Although the Japanese people today all appear to have faith in Buddhism, in ancient Japan when Buddhism had not yet been introduced, nobody knew of the Buddha nor of the dharma until Prince Shōtoku, an ardent believer in Buddhism, destroyed Mononobe Moriya, the anti-Buddhist leader. Even then there remained some who refused to believe in Buddhism. Likewise in China people began to believe in Buddhism only when Mātaṅga from India came to China and defeated Taoists in a debate. Yet more people remained opposed to Buddhism.

In those days in China, there was a calligrapher named Wu-lung. He was very popular but refused to copy Buddhist scriptures no matter how many times it was requested. He called his son, I-lung, to his deathbed and said to him: “You were born to our family and succeeded your father in art. In order to continue to be my filial son after my death, you must never copy Buddhist scriptures, especially the Lotus Sūtra. This is because Lao-tzŭ, our true teacher, is the Heaven-Honored One. As there have never been two suns, there is no Heaven-Honored One beside Lao-tzŭ. That being said, the Buddha claims in the Lotus Sūtra that ‘I am the only one,’ thus neglecting Lao-tzŭ. This is most strange. If you should copy the Lotus Sūtra against my will, I will immediately become an evil spirit to kill you.” As soon as he finished saying this, Wu-lung’s tongue split into eight pieces, his head was cracked into seven, blood spilled from his eyes and nose and the five sense organs and he passed away. However, as I-lung could not tell right from wrong, he did not know the fact that his father showed a scary look and fell into the Avīci Hell due to the sin of slandering the True Dharma. Therefore, I-lung refused to copy the Buddhist sūtras, much less to recite them verbally.

As time passed, when the Ssu-ma family was on the throne, it was decided to hold a Buddhist ritual with a Buddhist sūtra copied by the best calligrapher in China, and I-lung was chosen as the copier. He was summoned to the court and was ordered to copy the sūtra, which he repeatedly declined. The court had no choice but to have someone else copy the sūtra, and the emperor was not pleased. As a result, I-lung was once again summoned and the Emperor said to him: “You have refused to copy the sūtra for me, claiming it was against the will of your father. This is an outrage, but I will pardon you if you copy just the title of each fascicle of the sūtra.” The emperor repeated this order three times, but I-lung refused to obey three times. His countenance overcome with anger, the Emperor declared: “Everything in heaven and earth is under my control. Then isn’t your father also my subordinate? You cannot ignore your public duty due to private matters. You are to copy at least the title of each fascicle in the sūtra. Otherwise you will be beheaded immediately, though it might be in the midst of a Buddhist ritual.”

Thus I-lung was forced to copy the titles of the sūtra, namely, from “The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, Fascicle One” to “The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, Fascicle Eight.” Returning home in the evening, I-lung lamented, “I was unable to disobey the Imperial order, and went against the will of my father by copying the Buddhist sūtra. Both the heavenly gods and terrestrial deities must be furious with me for being an unfilial son.” He then went to bed.

During the night he had a dream in which a great light appeared. While wondering whether or not it was the morning sunlight, a heavenly being accompanied by many attendants was standing in the garden, and there appeared 64 Buddhas in the sky above this heavenly being. Pressing the two palms of his hands together in gasshō, I-lung inquired, “What kind of heavenly being are you?” The heavenly being answered:

I am your father Wu-lung. Due to my sin of slandering the Buddhist Dharma, my tongue split into eight pieces, my five sense organs bled, my head was broken into seven pieces, and I fell into the Hell of Incessant Suffering. I thought the torment at my death was unbearable indeed. Nevertheless, the pain in the Hell of Incessant Suffering was one hundred, one thousand, one hundred million times more severe. Even the pain a human being experiences when his nails are removed by a dull knife, his neck is sawed off, he is forced to walk on a charcoal fire, or crammed into thorns cannot compare to the torment in the Hell of Incessant Suffering. I tried in vain to inform my own son of this. One could not measure the regret I felt that I willed to you at my death not to copy the Buddhist sūtras. However, regret does not mend matters. It did not do any good no matter how much I regretted and blamed myself.

