Category Archives: WONS

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Don’t Give Up the Lotus Sūtra

If those of high rank reproach you, view them as formidable enemies of the Lotus Sūtra. Consider the opportunity as rare as seeing an udumbara that blooms only once in 1,000 years or a blind turtle by chance encountering a log floating in the ocean and respond with confidence. Even a person who possesses a huge fief as large as 1,000 or 10,000 chō may have his land confiscated and lose his life over a small matter. If you must lay down your life for the sake of the Lotus Sūtra, have no regrets. Once Bodhisattva Medicine King practiced Buddhism by burning his own body for as long as 1,200 years before becoming a Buddha. King Suzudan allowed his body to be Asita’s seat for 1,000 years and served him. With those merits, he became the Śākyamuni we know Buddha today.

Therefore, make no mistake. If you give up the Lotus Sūtra now, you will become a laughing stock.

Ueno-dono Gohenji, A Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 113

d19b, d25b, d30b, d32b, d9b, WONS

Practicers of the Lotus Sūtra Are Not Found Anywhere

Some raise the question:

Although there seem to be the three kinds of enemies of the Lotus in this world today, practicers of the Lotus Sūtra are not found anywhere. It is difficult for us to call you a practicer of the Lotus because there is a great deal of discrepancy. Affirming divine intervention in favor of a practicer, the Lotus Sūtra in the chapter on the “Peaceful Practices” says: “Heavenly servants will come to serve the man who upholds the Lotus Sūtra so that swords and sticks will not injure him, and poisons will not harm him;” in the fifth chapter on “The Simile of Herbs,” “His life in this world will be peaceful and he will be reborn in a better place in the future;” in the 26th chapter on “Mystic Phrases,” “Should anyone hate and speak ill of the man who upholds the Lotus Sūtra, his mouth will be sealed—anyone who does harm to him will have his head split into seven pieces like a twig of an arjaka tree;” and in the 28th chapter on the “Encouragement of the Universal Sage Bodhisattva,” “He will be rewarded with happiness in this present life;” and “If anyone, upon seeing a man upholding this sūtra, exposes his faults, justifiably or not, such a man will be afflicted with white leprosy.”

They have a good reason to doubt me. So I will answer their question to dispel their doubt. It is said in the “Never-Despising Bodhisattva” (20th) chapter of the Lotus Sūtra that the practicer of the Lotus will be spoken ill of, despised, or struck with sticks, tiles, and stones; while it is said in the Nirvana Sūtra that such a man will be killed or hurt. The Lotus Sūtra also states in the “Teacher of the Dharma” (10th) chapter that those who spread it will be the target of much hatred and jealousy even during the lifetime of the Buddha.

Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 103

2buddhas, d13b, LS32 Text, WONS

Buddha Nature As Three Causes

Commentators have often interpreted the jewel in the garment as the “buddha nature.” The Lotus Sūtra does not contain the precise term “buddha nature” (Ch. foxing; J. busshō), perhaps because it had not yet come into use in Indian Buddhism. However, the Lotus clearly recognizes the buddha potential in all beings, and Chinese exegetes argued that the concept is there, if not the term itself. The expression “buddha nature” was well known in medieval Japan, and Nichiren uses it occasionally, but he appears to have preferred “buddha realm” (among the ten realms) or “seed of buddhahood” (J. busshu). His use of the latter term is quite different from the Hossō idea of untainted seeds in the storehouse consciousness. … “Buddha nature” and “seed of buddhahood” are similar in that both indicate the potential for buddhahood, supreme enlightenment, but where “nature” is constant and unchanging, “seeds” can lie dormant, even rot, or germinate and grow in response to conditions; as the Lotus Sūtra says, “The buddha-seeds germinate through dependent origination.” Thus, Nichiren may have used the term “seed of buddhahood” because he wished to portray buddhahood, not as an abstract potential, but as manifested through specific causes and conditions, that is, by embracing a specific form of practice. In that regard, he sometimes borrows Zhiyi’s concept of the “buddha nature as three causes”: (1) the innate potential for buddhahood; (2) the wisdom that illuminates it; and (3) the practice that manifests that wisdom. For Nichiren, that practice was chanting Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō, the act that manifests the jewel of the buddha realm hidden within the nine realms of ordinary people. Sometimes he refers to the daimoku itself as the “seed of buddhahood.”

