Two Buddhas, p158Women’s capacity for buddhahood was not the only message that East Asian exegetes drew from the nāga princess episode. Her story was also taken as evidence that some practitioners might “realize buddhahood with this very body” (sokushin jōbutsu). Within the Tiantai tradition, Zhanran may have been first to use this term for the nāga princess’s enlightenment. One might question how her enlightenment could be termed realizing buddhahood “with this very body” when she transforms into a man. However, commentators did not necessarily see this sex change as a complete bodily transformation, such as one undergoes between successive lifetimes. The doctrine of sokushin jōbutsu, which developed especially in Japan, had two major implications: a drastic shortening of the length of time deemed necessary to achieve enlightenment, and the possibility of doing so without first eradicating the defilements of an ordinary person.
Saichō identified this doctrine as one of the ways in which the Lotus Sūtra surpasses all others. In contrast to conventional Mahāyāna notions of the bodhisattva path as requiring three incalculable eons to fulfill — a position maintained by his chief rivals, the Hossō school — Saichō saw the Lotus Sūtra as the “direct path” or “great direct path” of rapid realization, requiring only one, two, or at the most three lifetimes. The nāga girl’s story underscored this possibility. She had, Saichō noted, a threefold hindrance: as a nāga, she belonged to the animal realm; she was female and of poor faculties; and being only eight years old, she had not been able to devote much time to religious discipline. Nonetheless, through the wondrous power of the Lotus Sūtra, she had attained buddhahood.
Category Archives: d17b
‘Frenemies’
Two Buddhas, p156According to the “Devadatta” chapter, the relationship between Śākyamuni Buddha and his treacherous cousin was not purely a matter of this lifetime. The very fact that he has become the Buddha, Śākyamuni says, is due to Devadatta’s past “good and virtuous friendship.” “Good and virtuous friendship” here translates kalyāvamitra (J. zenchishiki, literally, “good friend”), one who teaches or encourages another on the Buddhist path. In view of the traditional accounts of his repeated betrayals, Devadatta would seem to have been no “friend” at all. Nichiren, however, took this passage as teaching not only the inevitability of meeting enemies in one’s efforts to spread the dharma — “the Buddha and Devadatta are like a form and its shadow; in lifetime after lifetime, they are never separated” — but also the importance of appreciating the opportunity for spiritual development that their hostility makes possible. “In this age as well, it is not one’s allies but one’s bitterest enemies who help one improve,” he wrote. In this context, Nichiren expressed gratitude for the clerics and government officials who had persecuted him, adding that, without them, he could not have proven himself as a votary of the Lotus Sutra.
The Unique Power of the Lotus Sūtra
Two Buddhas, p155[T]he “Devadatta” chapter underscores the Lotus Sūtra’s inclusivity by extending the possibility of buddhahood to categories of persons thought to labor under particularly heavy karmic burdens: evil men and all women. Nichiren took the Devadatta story as illustrating the unique power of the Lotus Sūtra to save even the most wicked and depraved.
The Modern Perspective on the Dragon King’s Daughter
Buddhism for Today, p159Women of today may feel dissatisfied that the dragon’s daughter was suddenly transformed into a male and then became a buddha. Such an expression was used merely because of the idea of women in ancient India. The sudden transformation of a woman into a male means nothing but the transcendence of the difference between male and female. Sakyamuni Buddha asserted that animals, birds, worms, plants, and trees, as well as human beings, possess the buddha-nature. How could he then discriminate between men and women? It is impossible. Observed with the Buddha’s eyes, all living beings are equal. We must never misunderstand this.
Realizing Buddhahood ‘Quickly’
Two Buddhas, p20As we have seen, Zhiyi and other Chinese Tiantai thinkers drew on the Lotus Sūtra to integrate the disparate Buddhist teachings into a coherent whole and to explain how all phenomena, being empty of independent substance, interpenetrate and “contain” one another in an interrelated holistic cosmos. Saichō and later Japanese Tendai thinkers took these ideas in new directions. One was the claim that practicing the Lotus Sūtra enables one to realize buddhahood “quickly.” We find some basis for this in the Lotus itself, and the idea had already been proposed in the Chinese Tiantai tradition. Zhiyi’s teacher Huisi (515-577), for example, had written that Lotus practitioners awaken spontaneously and without proceeding through sequential stages of practice, and Zhiyi, as we have seen, saw the possibility of sudden and full awakening to the threefold truth in its entirety as what distinguished the “perfect teaching” from the “distinct teaching”: where bodhisattvas of the provisional Mahāyāna must practice for three incalculable eons to achieve full awakening, practitioners of the sudden and perfect teaching, exemplified by Lotus Sūtra, can do so directly. Saichō also understood the Lotus as the “great direct path” that enabled the realization of buddhahood in only two or three lifetimes, or in some cases, in this very lifetime.
