Return to the True Buddha, the Eternal Shakyamuni! By Graham Lamont
How can we be saved from the whirlwind of Birth-and-Death (samsara) in which we are trapped? How can we attain the true spiritual goal which the Buddha intends for us? Who is the one who can save us? If we have trust in the plain and clear words of the Buddha, it is evident that we must, above all, listen to the Lotus Sutra (The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Sublime Dharma: Myoho renge kyo ), since He has said in no uncertain terms that this Sutra is the Supreme:
“The Sutra Canons which I preach are immeasurable thousands of tens of thousands of millions, those I have already preached, those I am now preaching, and those I am going to preach. Yet among those this Dharma Flower Sutra is the very most difficult to believe and difficult to understand. (The “Chapter of the Dharma Teacher” 10)
and
“... as among lesser kings the Wheel-turning Sagely King is the very foremost, this Sutra is also like this: among the masses of Sutras it is the very most exalted.” (The “Chapter of the Bodhisattva Yakuo” 23)
Since it is abundantly clear that this Sutra is supreme, what does it say about us and the one who can save us; in the “Chapter of the Parable” 3 the Buddha Shakyamuni says, “Now these Three Worlds are all my own; the beings therein are all my children. I alone can guard and save them.” The “three worlds” are the World of Desire (basically the world we know), the World of Form, and the World of No-form or Formlessness; without going into the details we can say that “these Three Worlds” refer to the “support retribution” (eho), i.e., the environment, of every kind of spiritual and moral state of existence and the Buddha says of all these beings themselves that they are His children; He states that it is He and He Alone Who can save them and protect them. Moreover, speaking as the Eternal Buddha, He repeats His position as our Father and Savior in the “Chapter of the Measure Of Life” 16:
“I likewise am the Father of the World,
The One who saves from the various sufferings and travails.”
and he also states very clearly in the same chapter:
“I have been ever in this Saha World preaching the Dharma and converting.”
and also in verse:
“I ever abide here preaching the Dharma.”
So we know that, not merely since recent times, but since the inconceivable past when He truly attained enlightenment, this Lord Shakya is uniquely the one who can rescue from our terrible plight, the fate of continual death and rebirth in the realms of suffering, “this place” where “many are the travails and hardships”, the Three Worlds which “have no peace even as a fiery house, filled with masses of sufferings”; this is because we are “stained with desires and deep in attachment to greed”. It is this stain and attachment that prevents beings from believing in the clear and obvious words of the Lord Buddha Shakyamuni, for He says, “Although I again instruct and decree, yet they do not believe and receive [or, receive with faith].” (The “Chapter of the Parable” 3: T.9.14c22,26-29) His Words are, in Nichiren Shonin’s explanation, effectively an order which cannot be defied without peril: “‘Instruction’ means the teaching of the Teacher and Parent; ‘decree’ means the decree of the Overlord.” (Homon mosarubeki yo no koto,STN, v. 1, 445)
Let us consider the Title “Original (or Fundamental) Teacher” (honshi). If we look at the text of the Sutra texts cited above this refers to one of the titles of Lord Shakyamuni in the Hokekyo. What then does Nichiren Shonin say of this title? First, in the Nyosetsu shugyo sho (written in 1273) describes Lord Shakyamuni very specifically in two places by the titles “our Original Teacher the Tathagata Shakya” (STN, v. 1, 734) and “the Original Teacher the Tathagata Shakya” (STN, v. 1, 736, n. 4: current editions say “our” here but the earliest copy omits it at this location.) The year after that in the Hokke shuyo sho he specifically says, “The Master of Teachings Lord Shakya has been the Buddha in whom the Effect of Sublime Enlightenment is fulfilled since kalpas numbered as the dust of the lands touched as well as untouched by the dust of five hundred thousands of myriads of kotis of nayutas of asamkheyas of great trichiliocosms; the Buddhas of all the ten directions, the Tathagata Dainichi, the Tathagata Amida, the Tathagata Yakushi and so on are the subordinates of our Original Teacher, the Master of Teachings Lord Shakya.” (STN, v. 1, 812) (The terms ‘koti’ (‘oku’ in Japanese), nayuta, and asamkheya (‘uncountable’) refer to extremely large numbers.) And it should be noted that just a few sentences after this Nichiren Shonin says, “We, the masses of beings of this land, have been the beloved children of the Master of Teachings Lord Shakya since kalpas numbered as the dust of the lands touched as well as untouched by the dust of five hundred thousands of ten thousands of kotis of nayutas of asamkheyas of great trichiliocosms.” (Ibid. ) So here again the Patriarch specifically refers to Lord Shakyamuni as “our Original Teacher” (warera ga honshi) and adds that we are his “beloved children” and in both cases he makes it clear that he is referring not merely to the historical manifestation of the Buddha in any of the teachings but the Buddha Shakyamuni revealed in the “Chapter of the Measure of Life of the Tathagata” 16 of the Hokekyo .