Two Buddhas, p126-127
WONS

Upholders of Lotus Sūtra Are Envied by the King of Devils

Deer are killed by men because the meat is tasty, and tortoises lose their lives because of their good fat. Attractive women are envied by many others. Those who govern a country must worry about defending it against foreign forces, while property owners are susceptible to the dangers of life. Likewise, upholders of the Lotus Sūtra with the assurance of achieving Buddhahood are envied by the king of devils in the Sixth Heaven, who is the lord of the triple world of the unenlightened. It is preached in scriptures that this king of devils will haunt kings, parents, wives and children and envy the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra in the same way as how people fall victims to epidemics without seeing the disease or how old sake can make people dead drunk without them realizing it. This is exactly what is happening in the world today. I have done nothing wrong, but simply because I chant Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, I have been hated by people as well as the rulers of Japan for more than twenty years, and chased out of residences and exiled twice until, finally, I retreated to this mountain.

Shuju Onfurumai Gosho, Reminiscences: from Tatsunokuchi to Minobu, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Biography and Disciples, Volume 5, Pages 45

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Revelations of the Lotus Sūtra

Revealing the single path to Buddhahood in the Āgama sūtras, the Lotus Sūtra preaches in chapter two, “Expedients,” “I expounded various Hinayāna sūtras according to the capacities of all living beings. They are the entrance to the Mahāyāna teaching.” Revealing the single path to Buddhahood in the Flower Garland Sūtra, the Lotus Sūtra states in chapter 16, “The Life Span of the Buddha,” “The gods, men and asura in the world think that I, Śākyamuni Buddha, left the palace of the Śākyas, sat at the place of enlightenment not far from the City of Gayā, and attained Buddhahood. To tell the truth, however, it has been innumerable kalpa (aeons) since I attained Buddhahood.” In the case of the Wisdom Sūtra, the Lotus Sūtra states 18 types of voidness in chapter 14, “Peaceful Practices”—the voidness which is expounded in the Wisdom Sūtra is included in the Lotus Sūtra. In the case of the Sūtra of Meditation on the Buddha of Infinite Life, the Lotus Sūtra preaches the doctrine of reaching the Pure Land of Peace in chapter 23, “Anyone who hears this sūtra and acts according to its teaching will be reborn in this Pure Land upon death.” As for practicing virtuous deeds with distracted minds, the Lotus Sūtra reveals the single path by saying in chapter 2, “Expedients,” “Those who chanted just once ‘Namu Buddha’ without concentration in mind, have already attained the enlightenment of the Buddha.” For all living beings, the Lotus Sūtra says in chapter 3, “A Parable,” “This triple world is My property. All living beings therein are My children.” For the non-Buddhist teachings and writings, the Lotus Sūtra says in chapter 19, “The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma,” “When they expound the scriptures of non-Buddhist schools, or give advice to the government, or teach the way to earn a livelihood, they will be able to be in accord with the right teachings of the Buddha.” Passages that describe the revelation of the single path to Buddhahood in the Tuṣita Heaven or of gods and men are too numerous to write them all down here.

Ichidai Shōgyō Tai-I, Outline of All the Holy Teachings of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 93

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‘Three Kinds of Enemies of the Lotus Sūtra’

Exactly as the Buddha predicted, there are “three kinds of enemies of the Lotus Sūtra” all over Japan. Nevertheless, we don’t see any practicers of the Lotus Sūtra. Does this mean that the words of the Buddha have been proved untrue? Could this be? After all, who has been abused and despised by the ignorant people for the sake of the Lotus Sūtra? Which monk has been brought to the attention of court nobles and warriors in power? Which monk has often been exiled as predicted in the sūtra? No such man exists in Japan, except for Nichiren. However, as Nichiren has been abandoned by the gods, he probably is not a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra. Then, who would be a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra to realize the Buddha’s prediction?

Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 98

Kaleidoscope, WONS

‘The Śākyamuni of Subtle Enlightenment Is Our Blood and Our Flesh’

Quote

The accent on the world of enlightenment represented by chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra seems at first to concentrate on the Buddha and on the nature of buddhahood. Yet, the exegesis elaborated within the T’ien-t’ai/Tendai tradition develops a religious view which, in various ways, addresses the position of humanity: a true Buddha cannot exist without human beings (because it is from among humans that a Buddha emerges) and human beings cannot exist without a Buddha (because the Buddha represents the essence of humanity).