‘A Woman Who Embraces This Sūtra’
Two Buddhas, p157To be sure, Nichiren’s assertions about women’s realization of buddhahood tend to foreground the power of the Lotus Sūtra, rather than women’s capacity for buddhahood in and of itself. Unless women place faith in the Lotus, buddhahood lies beyond their reach. But because he believed that no one, male or female, could attain buddhahood through provisional teachings, his stance is hardly discriminatory. Nichiren’s core followers included several women whom, judging by his letters, he held in great respect. Unlike Śāriputra in the “Devadatta” chapter, and against notions of female pollution in his own time, Nichiren did not see the female body as filthy and on at least one occasion explicitly denied that menstrual blood is defiling. He also suggested that faith in the Lotus Sūtra might even in some sense subvert conventional gender hierarchy: “A woman who embraces this sūtra,” he wrote,” not only surpasses all other women but also surpasses all men.”
Opening the Way for Women of the Latter Age
[T]he example of the dragon girl becoming a Buddha does not mean only her. It means the attainment of Buddhahood by all women. In the Hinayāna sūtras preached before the Lotus Sūtra a woman is not thought of in terms of attaining Buddhahood. Various Mahāyāna sūtras appear to recognize women attaining Buddhahood or going to the Buddha land, but only after they changed themselves to the good by giving up the evil. This is not an immediate attainment of Buddhahood in this world, which can only be possible through the “3,000 in one thought” doctrine. Therefore, what the Buddha promised in those Mahāyāna sūtras is in name only. On the other hand, the attainment of Buddhahood by the dragon girl in the Lotus Sūtra is meant as an example among many, opening the way for women of the Latter Age to attain Buddhahood or reach the Buddha land.
Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 90
‘One Example that Applies to All’
Two Buddhas, p 157Nichiren maintained that the Lotus Sūtra enables women to attain buddhahood as women, because it embodies the mutual encompassing of the ten dharma realms. He writes: “The other Mahāyāna sūtras would seem to permit women to attain either buddhahood or birth in the pure land [of Amitābha], but that is an attainment premised on changing their [female] form, not the direct manifestation of buddhahood grounded in the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment. Thus, it is an attainment of buddhahood or pure land birth in name but not reality. The nāga girl represents the ‘one example that applies to all.’ Her attainment of buddhahood opened the way for the attainment of buddhahood … by all women of the latter age.”
Opportunities to Further Religious Development
Two Buddhas, p146Nichiren wrote that the gohonzon represents the Lotus assembly “as accurately as the print matches the woodblock.” On it, all ten realms, even the lowest ones, are represented. We find the belligerent asura king; the dragon king, representing the animal realm; the demon Hāriti (J. Kishimojin); even the Buddha’s malicious cousin Devadatta, who tried to kill him on multiple occasions; and Devadatta’s patron, King Ajātaśatru, who murdered his father and supported Devadatta in his evil schemes. As Nichiren wrote, “Illuminated by the five characters of the daimoku, all ten realms assume their inherent enlightened aspect.” We might interpret this as reflecting Nichiren’s message that, through the chanting of the daimoku, even life’s harsh, ugly, and painful parts — the most adverse circumstances, or the darkest character flaws — can be transformed and yield something of value, becoming opportunities to further religious development.
Deadly Poison Turning Into Nectar
Besides the Three Pronouncements made in the “Appearance of the Stupa of Treasures” (11th) chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha issued two more proclamations in the following twelfth chapter, “Devadatta,” of the same sūtra with the intention of having it spread after His death. Devadatta had been regarded as a man of the icchantika who did not have any possibility of attaining Buddhahood. He, nevertheless, was assured by the Buddha of becoming Tennō (Heavenly King) Buddha in the future. The forty-fascicled Nirvana Sūtra has stated the existence of the Buddha-nature in all, which is realized in this “Devadatta” chapter. Numerous offenders such as Zenshōbiku (Sunakṣatra) and King Ajātaśatru committed the Five Rebellious Sins or slandered the True Dharma. Since the worst of them, Devadatta, was assured of becoming a Buddha in the future, all others would naturally be assured just as people follow the leader and twigs and leaves join a tree. That is to say the example of Devadatta assured of being the future Heavenly King Buddha has made it unmistakable that all offenders of the Five Rebellious Sins or Seven Rebellious Sins, slanderers of the True Dharma, and men of icchantika – all of them will attain Buddhahood someday. This is somewhat like deadly poison turning into “nectar,” the best of all flavors.
Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 90