” the World-honored One, the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, discusses the organization of the universe, human life, and human relationships on the basis of his experience and enlightenment. This section of the sutra teaches human beings how they ought to live. In the second half, the “Law of Origin,” Shakyamuni Buddha expands his teachings. For the first time, he says that the true Buddha exists without beginning and without end and that he himself has consistently preached the Law and taught people throughout the universe since the infinite past.

The Buddha of the Law of Origin—the Eternal Original Buddha— is the basic life-force of the universe; he is the truth, life, and law of the entire cosmos. The teachings of the Law of Origin inform us that by tuning the wavelength of our own lives to that of the universe we can achieve the spiritual state we should attain and become truly happy. The Law of Appearance contains what is often called the expedient teachings; the Law of Origin contains the true teachings. The former is essential for a transition into the latter, but neither teaching is superior to the other: they are the complementary halves of a single Truth. (p160)

The Essential Unity

The completely egalitarian Lotus Sutra teaches that not only human beings but all beings in the universe share the potential to attain buddhahood through full manifestation and complete development of their essences, each according to their true natures. When all things, including humanity, have attained this state, we shall achieve perfect peace in the Land of Eternally Tranquil Light, which ought to be the ultimate goal of all mankind.

This is the ideal concept of the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, but it is not sufficient to save man, who is weak and requires spiritual support to be able to live in peace. All things in the world of phenomena are transient, and nothing is permanent enough to serve as a spiritual support except the Eternal Original Buddha, the great force of life that is the origin of the universe. Human beings and all other beings are but visible manifestations of this great invisible universal life-force.

Since the life-force is eternal and indestructible, in essence human life too is eternal, though the manifested physical body dies. A person enlightened to this truth in the deepest part of his understanding experiences everlasting tranquility. This very tranquility itself is at the same time the joy of life that throbs in man’s physical and spiritual being.

Profound enlightenment to this truth leads to an awareness of the essential unity binding all things into one great family of life. This awareness in turn inspires a deep sense of equality and love for all beings, a greater love that is called compassion. A person who is compassionate in this sense is truly valuable, and a society of such people is a paradise. This is fundamental in the teachings of the Lotus Sutra. Living daily in correct spiritual and physical attunement with these teachings inspires the joy of living with the Eternal Original Buddha, generates love and compassion, and eliminates the need for the kind of spiritual support provided by revelations from protective deities.
(p161-162)

Bruce Springsteen told the concert crowd at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, “At 15, it’s all tomorrows. And at 73, it’s a whole lot of yesterdays.” That’s certainly how I feel today at 71 years of age. I wish I had heard at age 15 the advice Nikkyō Niwano gave to Rissho Kosei-kai youth in January 1958:

“You young people are filled with energy and with the power to absorb things. This is why I want all of you to read at least part of the Threefold Lotus Sutra daily. Even a few lines are enough if you are very busy. But try to read the entire sutra once a month. If you do this, in three or four years you will make new spiritual discoveries within yourself. These discoveries will be an inspiration to you and will bring great light and good tidings into your life. Remember that we make our own happiness. And with this in mind, go forward with determination.” (p170-171)

In March 2015, I began my 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra Practice. Next month will mark the completion of the eighth year of my monthly reading of the Lotus Sutra. In that time I’ve made “new spiritual discoveries” and these discoveries have brought “great light and good tidings” into my life.

Carrithers Buddha, Blog, Books

Michael Carrithers’ The Buddha

Michael Carrithers’ book, The Buddha, was first published in 1983 as part of the Oxford University Press series Past Masters. The goal of the series was to offer brief introductions to the ideas of important thinkers. The book was eventually reprinted in the 1990s as part of the Oxford Very Short Introductions series.

At just 100 pages in length, Carrithers’ book is indeed a very short introduction covering Śākyamuni’s early life and renunciation, the way to awakening, the awakening itself and the mission and the death of the Buddha.

Carrithers offers an academic’s anthropological and historical view of the Buddha, but one that is supportive. An early example of this comes when Carrithers is discussing why Śākyamuni rejected the teachings of Āḷāra Kālāma and Uddaka Rāmaputta.