Nichiren asserts that the Buddha-world is the only reality and at the same time restores the historical perspective as the only context in which the dimension of the absolute open to human beings is concretized. The Buddha’s enlightenment, that is, “the merits acquired by Śākyamuni through his practice,” is epitomized in the five characters of the title of the Lotus Sutra. Therefore, if someone “receives and keeps” the sutra and obtains access to its meaning through the recitation of the title, they will be endowed with these merits. “The Śākyamuni of subtle enlightenment is our blood and our flesh. The merits of his practice, are they not our bones and marrow?” Nichiren writes. Buddhahood becomes a reality of history, not just in history. Nichiren’s emphasis is not on the absolute per se, but on the relative which has to change to become absolute. A shift occurs from the three worlds of universal time (past-present-future) to the actual historical moment, and this gives a social dimension to Nichiren Buddhism. The endowment with the Buddha-world, however, is the exclusive prerogative of the “practitioner of the Lotus”: “One who keeps the sutra is endowed with the Buddha-bodies and performs Buddha’s acts.” The emphasis on a concrete realization of original time leads to the interpretation of the truth represented by the discourse of the Lotus Sutra as a truth which does not exist beyond the confines of history.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Lucia Dolce, Between Duration and Eternity: Hermeneutics of the ‘Ancient Buddha’ of the Lotus Sutra in Chih-i and Nichiren, Page 235

WONS

‘A Panacea for the Illness of the People in the Jambudvīpa’

In the past there were medical practitioners named Yellow Emperor and Pien Ch’üeh in China and Ch’ih-shui and Jīvaka in India. They were the treasures of the world in those days and master physicians for generations to come. And yet, the Buddha, who preached the “good medicine” that keeps us from growing old and dying is the greatest of physicians who surpasses them both. The “good medicine” refers to none other than the five Chinese characters of Myō, Hō, Ren, Ge, and Kyō. Moreover, the Buddha declared these five characters to be “a panacea for the illness of the people in the Jambudvīpa.”

Myōshin-ama Gozen Gohenji, A Response to My Lady, the Nun Myōshin Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 102

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Under Protective Wings of Bodhisattvas

Looking at the present world, we see the three sorts of resentful enemies of the Lotus Sūtra in front of our own eyes, but none of the eight hundred thousands, millions, and nayuta of bodhisattvas who made the vow to spread the Lotus Sūtra in front of the Buddha Śākyamuni can be seen. This is a situation in which we feel something amiss like the ebb tide that does not rise or the waned moon which does not wax. When the water becomes clear and tranquil, the moon naturally reflects upon it. When trees are planted, birds come to live. Nichiren, who preaches on the Lotus Sūtra in place of the eight hundred thousands, millions and nayuta of bodhisattvas, is under the protective wings of those bodhisattvas.

Teradomari Gosho, A Letter from Teradomari, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 13

2buddhas, LS32, d8b, WONS

A Seed that Flowers and Bears Fruit in the Very Moment of Its Acceptance

The concept of sowing, maturing, and harvesting suggests a linear process developing over time. Mahāyāna thought traditionally maintained that fulfilling the bodhisattva path requires three incalculable eons. However, as we have seen, Nichiren drew on both Tendai and esoteric notions of realizing buddhahood “with this body” to argue that buddhahood is accessed in the very act of chanting Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō. The daimoku, in other words, is a “seed” that flowers and bears fruit in the very moment of its acceptance. This goes to the heart of how Nichiren understood the Final Dharma age. In the age of the True Dharma and the age of the Semblance Dharma, people practiced according to a linear model, gradually eradicating delusions and accumulating merit, eventually culminating in the attainment of buddhahood after countless lifetimes of practice. But in chanting the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, the practice for the mappō era, practice and enlightenment, sowing and harvest, occur simultaneously, and buddhahood is realized in this very body. In other words, in the Final Dharma age, the direct realization of buddhahood becomes accessible to ordinary people. Nichiren’s claim paradoxically inverts the negative soteriological implications of the benighted mappō era and makes it the ideal time to be alive. “Rather than be great monarchs during the two thousand years of the True Dharma and Semblance Dharma ages, those concerned for their salvation should rather be common people now in the Final Dharma age,” he wrote. “It is better to be a leper who chants Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō than to be chief abbot of the Tendai school,” the highest position in the religious world of Japan at the time.

Two Buddhas, p119-120