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Introduction to the Lotus Sutra
By Yoshiro Tamura
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The Lotus Sutra--one of the most popular Buddhist classics--is here accessibly introduced by one of its most eminent scholars.
"Soon after entering university in December of 1943, I was sent to the front as a student soldier. I wondered if I were allowed to bring but a single book on the trip, possibly to my death, which would I want to bring. It was the Lotus Sutra" -- from the author's Preface.
Having developed a lifelong appreciation of the Lotus Sutra -- even carrying a dog-eared copy with him through service in World War II -- Yoshiro Tamura sought to author an introduction to this beloved work of Buddhist literature. Tamura wanted it to be different than other basic explorations of the text; his introduction would be plain-spoken, relevant and sensitive to modern concerns, and well-informed by contemporary scholarship. He succeeded marvelously with Introduction to the Lotus Sutra, which Gene Reeves -- Tamura's student and translator of the popular English edition of The Lotus Sutra -- translates and introduces in English for the first time here.
Tackling issues of authenticity in the so-called "words of Buddha," the influence of culture and history on the development of the Lotus Sutra, and the sutra's role in Japanese life, Introduction to the Lotus Sutra grounds this ancient work of literature in the real, workaday world, revealing its continued appeal across the ages.
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by Yoshiro Tamura (Author), Gene Reeves (Editor, Introduction), Michio Shinozaki (Translator) Format: Kindle Edition
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The Lotus Sutra--one of the most popular Buddhist classics--is here accessibly introduced by one of its most eminent scholars.
"Soon after entering university in December of 1943, I was sent to the front as a student soldier. I wondered if I were allowed to bring but a single book on the trip, possibly to my death, which would I want to bring. It was the Lotus Sutra" -- from the author's Preface.
Having developed a lifelong appreciation of the Lotus Sutra -- even carrying a dog-eared copy with him through service in World War II -- Yoshiro Tamura sought to author an introduction to this beloved work of Buddhist literature.
Tamura wanted it to be different than other basic explorations of the text; his introduction would be plain-spoken, relevant and sensitive to modern concerns, and well-informed by contemporary scholarship.
He succeeded marvelously with Introduction to the Lotus Sutra, which Gene Reeves -- Tamura's student and translator of the popular English edition of The Lotus Sutra -- translates and introduces in English for the first time here.
Tackling issues of authenticity in the so-called "words of Buddha," the influence of culture and history on the development of the Lotus Sutra, and the sutra's role in Japanese life, Introduction to the Lotus Sutra grounds this ancient work of literature in the real, workaday world, revealing its continued appeal across the ages.
===
Print length
210 pages
15 July 2014
About the Author
Gene Reeves is a Buddhist scholar and teacher, process philosopher, and theologian who has lived in Tokyo for over 23 years studying, teaching, and practicing the Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra. He is a founder of the International Buddhist Congregation with headquarters in Tokyo, a part of the much larger Rissho Kosei-kai lay Buddhist organization. He is the translator from Chinese into English of The Lotus Sutra: A Contemporary Translation of a Buddhist Classic. His most recently published book is The Stories of the Lotus Sutra. A Buddhist Kaleidoscope: Essays on the Lotus Sutra, which he edited, was published in 2002. He retired in 2012 as distinguished professor at Renmin University of China in Beijing and continues to do field research on contemporary Chinese Buddhism in China and serve as an International Advisor at Rissho Kosei-kai in Japan. He has taught at the University of Tsukuba in Japan, the University of Peking in China, and at the University of Chicago and Meadville Lombard Theological School, Wilberforce University, and Tufts University in the United States. Born and raised in a small factory town in New Hampshire, Reeves graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in psychology, from Boston University with a degree in theology, and from Emory University with a PhD in philosophy. In addition to his passion for Buddhism, Reeves has been active for over 50 years in civil rights causes, working for a time with Martin Luther King, Jr. and for Chicago Mayor Harold Washington. Reeves is married to Yayoi Reeves and has homes in Tokyo and Chicago. He has two adult daughters who live and work in the United States.
Yoshiro Tamura (1921-1989) was a well-regarded scholar of Japanese Buddhism, known particularly for his study of the Lotus Sutra and the traditions that developed around it and the person of Nichiren in Japan.
Michio Shinozaki is a long-time member of Rissho-Kosei Kai, a popular Japanese lay Buddhist organization, and president of the Rissho Kosei-kai Gakurin Seminary in Tokyo. Shinozaki has authored numerous articles on Japanese Buddhist practice for English speaking members of the organization. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Review
"Learned yet accessible, this "Introduction to the Lotus Sutra "provides an elegant historical, textual, and philosophical overview of key aspects of the background, translation, and development of lived communities centered around what is arguably the most widely disseminated scripture of Mahayana Buddhism."--Mark Unno, editor of Buddhism and Psychotherapy
"Tamura offers a gentle and reflective introduction the history of Buddhism, the substance of the Lotus, and the roles of its followers. His teaching nourishes us like the single flavor of the rain falling on all living beings."--Franz Metcalf, author of Being Buddha at Work
"Learned yet accessible, this Introduction to the Lotus Sutra provides an elegant historical, textual, and philosophical overview of key aspects of the background, translation, and development of lived communities centered around what is arguably the most widely disseminated scripture of Mahayana Buddhism."--Mark Unno, editor of Buddhism and Psychotherapy --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
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ASIN : B00HL6SKN0
Publisher : Wisdom Publications (15 July 2014)
Language : English
File size : 2253 KB
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Print length : 210 pagesBest Sellers Rank: 1,314,822 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)293 in Buddhist History (Kindle Store)
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Alvin C.
5.0 out of 5 stars BEST INTRODUCTION TO THE LOTUS SUTRAReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 20 August 2021
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The present book is one of the best introductions to the Lotus Sutra in the market available today. It is written by a Seminary professor of a contemporary Buddhist movement in Japan. The content may appeal to different levels of students at the same time, who will find in it profound meanings and enlightening hermeneutical keys.
One person found this helpfulReport
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Useful to both beginners and scholarsReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 23 December 2015
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I love this book! Prof. Tamura's writings always give me a great inspiration on how to relate to others (things, people, other animals, and my entire surrounding environment) in my everyday life, that is based on the living philosophy of the Lotus Sutra. This small book, which is very useful, I think, to both beginners and scholars of the field, presents a good summary of main chapters of the lotus and prominent Buddhist figures in Japan whose lives were transformed by studying and practicing the teachings of the Lotus. I personally like the part of this book that explicates the teachings of the Lotus Sutra such as 'The Everlasting Original Buddha', 'The Bodhisattva Way', and the Tiantai School's doctrine of 'Relative and Absolute Marvel (miao or myō)'. These rich contents are beautifully translated by Dr. Gene Reeves and Dr. Michio T. Shinozaki.
2 people found this helpfulReport
M.
4.0 out of 5 stars Fast readReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 25 January 2018
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To the point. Japanese history. Clear. Short. Fast. It was a bit too short for me but I still enjoyed reading it.
One person found this helpfulReport
Herbert Rolle
5.0 out of 5 stars fineReviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on 20 June 2021
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Non denominational Lotus exegesis done by a profi
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Upasaka Heng He
5.0 out of 5 stars The Sublime Dharma of Original EnlightenmentReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 29 November 2014
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Excellent introduction not only for the Sutra text itself, but the tradition that was established upon it. What I like the most is that Mr. Tamura's appraisal of original enlightenment (hongaku) thought is not merely negative as it's usually the case. On the contrary, he sees it as the peak of Buddhist philosophy.
Whether you're just scholarly interested in Lotus/Tientai/Tendai/Kamakura Buddhism/Nichiren Buddhism or a practitioner, this is a MUST-HAVE in both cases.
3 people found this helpfulReport
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Contents
Introduction
Tamura’s Preface
Introduction to the Lotus Sutra
1.Are Sutras the Words of the Buddha?
Some of the Wonders of Buddhism
Mahayana Buddhism Is Not the Words of the Buddha
Return to Early Buddhism
The Meaning of the Words of the Buddha
2.The Process of Formation of the Lotus Sutra
The Rise of Mahayana Buddhism
The Formation of Mahayana Sutras
The Formation of the Lotus Sutra
Chinese Translations and Sanskrit Manuscripts of the Lotus Sutra
II. IDEAS OF THE LOTUS SUTRA
3.Three Major Teachings in the Lotus Sutra
- Appraisals of Lotus Ideas
- The Unifying Truth of the Universe—The Wonderful Dharma of One Vehicle
- Everlasting Personal Life—The Everlasting Original Buddha
- Human Action in This World—The Bodhisattva Way
4.The Development of Lotus Sutra Thought
- The Genealogy of Lotus Sutra Thought
- Lotus Sutra Thought in Tiantai
- Lotus Sutra Thought in Nichiren
III. THE LOTUS SUTRA AMONG FOLLOWERS OF NICHIREN
5.Town Associations and Lotus Uprisings
6.The Martyrdom of the Fuju-fuse
7.Nationalist Faith among Modern Japanese Followers of Nichiren
8.Transnational Faith among Modern Japanese Followers of Nichiren
9.People-Centered Faith—Socialist Followers of Nichiren
====
3.Three Major Teachings in the Lotus Sutra
- Appraisals of Lotus Ideas
- The Unifying Truth of the Universe—The Wonderful Dharma of One Vehicle
- Everlasting Personal Life—The Everlasting Original Buddha
- Human Action in This World—The Bodhisattva Way
Appraisals of Lotus Ideas
EVALUATIONS OF THE Lotus Sutra have traditionally run to the two extremes. In this respect, too, the sutra is indeed a wonder. First of all, one of the most severe criticisms of the sutra is the idea that it has no content. In chapter 25 of Emerging from Meditation , Nakamoto Tominaga comments that the Lotus Sutra praises the Buddha from beginning to end but does not have any real sutra teaching at all, and therefore should not have been called a sutra teaching from the beginning. Moreover, the whole of the Lotus Sutra is nothing but words of praise. ⁹⁴ In sum, the Lotus Sutra is nothing but words of praise either for the Buddha or for itself, teaches nothing like a doctrine, and therefore cannot properly be regarded as a sutra. In his book Nakedness, ⁹⁵ Tenyu Hattori comments similarly on the Lotus Sutra, saying, It is only a big story in the sky, meaning that it is only a big, empty, work of fantasy.
Atsutane Hirata, who abused Buddhism in vulgar and crude ways, ridiculed the Lotus Sutra in the third volume of his Laughter Following Meditation, saying, The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in eight fascicles and twenty-eight chapters is truly only snake oil without any really substantial medicine in it at all. If someone gets mad at me for saying this, I intend to tell him to show me the real medicine. This criticism that the Lotus Sutra is merely snake oil devoid of content later became famous and highly regarded, and the theory that the Lotus Sutra has no real content, represented by Hirata, has since become quite common.
Actually, if one only glances through the Lotus Sutra one may get the impression that it is nothing but snake oil without real substance. We can find something like doctrines in the first half, but they are not analytical and no detailed theory is developed from them. The second half of the sutra vigorously teaches faith in the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra does praise only itself, to put it bluntly. Nor does the Lotus Sutra say what kind of thing it itself is. So it is not unreasonable that the above criticisms arose.
But it is not the case that there has been no defense against such criticism. Tiantai Zhiyi already rejected such criticism in early times, saying that if the Lotus Sutra does not discuss all kinds of Mahayana and Small Vehicle forms of meditation, the ten powers, fearlessness, and various standards, it is because these things have already been taught in prior sutras. It discusses fundamental principles of the Tathagata’s teachings, but not the fine details.⁹⁶ In other words, in previous sutras the various detailed teachings and definitions are fully worked out, while the Lotus Sutra, generalizing upon them, aims to illuminate the fundamental and ultimate principles of Buddhism. Therefore, it does not discuss minute details of doctrine. In this sense, Tiantai Zhiyi calls the Lotus Sutra genetic and essential, the great cause, the ultimate essence, the essential structure of the teachings, the Buddha’s device for saving people, and so forth.
According to Tiantai Zhiyi, the Small Vehicle treatises and such teach many things in detail, making it appear at first glance as if these were the whole content of Buddhism, while in fact they are nothing more than a complex analytical philosophy that is subordinate to the synthetic philosophy found in works such as the Lotus Sutra. Citing these ideas of Tiantai Zhiyi, Nakamoto Tominaga once praised him, saying, He should be regarded as one who has read the Lotus Sutra well. But in the end, Tominaga was not persuaded by Tiantai Zhiyi’s way of understanding, concluding, In reality he missed the mark.⁹⁷
Another criticism of the Lotus Sutra is that it is merely a vulgar work meant to attract stupid men and women. This is what Tenyu Hattori said. For example, in chapters 18 and 25 and elsewhere, the sutra preaches about the benefits to be gained in this life as a result of faith in the sutra, such as the elimination of suffering and having good fortune. "This is just inferior, shallow stuff, best laughed at,
for alluring stupid men and women. It’s too inferior and shallow to think about, he said. Its purpose is wholly to attract stupid lay people. Atsutane Hirata followed Hattori in this vein, remarking that chapter 25 had been highly valued for a long time, becoming a separate sutra which ordinary Japanese people know as the Kannon Sutra, but which only serves to attract stupid lay men and women because it is utterly clumsy."⁹⁸
There are many places in the section of the Lotus Sutra that is considered to have come third historically that emphasize the benefits to be obtained in this life, such as the wonderful powers of faith, overcoming suffering, and having good fortune. And generally speaking, in later times devotion to the Lotus Sutra became mainstream as a result of these chapters. This is why such criticisms arose. As we have already seen, the third part of the sutra was added in order to respond to the magical and esoteric Buddhist and folk religions of India. It adds to and supplements the earlier parts of the sutra and, if taken in a positive way, can be its applied part. It is not appropriate to characterize the whole sutra in that way by emphasizing the third part, though historically admiration for the Lotus Sutra in China and Japan generally rested on that part. So, in one sense, we can understand why there were such criticisms.
