“To Sow the Seeds of Buddhahood”
Nichiren (1222-1282) devoted himself to the propagation of the Lotus Sutra. The original Sanskrit title of this sutra is Saddharma-pundarika-sutra, which was rendered into Chinese by Kumarajiva as Miao-fa-lien-hua-ching. The Japanese pronunciation of this rendering is Myohorengekyo. This title may be translated the “Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law.” According to Nichiren, this title is not only the name of a sutra but also a representation of the dharma expounded in the sutra. He prefixed the honorific Namu to the title, and made it the main object of worship of his religion. The Japanese word for title is Daimoku. In the usage of Japanese Buddhism of today, the word Daimoku or in its honorific form O-daimoku means specifically the title of the Lotus Sutra as interpreted by Nichiren. The Daimoku in this sense, that is, Namu-myohorengekyo, is usually translated Sacred Title. The Sacred Title is also a formula chanted by the Nichiren Buddhists. In this case the translation Sacred Formula may be preferred. Incidentally, the word Namu comes from the Sanskrit word Namas, which means, ‘Honor be to.’
The purpose of Nichiren’s religion is to save all living beings by “sowing the seeds of Buddhahood” in their minds. Nichiren says in the Kyogyosho-gosho:
“This age is evil and defiled. Many people do not believe the Lotus Sutra but slander it. I am making efforts to sow the seeds of Buddhahood in their minds by causing them to chant Namu-myohorengekyo. The Namu-myohorengekyo is the essence of the Lotus Sutra.”
His missionary activities came out of his compassion towards all the people of Japan. He said in the Kangyo-hachiman-sho:
“I am only trying to cause all the people of Japan to chant Namu-myohorengekyo, just as a mother is trying to put her nipple into the mouth of her babe out of her compassion towards it.”
Criticism on the Government
Nichiren lived in the midst of the Kamakura Period (1192-1333). The period was so-called because during that time the city of Kamakura was the seat of the “military” government called Bakufu. The Bakufu was actually the government of Japan although the emperor regime was still maintained in the sense that the Shogun, the head of the government, decorated his inauguration with the formal appointment by the Emperor of Kyoto. Such a form of government had never been witnessed before. The first Shogun Minamoto-no-Yoritomo was labelled as a traitor by Nichiren.
The Minamoto family fell in 1218, and the reins of the government were transferred to the Hojo family. The head of the new government was called Shikken or Regent. The first Shikken was Hojo Yoshitoki.
The Emperor Gotoba abdicated from the throne in favor of his 3-year-old son in 1198. The new infant Emperor was called Tsuchimikado. He transferred his throne to his younger brother in 1210. The new Emperor was called Juntoku. In 1221, the Emperor Juntoku descended from the throne in favor of his 3-year-old son.
The new Emperor was called Chukyo. The Ex-Emperors Gotoba and Juntoku attempted to recover their power and started to raise an army against the Hojos in the fourth month of 1221. However, on no later than the fifteenth of the sixth month of the year, the forces of Kamakura marched into Kyoto and the Imperial army was defeated. The Shikken Hojo Yoshitoki exiled the Ex-Emperor Gotoba to Oki Island, the Ex-Emperor Juntoku to Sado Island. The Ex-Emperor Tsuchimikado was not punished at first because he was not involved in the conspiracy, but was banished to the Province of Tosa by his own appeal to Kamakura that he would rather be exiled than stay in the troubled city of Kyoto. The Emperor Chukyo was dethroned and the nine-year-old son of the Ex-Emperor Tsuchimikado was put in throne under the name of the Emperor Gohorikawa. Tsuchimikado was moved to the Province of Awa in Shikoku the following year and died there in 1231. Gotoba died in the island in 1239, and Juntoku also in the island of exile in 1242. In this year Nichiren was twenty of age. He also called Yoshitoki a traitor. In the Akimoto-gosho he says:
“Japan had twenty-six traitors in history. The first was Prince Oyama-no-oji, the second Oishi-no-yamamaro, the twenty-fifth Yoritomo, and the last Yoshitoki. The first twenty-four traitors were punished to death. The last two suppressed Emperprs and ExEmperors and took the reins of the government of Japan.”
Criticism on Buddhism of the Day
The Shingon Sect was founded by Kobo Daishi (774-835) in 806. It was Esoteric Buddhism. Buddha Mahavairocana was worshipped with more respect than Buddha Sakyamuni by the sect. The esoteric practices of the sect attracted the other sects. The Tendai Sect vas so much influenced by Esoteric Buddhism that the Tendai masters Jikaku Daishi (792-862) and Chisho Daishi (814-891) created esoteric schools in their own sect. By the time of Nichiren the Tendai Sect was practically amalgamated with esoteric Buddhism.
The Jodo or Nembutsu Sect was founded by Honen (1133-1212). He professed a new faith in Buddha Amitabha in 1175. According to him, we are far from wise enough to attain enlightenment. The only way of salvation is to be reborn in the Pure Land of Buddha Amitabha by calling his name at every moment. His religion spread rapidly all over Japan, and many priests of the older sects stood against it. In 1205, a written protest against the Nembutsu Sect was submitted to the Regnant Ex-Emperor Gotoba by Kofukuji Temple of Nara. In this protest were pointed out the “nine faults” of Honen’s followers: 1. They call their group a ”sect” without Imperial permission; 2. They slander the other Buddhists; 3. They do not worship Buddha Sakyamuni; 4. They laugh at the practices other than the Nembutsu (the calling of the name of Buddha Amitabha); 5. They do not worship the Shinto gods; 6. They practice nothing but the Nembutsu; 7. They give up meditation and only utter the Nembutsu; 8. They do not observe the precepts; and 9. They are misleading the nation of Japan.
