May 14, 2006
On Refuting Other Schools, Zen
"I, Nichiren, declare that Zen is the creation of devils."
Here is a bit of context:
Nichiren's critique of Zen starts with Dainichi Nonin, (circa mid 1100's-early 1200's), founder of Daruma Zenshu, who rejected the Sutras, and claimed what amounted to a mail order transmission. Nonin's anti-intellectual strain of Pop-Zen was appearently trendy with early Kamakura Era Court Samurai.
Dainichi Nonin, n.d., circa mid 1100s. "A Tendai monk who founded the Daruma-shu based upon his reading of Zen texts. Koun Ejo and Tettsu Gikai and many other of Dogen’s monastic community were originally members of the Daruma-shu. He “received” Transmission by correspondence from Fuzhao Dequang by sending two of his students to China to look for a Chan Master willing to do this." The Master List of Masters
Nichiren wrote:
"In the time of the Retired Emperor Gotoba, during the Kennin era (1201-1204), there were two arrogant men, Honen and Dainichi [Nonin]."
"During the Kennin era (1201-1204), two men came to prominence, Honen and Dainichi [Nonin], who spread the teachings of the Nembutsu and Zen schools, respectively. "
"Dainichi [Nonin], for his part claimed that the true teachings of Buddhism had been transmitted apart from the sutras."
"The followers of Dainichi [Nonin], known as the Zen school, claim that the Buddha's true teachings have been transmitted apart from the sutras. "
Nichiren also had public conflicts with the Kenchoji Rinzai Temples of Kamakura City, and their leading cleric, Rankei Doryu (Lan-chi Tao-lung) {1213-1278}. He wrote:
"For me, Nichiren, my best allies in attaining Buddhahood are Kagenobu, the priests Ryokan, Doryu, and Doamidabutsu, and Hei no Saemon and the lord of Sagami. "
"Those who are "respected and revered by the world" and "spoken of as great bodhisattvas" are men like Doryu, Ryokan, and Shoichi. "
"[The women reported the slander to the officials, saying:] "According to what some priests told us, Nichiren declared that the late lay priests of Saimyo-ji and Gokuraku-ji have fallen into the hell of incessant suffering. He said that the temples Kencho-ji, Jufuku-ji, Gokuraku-ji, Joraku-ji, and Dai-butsu-ji should be burned down and the honorable priests Doryu and Ryokan beheaded.""
I had thought Nichiren was critical of Eisai(1141-1215), who founded Tendai-Rinzai Zen, but I guess he was not. Eisai had rejected the Zen of Nonin and asserted the importance of the Sutras, while adding Koans and the Tea Ceremony. Masako Hojo (1157-1225) invited Eisai to Kamakura, where he founded Jufuku in 1200. Nichiren was critical of Kamakura Jufukuji Temple, but that was after it was subsumed by the Kencho-ji Rinzai. 
After Eisai died in 1215, the Hojo clan apparently hijacked Kamakura Rinzai, which, in 1253 {kencho 1], officially became Kencho-ji Rinzai. In 1247, Tokiyori Hojo invited Dogen to head up what would become Kencho-ji Rinzai. Dogen, who favored the Lotus Sutra, and continued but de-emphasized the the Rinzai use of Koans in meditation, said no thanks.