Some contemporary Buddhist scholars view the Lotus Sutra as exclusive, contentious, and sometimes even combative. This can be regarded as another of the criticisms of the Lotus Sutra. Evidence for it being exclusive is found, for example, in the incident of the departure of the five thousand in the second chapter, in which five thousand people who did not understand the Buddha’s teaching got up from their seats and left, and the Buddha did not stop them but called them the dregs of the assembly. Such scholars regard all of the Mahayana sutras as negative toward the Small Vehicle to some extent, but none as extremely so as the Lotus Sutra.
They also suspect that the extreme practices of martyrdom and self-sacrifice found in chapter 13 are examples of something created by a distinct social group that was exclusive, closed, and estranged from the general society. From this they try to prove the exclusivity of the Lotus Sutra. And they relate to this what they see as the exclusivity and contentiousness of Nichiren or his followers.
There are additional criticisms, but we have discussed the main ones. The interesting thing is that there were also evaluations completely to the contrary. That is, there were those who praised the Lotus Sutra for establishing the supreme and absolute unifying truth (the Wonderful Dharma of One Vehicle), for elucidating the ultimate reality of this universe (the reality of all things), and for integrating various ideas. Just as the Lotus Sutra refers to itself as great impartial wisdom,⁹⁹ followers of the Small Vehicle, who had been detested because they were never to become buddhas, are acknowledged by the Lotus Sutra as future buddhas under the unifying and integrating truth of the impartial one vehicle. In this respect the Lotus Sutra was seen as being the opposite of exclusive, namely inclusive and abundantly tolerant.
In India people highly praised this propensity for universal impartiality and the theory that one could become a buddha through the two Small Vehicle vehicles. This is taken up in various treatises. For example, the Great Wisdom Discourse, a commentary on the Large Perfection of Wisdom Sutra attributed to Nagarjuna, cites every chapter of the Lotus Sutra and sees the Lotus Sutra as being superior to the Large Perfection of Wisdom Sutra with regard to teaching becoming a buddha in the future for the followers of the two Small Vehicles. Moreover, various treatises of the fourth and fifth centuries, such as Ken’i’s Introduction to the Mahayana¹⁰⁰ and Vasubandhu’s Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, say the same thing. According to Vasubandhu, in particular, the Lotus Sutra teaches three equalities—the equality of truth (the equality of vehicles), the equality of worlds (the equality of societies), and the equality of existence (the equality of beings)—and explains the ten kinds of highest
meaning.
What’s more, the fourth century Great Final Nirvana Sutra emphasizes the ideas that all living things will become buddhas and that there is an eternal and universal existence (the everlasting existence of the Dharmakaya)—two ideas that are said to have come from the Lotus Sutra’s ideas of the impartial one vehicle and of the Eternal Buddha. The Great Final Nirvana Sutra itself is certainly related to the Lotus Sutra. The treatises mentioned above discussed ideas such as the Eternal Buddha or the theory of the everlasting existence of the dharmakaya, using them to prove the profundity of the Lotus Sutra.
Some modern Japanese scholars, pointing to its teachings of the impartial one vehicle and of becoming buddhas through the two Small Vehicles, also hold the Lotus Sutra in high regard, seeing it as having the most richly tolerant and accommodating spirit among the sutras. They say that the idea of accommodation can be found throughout the Lotus Sutra. Tenyu Hattori, who lavishes praise on the Lotus Sutra for this, says, On the whole, the Lotus Sutra is inclusive. This inclusiveness is comprehensively generous, giving it the dignity of a king.
In China, the Lotus Sutra was characterized as the teaching that unifies all good, meaning that all good ideas are brought together and unified in the Lotus Sutra. Inheriting this tradition, Tiantai Zhiyi created a single great philosophy with the Lotus Sutra as its nucleus. It is no exaggeration to say that Zhiyi achieved a unification and systematization of Buddhist thought for the first time. He made use of various sutras and treatises by taking as his central idea that the Lotus Sutra itself is a synthesis of broad and profound thought. He called the inclusiveness of the sutra opening and integrating,¹⁰¹ and made it the key concept in his systematization of a philosophy of synthesis.¹⁰²
Some of the modern scholars discussed earlier, who were critical of the Lotus Sutra, did not recognize the value of Tiantai doctrine and were extremely critical of it, saying such things as, It is based entirely on ignorance and misunderstanding, and It is unreasonable, to begin with, that the Lotus Sutra, which was originally popular and fanatic, is being dressed up as doctrine. In fact Tiantai doctrine has had almost no influence on general thought in China and Japan. But this critic contradicts historical fact and badly misunderstands the true situation. Tiantai doctrine has had great influence on the doctrines and practices of various other sects, such as the Huayan (Japanese: Kegon), Pure Land, Ch’an (Japanese: Zen), and others. At one time, it was even like their underlying foundation. There is no question that it influenced and was absorbed in general thinking.
In Japan, for example, Shikibu Murasaki’s Tale of Genji is closely related to the Lotus Sutra and Tendai doctrine, to the extent that a theory of the unity of Genji and Tendai appeared in the latter part of the Heian period. The number of fascicles of The Tale of Genji is the same as the number of fascicles of the three great books of Tendai Zhiyi. Thus the idea developed that The Tale of Genji is Tendai doctrine put into the form of a novel. Of course, there were also some who opposed such a theory. In A Little Jeweled Comb, an interpretation of The Tale of Genji, Norinaga Motoori (1730–1801) says, I do not believe it was Shikibu Murasaki’s intention to get approval from Tendai, join the Tendai sect, and write everything from a Tendai perspective. Though this idea was intended as praise for her, it goes against her own intentions. Motoori thought that the penetrating thing about The Tale of Genji was that it is filled with the human feeling of mono no aware, the feeling of the transiency of nature. In contrast, he thought that there was something severe in Buddhism that denied human feelings and transcended human life, and that it was, accordingly, a mistake to see The Tale of Genji from a Buddhist perspective. "The way of the Buddha is especially a way of abandoning mono no aware. More strict than Confucianism, it wants to distance itself from all human sympathy."¹⁰³
Motoori approved of pre-Buddhist Japan and for that reason wanted to forcibly remove all hint of
Buddhism from Japanese culture and literature. One can detect this kind of prejudice in his interpretation and critique of The Tale of Genji. Yet we can also see keen insight in his identification of mono no aware as a distinguishing feature of The Tale of Genji. While Motoori declared this kind of intention to remove Buddhist influence, in fact we seem to have Japanese assimilation and acceptance of Buddhist ideas. At least it is a fact that Tendai Lotus thought had a great deal of influence on The Tale of Genji.
When it comes to medieval Japan, we can see the influence of Tendai Lotus thought on the poetic theory of Shunzei Fujiwara (1114–1204) and his son Teika (1162–1241). A new wave of yugen poetry arose centered around their thought, and in his Poetic Style Through the Ages,¹⁰⁴ Shunzei often uses terms from the Lotus Sutra and from Tendai meditation in recognition of the fact that they emphasized the depths of waka poetry.
Tendai Lotus thought also greatly influenced Shinto theory during the Middle Ages. Eventually, at the end of the Muromachi period, Kanetomo Yoshida¹⁰⁵ (1435–1511) brought this influence to fruition as monotheistic Shinto.¹⁰⁶ This development is notable for being the first time that a theory of native Japanese thought was developed. Here, Tendai doctrine—especially the Tendai idea of original enlightenment that was developing at the time—greatly influenced this monotheistic Shinto. The Tendai idea of original enlightenment, which we will discuss later, reached the final stage of its philosophical development at the end of the Heian period and during the Muromachi period. Its influence on the various Buddhist sects and on trends in literature and art is beyond our comprehension.
Dogen (1200–53), the founder of Japanese Soto Zen, in writing his multivolume work Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, quoted from the Lotus Sutra more than from any other sutra, making his work seem as if it were an interpretation of the Lotus Sutra. We know that the Lotus Sutra played a very important role in the development of Dogen’s profound philosophy. Hakuin Ekaku¹⁰⁷ (1685–1768), who revived Rinzai Zen in early modern times and founded the present Rinzai school, read the Lotus Sutra every day when he was forty-two. One night, when reading chapter 3, A Parable, he suddenly awakened and began devoting himself to spreading the Dharma. He said this himself in writings, such as his letter in reply to Lord Nabeshima.¹⁰⁸
When it comes to modern times, there are also people who have been profoundly moved by the Lotus Sutra, Tendai philosophy, and Nichiren’s thought and have based their view of life on them. We will discuss this in more detail later. In any case, we must insist that it is an historical fact that the Lotus Sutra and Tendai doctrine have been very influential in Japan—both within Buddhism and more generally—since they were brought from China down to modern times.
Previous Chapter
EVALUATIONS OF THE Lotus Sutra have traditionally run to the two extremes. In this respect, too, the sutra is indeed a wonder. First of all, one of the most severe criticisms of the sutra is the idea that it has no content. In chapter 25 of Emerging from Meditation , Nakamoto Tominaga comments that the Lotus Sutra praises the Buddha from beginning to end but does not have any real sutra teaching at all, and therefore should not have been called a sutra teaching from the beginning. Moreover, the whole of the Lotus Sutra is nothing but words of praise. ⁹⁴ In sum, the Lotus Sutra is nothing but words of praise either for the Buddha or for itself, teaches nothing like a doctrine, and therefore cannot properly be regarded as a sutra. In his book Nakedness, ⁹⁵ Tenyu Hattori comments similarly on the Lotus Sutra, saying, It is only a big story in the sky, meaning that it is only a big, empty, work of fantasy.
Atsutane Hirata, who abused Buddhism in vulgar and crude ways, ridiculed the Lotus Sutra in the third volume of his Laughter Following Meditation, saying, The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in eight fascicles and twenty-eight chapters is truly only snake oil without any really substantial medicine in it at all. If someone gets mad at me for saying this, I intend to tell him to show me the real medicine. This criticism that the Lotus Sutra is merely snake oil devoid of content later became famous and highly regarded, and the theory that the Lotus Sutra has no real content, represented by Hirata, has since become quite common.
Actually, if one only glances through the Lotus Sutra one may get the impression that it is nothing but snake oil without real substance. We can find something like doctrines in the first half, but they are not analytical and no detailed theory is developed from them. The second half of the sutra vigorously teaches faith in the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra does praise only itself, to put it bluntly. Nor does the Lotus Sutra say what kind of thing it itself is. So it is not unreasonable that the above criticisms arose.
But it is not the case that there has been no defense against such criticism. Tiantai Zhiyi already rejected such criticism in early times, saying that if the Lotus Sutra does not discuss all kinds of Mahayana and Small Vehicle forms of meditation, the ten powers, fearlessness, and various standards, it is because these things have already been taught in prior sutras. It discusses fundamental principles of the Tathagata’s teachings, but not the fine details.⁹⁶ In other words, in previous sutras the various detailed teachings and definitions are fully worked out, while the Lotus Sutra, generalizing upon them, aims to illuminate the fundamental and ultimate principles of Buddhism. Therefore, it does not discuss minute details of doctrine. In this sense, Tiantai Zhiyi calls the Lotus Sutra genetic and essential, the great cause, the ultimate essence, the essential structure of the teachings, the Buddha’s device for saving people, and so forth.
According to Tiantai Zhiyi, the Small Vehicle treatises and such teach many things in detail, making it appear at first glance as if these were the whole content of Buddhism, while in fact they are nothing more than a complex analytical philosophy that is subordinate to the synthetic philosophy found in works such as the Lotus Sutra. Citing these ideas of Tiantai Zhiyi, Nakamoto Tominaga once praised him, saying, He should be regarded as one who has read the Lotus Sutra well. But in the end, Tominaga was not persuaded by Tiantai Zhiyi’s way of understanding, concluding, In reality he missed the mark.⁹⁷
Another criticism of the Lotus Sutra is that it is merely a vulgar work meant to attract stupid men and women. This is what Tenyu Hattori said. For example, in chapters 18 and 25 and elsewhere, the sutra preaches about the benefits to be gained in this life as a result of faith in the sutra, such as the elimination of suffering and having good fortune. "This is just inferior, shallow stuff, best laughed at,
for alluring stupid men and women. It’s too inferior and shallow to think about, he said. Its purpose is wholly to attract stupid lay people. Atsutane Hirata followed Hattori in this vein, remarking that chapter 25 had been highly valued for a long time, becoming a separate sutra which ordinary Japanese people know as the Kannon Sutra, but which only serves to attract stupid lay men and women because it is utterly clumsy."⁹⁸
There are many places in the section of the Lotus Sutra that is considered to have come third historically that emphasize the benefits to be obtained in this life, such as the wonderful powers of faith, overcoming suffering, and having good fortune. And generally speaking, in later times devotion to the Lotus Sutra became mainstream as a result of these chapters. This is why such criticisms arose. As we have already seen, the third part of the sutra was added in order to respond to the magical and esoteric Buddhist and folk religions of India. It adds to and supplements the earlier parts of the sutra and, if taken in a positive way, can be its applied part. It is not appropriate to characterize the whole sutra in that way by emphasizing the third part, though historically admiration for the Lotus Sutra in China and Japan generally rested on that part. So, in one sense, we can understand why there were such criticisms.
Some contemporary Buddhist scholars view the Lotus Sutra as exclusive, contentious, and sometimes even combative. This can be regarded as another of the criticisms of the Lotus Sutra. Evidence for it being exclusive is found, for example, in the incident of the departure of the five thousand in the second chapter, in which five thousand people who did not understand the Buddha’s teaching got up from their seats and left, and the Buddha did not stop them but called them the dregs of the assembly. Such scholars regard all of the Mahayana sutras as negative toward the Small Vehicle to some extent, but none as extremely so as the Lotus Sutra.
They also suspect that the extreme practices of martyrdom and self-sacrifice found in chapter 13 are examples of something created by a distinct social group that was exclusive, closed, and estranged from the general society. From this they try to prove the exclusivity of the Lotus Sutra. And they relate to this what they see as the exclusivity and contentiousness of Nichiren or his followers.
There are additional criticisms, but we have discussed the main ones. The interesting thing is that there were also evaluations completely to the contrary. That is, there were those who praised the Lotus Sutra for establishing the supreme and absolute unifying truth (the Wonderful Dharma of One Vehicle), for elucidating the ultimate reality of this universe (the reality of all things), and for integrating various ideas. Just as the Lotus Sutra refers to itself as great impartial wisdom,⁹⁹ followers of the Small Vehicle, who had been detested because they were never to become buddhas, are acknowledged by the Lotus Sutra as future buddhas under the unifying and integrating truth of the impartial one vehicle. In this respect the Lotus Sutra was seen as being the opposite of exclusive, namely inclusive and abundantly tolerant.
