Robin Beck

Nichiren and Daruma Zen

(2) "Zen is the invention of the devil of the 6th Heaven."

The Four Dictums
Nichiren's First Sermon April 28 1253
Rikkyo Kaishu-e or Risshu-e
Life and legends of Nichiren

A search of the Gosho shows that Nichiren's direct criticism of the Zen School is almost entirely confined to a single sub-school, Daruma Zenshu, which was never really a school, and which had little or no significance by 1253. He would also come into direct conflict with the Hojo Regency sponsored Kencho-ji branch of Rinzai Zen.

Rencho/Nichiren no doubt studied Eisai's form of Rinzai Zen, while he was a student at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu-ji Shrine-Temple in Kamakura, from 1239 to 1242. Also, it is hard to imagine he knew nothing of Enni Bennen (1202-1280); founder of the Tofuku-ji branch of Zen, or Soto Zen Master Dogen (1200-1253). It is said that he met both Bennen and Dogen while at Kyoto Sen'nyu-ji, circa 1246 or 1247. The legend even has Rencho/Nichiren donating lumber to Enni Bennen, for construction of a hall at Tofuku-ji. Yet there is not a direct word in the translated Gosho about Myoan Eisai (Yosai) (1141-1215)}, Enni Bennen, or Dogen.

Nichiren mentions Kakuan Zenji (12th C. Chinese Zen master Kuoan), but I can not find much on him. A Search of the Japanese Daruma Zenshu's 'founder,' "Dainichi" (Nonin), is a bit more productive:

"Dainichi for his part claimed that the true teachings of Buddhism had been transmitted apart from the sutras."

"However, during the fifty or more years since the Kennin era (1201-­1204), the priests Dainichi and Budda have spread the teachings of the Zen school, casting aside all the various sutras and postulating a doctrine that is transmitted outside the scriptures."

Dainichi Nonin was evidently a Tendai monk who claimed that the Sutras are useless; that the true teaching is received via a mind to mind transmission from a Zen Master. However, Nonin did not actually go to China to receive the kechimyaku. Instead, he sent two students, who set up a proxy transmission for him, in 1189, by correspondence from Fuzhao Dequang {(Fu-chao Te-kuang, Bussho Tokko) {1121-1203)}.

Nonin named his new school the Nihon Daruma Zenshu {Japanese Bodhidharma Dhyana School}. It was named after Bodhidharma {Bodaidaruma}, who was a fifth or sixth century Indian sage, and the undisputed founder of Zen Buddhism. It is thought that Bodhidharma introduced the Zen School to China, during travels to the Middle Kingdom.

From what I can gather, the antinomianism and anti-intellectualism of Nonin's so called Daruma movement appealed to young court nobles and the samurai class of the early Kamakura Era. It sppears to have attracted a significant following, one that included talented students such as Koun Ejo (1198-1280) and Tettsu Gikai (1219-1309).

There are, however, scant records of Japanese Daruma Zen and its founder; we do not even have birth and death dates for Nonin. Nichiren seems to place him as a near contemporary of Honen ( 1133-1212). I am told that Esai, Bennen and especially Dogen refuted the extreme elements of Nonin's teaching. By 1253, Daruma Zen had largely been absorbed by Dogen's School, later known as Soto Zen. Ironically, Nonin, who tried to found a new sect, failed. Meanwhile, Eisai and Dogen, who only wanted to teach Buddhism, are considered founders of the Rinzai and Soto Schools.

The following phrases, mostly from "Conversation between a Sage and an Unenlightened Man" seem to summarize Nichiren's primary objections to Zen:

"The followers of Dainichi, known as the Zen school, claim that the Buddha's true teachings have been transmitted apart from the sutras."

"... the Great Teacher Miao-lo in the first volume of his Guketsu comments on this situation by saying, 'The people of today look with contempt on the sutra teachings and emphasize only the contemplation of truth, but they are making a great mistake, a great mistake indeed!"

"Moreover, I should point out that the Zen followers of the present age are confused as to the teachings of their own sect. ... these patriarch-teachers [actually] placed primary emphasis on the sutra texts. "

"You spoke earlier of twenty-eight patriarchs of India who orally transmitted this Zen doctrine, but on what evidence is such a statement based? ...It is a gross error to speak of twenty-eight patriarchs. This is the beginning of the errors of the Zen sect. ... It was all a fabrication designed to make people respect the Zen teachings."

The criticism of reliance on "teachings [which] have been transmitted apart from the sutras" was, I think, a valid point; a flaw of Daruma Zen that I believe Dogen also pointed out and denounced? As to the twenty-eight patriarchs being a fabrication; we now know that the T'ien T'ai scheme of twenty-four patriarchs, which Nichren accepted, was also likely fabricated; though maybe not out of whole cloth like the latter part the Zen lineage?

Posted by rbeck at November 11, 2006 03:50 PM