“Letter from Sado” was written in 1271 by Nichiren Daishonin, the Buddhist scholar and prophet, from the island of Sado, then a remote and scarcely populated rock popular for exiling trouble-makers and rebels. The charge against Nichiren was “treason” but in reality Nichiren had – for a lack of a better term – declared war on the slanderous sects of Buddhism that were ruining the fortune of the Country of Japan.
Religion is a curious human phenomenon. In some cases religious systems are no more than that which is created out of thin air, straight out of human imagination. Much of what Nichiren speaks of in his body of writings are ancient Asian fables and mythology. As a Western audience we basically accept these in good faith, though they are alien to us and no more historical than "Goldie Locks and the Three Bears" or "Jack and the Bean Stock".
What makes Nichiren’s Buddhism so real is the same thing that is the heart of real Buddhism, actual human experience. This is largely what separates us from the Judeo-Christian traditions as well.
Throughout Nichiren’s life as he preached true Buddhism - the Lotus Sutra (Nam Myoho Renge Kyo) he was seriously persecuted by the Government and other Buddhist priests. He was exiled twice and very nearly beheaded on one occasion. Nichiren realized that this persecution was proof that he was the votary of the Lotus Sutra, or in non-lingo, the one whose mission it was to clarify the true teaching of the Buddha. It wasn’t, as many new-agers would think, that he was “reborn” or “reincarnated” as some previous personality, it was simply that the circumstances and opportunities of his life lead him to become that guy who was going to go up against the established and heretical teachings that had come into existence by priests and temples seeking political favor and monetary gain.
Ok, that is a tremendous over-simplification, but this isn’t the point I’m trying to make so go with me here….
The bottom line was that at this time Nichiren was exiled on an island that barely had enough on it for him to exist. His lodging was a shack that barely kept out the wind and rain. He was truly and effectively being spanked for speaking against the religious and political powers-that-be.
The point he makes in “Letter from Sado” was that only through persecution can we erase and transform the extreme negative karma we created in the past and the remote past. There it is. Hate the message not the messenger.
Stay tuned for part II…..
Ok, Part II
It is still less than 800 years since the advent of the life of the man named Nichiren. Eventually like other religious pioneers his name will begin to enter into the remote past and become part, then complete mythology, or perhaps not. The age of Shakyamuni was in fact pre-history, a time when written languages were not in full employ. Perhaps the more carefully recorded history of Japan will allow Nichiren to escape the fate of Jesus and Shakyamuni.
Unfortunate occurrences have already naturally occurred, for instance the invention by the Fuji School of the Daigohonzon, thought by some to be a magical object and thus robbing understanding and focus from the true teaching of the Buddha, the Lotus Sutra, as verified and re-transmitted by Nichiren’s life and teachings.
It’s a natural assumption by humans, being not so changed since we were huddled in caves, that anything ancient has some talismanic power attached to it. In reality I believe – since it is generally accepted that we are evolving as opposed to DE-evolving, we know more now rather than less and that ancient secrets are largely a myth. And yet there will be those who wish to disagree with me as there are those who believe in Atanltis and other such legends. So be it. Our own imagination is our most ready and willing means of entertainment.
And so we're forever searching for the ancient - ancient texts, Buddhist, Hindu and even Brahman not to mention those such as the lost passages of the Bible and other creations of the Judeo-Christian tradition. This is what Scholarism has done to us, sending us searching in the fain hope of what? Finding something previously uncovered? Something long ago ignored? Something learned then unlearned?
Buddhism is about self-discovery. I say this time and time and those who are around me nod in agreement, most likely because "self-discovery" is not really a disagreeable term in itself. What I think we, and I mean myself as well, often fail to realize is that self-discovery is you, it's us, each in our own individual worlds and with our own individual life-experience.
This is why we of the latter day must come to understand that we already possess everything we need in order to realize Buddhahood in our own lives. It isn't Nichiren's life, it's ours. And it isn't Daisaku Ikeda's life that waits to be worshiped and adored by us, it's our own. We don't need to be exiled or beheaded, we already have all the persecution from our own karma to validate our existence as Bodhisattvas of the Earth. When we shift our focus to outside ourselves we fail to understand Buddhism, and begin to fail as the diciples of our masters in faith. And having said this I come to the final point I wish to make.