In India people highly praised this propensity for universal impartiality and the theory that one could become a buddha through the two Small Vehicle vehicles. This is taken up in various treatises. For example, the Great Wisdom Discourse, a commentary on the Large Perfection of Wisdom Sutra attributed to Nagarjuna, cites every chapter of the Lotus Sutra and sees the Lotus Sutra as being superior to the Large Perfection of Wisdom Sutra with regard to teaching becoming a buddha in the future for the followers of the two Small Vehicles. Moreover, various treatises of the fourth and fifth centuries, such as Ken’i’s Introduction to the Mahayana¹⁰⁰ and Vasubandhu’s Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, say the same thing. According to Vasubandhu, in particular, the Lotus Sutra teaches three equalities—the equality of truth (the equality of vehicles), the equality of worlds (the equality of societies), and the equality of existence (the equality of beings)—and explains the ten kinds of highest
meaning.
What’s more, the fourth century Great Final Nirvana Sutra emphasizes the ideas that all living things will become buddhas and that there is an eternal and universal existence (the everlasting existence of the Dharmakaya)—two ideas that are said to have come from the Lotus Sutra’s ideas of the impartial one vehicle and of the Eternal Buddha. The Great Final Nirvana Sutra itself is certainly related to the Lotus Sutra. The treatises mentioned above discussed ideas such as the Eternal Buddha or the theory of the everlasting existence of the dharmakaya, using them to prove the profundity of the Lotus Sutra.
Some modern Japanese scholars, pointing to its teachings of the impartial one vehicle and of becoming buddhas through the two Small Vehicles, also hold the Lotus Sutra in high regard, seeing it as having the most richly tolerant and accommodating spirit among the sutras. They say that the idea of accommodation can be found throughout the Lotus Sutra. Tenyu Hattori, who lavishes praise on the Lotus Sutra for this, says, On the whole, the Lotus Sutra is inclusive. This inclusiveness is comprehensively generous, giving it the dignity of a king.
In China, the Lotus Sutra was characterized as the teaching that unifies all good, meaning that all good ideas are brought together and unified in the Lotus Sutra. Inheriting this tradition, Tiantai Zhiyi created a single great philosophy with the Lotus Sutra as its nucleus. It is no exaggeration to say that Zhiyi achieved a unification and systematization of Buddhist thought for the first time. He made use of various sutras and treatises by taking as his central idea that the Lotus Sutra itself is a synthesis of broad and profound thought. He called the inclusiveness of the sutra opening and integrating,¹⁰¹ and made it the key concept in his systematization of a philosophy of synthesis.¹⁰²
Some of the modern scholars discussed earlier, who were critical of the Lotus Sutra, did not recognize the value of Tiantai doctrine and were extremely critical of it, saying such things as, It is based entirely on ignorance and misunderstanding, and It is unreasonable, to begin with, that the Lotus Sutra, which was originally popular and fanatic, is being dressed up as doctrine. In fact Tiantai doctrine has had almost no influence on general thought in China and Japan. But this critic contradicts historical fact and badly misunderstands the true situation. Tiantai doctrine has had great influence on the doctrines and practices of various other sects, such as the Huayan (Japanese: Kegon), Pure Land, Ch’an (Japanese: Zen), and others. At one time, it was even like their underlying foundation. There is no question that it influenced and was absorbed in general thinking.
In Japan, for example, Shikibu Murasaki’s Tale of Genji is closely related to the Lotus Sutra and Tendai doctrine, to the extent that a theory of the unity of Genji and Tendai appeared in the latter part of the Heian period. The number of fascicles of The Tale of Genji is the same as the number of fascicles of the three great books of Tendai Zhiyi. Thus the idea developed that The Tale of Genji is Tendai doctrine put into the form of a novel. Of course, there were also some who opposed such a theory. In A Little Jeweled Comb, an interpretation of The Tale of Genji, Norinaga Motoori (1730–1801) says, I do not believe it was Shikibu Murasaki’s intention to get approval from Tendai, join the Tendai sect, and write everything from a Tendai perspective. Though this idea was intended as praise for her, it goes against her own intentions. Motoori thought that the penetrating thing about The Tale of Genji was that it is filled with the human feeling of mono no aware, the feeling of the transiency of nature. In contrast, he thought that there was something severe in Buddhism that denied human feelings and transcended human life, and that it was, accordingly, a mistake to see The Tale of Genji from a Buddhist perspective. "The way of the Buddha is especially a way of abandoning mono no aware. More strict than Confucianism, it wants to distance itself from all human sympathy."¹⁰³
Motoori approved of pre-Buddhist Japan and for that reason wanted to forcibly remove all hint of
Buddhism from Japanese culture and literature. One can detect this kind of prejudice in his interpretation and critique of The Tale of Genji. Yet we can also see keen insight in his identification of mono no aware as a distinguishing feature of The Tale of Genji. While Motoori declared this kind of intention to remove Buddhist influence, in fact we seem to have Japanese assimilation and acceptance of Buddhist ideas. At least it is a fact that Tendai Lotus thought had a great deal of influence on The Tale of Genji.
When it comes to medieval Japan, we can see the influence of Tendai Lotus thought on the poetic theory of Shunzei Fujiwara (1114–1204) and his son Teika (1162–1241). A new wave of yugen poetry arose centered around their thought, and in his Poetic Style Through the Ages,¹⁰⁴ Shunzei often uses terms from the Lotus Sutra and from Tendai meditation in recognition of the fact that they emphasized the depths of waka poetry.
Tendai Lotus thought also greatly influenced Shinto theory during the Middle Ages. Eventually, at the end of the Muromachi period, Kanetomo Yoshida¹⁰⁵ (1435–1511) brought this influence to fruition as monotheistic Shinto.¹⁰⁶ This development is notable for being the first time that a theory of native Japanese thought was developed. Here, Tendai doctrine—especially the Tendai idea of original enlightenment that was developing at the time—greatly influenced this monotheistic Shinto. The Tendai idea of original enlightenment, which we will discuss later, reached the final stage of its philosophical development at the end of the Heian period and during the Muromachi period. Its influence on the various Buddhist sects and on trends in literature and art is beyond our comprehension.
Dogen (1200–53), the founder of Japanese Soto Zen, in writing his multivolume work Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, quoted from the Lotus Sutra more than from any other sutra, making his work seem as if it were an interpretation of the Lotus Sutra. We know that the Lotus Sutra played a very important role in the development of Dogen’s profound philosophy. Hakuin Ekaku¹⁰⁷ (1685–1768), who revived Rinzai Zen in early modern times and founded the present Rinzai school, read the Lotus Sutra every day when he was forty-two. One night, when reading chapter 3, A Parable, he suddenly awakened and began devoting himself to spreading the Dharma. He said this himself in writings, such as his letter in reply to Lord Nabeshima.¹⁰⁸
When it comes to modern times, there are also people who have been profoundly moved by the Lotus Sutra, Tendai philosophy, and Nichiren’s thought and have based their view of life on them. We will discuss this in more detail later. In any case, we must insist that it is an historical fact that the Lotus Sutra and Tendai doctrine have been very influential in Japan—both within Buddhism and more generally—since they were brought from China down to modern times.
Previous Chapter
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The Unifying Truth of the Universe—The Wonderful Dharma of One Vehicle
When we look at the Lotus Sutra in light of its final form, we can see the merit of the traditional division of the sutra into two halves between chapters fourteen and fifteen. Daosheng (355–434),¹⁰⁹ a disciple of Kumarajiva who participated in the translation of sutras, made this division for the first time. Soon after the translation of the Lotus Sutra was finished, he wrote a commentary on it—the first in China, or at least the first that we still have.¹¹⁰
Daosheng divided the Lotus Sutra into two parts, according to the teachings of cause and effect. That is, the section from chapters 1 through 14 he defined as that which explicates the three causes and makes them one cause, and the section from chapters 15 through 21 he defined as that which speaks of three effects and makes them one effect. In addition, the remaining chapters were interpreted as that which makes three kinds of people equal and makes them one. Here, three signifies the three vehicles and one signifies the one vehicle.¹¹¹
On the other hand, Daosheng established the idea of four kinds of Dharma wheel: the good and pure Dharma wheel (general religious thought), the Dharma wheel of skillful means (Buddhist upaya), the true Dharma wheel (true Buddhist thought), and the perfect Dharma wheel (ultimate Buddhist thought). The true Dharma wheel is what reveals the truth of the one vehicle, while the perfect Dharma wheel reveals the everlasting life (the Buddha). The teaching of cause, chapters 1–14, corresponds to the true Dharma wheel, while the teaching of effect, chapters 15–21, corresponds to the perfect wheel of Dharma. The remaining chapters are the dissemination or applied part of the sutra.
Fayun¹¹² (467–529) of Guangzhai Temple, who wrote Principles of the Lotus Sutra¹¹³ following Daosheng’s interpretation, defined the teaching of cause as opening up three and revealing one and the teaching of the effect as opening up the near and revealing the far—the latter being extended to the final chapter. Opening up three and revealing one means that the three kinds of vehicle that lead toward the truth—shravaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva vehicles—are unified as one vehicle. And opening up the near and revealing the far means that the historical Shakyamuni Buddha is revealed as being in truth the eternal Buddha.
Tiantai Zhiyi inherited the idea of the two teachings of cause and effect but replaced them with the teachings of the provisional and the original. Moreover, he developed a detailed account of the construction of the Lotus Sutra into an introductory part, a central core, and an applied part. We can see this in the first half of the first volume of his Textual Commentary on the Lotus Sutra and as outlined in the chart below. In addition, it was around the time of Tiantai Zhiyi that the Devadatta chapter was inserted as chapter 12 of the Sutra and all subsequent chapters renumbered accordingly, the former chapter 12, Encouragement to Uphold the Sutra, becoming chapter 13.
Tiantai Zhiyi’s reason for dividing the Lotus Sutra into two parts between chapters fourteen and fifteen was that he saw the first half, centering around chapter 2, as revealing the integrating truth of the cosmos (the Wonderful Dharma of One Vehicle), while the second half revealed the eternal personal life (the original eternal Buddha). Following this division, I would now like to review in outline these chapters one by one. Since most commentators have used Kumarajiva’s translation, so will I.
TIANTAI ZHIYI’S DIVISIONS OF THE LOTUS SUTRA
Chapter 1, Introduction, is a kind of prologue. The scene is set on Mt. Gridhrakuta (Eagle Peak) in the city of Rajagriha, the capital of Magadha in north-central India. When the curtain rises, we see Shakyamuni Buddha on the mountain, accompanied by a vast assembly, including his first disciples and all sorts of beings from every level of society. Having first preached the vast and innumerable meanings of the truth, he goes into deep meditation. Then the Buddha emits a ray of light from the white tuft between his eyebrows, lighting up everything in the entire cosmos. This is a prelude to delivering the supreme and ultimate teaching. Recollecting that such a thing had happened many, many ages ago, the whole assembly is eager to hear the Buddha’s sermon.
In chapter 2, Skillful Means, the Buddha arises from his meditation to explain first the truth about all things in the cosmos (the ultimate reality of all things). According to Kumarajiva’s translation, every thing happens and functions in ten ways, such that everything has characteristics, a nature, an embodiment, powers, actions, causes, conditions, effects, rewards and retributions, and a complete fundamental coherence.
Characteristics means an outward aspect. Nature means inner character. Embodiment means the outward and the inner characters together. Powers means potential. Actions means actual acts. Causes are the direct causes that give rise to and move things. Conditions are the indirect causes that facilitate direct causes. Effects are the results produced by causes and conditions. Rewards and retributions are the facts that issue from the effects. Complete fundamental coherence means the coherent interrelationship of all of these.
Since such a/an¹¹⁴ precedes each of these in translation, they have been called the ten suchnesses. They have been highly regarded since ancient times as the aspects of existing things and events. The ten suchnesses are the truth that supports and underlies every kind of thing, making them coherent dharmas. Or, put the other way around, the concrete truth that supports all kinds of things is the ten suchnesses. It is the reality of all things.
When we understand the categories of the ten suchnesses, we will see that nothing is independent or unchanging (the doctrines that nothing has a permanent self and of emptiness), but everything is interdependent, being related to others as it arises and changes (the doctrines of impermanence and of interdependent origination). The Lotus Sutra finds the unifying truth of the cosmos in the interrelating of all things, all dharmas, under the ten suchnesses. This unifying truth of the cosmos was called the Wonderful Dharma of One Vehicle.
After explaining the reality of all things found in the ten suchnesses, the second chapter introduces this unifying truth of the cosmos. As it is the supreme, absolute truth, it is called the true Dharma or the wonderful Dharma (saddharma). In other words, as the vehicle that integrates all dharmas and things as the highest way, it is called the one vehicle or the one Buddha-Vehicle. It has also been
called the Buddha’s supreme and ultimate teaching (the primordial teaching).
Up to this point, the Buddha had taught various teachings and truths, such as the two or three vehicles, according to the level and capacity of the audience. Now it was time to explain the supreme and absolute truth that would synthesize and unify those various teachings. This is the ultimate purpose of the Buddha. The tathagatas teach the Dharma for the sake of all living beings only by means of the One Buddha-Vehicle. They have no other vehicles—no second or third vehicle. The buddhas of the past and of the future through an innumerable variety of skillful means, causal explanations, parables and other kinds of expression, have preached the Dharma for the sake of living beings. These teachings have all been for the sake of the One Buddha-Vehicle. . . .¹¹⁵
In all the buddha-lands in the ten directions
There is only the Dharma of one vehicle,
Not a second or a third . . .¹¹⁶
* * * * *
By using the power of skillful means
They demonstrate various paths.
But they are all really for the sake of the Buddha-Vehicle.¹¹⁷
Later, terms such as skillful means of three vehicles and the truth of one vehicle came from such passages. Furthermore, the reason chapter 2 was named Skillful Means¹¹⁸ was that the main theme of the chapter is the explication of the skillful means of three vehicles and the truth of one vehicle.
