ON OFFERING TO THE MANDALA OF THE SUBLIME DHARMA
MYOHO MANDARA KUYO JI
You have made offering to the Object of Worship of the Sutra of the
Lotus Flower of the Sublime Dharma.
Though the characters of this Mandala are five characters or seven
characters, it is the Teacher of the Buddhas of the three ages, the
Seal of the attainment of Buddhahood by all women. It becomes a
torch upon the Road of the Underworld; it becomes an excellent
horse at the Mountain of Leaving Death. It is like the Sun and the
Moon in the heaven and it is like Mount Sumeru on earth. It is the
boat for the Sea of Birth-and-Death, It is the Guiding Teacher for
Attaining Buddhahood. This Mandala has not yet spread within the
whole of Jambudvipa during the more than two thousand two hundred
and twenty years since the Buddha's Extinction.
In accordance with the disease there is medicine: for slight
diseases there are ordinary medicines; for a serious disease
one should assign the Immortals' Medicine. Because during the
more than two thousand two hundred and twenty years since
the Buddha's Extinction untilnow the diseases of delusions and
sinful karma the physicians called the Wise Ones, have come
forth in succession and, according to the disease, have assigned
medicines: that is to say, the Kusha Sect, the Jojitsu Sect, the Ritsu
(Vinaya) Sect, the Hosso Sect, the Sanron (Three Treatise) Sect,
the Shingon Sect, the Jodo (Pure Land) Sect, the Zen Sect. In each
one of those sects there was a medicine: that is to say, the Six Aspects
and Ten Mysteries of the Kegon, the Middle Way of the Eight Negations
of the Sanron, the Contemplation of Consciousness Onlyof the Hosso,
the Two hundred and Fifty Precepts of the Ritsu Sect. the name of Amida
of the Jodo Sect. the Attainment of Buddhahood by Seeing One's Nature
of the Zen Sect, the Contemplation of the Five Rings of the Shingon Sect,
the One Thought is Three Thousand Realms, and so on.
The present era is already approaching the Latter Dharma and on
top [people's] not being of the capacities for the various sects, the
whole of the country of Japan have become icchantikas and great
blasphemers against the Dharma. If we compare it to things, it
surpasses even the sin of killing one's parents, the crime of starting
a rebellion, the sins of makingthe Buddha's blood flow from His body
and so on. The country of japan is filled with beings who have as one
person committed the Great Sin which is deeper than the sin of plucking
out the eyes of all the beings of a great trichiliocosm and transcends that
of burning up the [Buddhist] halls and stupas of the worlds of the ten
directions. Because of this the devas day by day glare at the country
of Japan with angry eyes and the earth gods shake their bodies from
time to time in a rage.
Even so, all the beings of our nation think, "In my person there is no
the fault" and think, "I will certainly be reborn in the Pure Land and will
attain Buddhahood. A person without eyes will neither see nor know the
brilliant sun disk. For example, there is no thought in the mind of those
who do not sense even earthquakes like drums. All the beings of the
country of Japan are like this. The fault of the males is more than that
of the females; the fault of the nuns is more serious than that of the
males; the fault of the monks is greater than that of the nuns; the fault
of the Dharma teachers who keep the precepts is more serious than that
of the monks who break the precepts; the fault of the Wise Ones must be
more serious than that of the monks who keep the precepts. These are
[those with] white leprosy and among the white leprosies the great white leprosy.
When one wonders what sort of great physician using what sort of excellent
medicine might cure all the beings of the Latter Age, the Seal of the Wisdom
of the Tathagata Dainichi as well as the Mantras (Shingon) of Dainichi, the
Forty-eight Vows of Amida, the Twelve Great Vows [and especially] the Vow to
Eliminate the Various Diseases of the Tathagata Yakuo are not up to it. On
top of the disease not being extinguished at all with these medicines, it will
increase more and more.
For these in the time of the Latter Dharma the Master of
TeachingsLord Shakya gathered together the Tathagata
Taho and the BranchBody Buddhas of the Ten Directions
and fixed the one Medicine of the Immortals: that is to say,
the Five Characters 'Myoho renge kyo' (Sutra of the Lotus
Flower of the Sublime Dharma). These Five Characters He
did not entrust to [the bodhisatvas] Hoekudokurin, Kongosatta
[Vajrasattva], Fugen [Samantabhadra], Manjushri, Yakuo
[Bhaishajyaraja], Kannon [Avalokiteshvara], and so on;
how much less to Kashyapa and Shariputra.
There are the Four Great Bodhisattvas called 'Jogyo'
[Vishishtacharitra] and so on. These Bodhisattvas had
become disciples of the Tathagata Shakya since kalpas
numbered as the dust of lands touched and untouched
by the dust of five hundred thousand myriads of millions
of asamkheyas of great trichiliocosms and He summoned
forth [those] Great Bodhisattvas who had never for one
thought forgotten the Buddha and bestowed [the Five
Characters 'Myoho renge kyo' on them] Thus it is next
to the woman who shall keep this Excellent Medicine that
these Four Great Bodhisattvas shall stand to the front and
rear, to the left end right and when this woman stands,
these Great Bodhisattvas shall also stand and so on to
when this woman walks a road, these Bodhisattvas shall
also walk the road: for example, they shall be as a shadow
and a body, water and fish, sound and its echo, the moon
and its light. If these Four Great Bodhisattvas separate from
the woman who chants, "Namu Myoho renge kyo", these
Bodhisattvas in their bodies shall receive the condemnation
of Shakya, Taho, and the Buddhas of the Ten Directions. You
should think that their sin would be deeper than that
of Devadatta and that they would be greater liars than
Kugyari [Kokalika].
Oh, how joyful! Oh, how joyful.
Namu Myoho renge kyo! Namu Myoho renge kyo!
Nichiren (Signature)