Starting yesterday morning, however, the character myō at the beginning of the Lotus Sūtra came flying over the tripod kettle in the Hell of Incessant Suffering, transforming itself into the golden colored Śākyamuni Buddha equipped with the 32 marks of physical excellence and a peaceful face like the full moon. The Buddha preached in a resounding voice, “All the evil persons, as many as to fill the heaven and earth, will not fail to attain Buddhahood if only they hear the Lotus Sūtra once.” Then heavy rain began to fall from those characters, extinguishing the blazes in the Hell of Incessant Suffering. As a result, King Yama, though strict as he is, bowed his head in respect, the guards of the hell stood still without their iron sticks, and the sinners all panicked wondering what was happening. Then came flying the character “hō,” appearing just like the “myō.” It was followed by the characters “ren,” “ge, ” and “kyō. ” Altogether 64 characters thus came flying to become 64 bodies of the Buddha. The 64 Buddhas appearing in the Hell of Incessant Suffering seemed as though 64 suns and moons appeared in the heaven. Nectar rained from the heaven bathing the sinners in hell, who asked the Buddha the reason why this merry occurrence had taken place. The 64 Buddhas answered: “Our golden bodies did not come from the mountain of sandalwoods and treasures; they are the titles of the eight fascicles of the Lotus Sūtra, each consists of eight Chinese characters and therefore 64 in total, written by Ilung, son of Wu-lung, who is in the Hell of Incessant Suffering at present.

The hand of I-lung is a part of the body begotten by Wu-lung, therefore, the characters written by I-lung are as though they were written by Wu-lung.” Upon hearing this the sinners in the Hell of Incessant Suffering lamented in vain: “We also have children, wives, followers in the Sahā World. Why do they not hold memorial services for us? Or, is it that even if they hold services, they don’t help us here because there is not enough merit of good acts?” One or two days, one or two years, a half or one kalpa (aeon) have passed since we fell into this hell. I am now happy to encounter a “good friend,” who will lead me out of hell while my fellow sinners are glad to follow me to go up to the Trāyastriṃsá Heaven led by you. Therefore, we came to worship you first of all.

Upon listening to his late father’s account, I-lung was overjoyed to be able to see his father, whom he did not expect to meet again, and to worship the figures of Buddhas, though in a dream.

The 64 Buddhas then spoke to I-lung, “We do not serve any Buddha. As you are our patron, beginning today we will protect you as our parent, therefore please do not forget to help us. In the life hereafter, we will without fail come to lead you to the inner palace of the Tuṣita Heaven.” In response, I-lung respectfully vowed never to write the characters of non-Buddhist scriptures. It was similar to the vow made by Bodhisattva Vasubandhu who pledged not to read the Hinayana sūtras and Nichiren who vowed never to chant the nembutsu.

After awakening from his dream, I-lung spoke of his experience to the Emperor, who issued an edict: “This completes the Buddhist rite. Write it out in the form of a prayer.” Thus I-lung wrote as was ordered. Thereafter both China and Japan began to believe in the Lotus Sūtra. This is recorded in the Biography of the Lotus Sūtra in China, showing the merit of copying the Lotus Sūtra. The “Teacher of the Dharma” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra preaches the five ways of practicing the Lotus Sūtra: upholding, reading, reciting, explaining, and copying. Among them copying is ranked the lowest. How much more so, then, is the merit gained from reading and reciting the Lotus Sūtra. It is immeasurable.

Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Pages 52-55

This is one of my favorite stories included in Nichiren’s letters. When I get back to Volume 1 I will include here the Rationale For Remonstration With Hachiman from Kangyō Hanchiman-shō, Remonstration with Bodhisattva Hachiman. My interest in the Hachiman letter is the tale of the previous life of Venerable Kāśyapa, which offers a wonderful explanation of how babies are conceived.

As for the tale of I-lung and his father Wu-lung, what calls to me here is the power of a child to pass on his merit to his ancestors and, in doing so, improve their existence. For me, this is the greatest benefit of the practice.

An alternate ending of this story is offered in Day 77 of 100.