Nichiren’s world-wide scheme
Nichiren’s great aim was to achieve his ideal of the Catholic Church, with its center in his own country. Believing that he was himself the man to do this, and that the true import and end of Buddhism had not been apprehended in earlier times, even in India, he saw in vision a return of Buddhism from Japan to India, and its propagation thence throughout the world. He himself was always the cardinal factor in this new era, but the time and place were essential conditions of the realization of this universal Buddhism. Thus, he writes:
“That India was called the country of the Moon-tribe was prophetic of the appearance of Buddha (in that country). Our Fusō is called Japan, the Land of Sunrise. Must it not be the country where the predestined Sage should appear? The transit of the moon shifts from west to east; this symbolizes the transmission of the Buddha’s religion to the East. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west; this is an omen that the Buddhist religion shall return from the Land of Sunrise to the country of the Moon-tribe. The moon is not bright all the time, and just so (Buddha proclaimed the Perfect Truth) only during eight years of his life. The sun surpasses the moon in brilliancy, and in like manner (the light of the eastern Sage) is destined to illumine the dark ages after the fifth five hundred years.”
Silent Prayer and Anxious Watching
The hope of the future and the present danger 112
The curse on the infidels 116
The curse and the sense of sinfulness, individual and national 117
Dedication of good to fellow-beings 119
Sense of indebtedness and fellowship 120
Nichiren's world-wide scheme 124
The Mongol invaders and their final defeat 125
The holy person and the holy place 129
NICHIREN: THE BUDDHIST PROPHET