Real Life with Ryuei

Reexamining the Four Admontions

Since it is on my mind, le't look at the four admonitions of Nichiren. These are four statements that Nichiren does say in various places (though I am not sure he says them all in one place in an authentic writing). Anyway, they are:

1. Zen is the school of heavenly devils.

2. Pure Land actually leads to the Avichi Hell.

3. Shingon is the worm in the lion's belly.

4. Ritsu followers are traitors to the nation.

Now why would Nichiren attack the other schools like this and what use is it to say such things. Here is what I think he was getting at and what we can take from it:

1. Many so-called Zen people of Nichiren's time (particularly the followers of Dainichi Nyonin and some of the Chinese masters being patronized by the shogunate) were indeed arrogant and felt that their insight had made them the equal of the Buddha and so they felt they could dispense with the sutras and the Buddhist tradition itself. This is why Nichiren saw them as heavenly devils. This attitude that we can dispense with the wisdom of the past or that we can become ultimate authorities in and of ourselves is dangerous to ourselves and others who buy into it.

2. Nichiren saw the Pure Land movement (particularly the followers of Honen) as also dispensing with the sutras and the Buddhist tradition in favor of a practice and teaching that focused (at least as far as Honen and his followers were concerned) exclusively on the saving power of an Other and rebirth in the pure land after death. They effectively gave up on themselves and this world, and that is what Nichiren saw as a hellish existence which would only cause more suffering.

3. Shingon (and Nichiren was especially angry at Jikaku for making the Tendai school Shingon in all but name) is a very esoteric form of Buddhism that requires money, privalege, and time to put into practice. It was a religion for aristocrats and full time monks with aristocratic patrons. Much of it was little more than magick for worldly benefits (and some of that would be called black magick in our society such as the curses the Retired Emperor Gotoba tried to use on his political opponents). Nichiren felt that this kind of Buddhism was crowding out and displacing the more universal and compassionate true meaning of Buddhism and also debilitating the nation. In the end, the money that went to patronizing the Shingon school did contribute to the financial collapse of the Kamakuran Shogunate.

4. The Ritsu school or rather Ritsu revival movement was connected to Shingon in Nichiren's time. Its proponents believed that there was a kind of magickal efficacy or benefit to taking the monastic precepts. But ethics, especially the precepts which are more like monastic guidelines, alone do not bring about enlightenment or compassionate living. Especially when it is a rigid formalistic adherence to a code that is from another time and culture. Perhaps this is why Nichiren saw the Ritsu movement as betraying the nation - it was turning away from the actual needs of the present moment.

But Nichiren's blanket condemnation misses some of the good points of these schoos. And here is what I think is missed:

1. The Zen of people like Dogen, or Hakuin, or before them Pai-chang, Hui-neng and many others was not an arrogant iconoclasm. Many of the things Nichiren criticized have also been criticized by the classical Zen Masters themselves. This authentic Zen is not something that dismisses the sutras but rather attempts to bring them to life and to help people get the point of the sutras and to realize and live that point in our present lives. The word "Zen" originally came from the word for "meditation" but in the Zen tradition it represents the unity of wisdom and method, the living of life in a way that embodies not just the perfection of meditation but also perfect wisdom, generosity, self-restraint, patience, and vigor. It is to live life as a meditation on Buddha Dharma. This is what we all need to do.

2. Not all Pure Land traditions throw away the rest of Buddhism. Honen and his followers were unique and extreme in this regard. Furthermore, not all those who chant Nembutsu see it as indicating the saving power of an Other or a way of securing a better life after this one. Many of those in China, Korea, Vietnam, and even some in Japan chant the name of Amitabha with the understanding that Amitabha is a symbol of our true original nature, and the Pure Land is the land transformed by this realization - it could be here and now. It can only be here and now. In China, Korea, and Vietnam, and in some schools of Japanese Zen, Nembutsu actually became incorporated into the Zen way of understanding that all the sutras are pointing to our present reality in this moment. All symbols are analogies, and all analogies break down, and the Pure Land myth and practice does have a tendency to point away from ourselves and to another better life, but even there it is also an antidote for those who are too full of themselves or who are so filled with despair that they need some consolation until they can regain a sense of peace and composure.

3. Shingon and other esoteric traditions do make one good point - that one must go beyond doctrines and tenet systems and actually try to embody the body, word, and mind of the Buddha in oneself. To do this, the tantric traditions try to appeal to and utilize human imagination and all the seneses. This is a good thing, and in many ways Nichiren crafted a practice that is a streamlined way of doing what many tantric practices do. So even Nichiren did not really discard tantric principles (like sokushin jobutsu) or methods (like using a mudra, a mantra, and a mandala). Today, tantric practices like the regulation of bodily temperature in tummo have been shown to have a real effect on the body-mind. These tantric practices and methods are effective and beneficial and should not be ignorantly written off. At the same time, they are not necessarily enlightenment and the tantric teachers themselves will admit that they are all just skillful means for bringing out a capacity for awakened living that is already there and does not need tantric props to function or even necessarily to be realized. I would agree that the tantras should not be set over the Lotus Sutra, but I also think that their is much we can learn from these traditions (and not necessarily from the tantric parts of the tradition - for instance the lojong aphorisms of mind training could be applicable to any practice).

4. I think that one of the things that has caused Buddhism in Japan to become so secular and weak is the lack of any real monastic tradition and the discarding of the precepts. While I do not think the precepts are monastic living is absolutely necessary for the attainment of enlightenment, I think that a monastic core is very important for the Buddhist tradition as it provides for a group of people who are able and willing to live the Dharma 24/7 and who are free of all responsibilities and worldly amibitions except to serve the Sangha, live like the Buddha, and study and teach and practice and enable others to practice the Dharma. Furthermore, I think East Asian Buddhism (esp. Japanese) has become entirely too antinomian - ignoring the moral and ethical teachings and examples of Buddhism. These need to be recovered. I think it is a healthy sign that various Buddhist groups in North America after the debacles in the 80s with the moral failings of their teachers have set upon a course of seriously studying and learning to utilize the precepts in appropriate ways and settings. Thich Nhat Hanh's revised monastic precepts is a great thing in my opinion - it is connected to tradition, but revised to meet current needs, open to further adaptation, and above all practical and humanistic and a good guide for creating a viable monastic community.

So I believe that 21st century global Buddhism should avoid becoming heavenly devils, pilgrims to hell, worms, or traitors. But at the same time we can learn to realize the teachings in terms of our own lives, view the uplifting myths and symbols of Buddhism in a positive way, utilize our bodies and imaginations in a whole body-mind effort, and live in a way that is in accord with good causes, refrains from bad causes, and builds up viable Dharmic communities.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

Posted by Ryuei at February 2, 2005 12:06 PM