Gentle or Assertive Practice?
It is very important to determine how the methods of practice, shoju (gentle practice) or shakabuku (break and subdue), is to be used in the Defiled Age:
"'There are monks who preach the Dharma in various ways, but still they are not able to utter "the lion's roar" and refute evil persons who deny the Dharma. Monks of this kind can bring no merit either to themselves or to the populace. You should realize that they are in fact shirkers and idlers. Though they are careful in observing the precepts and maintain spotless conduct, you should realize that they are incapable of attaining Buddhahood."(Opening of the Eyes).
Some people (the SGI and the Nichiren Shu in particular) have argued very
persuasively, utilizing the following two passages of the Opening of the Eyes as proof that the shoju methods predominate at this time.
"When the country is full of ignorant or evil persons, then shoju is the primary method to be applied, as described in the Anrakugyo chapter. But at a time when there are many persons of perverse views who slander the Law, then shakubuku should come first, as described in the Fukyo chapter." (Opening of the Eyes).
"...This is because there are two kinds of countries, the country that is passively evil, and the kind that actively seeks to destroy the Law. We must consider carefully to which category Japan at the present time belongs.(ibid).
Let us take the muslim nations and peoples as an example. The Nichiren Shu and SGI cite as proof that the muslim nations and its leaders are merely passively evil because they don't attack Buddhists or their beliefs directly. They apparently see what they want to see or fail to examine the issue in depth. Nichiren Daishonin points out in the Gift of Rice:
"The sixth volume of the Lotus Sutra reads, "No affairs of life or work are in any way different from the ultimate reality." and "The true path of life lies in the affairs of this world".
Islam, the Muslim nations and people, by embracing the teachings of the Koran, look upon Buddhists as the lowest form of humans, lower than the Jews and the Christians. They blow up our statues and would surely kill us if given the chance. In light of these passages from Nichiren Daishonin, they do indeed actively seek to destroy the Law: They are the most glaring offenders in the world of those who deny the sanctity of life. They actively seek to destroy the teachings of the Lotus Sutra and its votaries.
If we are incapable of "uttering the lion's roar", we will fail to attain Buddhahood.
"When the time is right to propagate the supreme teaching, the provisional teachings become enemies. If they are a source of confusion, they must be thoroughly refuted from the standpoint of the true teaching. Of the two types of practice, this is shakubuku, the practice of the **Lotus Sutra.** With good reason, T-ien-t'ai stated: "The practice of the Lotus Sutra is shakubuku, the refutation of the provisional doctrines." The four easy practices in the Anrakugyo chapter are shoju. To carry them out in this age would be as foolish as sowing seeds in winter and expecting to reap the harvest in spring." (On Practicing the Buddha's Teachings)
There are three aspects to attaining Buddhahood through the power of the Lotus Sutra. The first is faith, the second is practice and the third is study. Practice in its totality encompasses practice for oneself and practice for others. There are two methods of practice for others, the shoju method (gentle approach) and the shakabuku method (break and subdue). We can liken the two approaches to the gentle compassion of a mother and the strict compassion of a father. If a child's problem behavior is not overly serious the mother, through gentle caring and guidance may help the child. If a child's problem behavior is totally out of control, the child carrying guns to school, for example, only the strict and stern compassion of a father can alter the destructive course of the child. The two methods of propagation are like this.
In the world during the times of Shoho (3000-2000 years ago) and Zoho (2000-~1000 years ago), society and individuals (as a whole) exhibited only mildly abherent and abhorant behaviors, so the shoju method was the principle method to employ. From approximately 1000 years ago to the present, individuals and society became so steeped in the three poisons (Anger, Avarice and Stupidity) that shakabuku became the principle method..
"In terms of the practices to be adopted, there are shoju and shakabuku. It is
a mistake to practice shakabuku at time when shoju is called for, and equally
erroneous to practice shoju when shakabuku is appropriate. The first thing to be determined, therefore, is whether the present period is the time for shoju or the time for shakabuku." (Conversations between a Sage and an Unenlightened Man).
"The methods of shoju and shakubuku are also like this. When the True Law alone is propagated and there are no erroneous doctrines or misguided teachers, then one may enter the deep valleys and live in quiet contentment, devoting his time to reciting and copying the Sutra and to the practice of meditation...But when there are provisional sects and slanderers of the Law in the country, then it is time to set aside other matters and devote oneself to rebuking slander...One should practice shakubuku...."(ibid)
"Shoju is to practiced when throughout the entire country only the Lotus Sutra
has spread, and when there is not even a single misguided teacher expounding
erroneous doctrines."(ibid).
We live in a horrendous time.
In the treatise, Establishment the Right Law and Save the Country, Nichiren states:
"We should rather elliminate heretical teachings than perform ten thousand prayers."