“They fall short because, whatever view of the spiritual cosmos clothed their meditative techniques, it was the techniques themselves which were inadequate. On the one hand this signals that the Buddha was to move towards creating his own special forms of meditation, forms beside which methods such as the Absorptions were to take a subsidiary place. On the other hand it betokens the formation of an abiding attitude which must have marked the man as it deeply marked his teaching, an attitude which might be called a stubbornly disciplined pragmatism. Whatever teachings or practices the well-stocked market-place of ancient Indian thought offered him, they had to be shown to be useful in his own experience for him to accept them. …

The consequences of this attitude appear throughout the Buddha’s mature teaching. ‘Know not by hearsay, nor by tradition … nor by indulgence in speculation…nor because you honor [the word of] an ascetic; but know for yourselves.’ (Anguttara Nikāya, Vol. 1, p189)”

Carrithers The Buddha, p37-38

Another example comes when Carrithers is explaining the variations on the meaning of transmigration.

In other teachings the doctrine of transmigration went with an elaborate view of the spiritual cosmos within which transmigration occurs. One moves up and down, becoming now an animal, now a god, now the denizen of some hell, and again a Warrior or Brahman, a slave or a king (Buddhism itself was later to be prolific in the production of such views). But for the Buddha the specific details of transmigration were never so important as the principle underlying it: human action has moral consequences, consequences which are inescapable, returning upon one whether in this life or another. There is a fundamental moral order. One cannot steal, lie, commit adultery or ‘go along the banks of the Ganges striking, slaying, mutilating and commanding others to mutilate, oppressing and commanding others to oppress’ (Dīgha Nikāya, Vol. 1, p52), without reaping the consequences. There is an impersonal moral causation to which all are subjected. Misdeeds lead to misery in this life or in later lives. The Buddha’s teaching was devoted to the apparently selfish purpose of self-liberation, being directed to sentient beings in so far as they are capable of misery and final liberation from misery. But the teaching also touched sentient beings as moral agents, as agents capable of affecting the welfare not only of themselves but of others as well. Some of his teachings seem to treat only personal liberation, others morality, but for the Buddha the two matters were always intimately and necessarily connected.

Carrithers The Buddha, p54

Worth keeping for future use are his discussions of basic elements of Buddhist thought

The Five Aggregates

In this view, objects of experience, the organs of experience such as the eye, and the consequent consciousness of experience, ‘the mind’, are indissolubly linked. None of the three is conceivable without the other: they lean upon each other as one sheaf of reeds leans upon another, to use a canonical simile.

Furthermore, those features of experience which might be said to lie within the ‘mind’ itself, such as perception, feeling and consciousness, are themselves ‘conjoined, not disjoined, and it is impossible to separate them in order to specify their individual characteristics’ (Majjhima Nikāya, Vol. 1, p293). So right from the objects of perception, through the physical organs of perception, to feeling, consciousness, thought and volition, there is one dynamic, interdependent, ever-changing complex, which might be called an ‘individual’ or a ‘self, but which has nothing lasting in it.

Indeed the very term which I have translated as ‘all aspects of experience in the mind and body’ is one of the analytic descriptions of this process, a description in which the impersonal, dynamic and interdependent nature of the process is already implicit. This term is the ‘five aggregates’ (pañcakkhanda). The first ‘aggregate’ is materiality, which includes physical objects, the body, and sense organs. The other four ‘aggregates’ are feeling, perceptions, impulses and consciousness. Within these ‘aggregates’, this process, are included all that pertains to an individual and his experience. Feeling is but one face of this process, a face available to insight meditation. The mutability and inadequacy of feeling are characteristic of the whole process: ‘all aspects of experience in the mind and body are suffering’. Or, as the Buddha said elsewhere, ‘as the aggregates arise, decay, and die, O monk, so from moment to moment you are born, decay, and die’ (Paramatthajotikā, Vol. 1, p78).

Carrithers The Buddha, p59-60

The Lust for Rebirth

Rebirth may be rebirth from moment to moment of experience, or it may be rebirth in another life, but in either case it is the consequence of this lust to be something else.