The Lotus Sutra is in fact the sutra of self-discovery.
While even as I type there are those who consider the LS as some literal document, a flowery version of something that actually happened, like some Christians view the Bible (only worse because the LS is like some bizarre science fiction) I have come to understand that the Lotus Sutra represents the drama of each individual human life.
It is the ultimate teaching of self-discovery. Every character, every Bodhisattva, every prediction, even the treasure tower, the whole shebang - it's you, and it's I, regardless of whether or not we chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.
And when we chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo it is our lives from which the rays of light shoot forth as they did from the brows of Shakyamuni Buddha in the first chapter thus illuminating the thousands of world systems that are the thousands of individual human lives waiting to be....
Self discovered....
Rev. Greg, Shidoshi
Posted by revgreg at October 22, 2004 06:00 AMI have already examined what I wrote and find what you state is true. Thanks for your "good comments" compliments. Not sure what I was thinking when I wrote that, perhaps I was in a hurry to get to the point I really wanted to make.
"Unicef Mam"
Rev. Greg
Posted by: Rev. Greg at November 8, 2004 04:40 PMIn Part I you presented a false premise as true “only through persecution can we erase and transform the extreme negative karma we created in the past and the remote past.”
Then in Part II you argued against it: “This is why we of the latter day must come to understand that we already possess everything we need in order to realize Buddhahood in our own lives. It isn't Nichiren's life, it's ours. And it isn't Daisaku Ikeda's life that waits to be worshiped and adored by us, it's our own. We don't need to be exiled or beheaded...”
Truthfully, as usual, you have offered some very good thoughts. And yes, there is a straw man here, or, it's a case of a reverse Roseanna Roseanna Anna Danna.
Chiku -
Yeah, I suppose you're right.....
Rev. Greg
Posted by: Rev. Greg at November 4, 2004 05:59 AMDear Greg,
Ulterior motives sounds ominous and sinister. Rest assured, if I do have them, I am not after your money or your wife.
Charging that I am a Fundi does not change the reality that there is no basis for the conclusion that you presented. Certainly there isn’t a single secret interpretation to this Gosho.
Interpretations, in this context, can be extremely subjective. However, from an objective point of view, there is no basis in the written text for the conclusion that you offered.
I did re-read this ‘Letter from Sado’ before commenting earlier in an effort to try and understand where you could have gleaned your unique perspective on this writing.
Perhaps inductive reasoning, influenced by of years of Tribal influences (i.e., SGI doctrine)?
Regardless, it seems that your conclusion in ‘Part I’ effectively setup a straw man that you knocked down in ‘Part II’. Good job.
Hi,
I'm with Chikushonin and agree with his take on the Gosho.
This largely Medieval notion that one must endure upheaval, chaos, strife - apocolypses - in order to grow, cleanse or prosper is simply not true. I believe buying into it can be destructive to one's well being, and it is not appropriate for the times we're living in now. No doubt, we have our share of violence, but it does pale in comparison to the incomprehensible lawlessness and bloodshead of the Middle Ages (I'm reading up on this period now.)
Unfortunately, many different religious and spiritual circles currently purport this view, this over-simplified pattern, that something negative or extreme must occur before any sort of fortune manifests. Hogwash.
I'm certainly not advocating the pie in the sky take on reality that everything will go well all the time (although I have heard that some Far Eastern spiritual pockets uphold that belief). Healthy challenges to endeavors and tragedy can ensue, of course, and the practice enables one to surmount and advance through trying times beautifully, with flying colors. That has been my experience, at least. After 17 years of practice, I've never been disappointed.
Once I started to veer away from the no pain, no gain theory for growth, life became much more peaceful, more about flow, path of the least resistance, etc. - whatever terminology fits for you.
You can be sure that I still experience the elaborate range of human emotions, and suffer disappointments and frustration. But the perspective that growth can be a gentle, even tranquil, occurrence has served me well, and actually made me much stronger and able to arrive at completion more quickly than when I believed that extreme processes for purification were imminent. Just call me an unrepentant type B personality.
Gabrielle
Posted by: Gabrielle Wise at October 30, 2004 06:02 AMWow Brian, tremendous compliment, thank you. B^)
I'm not on Will's board currently, but anyone is certainly free to cross-post for me...