In the Sutra text the unique power of the Lord Shakya to save is directly followed by the refusal of beings to have faith in and accept His Words; to refuse or degrade Lord Shakyamuni in the Hokekyo is truly serious sin. Later in the same verses the Buddha warns most solemnly, “If persons do not believe, disparaging and blaspheming this Sutra, then they cut off the Buddha seeds of all the worlds” and so on to “this person when life ends enters Avici Hell.” (The “Chapter of the Parable” 3: T.9.15b22-29) Nichiren Shonin cites this passage in this abbreviated form: (STN, v. 1, 160, 170, 216, 222-223, 255, 418; v. 2, 1108) Nichiren Shonin in the Shimoyama Letter shows the centrality of this doctrine and the terrible consequences of rejecting it:
“In the second fascicle of the Hokekyo He preaches the Three Great Matters of Lord and Parent and Teacher. It is, indeed, the essence of the whole sutra. In the sutra text it says, ‘Now these three worlds are all my own and the beings therein are all my children. Yet now in this place many are the travails and hardships: I alone can save and protect.’ Furthermore, in the text it preaches on the ones who turn against this sutra, ‘Though I again instruct and decree, yet they do not believe’ and so on to ‘this person when life ends enters Avici Hell’ and so on.” (Shimoyama goshosoku, STN, v. 2, 1340)
The words of the Buddha are undeniable; the interpretation of Nichiren Shonin is crystal clear. The Truth that Lord Shakya is Lord, Teacher and Parent is central to Nichiren Shonin’s teaching and those who deny the Lord Shakyamuni as Lord, Teacher and Parent, as clearly revealed in both the Shakumon and the Hommon (the first and second halves of the Hokekyo) are doomed to burn in the deepest and most terrible hell, the hell of unremitting torment! As Fa-yun in sixth century China tried to replace the everlasting Shakyamuni with Amida (Muryoju), so now some supposed followers of Nichiren Shonin degrade the Buddha Shakyamuni as a cast-off Buddha and say it is Nichiren Shonin who is the True Buddha (hombutsu); they are effectively no different from the Shingon teachers who said that the Buddha Shakya of the Hokekyo is a Buddha of the “border region of Ignorance”. Since these people have done the same degradation, their punishment will be the same. Let these heretics take heed of what Lord Shakyamuni and His Messenger have said!
However, to those who have faith and have acknowledged that they are the children of the Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni, there is great comfort and assurance:
“In the ‘Chapter of the Parable’ it says, ‘The beings therein are all my children’ and so on. Because the keeper of the Hokekyo is the child of the Master of Teachings Lord Shakya, how could he or she not be guarded day and night, morning and evening by the Deva [god] Brahma, the Emperor Shakra, the Sun and the Moon, and the Multitude of Stars?” (Ota Saemon no jo gohenji, STN, v. 2, 1499)
Perhaps this proof is still not enough for some: Let us see what Nichiren Shonin says to Lord Niita and his lady in an autograph letter: he concludes, “The Sutra is the Hokekyo, the foremost Great Dharma of the Exoteric and Esoteric. The Buddha is the Buddha Shakya, the foremost supreme Buddha of the Buddhas. The Practicer resembles the Practicer of the Hokekyo (Hokekyo no gyoja). Since these three matters correspond, the one vow of the lay donor will be fulfilled, will it not?” (Letter to Lord Niita, STN, v. 2, 1752, no. 368)
The words, written in 1280 (Koan 3), are plain and clear: the prayers of a lay donor will succeed only if the three matters of the Sutra, the Buddha and the Practicer (to whom the request and donation is directed) are correct and he says precisely what they are: the Dharma is none other than the Supreme Sutra; the Buddha is the Supreme Buddha, Shakya; the Practicer is clearly Nichiren Shonin who refers to himself modestly as “resembling the Practicer of the Hokekyo ”; note here the self-abnegation of the true Practicer of the Hokekyo. This is similar to the genuine humility of Nichiju Shoshi (1314-1392), who did not boast of his unique relationship with or understanding of Nichiren Shonin but said, “In any matter, even though it is something set down in the records of Nichiju, if it goes against the fundamental intention of the compilations of the Great Saint, one should not take it as a basis. By no means should one differ from the Sutra and the Compilations and the Great Teachers’ commentaries of their fundamental intention.” (The Record of Nichiun (Nichiun ki ), p. 58, cited in the Kempon Hokke Seiten, p. 639) Nichiju only sought to know and carry out the true teaching of Nichiren Shonin.