Carrithers The Buddha, p64

Intentions

[I]in the legal system developed for the Buddhist order, only intentional actions are regarded as transgressions, and unintentional acts — such as those committed while asleep, or mad, or under duress — are not culpable.

This has great implications. It means that intentions are not negligible, that they have consequences. They do work, are in themselves actions. This is the sense of the term ‘karma’, whose primary meaning is just ‘work’ or ‘deed’, but in this Buddhist sense ‘mental action’. (Karma does not refer to the results of action, as we now assume in ordinary usage in the West.) ‘It is choice or intention that I call karma — mental work — ‘for having chosen a man acts by body, speech and mind’ (Anguttara Nikāya, Vol. 3, p415). Intentions make one’s world; it is they that do the work whose consequences we must reap in suffering. They form the subsequent history of our psychic life as surely as wars or treaties, plagues or prosperity form the subsequent history of a nation.

Carrithers The Buddha, p67

Choosing Pain

Hence from a radically moral standpoint it is by choosing badly, by being greedy and hateful, that we bring upon ourselves the suffering we meet in birth after birth. The ill that we cause ourselves and the ill that we cause others are of a piece, stemming from the same roots. The Noble Truth of the Arising of Suffering could be rephrased thus: ‘inflamed by greed, incensed by hate, confused by delusion, overcome by them, obsessed in mind, a man chooses for his own affliction, for others’ affliction, for the affliction of both, and experiences pain and grief’ (Anguttara Nikāya, Vol. 3, p55).

Carrithers The Buddha, p68

Rebirth Without Self

The moral cause in transmigration is equivalent to the cause of suffering. But this raises a fundamental question: how exactly does this cause work? For a doctrine of a Self or soul it is easy enough. The Self acts, causes consequences to itself, and is reborn again according to its deserts. The basic structure is in its own terms plausible, so the details are not so important. But what if there is no Self?

The answer (as it appears at Dīgha Nikāya, Vol.2, no.15) works backwards from the appearance of a new body and mind, a new psychophysical entity. How did this appear? It appeared through the descent of consciousness into a mother’s womb. On the face of it this is primitive, going back to earlier Indian ideas of an homunculus descending into the womb; and it is speculative, going beyond the Buddha’s brief of attending only to what he could witness himself. But later Buddhist commentators are clear that this descent is metaphorical, as we might say ‘darkness descended on him’ if someone fell unconscious. Moreover this enlivening consciousness is not an independent entity, a disguised Self, but is composed of causes and conditions.

So what in turn were these preceding conditions? One was the act of physical generation, but more important was a previous impulse. Here impulse is to be understood as intention or mental action, bearing a moral quality and informing by that quality the nature of the new psychophysical entity. If the impulse was good the new body and mind will be well endowed and fortunately placed, if not it will be poorly endowed and unfortunate.

And now comes the key question: what is this mysterious impulse? It is in fact nothing other than the final impulse, the dying thought, of the previous mind and body. It is nothing like a Self, but is merely a last energy which leaps the gap from life to life rather like — as a later Buddhist source puts it – a flame leaping from one candle wick to another. Nor is it free of preceding conditions, for it is the product of the dispositions formed by habitual mental actions conducted under the veil of ignorance and desire within the previous life. And thus one can trace the process back — to beginningless time, in fact.

In this account there is no underlying entity, but there is a stream of events which has its own history. This history is borne forward, not by a Self or soul, but by the complex interaction of the causes, conditions and effects summarized under craving and suffering. To understand this interaction is to understand the nature and origins of the human condition.

Carrithers The Buddha, p68-70

I am going to end this collection with a prayer taken from the Saṃyutta Nikāya:

Whatever beings may exist — weak or strong, tall, broad, medium or short, fine-material or gross, seen or unseen, those born and those pressing to be born — may they all without exception be happy in heart!

Let no one deceive anyone else, nor despise anyone anywhere. May no one wish harm to another in anger or ill-will!

Let one’s thoughts of boundless loving-kindness pervade the whole world, above, below, across, without obstruction, without hatred, without enmity!