Hello:
good post...and a subject that needs more study...I especially like your definition of "Zuiho Bini" as "..."teaching the law within the language of the people one dwells among..."
Thanks
David
A few scholars have touched on the Mikkyo in Nichiren's thought. None have figured it out.
Tomitsu was the Mikkyo of Kukai {Kobo-Shingon Shu}& Saicho (Dengyo-Tendai Shu), though they diffeered on its relevance.
Taimitsu was the Mikkyo Ennin? {Jikaku}introduced to Tendai and he appears to have given it more relevance than Saicho did Tomitsu
Enchin {Chiso-Jimon Tendai} said Jikaku had it half roght and preferred tomitsu. He was Kukai's nephew.
Then there was Ryobu Shinto, which Nichiren appears to have lended some validity to, and Shugendo(?).
Which Mikkyo Nichiren critiqued is not real clear, since he often called them all Shingon.
Scholars do not actually know which Shu Seichoji was aligned with in Nichiren's time. They say Enryakuji {Tendai}. I think Miidera (Jimon Tendai}. Unlike Dr. Stone, I think Shumpan got Rencho into Enryakuji.
I plan to sort this out someday.
r
I believe that the reason Nichiren's Mikkyo kept changing is twofold. One is that the Mikkyo of his environment was confused enough that the differences between Tomitsu and Taimitsu were small enough that he criticized them alike. The second reason, appears to be, that Nichiren in fact seems to have started out critical of Zen and Jodo and only later added Criticisms of Shingon and Taimitsu as his thinking matured and as he read works like the Ebyo Shu. The Ebyo Shu was written late in Dengyo's life.
Jacqueline Stone examined this issue, noting that his early works praised Jikaku and Kobo both, and it was only later that he was severely critical of them. The basis of this criticism is the awareness that there is a elitism to Shingon. The Esotericism of the Lotus is ultimately a provisional esotericism. People are supposed to be able to awaken to reality and recognize the truth. Enlightenment is supposed to be for everyone. Dengyo realized that in the Shingon mindset -- enlightenment is not ultimately for everyone -- but only for those initiated to it.
Nichiren sought a religion where the esotericism would follow that Dengyo had intended. He created a practice that, had Dengyo thought of it, might have been the one Dengyo would have propagated. Shingon was popular among monks because it had enough complexity and richness of imagination to fire their imaginations. If you've seen the "name of the Rose" or read the book, the subtext is the crushing boredom of monasticism. Esoteric teachings are fascinating -- I've found them so. and they stimulate the mind.
As long as that stimulation is selfish however, they are provisional teachings and not "real" enlightenment worthy of taking "down from the mountain" because those who fall in love with them prefer to stay on the mountain forever and never come down to the real world to spread the word of enlightenment and bring others to the same "place."
That is the danger of monasticism and esotericism in general. It tends to bread authoritarianism and dual doctrines "dumbed down exotericism" for the masses and monasticism for the privelaged.