On this point we need to look at the historical development of Buddhist thought, which is in fact mentioned in chapter 2. During and after Shakyamuni Buddha’s time there were two types of Buddhists: shravakas—disciples who sought awakening through hearing the Buddha’s teachings—and pratyekabuddhas or self-enlightened ones—ascetics who sought awakening by individually observing the appearance of causes and conditions and the coming into existence and passing away of human life and nature. As shown in detail earlier, seeing the transiency and emptiness of life, many of them fell into nihilism and ended up losing the meaningfulness of life.
Then, at about the time of the beginning of the current era in the Western calendar, a group, called bodhisattvas, appeared who devoted themselves to practicing the truth in the actual world. They created a Buddhist reform movement, in which they criticized the earlier two vehicles as being lesser vehicles (hinayana), while calling themselves the Great Vehicle (mahayana). They were especially harsh on the nihilism of the followers of the two vehicles in which the possibility of becoming a buddha had been lost.
The transiency and emptiness of life that Shakyamuni Buddha taught does not end with such nihilism but leads to the infinite and absolute world that is like empty space. Through realization of such a world, the great joy and meaning of life is reborn by liberating those who suffer from clinging to the ups and downs of life. Those who try to be witnesses to this truth are the bodhisattvas of Mahayana Buddhism.
Mahayana bodhisattvas first tried to elucidate the principle of emptiness and then incorporated it in sutras, the first of which was the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra. Beyond that, they tried to express emptiness positively, as an empty place where the unifying truth (the Wonderful Dharma of One Vehicle) can be seen, in other words, in the Lotus Sutra.
The establishment of this unifying truth also teaches us to see the world and life not from a narrow, partial, or temporally limited perspective but with a holistic, eternal vision. This truth can save
modern people from being increasingly maddened and captivated by the fragmentation of whole systems. In a word, it creates an image of a holistic cosmos, an integrating and unifying view of the world and of life. As I will later show, this is the reason for the emergence of people who had acquired this kind of view of the world and human life: they had been touched by the unifying truth and integrating cosmic reality (the reality of all things) revealed in the heart of chapter 2. The Tiantai theory of three thousand worlds in one moment of experience was the harbinger of this way of thinking.
Moreover, the second chapter teaches that the nihilistic followers of the two vehicles, which it criticizes for not being able to become buddhas, are once again awakened to the unifying truth of the one vehicle and are reborn to the possibility of becoming buddhas like everyone else. This teaching, known as the ability of the two vehicles to lead to becoming a buddha, became one of the outstanding characteristics of the Lotus Sutra, which generally speaking, places emphasis on the equality of all people and all things under the unifying truth. From chapter 3 on, various parables and narratives tell the story of how, through this unifying truth, followers of the two vehicles can be saved from the abyss of nihilism, how all human beings can be saved from clinging to the world of illusion, and how they are, moreover, guaranteed to become buddhas in the future. Later generations often used these parables as literary material.
The famous parable of the three vehicles and the burning house appears in chapter 3. The burning house represents human life, and the three vehicles—the goat, deer, and ox carts—represent the shravaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva ways. Without realizing that they are in the midst of and being consumed by the fire of life, human beings seek life’s pleasures. In order to save them the Buddha tries to get them to get out of the burning house by offering them things appropriate to their abilities and liking (i.e., the three vehicles, teachings of skillful means). When they go outside, all alike are given great white ox-carts (the One Buddha-Vehicle). The following passage is famous and often recited in Japanese:
The threefold world is not safe,
Just as a burning house
Full of all kinds of suffering
Is much to be feared.
Always there is the suffering of
Birth, old age, disease, and death.
They are like flames
Raging ceaselessly.
The Tathagata is already free
From the burning house of the threefold world.
He lives in tranquil peace,
As in the safety of a forest or field.
Now, this threefold world
Is all my domain,
And the living beings in it
Are all my children.
But now this place
Is filled with all kinds of dreadful troubles,
From which I alone
Can save and protect them.¹¹⁹
Nichiren showed with this passage, which he greatly admired, that Shakyamuni Buddha is our lord, teacher, and parent (the Three Beneficial Virtues).
In chapter 4, Faith and Understanding, is found the parable of the rich man and the poor son, in which a rich man corresponds to the Buddha, and the poor son indicates the nihilism of Small Vehicle Buddhists. The great rich man had only one son, who had run away from home while still young. In extreme poverty, the son became a wandering beggar. The son, having become used to a life of begging, accidentally returned to a place in front of his father’s house, but fled in fear of the magnificent mansion. The father then thought about what to do and hired him to clean latrines. Since it suited him, he did this kind of work in his father’s house for twenty years. As the son gradually became used to this work, the father disclosed that he was his father and gave his incomparable wealth to him. When he realized this, the son was overjoyed.
This is a story about how very difficult it is for someone who has sunk to the bottom of nihilism to get out. At the same time it is a story of how, being skillfully led to the Wonderful Dharma of the One Vehicle, one can finally return to life. Furthermore, the mental state of the poor son—of the nihilistic followers of the Small Vehicle—is described in Kumarajiva’s translation as follows:
The World-honored One has been teaching the Dharma for a long time, and all the while we have been sitting in our places, weary in body and mindful only of emptiness, of formlessness, and of non-action. Neither the enjoyments nor divine powers of the bodhisattva-dharma—purifying buddha-lands and saving living beings—appealed to us.¹²⁰
Freely translated, the same words in verse are:
Even if we had heard
About purifying buddha-lands
Or teaching and transforming living beings,
We did not aspire to do them.
Why? Because all things are empty and tranquil
Without coming to be, without extinction,
And without existence. Being without faith,
This is how we thought.
Chapter 5 has the simile of the plants. From a great cloud, rain falls equally on all, and from the great earth, blessings come equally to all. But just as various kinds of plants grow luxuriantly, the truth that the Buddha discovered and the things the Buddha taught, though one and the same for all, are different according to differences in listeners’ abilities to understand. Regarding three plants and two trees, small plants refers to the common thinking of human and heavenly beings, medium-sized plants to the thought of the two Small Vehicle vehicles, large plants to the thought of Mahayana bodhisattvas. Small trees refers to bodhisattvas who benefit only themselves, and large trees to bodhisattvas who benefit others.
This chapter emphasizes the oneness of the truth taught by the Buddha and the equality of his compassion. The Dharma taught by the Tathagata is one and the same for all.¹²¹ The Buddha’s unbiased teaching is like the single flavor of the rain.¹²² "I look upon all, without exception, as equal,
without distinction, or any thought of love or hate."¹²³ Constantly, for the sake of all, I teach the Dharma equally.¹²⁴ Further, we find the following kind of expression: Those who have not yet been saved will be saved; those who have not been set free will be set free; those who have had no rest will have rest; those who have not yet obtained nirvana will obtain nirvana. I understand both the present world and the worlds to come as they really are. I am one who knows all, one who sees all, one who knows the Way, one who opens the Way, one who teaches the Way.¹²⁵
In chapter 6, Assurance of Becoming a Buddha, the Buddha reassures the four great disciples (the shravakas of chapter 4) and five hundred other disciples that they will become buddhas in the future. The basis of this assurance is given in chapter 7. Here we find the parable of the treasure and the fantastic (or temporary) castle-city. The way to the truth is steep; people become discouraged along the way. Then the Buddha provides a temporary truth (the three vehicles) according to the ability of people and lets them rest there. When they are rested, the Buddha encourages them to pursue ultimate truth (the one vehicle).
This is the truth taught in the parable of the fantastic castle-city. Temporary truth is likened to a castle-city, and ultimate truth to a great treasure. The four noble truths are taught to shravakas as temporary truths, the law of twelve causes to pratyekabuddhas, and the practice of the six transcendental practices (paramitas) to bodhisattvas. Finally, they are all led to and awakened by the one vehicle—that is, by ultimate truth.
This opening, showing, becoming enlightened, and entering is also in chapter 2. Tiantai Zhiyi thought very highly of these words and theorized about them in several ways. Many Buddhist sects very highly respect the following words from chapter 7 as a vow, and chant them in Buddhist services.
May these blessings
Extend to all,
That we with all the living
Together attain the Buddha way.
The number of disciples who are assured of becoming buddhas in the future increases from five hundred to twelve hundred in chapter 8, where we also find the parable of the priceless jewel in the lining of a robe. A good friend told a penniless man that he had sewn a priceless jewel into the lining of his robe when he was drunk. This story is thus about recovery. The poor, drunken man is likened to disciples who had fallen into nihilism, the friend is the Buddha, and the jewel in the lining of the robe is their hidden possibility of becoming buddhas through acts of compassion (bodhisattva practice). We are taught that:
Keeping their bodhisattva actions
As inward secrets,
Outwardly
They appear as shravakas.
Thus the disciples who had fallen into a nihilistic way of life, including the solitary practitioners, were all revived by the Buddha’s call. And they received assurance of becoming buddhas in the future. Chapter 9, which follows, is a summary of this.
Within this group of disciples were some who still had room to learn and some who were regarded as having no further need of study. Those who attained the stage of not having anything more to learn were called arhats. An arhat is a saint who deserves people’s respect and reverence. Essentially, it was another term for the Buddha, used with a positive connotation. But after the rise of
Mahayana Buddhism it was often used as a pejorative term for Small Vehicle Buddhists who had become nihilistic because they thought there was nothing more they needed to learn in life.
Such Small Vehicle Buddhists can be regarded as being of two kinds: direct disciples of the Buddha and solitary practitioners. Later, in addition to Small Vehicle, it came to be called the two vehicles. Be that as it may, what we see in chapter 9 is that all the Small Vehicle Buddhists, both shravakas and pratyekabuddhas, are assured of becoming buddhas in the future whether they are in need of further learning or not. With this the chapter ends. As the text says, Then the two thousand people in training and no longer in training, hearing the Buddha’s assurance, were ecstatic with joy.¹²⁶ The significance of this is that the form of the Lotus Sutra is such that, through this chapter, the Buddha speaks to his direct disciples, the shravakas. Two thousand is just a round number and can be taken to mean all followers of the Small Vehicle.
Chapter 10 teaches the unifying and ultimate cosmic truth, i.e., the Wonderful Dharma of One Vehicle. What had previously been revealed should now be put into practice in this actual world, and thus made concrete. This idea emphasizes the bodhisattva way. Bodhisattvas, who have thus far played only modest roles in the sutra, now come to the fore as the main actors.
In the section of this book on the history of the formation of the Lotus Sutra, we saw that we can regard chapters 10–22 as a group that emphasizes bodhisattva practice. We have also examined the contents of these chapters, and therefore we do not need to do so again. Here I only want to introduce some interpretation, parables, and phrases from this part of the sutra that have traditionally received attention. I also want to touch on the Devadatta chapter (12), which, as mentioned earlier, was inserted into the sutra around the time of Tiantai Zhiyi.
The so-called three principles for spreading the sutra and the parable of the thirsty man have traditionally been highly valued and given prominence in the tenth chapter. The three principles are three tracks for practicing the truth in the real world: compassion, patience, and the ability to see the emptiness of all things. These three are represented in chapter 10 by the room, the robe, and the seat of the Tathagata. The Lotus Sutra says:
To enter the room of the Tathagata is to have great compassion for all living beings. To wear the robe of the Tathagata is to be gentle and patient. To sit on the seat of the Tathagata is to contemplate the emptiness of all things.¹²⁷
In the parable of the thirsty man, a man goes to a high flat area to dig for water to quench his thirst. When he finds the soil dry, he knows that the water is still far away, so he continues to dig. When he strikes damp soil, he knows that water is near. In the same way, when a bodhisattva makes an effort to practice, he can be sure that he is approaching truth. In this way, the sutra unflaggingly promotes bodhisattva practice.
In addition to this parable, there are several other notable teachings in chapter 10, which have already been touched on. Nichiren was especially attracted to the term apostle or emissary of the Tathagata, which appears there. Influenced by this term, Nichiren used the phrase follower of the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra says, in connection to the phrase emissaries of the Tathagata, that those who devote themselves to embodying the truth in this world even a little are people who have been sent from the pure world of the Buddha to be born in this world because they have compassion for people. This suggests a meaning or purpose for being born in this world. Nichiren was able to gain courage and meaning for living from this kind of phrase, despite having to bear much suffering.
In chapter 11, a jeweled stupa rises up out of the ground and hangs in the air. Shakyamuni Buddha shifts his seat from Mt. Gridhrakuta to the jeweled stupa in the air. Thus the scene changes from the
meeting place on Mt. Gridhrakuta to the meeting place in the air. After chapter 22, the setting returns to Mt. Gridhrakuta. This has been called the three meetings in two settings.
The especially notable things in chapter 11 include the rising up out of the ground of a jeweled stupa, the two buddhas sitting side-by-side, the gathering together of Shakyamuni Buddha’s embodiment or representative buddhas, and the one universal buddha-land. I have already introduced these in the section on the history of the formation of the Lotus Sutra. This chapter also teaches and explains the so-called six difficult and nine easy practices concerning the proclamation of the Lotus Sutra. Further, the verses at the end of the chapter, from This sutra is so difficult to embrace. . . up to the last phrase, . . .should receive offerings from all human and heavenly beings,¹²⁸ are known as the phrases of difficulty in embracing the sutra, or the jeweled stupa verses. Even now people continue to recite them frequently.
Chapter 12 tells about the future becoming a buddha of Devadatta, the extremely evil one who rebelled against Shakyamuni, and the sudden awakening of an eight-year-old dragon girl. This chapter has been revered since ancient times as an expression of the awakening of evil people and women. While the esoteric Shingon school often uses the term becoming a buddha in one’s present body,¹²⁹ it was first used when Zhanran, the sixth patriarch of the Chinese Tiantai school, interpreted chapter 12.¹³⁰ The chapter may have been inserted into the Lotus Sutra later¹³¹ and does not form a natural part of the narrative line of the sutra as a whole. Yet, for the reason mentioned above, it is still revered and recited.
