Category: WONS

[S]uppose Śākyamuni Buddha alone changed His mind, after the Buddha of Many Treasures and Buddhas in manifestation throughout the universe returned to their respective worlds as preached in the twenty-second chapter on “Transmission,” and preached the Nirvana Sūtra declaring that the Lotus Sūtra is inferior to the Nirvana Sūtra. Who would believe this?

With this deeply in mind, I perused the ninth fascicle of the Nirvana Sūtra. It preaches amplification of the Lotus Sūtra, “Just as fruit will profit all living beings and bring about much comfort in life to them, the appearance of this Nirvana Sūtra will reveal the Buddha-nature inherent in people. Just as the guarantee of future Buddhahood granted to 8,000 śrāvaka in the Lotus Sūtra is like the bearing of huge fruit, after the harvest in autumn and stockpiling for winter the Nirvana Sūtra has nothing to do except gleaning.” According to this passage, if the Lotus Sūtra is a false teaching, is not the Nirvana Sūtra also false? It is clearly stated here that the Lotus Sūtra is like a great harvest while the Nirvana Sūtra is a gleaning. Thus, the Nirvana Sūtra declares itself to be inferior to the Lotus Sūtra. There is no mistake about the words of the Lotus Sūtra, chapter 10, “Teacher of the Dharma,” stating that it is superior even to the sūtras to be expounded, the Nirvana Sūtra .

Shugo Kokka-ron, Treatise on Protecting the Nation, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 70-71

I have taken a close look at your letter. The Buddha in the Nirvana Sūtra says: “People who study Buddhism number as many as the particles of dust upon the earth; however, those that really go on to become Buddhas number as few as the particles of dust that can rest upon one’s fingernail.” After contemplating the difficulty of attaining Buddhahood, there is something I have observed with some conviction. It is possible for one not to be able to correctly learn Buddhism despite one’s study of Buddhism because of one’s stupidity; or, though one may be very intelligent, it is possible that one may go awry and not be able to correctly learn Buddhism as a result of studying under an incompetent teacher.

Misawa-shō, A Letter to Lord Misawa of Suruga, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 239

A passage in a sūtra states children are one’s enemies. It is preached in the Meditation on the Mind-base Sūtra, “People in the world commit many sins for the sake of their children and thereby fall into the three evil realms and bear prolonged suffering.” The parents of hawk eagles or eagles raise their young with compassion. Nevertheless, when the young bird matures, they eat their parents in return. A type of owl eats up its mother upon birth. Beasts are like this. Some people are similar to beasts: King Virūḍhaka used force to plunder his father’s throne. King Ajātaśatru killed his own father king. An Lushan in China killed his foster mother. An Ch’ing-sü killed his father An Lushan. An Ch’ing-sü himself was killed by his own son, Shih Shih-ming, who in turn was killed by his own son, Shih Chao-i. Under these circumstances it is only natural to say that one’s children are one’s enemies. Sunakṣatra, son of the Buddha in his previous existence, often tried to murder the Buddha in cooperation with a non-Buddhist named Kutoku.

In contrast, there exists a scriptural passage saying that one’s children are one’s treasure. For instance, it is stated in the Meditation on the Mind-base Sūtra, “When those men and women perform a memorial service, a great light began shining in hell, inspiring devotion in their parents.” Even if it is not stated in any Buddhist sūtra, we can see as much with our very eyes.

Sennichi-ama Gohenji, A Reply to Sennichi-ama, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 162

Now it seems your father, Lord Ikegami Yasumitsu, has become an enemy of the Lotus Sūtra while your elder brother, Lord Ikegami Munenaka, has become a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra. You will probably take your father’s side, considering the reality in life, and the disillusioned will praise you.

Taira no Munemori followed the evil acts of his father, Lay Priest Kiyomori, and was beheaded in the end at Shinohara. His elder brother Shigemori, on the other hand, did not follow his father and passed away before his father. Which of the two do you think was a filial son? If you follow your father, who has now become an enemy of the Lotus Sūtra, and abandon your elder brother, practicer of the One Vehicle teaching of the Lotus Sūtra, will you become a filial son in the true sense of the word? In the final analysis, make up your mind to accomplish the Buddhist Way just as your elder brother did.

Hyōesakan-dono Gohenji, Answer to Lord Ikegami Munenaga, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers I, Volume 6, Page 92

Grand Master Dengyō stated in the Treatise Revealing the Precepts: “Do not follow the law unless established by the lord. Do not believe in the teaching unless it is of Śākyamuni Buddha, King of the Dharma.” He also stated:

“When great bodhisattvas as respected as Four Reliances write commentaries on the sūtras, they hold viewpoints either from the provisional sūtras or the true sūtras. Expounding the teaching for the Three Vehicles (of śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha and bodhisattvas), they distinguish among three (provisional) teachings (piṭaka teaching for śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha, common teaching for all and the distinct teaching for bodhisattvas) and one (true) teaching, (perfect teaching for bodhisattvas). Thus, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai set four steps in the pre-Lotus sūtras to meet the needs of the Three Vehicles and established the teaching of the One Buddha Vehicle by the true teaching of the Lotus Sūtra. There is also a distinction among the six ways of practice by bodhisattvas: charity, precepts, perseverance, endeavor, meditation and wisdom. The precepts themselves are separated into those of the Hinayāna and the perfect precepts of the Lotus Sūtra. As the precepts they observe are different from each other, their dignities are not the same. Therefore, the teaching Grand Master T’ien-t’ai maintained is firmly based on the thoughts of the great bodhisattvas and founded on the sūtras which the Buddha expounded. (It is never of his own conjecture.)”