Thanks again,
Rev. Greg
Posted by: Rev. Greg at October 26, 2004 05:56 PMHey Greg!
This is a terrific blog entry!! I think it deserves wider circulation. I know you don't like Will's SGI Yahoo board because it is moderated, but I'd love to see you post this there. Best - Brian
Chiku...
Thanks for writing. As always, when I read you, I can't help feeling that you study Nichiren with some ulterior motive. I don't mean to accuse you, it's just my impression.
If reading Nichiren so literally "speaks" to you, then go with it. I don't like to experience my own life that way nor do I choose to teach in that manner.
Rest assured however that I train along side those in Ninjutsu that share the same "fundamentalist" wrong/right flavor that you do with the Gosho.
I just do not presume that dissecting deeper, or analizing further, is better. When we create these kinds of divisions and micro-explanations with religion we run the risk of merely finding more to fight over.
In conclusion, I don't disagree with what you find in "Letter from Sado" I merely disagree with the fact that you found grounds to disagree with what I said, as though there is a single secret interpretation to this Gosho.
That would be silly though, wouldn't it?
But it's all good. Part II is written, please find more to disagree with!
With my appreciation,
Rev. Greg
Posted by: Rev. Greg at October 24, 2004 01:48 AMDear Greg,
I have no desire to shoot the messenger, nor do I hate him—Ninja, be at ease.
I don’t get the same message you do from this Gosho. To begin with, Nichiren does not state that “only through persecution can we erase and transform the extreme negative karma we created in the past and the remote past”. What he states is:
“Since nothing is more precious than life itself, those who dedicate their lives to the Buddhist practice are certain to attain Buddhahood.”
In this Gosho Nichiren also states: “When an evil ruler in consort with heretical priests tries to destroy true Buddhism and banish a man of wisdom, those with the heart of a lion will surely attain Buddhahood as Nichiren did”, thus stating the cause, condition and circumstances (three criteria) that Nichiren fulfilled awakening Buddhahood in his own life, but as Nichiren states in the same passage, this is not the only way, as you are suggesting.
Nichiren clarifies that facing persecution is not the only condition that leads to manifesting Buddhahood as follows:
“Even a word or phrase of true Buddhism will lead one to the path of enlightenment, if it suits the times and the capacity of the people. Even though one may study a thousand sutras and ten thousand doctrines, he cannot attain Buddhahood, should those teachings not fit the times and the people's capacity.”
I don’t hate the messenger, but the exclusivity of your statement is a distortion of what Nichiren wrote (or, for the puritans among us, words that are attributed to Nichiren).
While this Gosho purports to identify the specifics of the cause, condition, and circumstances of Nichiren’s manifestation of Buddhahood in his historical existence, in another Gosho, Letter to Gijo-bo, Nichiren elucidates the general cause (taking faith in the Lotus Sutra), condition, and resulting circumstance of his Buddhahood:
“‘Single-mindedly desiring to see the Buddha’ also means to see the Buddha in one’s own mind, to concentrate one’s mind on seeing the Buddha, and that to see one’s own mind is to see the Buddha. I have attained the fruit of Buddhahood, the eternally inherent three bodies, [by living this sentence].”
The Juryo Chapter explains cause, condition, and resulting circumstance of embracing the Lotus Sutra in this way:
Cause: “When they have become truly faithful/Honest, upright, gentle in intent”
Condition: “Single-mindedly yearning to see the Buddha/Not begrudging their lives to do so”
Resulting Circumstance: “Then (in the present moment) I and the assembly of Monks/Appear together on Holy Eagle Peak”
If a person reads “Letter From Sado” in light of this passage from the Lotus Sutra, I have no doubt that this person will find these six verses inherent in Nichiren’s Gosho, the general cause, condition, and resulting circumstances underlying the specifics of Nichiren’s historical existence.
南無妙法蓮華命時儈倶經
Fear is the greatest motivator known.
There are many Christians with actual human experiences in faith.
Nichiren 'thought' his persecution was proof.
He was special only because he was in the right place at the right time with what appeared to be the right idea.
Posted by: nystevie at October 23, 2004 04:27 AM