Chapter 13, the martyrdom chapter, tells of the consciousness-raising of bodhisattvas, in which they become envoys of the Buddha by pledging to take the Buddha’s orders seriously as they undergo suffering by working for the realization of truth. These bodhisattvas promised:
Though many ignorant people
Will curse and abuse us
Or attack us with swords and sticks,
We will endure it all.
* * * * *
In an evil age of a muddied eon,
Full of dreadful things,
Evil spirits will take possession of others
To curse, abuse, and insult us.
But, revering and trusting in the Buddha,
We will wear an armor of patient endurance.
* * * * *
We will cherish neither our bodies nor our lives,
But care only for the unexcelled way.
* * * * *
Repeatedly we will be driven out
And exiled far from stupas and monasteries.
Remembering the Buddha’s orders,
We will endure all such evils.
* * * * *
We will go there and teach the Dharma
Entrusted to us by the Buddha.
We are emissaries of the World-Honored One.
Facing multitudes without fear,
We will teach the Dharma well.¹³²
This section was very moving to Nichiren, who read it as something to be taken to heart and put into practice.
Chapter 14 teaches that bodhisattvas who devote themselves to the social application of the truth should develop the habit of self-reflection. Whereas the previous chapter has the so-called stern, break and subdue method of conversion, this chapter has the mild, embrace and accept method of leading others. It discusses ways of admonishing oneself and controlling one’s behavior, speech, attitudes, and will. These are called the four kinds of trouble-free or safe and easy practice.
The chapter also advises against such things as getting too close to kings, ministers, other high officials, and the like, smiling or laughing or having a covetous attitude while preaching to women, and putting others down or abusing them with talk about their likes and dislikes or good and bad points. It gives detailed instructions on such things as not forgetting to be compassionate and respectful to others, or praying that all will be saved. Even though we are in this world, the emptiness of all things should not be forgotten. And bodhisattvas should dwell as peacefully and unmoved as Mount Sumeru.¹³³
Another interesting thing is the fact that, in chapter 4 of the Commentary on the Lotus Sutra attributed to Prince Shotoku (574–622), commenting on the phrase "always preferring meditation (zazen) in a quiet place, he should improve and quiet his mind,"¹³⁴ the author questions how bodhisattvas can find the time to spread the sutra in the world if they always like to meditate in secluded mountains. So he read the passage in a different way, such that it meant that one should not get close to or be friendly with Small Vehicle Buddhists who like meditation. In other words, he interpreted it as saying Do not get close or friendly with Small Vehicle zen masters who always like to be doing meditation. When the author of that commentary read this text in this way or simply ignored it, he would mention it, saying such things as I interpret it a little differently or I don’t need this now. Strangely enough, this was an impetus for the advent of practical-minded Japanese thought. At least it provides good material for understanding the Japanese adoption of Buddhism.
Chapter 14 also contains the parable of the jewel in the topknot. A powerful king rewards his soldiers for their achievements. The precious jewel in the topknot of his hair is the only thing he does not give to anyone, reserving it for a soldier of especially great merit. Just as the Buddha, who is king of the truth, has preached the Dharma in various ways, the Lotus Sutra is reserved for those who will practice the bodhisattva way in the future.
This is traditionally where the first half of the sutra, the teaching of cause or of the historical Buddha, comes to an end. The second half, the teaching of effect, or of origin, begins with the next chapter.
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Everlasting Personal Life—The Everlasting Original Buddha
In chapter 15, some of the bodhisattvas who had come from other worlds offer to teach the sutra in this saha world for Shakyamuni Buddha. But he rejects their offer, saying that there are already millions and millions of bodhisattvas in the saha world who will follow him in spreading the Dharma. As soon as he says this, innumerable bodhisattvas emerge from below the earth and come before the Buddha. They are referred to as the bodhisattvas who emerged from below the earth. They have four leaders—Superior Practice, Unlimited Practice, Pure Practice, and Firm Practice.¹³⁵
The people who see this are surprised, and ask Shakyamuni Buddha where these bodhisattvas had come from and why. Shakyamuni reveals that they lived in the empty sky under the saha world and, unlike those from other worlds, are his own authentic disciples and Dharma children. Pondering this, the people have trouble believing that Shakyamuni, who had become awakened not so long ago, could have so many disciples who were so proficient. It would be like a twenty-five-year-old man claiming to have a one-hundred-year-old son!
This is the gist of chapter 15. The most important thing in it is that the chapter praises this saha world—that is, it praises those who make great efforts while enduring suffering in this actual human world. They are the true disciples of the Buddha. The chapter is critical of those immediate disciples of the Buddha who preach the bodhisattva practice of enduring suffering in this world while separating themselves completely from the actual world.
Also, we should not neglect the idea that these bodhisattvas live in the empty sky under the saha world. I have already pointed out that the term empty sky also means unlimited, and is used in a way parallel to emptiness. That is to say, living in the emptiness in the saha world means to be in the midst of the swirl of the world of desire, without being dragged down by it, constantly maintaining a stance of unattached freedom.
Concerning this way of being a bodhisattva, the last verse section of chapter 15 includes the phrase, . . .and [they] are untainted by worldly things, just as the lotus flower in the water emerges from the earth.¹³⁶ The lotus grows only in muddy water, yet its beautiful flowers bloom without being tainted by the muddy water. Thus, a bodhisattva should live in this actual world without being tainted by the mud of the world, like beautiful flowers blooming with truth.
Chapter 16, responding to the perplexity of people in chapter 15, explains that Shakyamuni Buddha is really the Everlasting Original Buddha using the metaphor of the five hundred dust particles worth of eons. Suppose someone ground into fine dust five hundred thousand billions of myriads (nayuta) of countless (asamkhya) three-thousand great thousandfold worlds, and just one particle of this dust was deposited on every five hundred thousand billions of myriads of innumerable lands until all of the dust was exhausted, and then all of these worlds, those with a particle of dust and those without, were ground into dust. If one particle of dust is regarded as equivalent to an eon, the period of time equivalent to all of the dust particles is nowhere near as long as it has been since Shakyamuni became a buddha.¹³⁷
An eon is a long time. A nayuta is usually taken to mean one hundred billion. The word asamkhya means an uncountable number. And three-thousand great thousandfold worlds refers to the result of adding together three kinds of thousandfold world—small, medium, and large. It is said that a small thousandfold world corresponds to the solar system, a medium one to the galaxy, and a large one to a nebula. In chapter 7, there is a story in which one of these three-thousand great thousandfold worlds is ground into particles of dust and one particle is deposited on every thousandth world. It is called the parable of the three thousand dust particles of eons. In short, the story emphasizes the
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Human Action in This World—The Bodhisattva Way
Since we have surveyed the Lotus Sutra according to the traditional view of its division into two parts, and have already seen that there are three parts to the sutra with regard to its historical formation, we need to look at one more part and describe its distinctive teachings. This part consists of chapters 10–22, which overlap both of the traditional two divisions. As we will look at this part from the point of view of historical formation, chapter 12, which may have been inserted later, will not be discussed here.
As we have seen in the section on the historical formation of the sutra, this part of the sutra was composed as one group in accord with a consistent intention: it was done to emphasize bodhisattva practice. Bodhisattva practice means human activity in the world, which is the characteristic idea that runs continually through this group of chapters, from the beginning to the end. We have already examined the original Sanskrit text, so there is no need to repeat that here. Yet I do want to review once more just the important parts related to the traditional division.
First of all, let us look at chapter 11. As mentioned before, in this chapter there is the sudden appearance of the Treasure Stupa, the two buddhas sitting side by side, the gathering together of the buddhas who are embodiments or representatives of Shakyamuni, the united buddha-land, the purification of the saha world, and so on. These things were traditionally understood to imply that Shakyamuni Buddha is the Everlasting Original Buddha, and were taken to herald chapter 16, The Life of the Tathagata. But chapter 11 also teaches the propagation of bodhisattva practice, which is its ultimate purpose. We can see this in the following:
Who is able to teach the Wonderful Dharma Flower Sutra everywhere throughout this world? Now indeed is the time. Before long the Tathagata will enter nirvana. So that it will last forever, the Buddha wants to entrust this Wonderful Dharma Flower Sutra to someone.¹⁹²
Thus, it encourages actual bodhisattva practice in this world during the latter days and teaches the entrusting of the Dharma to such bodhisattvas.
Next, chapter 16 is traditionally understood as showing that Shakyamuni is the Everlasting Original Buddha, and from that point of view, is regarded as the core of the second half of the Lotus Sutra. Since it does maintain the eternal life of Shakyamuni, such an interpretation certainly seems reasonable, but it is important to notice how that eternal life is taught.
The inception of the revelation of the everlasting life of Shakyamuni Buddha is in chapter 15, where a question is raised about the countless bodhisattvas who emerged from the earth and were said to have been taught from the remote past by Shakyamuni. Here at its inception, the teaching of the eternity of Shakyamuni Buddha is already related to bodhisattvas.
Thus, since I became Buddha a very long time has passed, a lifetime of innumerable countless eons of constantly living here and never entering extinction. Good sons, from the beginning I have practiced the bodhisattva way, and that life is not yet finished. . . .¹⁹³
In short, unlimited, endless bodhisattva practice is used to demonstrate the eternal life of the Buddha.
What the sutra says here may at first give the impression that the conception of eternity is inconsistent. The story about the five hundred specks of dust does the same. Fayun (467–529),¹⁹⁴ one of the annotators of the Lotus Sutra, commented that eternity in the sutra is only an extension of time and space, not an eternal or absolute truth that breaks through the limits of time and space. Because he was seeking an eternal truth, Fayun adopted the Nirvana Sutra’s teaching of the eternal life of the
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Nationalist Faith among Modern Japanese Followers of Nichiren
IN MODERN TIMES in Japan, from the beginning of the Meiji period, Lotus Sutra faith, or Nichirenism, has been roughly of three types. The first, a nationalistic type of faith, accompanied the rise of contemporary nationalism and tried to make Nichiren a pillar of Japanese nationalism. The second, a type of faith that transcends the national and is based instead on the universal individual, is the opposite of the first—in other words, it espouses a reverence for cosmic reality through the person of Nichiren and faith in the Lotus Sutra. The third is the type of faith found among the popular groups at the center of the new religions movement.
Chigaku Tanaka (1861–1939)²⁷⁷ is most representative of the first, nationalistic type of Nichiren faith. Firmly believing that enhancement of the nation should be of primary concern to any Nichiren movement, he developed his own unique Nichiren movement, bound up in the rising nationalism of the time. He founded several nationalistic organizations, the most famous and lasting of which is the Pillar of the Nation Association.²⁷⁸
One might say that Tanaka developed his thought and action based on Nichiren’s Establishment of True Dharma for the Protection of the Country, but Nichiren’s main point in that work was to establish the true Dharma (rissho). It may be that national security (ankoku) is a natural product of establishing the true Dharma, but this is not the main purpose for doing so. This is evident in the way in which Nichiren structured the book. It consists of a dialogue between a master (the sacred), who is set on true Dharma, and a visitor (the secular), who is set on securing the nation. Nichiren develops the story so as to gradually lead the visitor to the position of the master.
If someone had asked Tanaka which was most important—establishment of the true Dharma or the security of the nation—of course, he would have said the former. Yet he tended to absolutize Japan in the way in which he connected the nation to the true Dharma (the Lotus Sutra). Consequently, his Nichirenism was linked with nationalism. This was a serious problem. However, we should take into consideration that it was really his love and concern for the nation that forced him to be like this. In fact Tanaka’s passionate advocacy brought him wide influence. Many, especially among the military and the far right, wanted to become his disciples. As a result of this interest on the right, some attribute attempted right-wing military coups to the influence of his Nichirenism and his interpretation of the Lotus Sutra.
Ikki Kita (1883–1937)²⁷⁹ was the mastermind behind the attempted military coup of February 26, 1936, in Japan. He readily attached himself to the idea of being a chosen-apostle found in the Lotus Sutra and in Nichiren’s thought, and this became the driving force behind his sense of mission with regard to the Japanese and Chinese revolutions. While most right-wing activists put the emperor above the nation, Kita put the nation above the emperor. In National Polity and Pure Socialism²⁸⁰ he says that the emperor is one element of the state, equal to the people, who are other elements, in being an organ of the state. He maintained that the substance of sovereignty was the nation, not the emperor. So he advocated a patriotism that arises from loyalty to the nation and came to the conclusion that loyalty should be given to the nation.
Kita wrote An Unofficial History of the Chinese Revolution,²⁸¹ which he published in 1921, expressing his convictions about and aspirations for the Chinese revolution. It is interesting that he regularly cites ideas from Nichiren and expressions from the Lotus Sutra in this book. For example, at the end of the preface he says, The sutra says that the earth trembled and split open and bodhisattvas sprang up from below the earth, referring to the story in chapter 15 of the Lotus Sutra. He maintains that
trembling and splitting open signifies events such as the emerging of the world revolution and that the bodhisattvas who emerged from the earth were a crowd of saviors hidden under a layer of earth, heroes in the swamp grass, and the great people of the lower class fighting for righteousness.
Kita concludes the book, writing, Without following the great way of the universe, the Lotus Sutra, China will remain in darkness forever. In the end, India has not become independent. Japan, too, will perish. The eight rolls of the Lotus Sutra reward or punish the rights or wrongs of a nation. Who can testify for Shakyamuni Buddha in the final days, using the sword of the Dharma as a walking stick?
On the day before he was to be executed for complicity in the February 26 incident, Kita wrote some farewell words to his son on the back of a copy of the Lotus Sutra that he had kept with him to the end: "I leave only this Lotus Sutra to you, my son. When you remember me, when you miss me, when you become sad in the midst of your life journey, when you have lost your way, when you are troubled by anger, envy, or resentment, and when you are happy or pleased, pray and chant Namu myoho renge kyo before this Lotus Sutra."
Here we sense a feeling similar to Nichiren’s when he said: "Realize sorrows as sorrows, let joys be joys, take sorrows and joys together, and chant Namu myoho renge kyo." Yet Nichiren and Kita differed significantly in their ideas of the nation. For Nichiren, the nation was above the emperor, and the Dharma was above the nation. The Dharma, the realm of the Buddha, is sacred and universal, something beyond this secular world. The authority of the emperor and the power of the nation can be criticized from that position, and this can become a source of power for negation and change. Kita is like Nichiren in putting the nation above the emperor, but he stopped there. As a consequence, he made the nation into an absolute.