The present-day Tendai School in Japan regards Grand Master Dengyō as its founder. Therefore, it would be betraying Grand Patriarchal Master Dengyō in Japan and Grand Master T’ien-t’ai in China for them to have a thought that the Great Concentration and Insight of Grand Master T’ien-t’ai is not based on the Lotus Sūtra. Since the teaching that Grand Masters T’ien-t’ai and Dengyō transmitted is based on the Lotus Sūtra, their distant disciples should follow it. However, in fact, since scholars of the present-day Tendai School betray its teaching, they should recognize that despite bearing the name of the Tendai School, the teaching they advocate is dependent on the prejudicial teaching of Bodhidharma and the false words of Tripiṭaka Master Śubhākarasimha. According to the interpretations of Grand Masters T’ien-t’ai and Dengyo, the secret teaching T’ien-t’ai found deep down in mind is nothing but the word of the Wonderful Dharma.

Risshō Kanjō, A Treatise on Establishing the Right Way of Meditation, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 230-231

On Sado Island, I was put in a small six-foot square shrine in the midst of a lonely cemetery called Tsukahara located between a field and a mountain remote from the village. The roof was warped, and the walls were cracked so that it rained inside just like outside, and snow piled up within. As it was without straw mats and a Buddhist statue not enshrined, I respectfully set up a statue of the Original Śākyamuni Buddha, which I had possessed for a long time, and chanted the Lotus Sūtra day after day, wearing a raincoat made of rice straw and holding an umbrella. No one visited me and hardly any food was given to me for four years. It was the same as for Su Wu of China, who survived 19 years of captivity in a barbarian nation by wearing a raincoat made of rice straw and feeding himself with snow.

Myōhō Bikuni Go-henji, A Reply to Nun Myōhō, Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, Page 208

Those who were born in the Latter Age of Degeneration and try to spread the Lotus Sūtra will encounter three kinds of enemies who will exile and even kill them. However, Śākyamuni Buddha will shelter in His robe those who endure the difficulties in spreading the Dharma and protective deities will serve the practicers of the Dharma, lending shoulders of support or carrying them on their backs.

Shohō Jisso-shō, Treatise on All Phenomena as Ultimate Reality, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 78

For 400 years, since the reign of Emperor Kanmu, the capacity of all the people in Japan to understand and embrace the Lotus Sūtra exclusively has reached fruition. Their capacity to understand the Dharma is similar to those who heard the Lotus Sūtra expounded by Śākyamuni Buddha on Mount Sacred Eagle for eight years. (This is proven in the writings of Grand Master T’ien-t’ai, Prince Shōtoku, Venerable Chien-chên, Grand Master Dengyō, Venerables Annen and Eshin.) Those who perceive this correctly are men who understand the capacity of people.

Kyō Ki Ji Koku Shō, Treatise on the Teaching, Capacity, Time and Country, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 101

[R]ecent scholars of the Tendai School have lost the secret teaching inherited from Grand Master T’ien-t’ai and stored in the stone tower. And, based on their own ideas, they forged such writings as the transmission of the threefold contemplation in a single thought, put them in bags of brocade, hung them around their necks, and put them at the bottom of a box, claiming them to be invaluable. As a result, false teachings have spread throughout the nation and the real intention of Grand Master T’ien-t’ai’s Buddha Dharma has been lost, and the Wonderful Dharma of Śākyamuni Buddha has been neglected. This is solely due to Bodhidharma’s dogma of “special transmission without scriptures and preachings” and Śubhākarasimha’s assertion that the Lotus Sūtra is inferior to the Great Sun Buddha Sūtra. Therefore, they do not know anything about doctrines of the threefold contemplation in a single thought, the triple truth in a single thought and 3,000 existences contained in one thought, not to speak of the Great Concentration and Insight. Moreover, they know nothing of (such fundamental issues of the T’ien-t’ai teaching as) the essential and theoretical sections; relative subtleties and absolute subtleties; subtle contemplation of the Lotus Sūtra; three kinds of doctrinal study; provisional and true teachings; four doctrinal teachings (piṭaka, common, distinct and perfect teachings); eight teachings (four methods of teaching and four doctrinal teachings); five periods in the Buddha’s lifetime preaching; and five flavors (of milk, cream, curds, butter and ghee). Needless to say, they do not know that they should propagate the Buddhist teaching in consideration of the content of teaching, capacity of people, time and nation (and that they should propagate the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration). It is natural that (owing to distant disciples, the teaching of the Tendai School) has become inconsistent, looking like neither the true teaching, nor the provisional teachings.

Risshō Kanjō, A Treatise on Establishing the Right Way of Meditation, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 231-232