Woe to those heretics who change this truth and degrade Lord Shakyamuni, as revealed in the sixteenth chapter of the Hokekyo or who degrade this Supreme Sutra. Incidentally it is not surprising that Nichiren Shonin foresaw the current state of things when he wrote:
“They entirely look up to groups of icchantikas and rely on them as leaders and, reverencing blasphemers against the Dharma, make them national teachers. Taking up the Classic Filial Piety of Confucius, they beat their parents’ heads and, while chanting the Lotus Sutra of Lord Shakya in their mouths, they go against the Master of Teachings. (Letter to Tonsured Layman Soya (Soya nyudo sho) Showa Teihon, 900)
Icchantikas (in Japanese ‘issendai’) are the very worst of people, incapable of faith, which is the entrance into the Dharma. The Great Parinirvana Sutra (T.12.724c7 = T.12.481b27-28) says, “the icchantikas do not believe, do not hear, and cannot contemplate with discrimination.”
Nichiren Shonin then identifies those who follow such people: they are unfilial people who are similar to those who nominally follow the Confucian classic which describes how to be a dutiful child but who, in reality, pick up a copy of that very book and strike their parents. Similarly Buddhists who give the appearance of following the Lotus Sutra (the Hokekyo ) but who in fact tear out the very life of that Supreme Sutra are unfilial. Of such people, Dengyo Daishi wrote, “Although they praise the Hokekyo, on the contrary, they kill the heart of the Hokke.” (Hokke shuku (DDZ, v. 3, 252), a phrase cited by Nichiren Shonin) This applies to those who deny or twist the central doctrines of the Sutra. In this case, since the Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni lies at the very center of the second half of the Hokekyo, all who claim to believe in the Hokekyo but who degrade the Eternal Shakyamuni are, in fact, “killing” the Sutra.
Now undoubtedly there are those who think that as long as they chant the Daimoku, they will be saved, even if they dismiss the central truth of the Eternal Buddha of the Hommon, Lord Shakya. Now Nichiren Shonin holds that there is no distinction between the saint (sage) and the fool who chants the Daimoku, because “both the gold (kogane) which a fool possesses and the gold which a wise person possesses and both the fire which a fool lights and the fire which a wise person lights have no such distinction. He warns, however, that when one chants in opposition to (somukite: contrary to, rebelling against, contravening) the heart of this Sutra, there should be that distinction.” (Matsuno dono gohenji (Reply to Lord Matsuno ), STN, v. 2, 1265) Here again we see Nichiren Shonin’s perceptiveness: there will be those who chant the Daimoku but oppose the very heart or meaning of the Sutra and these will remain fools. Thus those who deny the central position of the Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni in the Hokekyo while chanting the Daimoku remain in their low spiritual state; their practice will not lead directly Buddhahood as it would if they kept the full and correct object of faith. It is not so much understanding that is at issue but perverse opposition to the central truth of the Hokekyo.
Moreover, Nichiren Shonin quotes the sixth patriarch of Tendai, Myoraku Daishi: “If it is not the right object (or field), even though there is no falsehood, it will also not form seeds.” (Shikan bugyo guketsu 1-4: T.46.170c) Nichiren Shonin cites this passage in his Annotated Lotus Sutra (Chu Hokekyo ); originally it applied to the objective field of meditation in the practices of the Tendai Sect, elaborate and often difficult mental and moral exercises appropriate to the Age of the Counterfeit Dharma (zobo, which ended in 1051 C.E.), an era when the capacities of people were relatively higher than our own Age of the Latter Dharma (mappo). Nevertheless, the basic premise holds: the seeds of Buddhahood will not be formed unless one has the right field.
In the doctrine of Nichiren Shonin it is not the ideal or abstract One Thought is Three Thousand Realms (ri no ichinen sanzen) but rather the Eternal Buddha who has already achieved the perfect unity of Wisdom (chi) and the Object or Field (kyo) which is all of existence (the myriad dharmas or data) and so is Truly Enlightened not merely recently but in the inconceivably distant past. He has placed the Wisdom and the Object into the Five Characters (‘Myoho renge kyo’) and transmitted them through the Bodhisattva Jogyo (STN, v. 2, 1253); when these Five Characters are opened out to those who receive and keep them (STN, v. 1, 711) through the power of faith and of recollection (STN, v. 1, 894) then the Correct, True, and Principal Object (or, Field) is revealed, for in the Three Great Secret Dharmas of the Original Doctrine we see the Object of Worship (honzon: the Original or Fundamental Holy One) which is the Eternal Master of Teaching Lord Shakya; in the religion of Nichiren Shonin we replace Wisdom by Faith because we cannot bear that Wisdom (STN, v. 2, 1296) and for the field we take the True Object of Worship: “Japan and so on to the whole of Jambudvipa should uniformly take the Master of Teachings Lord Shakya of the Original Doctrine as the Object of Worship. Which is to say, Shakya and Taho within the Jeweled Stupa, the various Buddhas outside as well as the Four Bodhisattvas, Jogyo and the others, are to become the side attendants.” (STN, v. 2, 1248) By faith we enter into this Object of Worship: “This Object of Worship is also contained in the two characters, ‘faithful (believing) mind’ (shinjin); ‘by faith you are able to enter’ refers to this. The disciples and lay donors of Nichiren by believing undividedly in ‘forthrightly abandoning expedience’ and ‘not receiving even one verse of other sutras’ shall enter into the Jeweled Stupa of this Object of Worship.” (STN, v. 2, 1376)
However, if, when we believe and open forth the Object of Worship, we do not adopt this right objective field, but replace the Eternal Lord Shakyamuni of the Sixteenth Chapter with something else, then we will not plant the seeds of Buddhahood, according to Myoraku. Those who create, in effect, a new Object of Worship and misidentify who and what the Object of Worship truly is do not have the right field, the objective truth., and so cannot form the seeds of Buddhahood in this life, though they do form a kind of connection (kechien) for a future eon. In effect, they seem to have a obedient connection (jun en) leading to salvation but because they twist the significance of the Object of Worship, they actually are forming a kind of rebellious or opposing connection (gyakuen), by which they will attain salvation only later.