Nichiren’s idea was to regulate and reform the nation from a position that transcends it. This was a fundamental principle for him. But this principle was split when it was applied in the modern world: leaning toward transcending the nation on the one hand and toward nationalism on the other. Nichiren’s principle may have parted in these two directions because Japan, in its national infancy at the time, was still newly wrestling with the modern questions of how religion should relate to the state and how the state, in turn, should relate to society.
Nichiren had predicted that in the final days of the Dharma an unprecedented, great worldwide conflict would occur, and he emphasized that the world would then be united by the supreme truth of the Lotus Sutra. Kanji Ishihara (1889–1949),²⁸² an army general, applied Nichiren’s words such as these to the situation in East Asia and the world at that time. In May of 1940, he gave a lecture on The Theory of the Final World War, and later that year wrote the Survey of the Origins of Histories of Wars,²⁸³ in which he said, Saint Nichiren revealed the great war for the unification of the world.
Ishihara hoped for cooperation and racial friendship between Japan and China in order to prepare for the final world war. With this in mind he worked for the creation of the Manchurian state. The Association for the Union of East Asia was formed in November of 1939, and branches opened all over Japan and China. It spread to such an extent that even a Student Union of East Asia was established in June of 1940, and the thirty-four major Japanese universities joined it. But as hostilities between China and Japan increased, a Sino-Japanese war loomed larger. Ishihara warned of the recklessness of a Sino-Japanese war and tried as much as he could to stop its expansion.
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Transnational Faith among Modern Japanese Followers of Nichiren
IN CONTRAST WITH the nationalism of the first kind of Nichirenism, there were some among the followers of Nichiren and the Lotus Sutra who embraced a transnational faith in their lives. Chogyu Takayama (1871–1902) ²⁸⁴ argued that Buddhism was a world religion and in that sense had the same viewpoint as Christianity. Therefore it should go hand in hand with Christianity in opposing Nipponism as the common enemy of Buddhism and Christianity.
Later, Takayama had a chance to reflect during his convalescence from tuberculosis, during which time his attention was attracted to the idea of the realm of the universal individual, who transcends nation and race and places his trust in a sacred religious realm that transcends the secular world. He subsequently happened to get ahold of Tanaka’s book, Reformation of the Sect,²⁸⁵ which turned his attention to Nichiren.
Studying Nichiren, Takayama’s eyes gradually began to open to the sacred and religious, which transcends nations, and he came to understand the elite mindset that derives from the sense of there being a sacred realm that transcends the authority of nations. He adopted such a mindset himself, overcame his tuberculosis-related depression, and gained a newfound pride and joy in living. Though he had fallen into depression when crushed by disease, Takayama was deeply encouraged by Nichiren’s valiant attitude as a practitioner of the Lotus Sutra who did not flinch at the hardships of life or at the authority of the nation.
In June of 1902 Takayama published Saint Nichiren and the Nation of Japan,²⁸⁶ in which he claimed that those who regarded Nichiren as a nationalist were mistaken. He argued, Nichiren accepted the nation for the sake of the truth, not vice versa, For Nichiren the truth was greater than the nation, and He even approved of the destruction of the nation for the sake of the truth. In this sense, Nichiren, rather than having the so-called spirit of loyalty to the emperor and love for the nation, was highly disloyal. Takayama became angry when he saw the way in which Nichiren priests were turning Nichiren into a nationalist just as nationalism was on the rise in Japan. In the essay quoted above he wrote, Alas! It is terribly unfortunate that priests attempt to show pride in the prosperity of their own school under the pretext of identifying it as the national religion. Saint Nichiren is praised as a nationalist by the very mouths of such evil priests. How sad! Though Tanaka’s Reformation of the Sect had inspired Takayama, he grew skeptical of Tanaka’s views of the nation. He sent a letter to Tanaka saying something like, I have respectfully and carefully listened to and read your opinions about Saint Nichiren’s views of the nation. Yet many difficult unresolved problems remain.
Among those who were transnationalist Nichiren devotees, some were only slightly different from Takayama. They moved toward the cosmic faith taught by the Lotus Sutra and mediated by Nichiren. One such devotee was Kenji Miyazawa (1896–1933),²⁸⁷ a poet, writer of children’s stories, and agricultural scientist. Around his final year of high school, he happened to come across the book The Lotus Sutra in Chinese and Japanese²⁸⁸ by Daito Shimaji²⁸⁹ in his own house. He read it through once and was immediately thrilled by it. From then on he gradually grew more and more devoted to the Lotus Sutra and, without doing so explicitly, often incorporated its teachings into his stories. He was often explicit in his letters. For example, in a letter written just before his graduation from high school, he wrote, "Namu myoho renge kyo! Namu myoho renge kyo! I sincerely offer myself in service to the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, the foundation of the greatest happiness for all. When I chant ‘Praise to the Lotus Sutra’ just once, the world and I are enveloped in a wondrous light."
When he was twenty-five, Miyazawa joined Tanaka’s Pillar of the Nation Association, and in the
following year he went to Tokyo to look into the organization and devote himself to being a follower of Nichiren. Miyazawa’s admiration for Tanaka and Nichiren was abnormally passionate, as can be seen in the letters he wrote to friends in 1920, when he joined the Pillar of the Nation Association. I joined the Practice of Faith Division of the Pillar of the Nation Association. In other words, my life now belongs to Saint Nichiren. Thus I am now under the direction of Professor Chigaku Tanaka.
Miyazawa’s sister, Toshi, whom he loved more than anyone else in the world, died from tuberculosis when he was twenty-seven. In his poems from that time we begin to see signs of change in his fervent faith as a Nichiren follower. He began to move toward a cosmic faith through the Lotus Sutra. A few years later, in the preface to a book on the art of farming,²⁹⁰ he wrote, To live a strong and righteous life is to hold the whole galaxy in one’s awareness and to act accordingly. In the book itself he says, Together let us first spread out in the sky in all directions by becoming radiant specks of cosmic dust. His reverence for cosmic reality is evident in this encouragement to put oneself in an infinite cosmic context.
Miyazawa’s view of the cosmos wasn’t abstract or static but practical, volitional, and active. He said, Burn all problems as you would firewood, and be sympathetic with the spirit in all things, and Gather energy from the clouds by communicating with the winds. In conclusion he emphasized, What we need is a clear will that embraces the galaxy—such great energy and heat. He ties energy from the clouds, clear will that embraces the galaxy, and great energy and heat together in the great quest for the sake of the world. First of all, let’s have the great quest for the sake of the world, he wrote, indicating that the great quest is that the whole world become happy. Until the whole world becomes happy, there can be no individual happiness, he explains, and, Our quest is for the true happiness of the world. One is reminded here of the bodhisattva practice of the Lotus Sutra. Miyazawa learned these lessons for living—bathing in the galaxy, taking energy from that, seeking the happiness of the whole world, and burning ordinary problems like firewood while living a strong and righteous life of shared suffering and joy—from the Lotus Sutra. He often said, Live a strong and righteous life. Move onward without avoiding suffering.
Miyazawa’s source for this was the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. For him, that was where the spring of true happiness emerges, and where one finds the source of energy for realizing happiness. In a letter he wrote, We should have great courage and seek true happiness for all living beings. This is the Lotus Sutra. Occasionally he chanted Namu myoho renge kyo and imagined that his spirit was flying in the boundless sky, where he was filled with the joy of a transcendent life, and from which he returned to earth having acquired strength and courage to endure a life of suffering.
Miyazawa took up an extremely stoic life, wearing plain clothes and eating simple food. At the age of thirty-three, in addition to being overworked, he came down with the tuberculosis that would soon kill him. In February of the following year, looking his own death in the face, he wrote poems beginning with the following words:
I will die soon
today or tomorrow.
Again, anew, I wonder, What am I?
And he ended this way:
The original Dharma of all the buddhas is nothing but
the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma Sutra.
Praise to the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma Sutra.
Life, too, is the life of the Wonderful Dharma.
Death, too, is the death of the Wonderful Dharma.
In life and in death I uphold the Wonderful Dharma.²⁹¹
The view of life and death in these closing words is in much the same vein as that of Tendai original enlightenment thought introduced earlier. Yet Tendai original enlightenment thought was so taken up with absolute states that it forgot the reality of actual death, and in turn tended to fall into idealistic and monistic affirmation of actual reality. Compared with it, there was fear and trembling in Miyazawa’s existential gaze at death. In a piece called Night, from April 28²⁹² of the same year as the poems above, he wrote:
So far, for two hours
the blood from my throat hasn’t stopped.
Outside, people walk no longer.
Trees quietly breathe and bud on this spring night.
This very place is spring’s place of practice.
The bodhisattva has discarded a billion of his bodies.
The many buddhas here experience life and nirvana. And so
tonight, now, here, seen by no one,
I can die alone.
I’ve held this thought many times,
telling it to myself.
But once again lukewarm
new blood wells up. And
once again pale-white, I become frightened.
An appointment book that he apparently wrote in while on his deathbed was found after he died. Words and phrases from the Lotus Sutra were written all over it, and in it we can see his readiness for death. On the inside of the back cover, written in Chinese, are the words from chapter 21 of the Lotus Sutra: You should understand that all such places are places of the Way. . . . They are where the buddhas reach complete nirvana.²⁹³ This was one of Nichiren’s favorite passages, one that he read often. It is also one that Dogen chanted when he was seriously ill.
From this note we can see that Miyazawa’s previously overeager faith had receded into the shadows. In its place we see an introspective and humble attitude. This is recorded, for example, in the following poem:
I do not want pleasure.
I do not want fame.
Now I just
want to offer
this base, useless body
to the Lotus Sutra;
to light up a speck of dust
and, if forgiven,
become a servant to my father and mother,
to return their billions of favors.
Sick and faced with death,
I have no other wish.
This famous poem dated November 3, is written in his appointment book:
Neither yielding to rain;
Nor yielding to wind.
He also said that he wanted to be
What everyone calls a good-for-nothing,
No one praises
And no one worries about—
This is the kind of man
I want to be.²⁹⁴
On the day before his death on September 20, 1933, he wrote a poem that said:
I will be glad if my life
Rotting away from disease
Results in some fruit.
Once again so sick that he couldn’t get up, he was crushed with grief, fell into depression, and was gripped by a sense of failure. But his faith in the Lotus Sutra was strengthened, and he lived a solid life to the end despite being very sick, often helping poor peasants with fertilizer problems, while enveloped by the infinite cosmos and embraced by eternal life.
On September 21, 1933, ready to meet death, he chanted the daimoku and left some final words for his father saying that he wanted to send a thousand copies of the Japanese translation of the Lotus Sutra to his acquaintances. Inside the back cover he wanted him to write words to the following effect: My whole life’s work has been to deliver this sutra to you. I hope you will enter the supreme Way by coming in contact with the will of the Buddha.
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People-Centered Faith—Socialist Followers of Nichiren
LAST TO BE discussed is a group among the new religious movements of Japan that have a people-centered faith. Twentieth century new religious movements in Japan can be divided broadly into two kinds: Shinto and Buddhist. Almost all the Buddhist groups are related to Nichiren or Lotus faith. These new religious organizations were flourishing until recent years, with anywhere from a few hundred thousand to several million members.
What are the reasons for this flourishing? The answer is related for the most part to three common characteristics of the new religious movements, which put simply are thanksgiving (okage), being cursed (tatari), and correction (naoshi). Thanksgiving involves receiving benefits in this world. Being cursed has to do with the worship of ancestor spirits, as it is understood that present unhappiness is caused by curses from restless ancestor spirits. And correction, which includes social reform, making fresh starts, and restoration of everyday life, involves improvement and reform of society. Of these three common characteristics, it is thought that thanksgiving and being cursed are rooted in ancient Japanese ways of thinking. We know from ancient myths that the Japanese were very strongly oriented to this world and had a strong animistic interest in ancestor worship. This interest underlies all of Japanese history. On the other hand, correction, especially social reform, is related to the social background in which the new religious movements arose.
We find harbingers of the new religious movements, of both the Shinto and Buddhist types, at the end of the Tokugawa period. The earliest among the Shinto groups was the Fuji-ko,²⁹⁵ organized from the mountain-worshipping Fuji faith. The Assembly Established by the Buddha²⁹⁶ was a Nichiren group founded by Seifu Nagamatsu (1817–90).²⁹⁷ At thirty-two, Nagamatsu, born as the son of townspeople in Kyoto, became the Buddhist priest Nissen²⁹⁸ in the Eight-chapter Faction of the Lotus Sect²⁹⁹ (now the Main Gate School of the Lotus Sect).³⁰⁰ Later, he decided that it was necessary to return to lay life, where he organized a lay-oriented group called the Assembly Established by the Buddha.
We find the three characteristics mentioned earlier in the new religious movements that appeared at the end of the Tokugawa period. Correction, especially social reform, was related to and continued in the popular movements that peaked at the end of the period, known by such names as pilgrimage of thanksgiving³⁰¹ and Why not?³⁰² As the Tokugawa period drew to a close, group pilgrimages to the Ise Shrine became popular, pilgrimages of thanksgiving largely being the reason for this. These pilgrimages were also called pilgrimages of slipping away,³⁰³ indicating that they sometimes involved sneaking away from family or employer without permission to go on a pilgrimage to the Ise Shrine. Such pilgrimages were called pilgrimages of thanksgiving because pilgrims were given food and lodging by people along the way.
Pilgrimage to Ise, where the Ise Grand Shrine is located, initially became popular during the Muromachi period (1392–1573) when this pilgrimage was known for its atmosphere of pleasure. From the seventeenth century on, it took the form of group pilgrimage, and in the eighteenth century it developed into a large-scale movement involving the whole country. Rumors that Ise Shrine talismans had fallen from heaven spread widely, and groups from several hundred thousand to several million made pilgrimages to the Ise Shrine. Records show that the number of people making pilgrimages of thanksgiving in 1830 reached a total of 4,862,088.