"But the present age is a defiled one. Because the minds of people are warped
and twisted, and provisional teachings and slander alone abound, the True Law
cannot prevail. In times like these, it is useless to practice the reading, reciting and copying [of the Lotus Sutra] or to devote oneselves to the methods and practices of meditation. One should practice ONLY shakabuku, and if has the capacity, use his influence and authority to destroy slander of the Law, and his knowledge of teachings to refute erroneous doctrines."(ibid).
The Daishonin states in another Gosho (and I paraphrase) "All teachings are
ultimately the revelation of Buddhist truth". Shakabuku is the method for refuting a teaching when it is a source of slander or confusion Included among these teachings are those asserting the omniscience of science and those asserting Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and occult theology. All of these teachings lead to suffering and if their adherents assert that their teachings are equal or superior to those of Buddhism. They must be taken severely to task, as Aryasinha did, even at the cost of his life. Do you think Aryasinha lost his life for practicing shoju?
There is a fine balance between the preservation of the purity of the teachings and a liberal interpretation of the teachings in order to persuade someone to convert. If you compromise the teachings in your eagerness to be everything to everybody, in effect you are doing neither shoju nor shakabuku but merely
destroying the teachings. Is this not the case with some Nichiren sects today?
In those few cases when a person is either readily ammenable to the teachings or those cases in which an adherent's faith and practice is basically correct, when one's faults are not overly serious, no strict admonishments may be necessary and the shoju method may be employed. The correct faith of each and every person is of the utmost importance. Faith in Jesus while one prays to the Gohonzon is a serious transgression. Seriously studying the Human Revolution at the expense of studying the Lotus Sutra is a serious transgression.
In speaking about Brahamanism, for example, Nichiren states:
"Erroneous teachings such as these are too numerous to be counted. there adherents pay as much respect and honor to the teachers who propounded them as the various deities pay to the God Taishaku or the court ministers pay to the ruler of the empire But not a single person who adheres to these ninety five higher or lower teachings ever escape from the cycle of birth and death." (Kaimoku Sho)
And in reference to Taoists he declares:
"But since such a man knows nothing about the past or the future, he can not assist his parents, his sovereign or his teacher in making provisions for their future lives, and he is therefore guilty of failing to repay the debt he owes them. Such a person is not a true wise man or sage."(ibid)
We would never employ gentle practices with the Hindu or Taoist adherents, why should we with Christian, Jewish or Muslim adherents?
The Lotus Sutra states:
"In the whole universe there are not even two vehicles, how much less a third." (LS Ch. 2).
Nichiren Daishonin was a very strict teacher out of his great compassion, not for one or two people but for all mankind. In one of his Five Major Writings,
"Establish the Right Law and Save the Country", he explicitly teaches that the cause of societal and personal problems are mistaken ideas, false views, beliefs etc. Nichiren asserted that whether to use one or the other methods(gentle or assertive), depends not on the inborn capacity of the individual, not on the land, not on doctrines, not on the order of propagation of the teachings but rather on the time. So during Shoho and Zoho one could gain emancipation through utilizing predominantly the shoju method but today in Mappo, the defiled age, the degenerate age, one gains emancipation utilizing principally the shakabuku method. Only the most powerful medicine will do for the most serious illnesses, so to speak. Nuclear weapons(war), pollution, famine, the destruction of the environment, rampant disease etc, are the problems one would expect to encounter in the Defiled Age. Nichiren maintained these are all caused by the rampancy of misleading philosophies and religeons and people incapable of eradicating the three poisons of Greed, Anger, and Animality in the time of Mappo. Yet some would advocate the gentle persuasion.
"Cease and desist", was the cry of the heretical sectarians in the Daishonin's day and even among his adherents there were those who arrogantly admonished him that his method was too confrontational, too diffficult to practice.
Nichiren also writes in Establish the Right Law and Save the Coutry:
"Though I may be a person of little ability, I have reverently given myself to
the study of the Mahayana. A blue fly, if it clings to the tail of a thoroughbred horse, can travel ten thousand miles...I was born as the son of the one Buddha,
Shakyamuni and I serve the king of scriptures, the Lotus Sutra. How could I
observe the decline of the Buddhist Law and not be filled with emotions of pity and distress."(Rissho Ankoku Ron).
Even the provisional Buddhist teachings are sprouting like chrysanthemums in
the United States. There are more than 1000 denominations and permutations of these evil doctrines and millions of members and supporters. Let us shakabuku them to the best of our ability:
"And so to unbelieving persons, rouse them to accept this law. By so doing, young men of good family, you will acquit your debt to the Tathagatas." Lotus Sutra, Chapter 27, page 440, translated by Kern
Now is the time to assiduosly practice shakabuku.