But what of those who do not understand this and are essentially confused, continuing in blind obedience to the heretical priests and leaders? Even if the persons involved have no bad will, by following teachers who are determined to degrade the Eternal Shakyamuni, they will, unfortunately, share their teachers’ terrible fate: “That person, when life ends, together with the various evil people, shall fall to hell.” (Nangaku Daishi, cited at STN, v. 1, 487) According to the teaching of the Hokekyo, the Tendai Patriarchs, and Nichiren Shonin, the teacher and disciple share a common fate, whether good or ill. “When one gathers evil disciples, the teacher and the disciples fall to hell.” (STN, v. 2, 1500) Those who participate in perverse opposition to the plain truth of the Sutra and the preaching of the Patriarch must take the consequences, even as the ignorant followers of a rebellious subject are not spared. Their sin is that of complicity (yodozai).
The Hokekyo warns us to “abandon evil spiritual friends and draw near to good spiritual friends”. (The “Chapter of the Parable” 4 (T.9.16a)) What better spiritual friend could there be than one who follows the teachings of Nichiren Shonin as he actually taught them in accordance with the Sutra; what more evil friend than one who twists the clear meaning of those teachings and substitutes a different doctrine?
We may note here two more interesting facts about the above-cited letter to Lord Niita and his wife: the genuine autograph was found in modern times at Taisekiji! (This probably came about because Lord Niita, called Shigetsuna, is said to have been the father of Nichimoku, third abbot of Taisekiji.) Secondly, the doctrine here resembles that of the historical Nikko in his Order of Spreading the Sutra in the Three Ages which we will mentioned below. Consider it well, those of you who claim that you are disciples of Nichiren Daishonin and of Nikko Shonin but who, in reality, reject the True Dharma for a religion made-up generations after Nichiren Shonin and Nikko Shonin.
Nichiren says to Lord Soya: “Lord Shakya (Shakuson) is the Teacher which all beings originally followed and, moreover, is endowed with the virtues of Lord (Master) and Parent. Because I, Nichiren, spoke this doctrine (homon), since it is a principle that ‘loyal words grate against the ear’, I was exiled and it even came to my life.” (Soya nyudo gohenji, STN, v. 2, 1255) Surely this passage contains a profound message from Nichiren Shonin: he is the one who has publicly stated the fundamental truth that the Buddha Shakya of the Lotus Sutra is our Lord, Teacher, and Parent and it is because he has been the messenger of this truth that he has been persecuted. In other words, the supremacy of Lord Shakya is central to Nichiren Shonin’s mission. As we saw above, Nichiren Shonin at least twice referred to the Lord Shakya as “our Original (or Fundamental) Teacher” and this passage confirms his doctrine.
In the “Chapter of the Measure of Life” 16 (the end of the ‘Jiga’ Verse) the Eternal Shakyamuni states His never-ceasing, compassionate care of all us suffering beings:
“I Myself ever form this thought:
‘By what shall I cause the masses of beings
To be able to enter the Supreme Way
And rapidly achieve the Buddha Body?’”
It is our recollection of this ever-caring True Buddha Shakya that we can bear the terrible persecutions that inevitably befall the person who practices and preaches the true doctrine of the Hokekyo in this age of the Latter Dharma:
“If when they preach this Sutra,
There are people who bad mouth and curse,
Inflicting swords, cudgels, tiles and stones,
Because they think of the Buddha, they should endure.”
(The “Chapter of the Dharma Teacher” 10: T.9.32a)
When we think of His everlasting compassionate activity, His never-ending thought for the welfare of all beings, then we, the people who have accepted the mission to spread the true teaching centered on the Daimoku, can endure everything that the demonic world can hurl at us.