Pilgrimages of thanksgiving allowed people to express their frustrations and provided some temporary release. They were a kind of passive resistance to the feudal regime. In fact, there were
cases in which such pilgrimages transformed into definite resistance movements in the form of riots and uprisings. One case in which such pilgrimages turned into a kind of social reform movement was the popular wild dance of the Why not? movement that occurred in the fall and winter of 1867. The movement was initiated in late August by a rumor in the Nagoya area that Ise Shrine talismans had fallen from heaven. Men and women, young and old, went crazy with joy and danced wildly. By October, this exuberance had spread over much of Japan, from the Kyoto-Osaka area, through the areas along the Tokaido highway from Kyoto to Edo (Tokyo), to such places as Edo itself, Kofu, Matsumoto, Tokushima, and Fukushima. This was just at the time when the Tokugawa government came to an end, returning control of the country to the emperor. The faction that overthrew the Tokugawa shogunate encouraged and took advantage of the Why not? movement among the people.
The people, expecting social reform and stirred up by the words Why not? Why not?, danced around in the streets day and night with fanfare, disguised in strange costumes of the opposite sex. In the process, groups would push their way into the homes of long-disliked landlords or rich merchants, taking wine and money, and chanting, Why not have this? When they got sleepy, they slept, not caring whether or not they were in a stranger’s house. And when they woke up, they resumed dancing and chanting, Why not? Why not?
Pilgrimages of thanksgiving, especially the Why not? movement, were an outlet for the dissatisfactions of suppressed people, which they turned to in a kind of religious ecstasy. Some feared that the excitement and trance of such religious ecstasy would make people lose their minds and drive them to immoral acts. Further, since these movements were not organized, lacked leaders, and were driven by mass psychology, it would have been difficult for them to exercise any unified power to accomplish anything as a group.
A mass movement that was clearly organized and well-directed was the so-called new religions movement. Consequently, some of the new religions have been able to engage in various kinds of social reform. In some of the new religions, the social reform element was weaker than those of thanksgiving involving this-worldly benefits or of being cursed by ancestor spirits. But on the other hand, some of the new religious groups do advocate social reform.
The new religious movements developed from the alienated class or lowest social stratum of society—in other words, so-called oppressed peoples grew frustrated and exploded. They emphasized the idea that if a new religious group grew, its teachings spread, and if the world was reformed, a happier world would emerge with the people at its center. A lot of people were brought into new religious movements in this way.
In a typical society, people at the lowest level can gain status by participating in religious organizations and experiencing the comforts and joys of the group. This is a kind of acquisition of special social identity through religious faith. Groups that managed to instill such identity gained many followers. Among the new Buddhist religious organizations, Nichiren and Lotus Sutra groups, such as Soka Gakkai,³⁰⁴ Rissho Kosei-kai,³⁰⁵ and Reiyukai,³⁰⁶ were dominant. This was a consequence of the fact that they found in Nichiren and in the Lotus Sutra a social identity and an idea of social reform. Of course, we cannot ignore the influence of a positive attitude toward this world and the idea of gaining benefits in this world, which were the most prominent characteristic of such groups.
Chogyu Takayama, discussed earlier, also gained a special social identity through Nichiren, but in his case we might see social identity as a kind of sacred identity. In new religious movements such a sense of identity created a sacred group through a process of socialization. Generally speaking, such groups provide a sense of fellowship, something that is a great support for people.
Further, there was a group of socialistic followers of Nichiren within the popular social reform
movements, which became politicized—the so-called left wing Nichiren movement. Movements such as that initiated by Giro Senoo³⁰⁷ were of this kind. Senoo was born into a sake-producing family in Hiroshima in 1890. He entered the Ichiiko High School, but he got tuberculosis and dropped out of school. He fought against the disease for over ten years. While recuperating he became a follower of Nichiren and later joined Nissho Honda’s (1867–1931)³⁰⁸ Toitsukaku group.³⁰⁹
Honda was a priest in the Kempon Hokke-shu³¹⁰ who inspired turning the image of Nichiren toward nationalism, and like Chigaku Tanaka was very influential. A number of prominent men of the time praised Honda’s 1916 book, Lectures on the Lotus Sutra.³¹¹ Honda was expelled from the sect at one time because of his effort to reform it. But he returned to the fold and was head abbot for a long time, contributing to the movement for the unification of Nichiren sects. In addition to founding the Toitsukaku in 1912, he founded various organizations, such as the Tenseikai in 1909,³¹² the Jikeikai in 1917,³¹³ and the Chiho Shikokukai in 1928,³¹⁴ in an attempt to unify thought according to national policy. And he played a leading role in the emperor’s awarding Nichiren the honorary title Great Teacher for Establishing the Truth³¹⁵ in 1922.
Senoo felt dissatisfied with the lack of spirit in established Buddhist groups, and in 1919 with some colleagues he established the Great Japanese Nichiren Youth Group,³¹⁶ which leapt into vigorous, practical action. At that time the group had a nationalistic color but was based on a kind of humanism, using such slogans as faith and love. Its core members were youth from farming villages. Later, having directly witnessed a succession of economic crises, labor disputes, and tenant farmer disputes, Senoo’s social concern intensified. Sometimes he was so involved in solving tenant farmer disputes that he was revered as greatly as Nichiren is now.
According to his own recollections, he realized, through being involved in these disputes, that idealistic lectures and sermons removed from actual life only benefitted landlords and capitalists, and that mediation that merely sought to persuade landlords and comfort the proletariat was not in accord with the Buddha’s intention. When the Showa period arrived, he gradually grew critical of the system of monopolistic capitalism, insisting that such a system was against the egalitarian spirit of Buddhism. He wanted to overthrow it.
In 1931, Senoo, splitting from some of his comrades who disagreed with his views, once again organized the Emerging Buddhist Youth League.³¹⁷ When the League was formed, he put forth three basic principles: proclaiming reverence for Shakyamuni Buddha, establishing the buddha-land of faith and love on earth, and correcting the capitalistic system, which is contrary to the spirit of Buddhism and obstructs the welfare of the people. He began to criticize the Japanese imperial system and to consider its overthrow. He says that he was stimulated by books by Lenin, such as The State and Revolution (1917), and that he found his spiritual support in Nichiren’s criticism of monarchy as seen in his Admonition with Hachiman.³¹⁸
Senoo opposed materialism based on a Buddhist idea of unity of mind and matter, but he accepted the idea of violent revolution as an exceptional means for speedily realizing the buddha-land on earth, and he was willing to entertain the idea that a temporary dictatorship of the proletariat was permissible. He also used internationalism as a slogan. He picked up on Nichiren’s view of the Mongolian invasion as punishment of Japan by saints from a neighboring country. He pointed to this as a model of internationalism and therefore thought it blasphemous to set Nichiren up as a nationalist. He also thought that the sangha during the time of Shakyamuni was a cooperative community with common property and that fundamental Buddhist teachings such as selflessness, emptiness, interdependent relations, interdependent origination, and so forth, implied the socialist ideal of community.
Citing the phrase the innumerable meanings emerge from one Dharma, drawn from the second chapter of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings—regarded as the opening or introductory sutra to the Lotus Sutra—he insisted that Buddhism should always develop in accord with the times and society, and he asked the established Buddhist groups to reflect on their inflexible attitudes.
Senoo turned a critical eye not only toward established Nichiren sects but toward established Nichirenism, which was determinedly nationalistic. When he established the Alliance of New Buddhist Youth, he moved away from Nichirenism as it had been up to then, and began to take a pan-Buddhist stance. Yet he did not deny Nichiren’s relevance, which we know from the fact that he occasionally cited Nichiren. What he discarded in trying to bring life to Nichiren for the coming age was the thick shell that later generations had put around Nichiren. For the April 1931 issue of Under the Flag of New Buddhism (later just New Buddhism), the Alliance’s bulletin, he wrote an essay entitled Turn toward New Buddhist Youth, in which he said, I threw off Saint Nichiren’s old coat, in an attempt to restore his spirit to the contemporary world.
Moreover, as indicated earlier, while maintaining the unity of mind and matter against materialism, Senoo also criticized the spiritualism of the newly emerging Buddhist movements as nothing more than idealistic adaptations of established Buddhism. As an example he pointed to the Truth Movement of Entei Tomomatsu.
Senoo was active in the proletariat liberation movement, labor unions, and labor disputes. As a result, the government’s oppressive power finally caught up with him, and in November of 1936 he was arrested and the Alliance of New Buddhist Youth forced to dissolve. But after the War he took part in the peace movement with his comrades.
Government oppression was not only directed against socialist political activities but toward anything that did not go along with the nationalism of absolute imperial power. As a result, incidents of oppression and imprisonment occurred among Christians and Buddhists and even among the new religious movements.
Among the new religious movements, the oppression of Omoto-kyo³²¹ was the most violent. New religions were often oppressed when they were getting started. At that time they were controlled by strict government regulations, with the excuse that they were dedicated to false and obscene gods. The fact that they were people-centered or interested in social reform sometimes led to antiauthoritarian speech and behavior among the new religious movements. Because of this they were frequently charged with the crime of disrespecting the emperor.
Because of its universality as a world religion, and its occasionally progressive thought and movements, Christianity became an object of oppression, too. In general, established Buddhists adapted themselves to the will of the government, and those parts of the writings of their founders and others that were examined and found to be undesirable had to be purged. For example, in 1939 the authorities examined Shinran’s words Everyone, from lords to subjects, goes against the Dharma and fails to do what is right, which appear in a chapter of Shinran’s Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Realization,and that part of the book had to be deleted. In Nichiren’s case, several hundred passages had to be deleted as disrespectful. In Nichiren’s writings, the authority of the Buddha and the Buddha-dharma are held high, below which come the authority of gods, emperors, and nations. There were a number of places where his words were examined, criticized, and had to be deleted on account of being disrespectful.
Furthermore, some of Nichiren’s followers were imprisoned for such crimes of disrespect toward the emperor. They were not ideologically believers in socialism and the like, but simply accepted the words of Nichiren as they were. For that they were thrown in prison. Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, the first president of Soka Gakkai, for example, was arrested and put in prison, as were the second president, Josei Toda, and twenty other leaders in 1943. Makiguchi died in prison. Toda was released only at the end of the War. Their arrests were made in connection with Ise Shrine talismans.
At that time the government set up Shinto shrines as part of the system of State Shinto. As a way of controlling various religions, every religious group was forced to accept talismans from the Ise Shrine. But Soka Gakkai refused. This is why it was suppressed and its leaders imprisoned. Their refusal originated from Nichiren’s idea that the good gods had abandoned the country and had returned to the heavenly realm. Nichiren had taught that the Japanese gods had been converted to the Buddha-dharma and had become good guardian deities of the Dharma. But since there was no longer any true Dharma in Japan, they had abandoned Japan and gone to the heavenly realm. Accordingly, there are no gods in the Shinto shrines, and it is a waste of time to visit them. The talismans are empty of value. They are nothing more than plain pieces of paper. Thus, the Nichiren sects developed the idea of refusing to pray at Shinto shrines.
In True Pure Land (shinshu) Buddhism the same idea arose from a different perspective. There, Buddha-dharma means the nembutsu—chanting praise to Amida Buddha—and the guardian deities are pleased so long as the nembutsu is recited. So there is no need to visit Shinto shrines other than for the purpose of reciting the nembutsu. Thus, during the Tokugawa period, scholars of the school of National Learning such as Atsutane Hirata attacked the Nichiren and True Pure Land schools as enemies of the gods.³²⁵
This is why Makiguchi and others refused to accept the talismans from Ise Shrine. Since the gods had returned to the heavenly realm and were no longer at the shrines, the talismans were meaningless. Makiguchi and the others had no political ideology for resisting state power. But they did engage in passive resistance, and for this they were imprisoned.
Other incidents of suppression and imprisonment regarding the mandala of ten realms occurred in the Eight-chapter Faction of the Main Gate School of the Lotus Sect. The mandala of ten realms is a scroll in which representatives of each of the ten realms of existence were inscribed around the daimoku in the center. The names of the Shinto gods Amaterasu—the Sun Goddess—and Great Bodhisattva Hachiman were written under the daimoku. Government authorities attacked this, claiming that Amaterasu was being kicked by the daimoku. Nichiryu (1385–1464), the founder of the Main Gate School, had placed Amaterasu and other gods in the realms of hungry spirits and beasts. This was quoted in a textbook used in the Main Gate School seminary. When the Ministry of Education saw this in 1941, several of the sect’s leaders were arrested for the crime of disrespecting the emperor. One died in prison and the rest were released under the postwar abolition of the crime of disrespecting the emperor.
This incident, too, did not happen as a consequence of having an anti-authoritarian or revolutionary ideology. It was an unintentional demonstration of the fact that, from the point of view of the authorities, there is something dangerous in the thought of Nichiren.
We have now discussed Nichiren and some of his followers. Such things are very interesting and their further examination and analysis would be very valuable.
Since we have surveyed the Lotus Sutra according to the traditional view of its division into two parts, and have already seen that there are three parts to the sutra with regard to its historical formation, we need to look at one more part and describe its distinctive teachings. This part consists of chapters 10–22, which overlap both of the traditional two divisions. As we will look at this part from the point of view of historical formation, chapter 12, which may have been inserted later, will not be discussed here.
As we have seen in the section on the historical formation of the sutra, this part of the sutra was composed as one group in accord with a consistent intention: it was done to emphasize bodhisattva practice. Bodhisattva practice means human activity in the world, which is the characteristic idea that runs continually through this group of chapters, from the beginning to the end. We have already examined the original Sanskrit text, so there is no need to repeat that here. Yet I do want to review once more just the important parts related to the traditional division.
First of all, let us look at chapter 11. As mentioned before, in this chapter there is the sudden appearance of the Treasure Stupa, the two buddhas sitting side by side, the gathering together of the buddhas who are embodiments or representatives of Shakyamuni, the united buddha-land, the purification of the saha world, and so on. These things were traditionally understood to imply that Shakyamuni Buddha is the Everlasting Original Buddha, and were taken to herald chapter 16, The Life of the Tathagata. But chapter 11 also teaches the propagation of bodhisattva practice, which is its ultimate purpose. We can see this in the following:
Who is able to teach the Wonderful Dharma Flower Sutra everywhere throughout this world? Now indeed is the time. Before long the Tathagata will enter nirvana. So that it will last forever, the Buddha wants to entrust this Wonderful Dharma Flower Sutra to someone.¹⁹²
Thus, it encourages actual bodhisattva practice in this world during the latter days and teaches the entrusting of the Dharma to such bodhisattvas.