"Back then in Kamakura, Tokiyori Hojo (1227-1263) was the de facto ruler of Japan as the Fifth Hojo Regent. He was greatly interested in Zen and was about to found Kenchoji. Tokiyori invited Priest Dogen to Kamakura in 1247 and ... [asked] if the Priest was willing to assume the seat of the chief priest of Kenchoji. ... [Dogen] stayed in Kamakura for six months and performed religious services teaching the Soto Zen, but turned down Tokiyori's offer. To associate with [men] of authority was the last thing he wanted. This is the main reason the Soto Zen took hold in the rural areas while the Rinzai Zen flourished in towns like Kamakura and Kyoto." -- Kamakura Guide Sojiji
Tokiyori got Rankei Doryu instead. In late 1247, Doryu moved to Jufukuji Temple in Kamakura, invited by the Zen monk Daiketsu Ryoshin. Then:
"In 1248 Tokiyori converted Jorakuji into a Zen monastery and appointed Rankei abbot. After consultation with Rankei, Tokiyori also decided to build a Zen monastery in Song-period style modelled on the renowned centre on Mt Jing. Rankei supervised the construction of this new monastery in Kamakura." -- artnet Rankei Doryu
Kenchoji was founded in 1253, and Rankei Doryu was installed as founding prelate. Doryu apparently preached platitudes, cultivated patronage, and lived an extravagent, self indulgent life style. He was popular with elitist, politically connected, powerful, urban samurai.n Also, as I understand it, the Kenchoji Rinzai Zendos were being used, by the Hojo Regency, primarily to train samurai in the marshall arts. From what I gather, Zen was being used to train monks and samurai to be efficient, remorseless killing machines; perhaps to combat the ruthless warrior-monks of Enryakuji and other old establishment temples of Kyoto and Nara.
The same year, 1253, Dogen (1200-1253) passed away and Nichiren returned to Kamakura. Nichiren was not overtly critical of Dogen, nor his school, Soto Zen. Dogen refused to compromise with the authorities and their schemes. And he was apparently as caustic as Nichiren in his critiques of other teachers. Maybe moreso.
As far as I know, Nichiren wrote nothing about Dogen. Some say he never heard of him. I doubt that. And there is a legend that they actually met, at Mitera-Senyuji temple, Raku-nan Kyoto City, in 1246. Rencho {Nichiren} had just completed 4 years of study at Mt. Hiei, and commenced a 6 year tour of Temples in the Kansai region. Source>: The Youthful Priest Zesho-bo Rencho ©1995 Nichiren Shoshu Monthly
"Constant repetition of the Nembutsu is also worthless-like a frog in a spring field croaking night and day. Those deluded by fame and fortune, find it especially difficult to abandon the nembutsu. Bound by deep roots to a profit-seeking mind, they existed in ages past, and they exist today. They are to be pitied." -- Soto Zen Master Dogen
"There was a mendicant priest who drifted about from province to province like floating grass, who rolled on from district to district like tumbleweed. Before anyone realized it, he appeared on the scene and stood leaning on the pillar of the gate, smiling but saying nothing.
The unenlightened man, wondering at this, asked what he wanted. At first the priest made no reply, but after the question was repeated, he said, "The moon is dim and distant, the wind brisk and blustery." His appearance was quite out of the ordinary and his words made no sense, but when the unenlightened man inquired about the ultimate principle behind them, he found that they represented the Zen teachings as they are expounded in the world today." -- Nichiren
Posted by rbeck at May 14, 2006 11:49 AMRyuei,
I wonder if Dogen's actions reflected his frustration in dealing with the Kamakura Regency?
It appears Tokiyori was mainly interested in Zen as a method to train warriors.
r
No gosho that I have ever seen even mentions Dogen. However, there are a few places (can't think of which gosho at the moment) where Nichiren criticizes those who prefer shoju and go off into the mountains to meditate, when what is needed is shakubuku. This could be a criticism of those like Dogen who retreated away from public life without making any attempts to call people back to the Lotus Sutra first.
Dogen, when he first came back to Japan from China, had the very idealistic view that he could teach the form of Zen that he was taught to all and sundry - men and women, high and low, lay or ordained, etc... But I think what he found was that his strict methods of practice was not so accessible to ordinary people, and so in his later years after moving to Eheiji he began to insist that only through becoming a monastic could one attain enlightenment, though there were still some hints here and there of his earlier universalism. But in his actions, Dogen had definately become more elitist (in the sense of a spiritual elite of very disciplined and determined monastics, and not a social elite). It was Dogen's successor Keizan that was the one who popularized Soto Zen and found ways to make it accessible to common people, but apparently he did so by bringing in esoteric techniques and forms of popular Buddhism that would appeal to the masses.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei