The Prophet

Beginning today and continuing through Aug. 25, I will serialize “Nichiren, The Buddhist Prophet” by Masaharu Anesaki.

First published in 1916, the book is now in the public domain. I’ve had excerpts from the book on this website since August 2016 but recently I decided it would be worthwhile to re-read the book and, while I was at it, chop it up into digestible pieces to make it more appealing to general audiences.

Anesaki is famous enough to merit an entry in the Oxford Dictionary of Buddhism:

Professor of Japanese Literature and Life at Harvard University and Professor of the Science of Religion at Tokyo Imperial University, he was Japan’s leading writer on Japanese religious history. His writings on Shintō and Japanese Buddhism, especially Nichiren Buddhism, as well as his general works on Japanese religion, formed some of the earliest scholarly reports on Japanese religious life to become available in the West.

His book on Nichiren is considered a classic. University of Hawaii professor David W. Chappell, in a review of an English translation of Nichiren’s major writings, had occasion to mention that “Anesaki’s pioneering study in 1916 remains the best introduction.”

And yet Anesaki’s book on Nichiren is not without its detractors. In particular, he is criticized for his extensive use of Roman Catholic imagery to explain Buddhist terms and Nichiren’s ambitions.

When taken out of context, Anesaki’s use of Christian imagery is jarring:

“Behold, the kingdom of God is within you!” This was the creed of Nichiren also, witnessed by his life, confirmed by the Scripture, and supported by his metaphysical speculation.

This idea gradually crystallized in Nichiren’s mind into a definite plan for establishing the center of the universal church, the Holy See, the Kaidan.

But substitute Buddha Nature for “Kingdom of God” and Lotus Sutra for “Scripture” and this becomes a wholly conventional view of Nichiren’s teaching. While objection can be made to Anesaki’s association of Nichiren’s Kaidan – the Precept Platform and the second of the Three Great Secret Dharmas – with the Roman Catholic Holy See, is it inaccurate within the context of Nichiren’s efforts to have the Japanese government establish faith in the Lotus Sutra as the sole Buddhist teaching in medieval Japan?

In my editing to prepare the book for serialization, I’ve added clarifying information within square brackets. Anesaki’s “Scripture” is restored to Lotus Sutra. References to “Sole Road” are changed to One Vehicle. I’ve also changed his spelling to maintain consistency with content on this website: Chi-ki becomes Chih-i. Anesaki further introduced a certain level of confusion by referring to Chih-i as “Tendai” rather than T’ien T’ai. On several occasions Anesaki made references to the “great masters Tendai and Dengyō.” I’ve also removed all of his efforts to translate Medieval lunar calendar dates into solar calendar equivalents. (See Calendar: East Meets West.)

I have, in effect, made this book my own. Readers are encouraged to download the PDF copy of the book as originally published.

All this begs the question: Why bother?

To answer that I offer a quote from the book. When reading this quote you are asked to substitute Ichinen Sanzen for “mutual participation,” Gohonzon for “graphic representation of the Supreme Being,” Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō for “Sacred Title” and the Eternal Śākyamuni Buddha as revealed in Chapter 16 for “Supreme Being” and the “Lord of the Universe.”

Vain is all talk and discussion concerning existences and reality, unless the virtues of existence are realized in one’s own person. Noble and sublime may be the conception of the Supreme Being, but it is but an idol or image, a dead abstraction, if we ourselves do not participate in its supreme existence and realize in ourselves its excellent qualities. Thus, worship or adoration means a realization of the Supreme Being, together with all its attributes and manifestations, first, through our own spiritual introspection, and second in our life and deeds. The practice of introspection is carried on in religious meditation. This, however, does not necessarily mean intricate and mysterious methods, such as are employed by many Buddhists; the end can be attained by uttering the Sacred Title, and by gazing in reverence at the graphic representation of the Supreme Being as revealed by Nichiren. The truths of universal existence and “mutual participation” remain abstractions if detached from the true moral life; but any morality, however perfect it may seem, is vain apart from the profound conviction in the truth of the “mutual participation,” and from an apprehension of our primeval relation to the Lord of the Universe.

Thus, to participate in the virtues of the Supreme Being is the aim of worship; but that participation means nothing but the restoration of our primeval connection with the eternal Buddha, which is equivalent to the realization of our own true nature. In other words, the true self of every being is realized through full participation in the virtues of the Supreme Being, who, again, reveals himself – or itself – in the perfect life of every believer. The relation between the worshipped and the worshipper exemplifies most clearly the truth of “mutual participation,” because the worshipped, the Supreme Being, is a mere transcendence if it does not reveal itself in the believer’s life, while the worshipped realizes his true being and mission only through the elevating help (adhiṣṭāna) of the Supreme Being. Thus, mutual participation is at the same time mutual revelation – realization of the true being through mutual relationship, to be attained by us through spiritual introspection and moral living. Religious worship, in this sense, is at the same time moral life; and moral relationships in the human world are nothing but partial aspects of the fundamental correlation between us and the Supreme Being. The point to be emphasized in regard to this conception of the religious relation is that the Supreme Being alone, without our worship of it in enlightenment and life, is not a perfect Being, just as, without a child, “father” is but an empty name, if not a contradiction in terms.

I can think of no better explanation of Nichiren Buddhism.

In serializing the book I’ve decided to reorder things a bit. After the Preface, which appears today, I’m moving two Appendix chapters – The Fundamental tenets of Buddhism concerning reality and T’ien T’ai’s doctrines of the Middle Path and reality – to the front in order to provide background useful when reading Anesaki’s description of Nichiren’s teachings. I’ve arbitrarily divided these appendices into three and two parts, respectively. For the main biography of Nichiren, I have used the book’s Table of Contents to create the daily portions. Some are very short, others much longer:

Preface

The Buddhist Conception of Reality

The Fundamental tenets of Buddhism concerning reality
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

T’ien T’ai’s doctrines of the Middle Path and reality
Part 1, Part 2