The Rinzai Sect was introduced from China by Eisai (1141-1215). He entered into the monkhood at Hieizan in 1154 and studied the tenets of the Tendai Sect. He became an adept in the Tendai Esoteric Buddhism. When he went to China for the furtherance of his study of the Tendai Sect in 1168, he was for the first time interested in Zen. His five months’ stay in China was too short to study Zen. He went to China again in 1187, and met a celebrated Rinzai Zen master. He studied Zen under him for four years. He returned to Japan in 1191 and propagated Rinzai Zen. He held that the peace of Japan would be maintained only by the teachings of the Zen Sect because only the power of Zen would dispel all evils. He said:
“The Zen Sect does not resort to letters. It has been transmitted from the Buddha without verbal expressions. Not the sutras, but the seal of the mind of the Buddha has been handed down to us. The Zen Sect leaves letters and annihilates words. It points directly to the springhead of the mind of a man and causes him to attain Buddhahood. The Law of the Buddha is called so because it is inexplicable. This is Zen. When the Law is explained at all, the people will be attached to the explanation, which has nothing to do with the Law itself.”
The Shingon Ritsu Sect was founded by Eizon (1201-1290). He was primarily a Shingon priest. In 1236, he resolved to restore the Ritsu Sect. He lectured on the Ritsu at many temples in the Kansai District. A nobleman called Fujiwara-no-Sadatsugu built him Jojuji Temple near Kyoto in 1261. In 1262, Hojo Sanetoki, the nephew of the Ex-Regent Tokiyori, invited him to Kamakura. Many of the members of the Hojo family, including Tokiyori, vowed to observe the precepts before him. Soon after that he returned to Kansai. His sect was called Shingon Ritsu Sect.
Nichiren criticized these sects in his Shimoyama-goshosoku as follows:
“In the reign of the eighty-second Emperor Oki (Gotoba), the Zen and the Nembutsu Sects rose. This reminds us of the saying that one misfortune is followed by another. Zendo (Shan-tao) said that in the Age of Degeneration even one out of a thousand people will not be saved by the teachings of the Lotus Sutra. Honen said that the Lotus Sutra must be thrown away. The Zen priests disregard the Lotus Sutra, saying that the true teachings of the Buddha have never been committed to writing. Because these wrong views are propagated in Japan, all the gods, including Brahman, Sakra, the Sun-god, the Moon-god, and the Four Quarter Kings, have ceased to protect our country. The Ex-Emperors were exiled to remote islands by their subjects and turned into particles of dust of those islands. Some priests of those sects came to Kamakura and are patronized by the government, New temples of the Shingon, Zen and Nembutsu Sects are built and the older temples are neglected. There is no wonder that many calamities come one after another.”
The Nembutsu was practised not only by the followers of the Nembutsu Sect but also by the followers of other sects. Nichiren said in his Akimoto-gosho:
“I am disliked more than anyone else because all the people of this country chant Namu-amidabutsu. They worship Buddha Amitabha, and wish to be reborn in the Western Paradise. Even the followers of the Tendai, Shingon, and Ritsu Sects, whether they are wise or not, think that the Nembutsu is the most important practice. They think that they can expiate their sin by chanting the name of Buddha Amitabha. Only I, Nichiren, say that the Nembutsu is the way to hell. I also say that the Zen Sect is an invention of maras, that the Shingon Sect will destroy our country, and that the Ritsu Sect is hazardous to the State. So all the people of Japan eye me as the enemy of their parents or the enemy who has been against them since their previous existence. They think that I am more dangerous than a traitor or a burglar. r hey are afraid of me, speak ill of me, or beat me. samurai who abused me was given land by the government, and another who praised me was exiled. I have been punished twice so far. No one has been punished like me for the past more than seven hundred years since Buddhism was introduced to Japan.”
Tolerance and Intolerance
Nichiren was sometimes tolerant, at other times not. He said in his Kaimokusho:
“Intolerance is opposite to tolerance just as fire is to water. We can be tolerant of the people who are ignorant and immoral. But we must be intolerant of the people who have wrong views and slander the Lotus Sutra.”
We must be intolerant of wrong views. He says in the Nyosetsushugyo-sho:
“The teachings of the Lesser Vehicle and of the provisional Mahayana were valid only for the people who lived during two thousand years after the extinction of the Buddha. We are living in the first five hundred years after the beginning of the Age of Degeneration. Now is the time to propagate the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra is the Pure Law, the Perfect Law, the One True Teaching. According to the Daijikkyo Sutra, in the first five hundred years after the beginning of the Age of Degeneration, people resort to fighting, and the right teachings of the Buddha are forgotten. In these years the provisional teachings are mistaken for the true teachings. Now the teaching of the One Vehicle should be propagated. Criticize the provisional teachings. What we should do is to criticize the wrong views.”
He went on to say in the same writing:
“I have appeared in Japan in this time of emergency by the order of the Buddha. I dare say that I am not fortunate. However, the order of the King of the Law is categorical. Therefore, according to the Lotus Sutra, I raise the army of the true teaching against the forces of provisional teachings, wear the armor of patience, take the sword of the Wonderful Law, bend the bow of the Revelation of the Truth, fix the arrow of honesty, ride in the white bullock-cart of equality, break the gate of provisional teachings, and hurl criticism at the followers of the Nembutsu, Shingon, Zen, Ritsu, and other sects. Some of them run away or withdraw, while others are captured and become my disciples. I will repeat the offensive. I will march on, although they are many and my friends are few.”