Next, chapter 16 is traditionally understood as showing that Shakyamuni is the Everlasting Original Buddha, and from that point of view, is regarded as the core of the second half of the Lotus Sutra. Since it does maintain the eternal life of Shakyamuni, such an interpretation certainly seems reasonable, but it is important to notice how that eternal life is taught.
The inception of the revelation of the everlasting life of Shakyamuni Buddha is in chapter 15, where a question is raised about the countless bodhisattvas who emerged from the earth and were said to have been taught from the remote past by Shakyamuni. Here at its inception, the teaching of the eternity of Shakyamuni Buddha is already related to bodhisattvas.
Thus, since I became Buddha a very long time has passed, a lifetime of innumerable countless eons of constantly living here and never entering extinction. Good sons, from the beginning I have practiced the bodhisattva way, and that life is not yet finished. . . .¹⁹³
In short, unlimited, endless bodhisattva practice is used to demonstrate the eternal life of the Buddha.
What the sutra says here may at first give the impression that the conception of eternity is inconsistent. The story about the five hundred specks of dust does the same. Fayun (467–529),¹⁹⁴ one of the annotators of the Lotus Sutra, commented that eternity in the sutra is only an extension of time and space, not an eternal or absolute truth that breaks through the limits of time and space. Because he was seeking an eternal truth, Fayun adopted the Nirvana Sutra’s teaching of the eternal life of the
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III. THE LOTUS SUTRA AMONG FOLLOWERS OF NICHIREN
5.Town Associations and Lotus Uprisings
6.The Martyrdom of the Fuju-fuse
7.Nationalist Faith among Modern Japanese Followers of Nichiren
8.Transnational Faith among Modern Japanese Followers of Nichiren
9.People-Centered Faith—Socialist Followers of Nichiren
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5.Town Associations and Lotus Uprisings
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6.The Martyrdom of the Fuju-fuse
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7.Nationalist Faith among Modern Japanese Followers of Nichiren
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7Nationalist Faith among Modern Japanese Followers of Nichiren
IN MODERN TIMES in Japan, from the beginning of the Meiji period, Lotus Sutra faith, or Nichirenism, has been roughly of three types. The first, a nationalistic type of faith, accompanied the rise of contemporary nationalism and tried to make Nichiren a pillar of Japanese nationalism. The second, a type of faith that transcends the national and is based instead on the universal individual, is the opposite of the first—in other words, it espouses a reverence for cosmic reality through the person of Nichiren and faith in the Lotus Sutra. The third is the type of faith found among the popular groups at the center of the new religions movement.
Chigaku Tanaka (1861–1939)²⁷⁷ is most representative of the first, nationalistic type of Nichiren faith. Firmly believing that enhancement of the nation should be of primary concern to any Nichiren movement, he developed his own unique Nichiren movement, bound up in the rising nationalism of the time. He founded several nationalistic organizations, the most famous and lasting of which is the Pillar of the Nation Association.²⁷⁸
One might say that Tanaka developed his thought and action based on Nichiren’s Establishment of True Dharma for the Protection of the Country, but Nichiren’s main point in that work was to establish the true Dharma (rissho). It may be that national security (ankoku) is a natural product of establishing the true Dharma, but this is not the main purpose for doing so. This is evident in the way in which Nichiren structured the book. It consists of a dialogue between a master (the sacred), who is set on true Dharma, and a visitor (the secular), who is set on securing the nation. Nichiren develops the story so as to gradually lead the visitor to the position of the master.
If someone had asked Tanaka which was most important—establishment of the true Dharma or the security of the nation—of course, he would have said the former. Yet he tended to absolutize Japan in the way in which he connected the nation to the true Dharma (the Lotus Sutra). Consequently, his Nichirenism was linked with nationalism. This was a serious problem. However, we should take into consideration that it was really his love and concern for the nation that forced him to be like this. In fact Tanaka’s passionate advocacy brought him wide influence. Many, especially among the military and the far right, wanted to become his disciples. As a result of this interest on the right, some attribute attempted right-wing military coups to the influence of his Nichirenism and his interpretation of the Lotus Sutra.
Ikki Kita (1883–1937)²⁷⁹ was the mastermind behind the attempted military coup of February 26, 1936, in Japan. He readily attached himself to the idea of being a chosen-apostle found in the Lotus Sutra and in Nichiren’s thought, and this became the driving force behind his sense of mission with regard to the Japanese and Chinese revolutions. While most right-wing activists put the emperor above the nation, Kita put the nation above the emperor. In National Polity and Pure Socialism²⁸⁰ he says that the emperor is one element of the state, equal to the people, who are other elements, in being an organ of the state. He maintained that the substance of sovereignty was the nation, not the emperor. So he advocated a patriotism that arises from loyalty to the nation and came to the conclusion that loyalty should be given to the nation.
Kita wrote An Unofficial History of the Chinese Revolution,²⁸¹ which he published in 1921, expressing his convictions about and aspirations for the Chinese revolution. It is interesting that he regularly cites ideas from Nichiren and expressions from the Lotus Sutra in this book. For example, at the end of the preface he says, The sutra says that the earth trembled and split open and bodhisattvas sprang up from below the earth, referring to the story in chapter 15 of the Lotus Sutra. He maintains that
trembling and splitting open signifies events such as the emerging of the world revolution and that the bodhisattvas who emerged from the earth were a crowd of saviors hidden under a layer of earth, heroes in the swamp grass, and the great people of the lower class fighting for righteousness.
Kita concludes the book, writing, Without following the great way of the universe, the Lotus Sutra, China will remain in darkness forever. In the end, India has not become independent. Japan, too, will perish. The eight rolls of the Lotus Sutra reward or punish the rights or wrongs of a nation. Who can testify for Shakyamuni Buddha in the final days, using the sword of the Dharma as a walking stick?
On the day before he was to be executed for complicity in the February 26 incident, Kita wrote some farewell words to his son on the back of a copy of the Lotus Sutra that he had kept with him to the end: "I leave only this Lotus Sutra to you, my son. When you remember me, when you miss me, when you become sad in the midst of your life journey, when you have lost your way, when you are troubled by anger, envy, or resentment, and when you are happy or pleased, pray and chant Namu myoho renge kyo before this Lotus Sutra."
Here we sense a feeling similar to Nichiren’s when he said: "Realize sorrows as sorrows, let joys be joys, take sorrows and joys together, and chant Namu myoho renge kyo." Yet Nichiren and Kita differed significantly in their ideas of the nation. For Nichiren, the nation was above the emperor, and the Dharma was above the nation. The Dharma, the realm of the Buddha, is sacred and universal, something beyond this secular world. The authority of the emperor and the power of the nation can be criticized from that position, and this can become a source of power for negation and change. Kita is like Nichiren in putting the nation above the emperor, but he stopped there. As a consequence, he made the nation into an absolute.
Nichiren’s idea was to regulate and reform the nation from a position that transcends it. This was a fundamental principle for him. But this principle was split when it was applied in the modern world: leaning toward transcending the nation on the one hand and toward nationalism on the other. Nichiren’s principle may have parted in these two directions because Japan, in its national infancy at the time, was still newly wrestling with the modern questions of how religion should relate to the state and how the state, in turn, should relate to society.
Nichiren had predicted that in the final days of the Dharma an unprecedented, great worldwide conflict would occur, and he emphasized that the world would then be united by the supreme truth of the Lotus Sutra. Kanji Ishihara (1889–1949),²⁸² an army general, applied Nichiren’s words such as these to the situation in East Asia and the world at that time. In May of 1940, he gave a lecture on The Theory of the Final World War, and later that year wrote the Survey of the Origins of Histories of Wars,²⁸³ in which he said, Saint Nichiren revealed the great war for the unification of the world.
Ishihara hoped for cooperation and racial friendship between Japan and China in order to prepare for the final world war. With this in mind he worked for the creation of the Manchurian state. The Association for the Union of East Asia was formed in November of 1939, and branches opened all over Japan and China. It spread to such an extent that even a Student Union of East Asia was established in June of 1940, and the thirty-four major Japanese universities joined it. But as hostilities between China and Japan increased, a Sino-Japanese war loomed larger. Ishihara warned of the recklessness of a Sino-Japanese war and tried as much as he could to stop its expansion.
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8.Transnational Faith among Modern Japanese Followers of Nichiren
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8Transnational Faith among Modern Japanese Followers of Nichiren
IN CONTRAST WITH the nationalism of the first kind of Nichirenism, there were some among the followers of Nichiren and the Lotus Sutra who embraced a transnational faith in their lives. Chogyu Takayama (1871–1902) ²⁸⁴ argued that Buddhism was a world religion and in that sense had the same viewpoint as Christianity. Therefore it should go hand in hand with Christianity in opposing Nipponism as the common enemy of Buddhism and Christianity.
Later, Takayama had a chance to reflect during his convalescence from tuberculosis, during which time his attention was attracted to the idea of the realm of the universal individual, who transcends nation and race and places his trust in a sacred religious realm that transcends the secular world. He subsequently happened to get ahold of Tanaka’s book, Reformation of the Sect,²⁸⁵ which turned his attention to Nichiren.
Studying Nichiren, Takayama’s eyes gradually began to open to the sacred and religious, which transcends nations, and he came to understand the elite mindset that derives from the sense of there being a sacred realm that transcends the authority of nations. He adopted such a mindset himself, overcame his tuberculosis-related depression, and gained a newfound pride and joy in living. Though he had fallen into depression when crushed by disease, Takayama was deeply encouraged by Nichiren’s valiant attitude as a practitioner of the Lotus Sutra who did not flinch at the hardships of life or at the authority of the nation.
In June of 1902 Takayama published Saint Nichiren and the Nation of Japan,²⁸⁶ in which he claimed that those who regarded Nichiren as a nationalist were mistaken. He argued, Nichiren accepted the nation for the sake of the truth, not vice versa, For Nichiren the truth was greater than the nation, and He even approved of the destruction of the nation for the sake of the truth. In this sense, Nichiren, rather than having the so-called spirit of loyalty to the emperor and love for the nation, was highly disloyal. Takayama became angry when he saw the way in which Nichiren priests were turning Nichiren into a nationalist just as nationalism was on the rise in Japan. In the essay quoted above he wrote, Alas! It is terribly unfortunate that priests attempt to show pride in the prosperity of their own school under the pretext of identifying it as the national religion. Saint Nichiren is praised as a nationalist by the very mouths of such evil priests. How sad! Though Tanaka’s Reformation of the Sect had inspired Takayama, he grew skeptical of Tanaka’s views of the nation. He sent a letter to Tanaka saying something like, I have respectfully and carefully listened to and read your opinions about Saint Nichiren’s views of the nation. Yet many difficult unresolved problems remain.
Among those who were transnationalist Nichiren devotees, some were only slightly different from Takayama. They moved toward the cosmic faith taught by the Lotus Sutra and mediated by Nichiren. One such devotee was Kenji Miyazawa (1896–1933),²⁸⁷ a poet, writer of children’s stories, and agricultural scientist. Around his final year of high school, he happened to come across the book The Lotus Sutra in Chinese and Japanese²⁸⁸ by Daito Shimaji²⁸⁹ in his own house. He read it through once and was immediately thrilled by it. From then on he gradually grew more and more devoted to the Lotus Sutra and, without doing so explicitly, often incorporated its teachings into his stories. He was often explicit in his letters. For example, in a letter written just before his graduation from high school, he wrote, "Namu myoho renge kyo! Namu myoho renge kyo! I sincerely offer myself in service to the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, the foundation of the greatest happiness for all. When I chant ‘Praise to the Lotus Sutra’ just once, the world and I are enveloped in a wondrous light."
When he was twenty-five, Miyazawa joined Tanaka’s Pillar of the Nation Association, and in the
following year he went to Tokyo to look into the organization and devote himself to being a follower of Nichiren. Miyazawa’s admiration for Tanaka and Nichiren was abnormally passionate, as can be seen in the letters he wrote to friends in 1920, when he joined the Pillar of the Nation Association. I joined the Practice of Faith Division of the Pillar of the Nation Association. In other words, my life now belongs to Saint Nichiren. Thus I am now under the direction of Professor Chigaku Tanaka.
Miyazawa’s sister, Toshi, whom he loved more than anyone else in the world, died from tuberculosis when he was twenty-seven. In his poems from that time we begin to see signs of change in his fervent faith as a Nichiren follower. He began to move toward a cosmic faith through the Lotus Sutra. A few years later, in the preface to a book on the art of farming,²⁹⁰ he wrote, To live a strong and righteous life is to hold the whole galaxy in one’s awareness and to act accordingly. In the book itself he says, Together let us first spread out in the sky in all directions by becoming radiant specks of cosmic dust. His reverence for cosmic reality is evident in this encouragement to put oneself in an infinite cosmic context.
Miyazawa’s view of the cosmos wasn’t abstract or static but practical, volitional, and active. He said, Burn all problems as you would firewood, and be sympathetic with the spirit in all things, and Gather energy from the clouds by communicating with the winds. In conclusion he emphasized, What we need is a clear will that embraces the galaxy—such great energy and heat. He ties energy from the clouds, clear will that embraces the galaxy, and great energy and heat together in the great quest for the sake of the world. First of all, let’s have the great quest for the sake of the world, he wrote, indicating that the great quest is that the whole world become happy. Until the whole world becomes happy, there can be no individual happiness, he explains, and, Our quest is for the true happiness of the world. One is reminded here of the bodhisattva practice of the Lotus Sutra. Miyazawa learned these lessons for living—bathing in the galaxy, taking energy from that, seeking the happiness of the whole world, and burning ordinary problems like firewood while living a strong and righteous life of shared suffering and joy—from the Lotus Sutra. He often said, Live a strong and righteous life. Move onward without avoiding suffering.
Miyazawa’s source for this was the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. For him, that was where the spring of true happiness emerges, and where one finds the source of energy for realizing happiness. In a letter he wrote, We should have great courage and seek true happiness for all living beings. This is the Lotus Sutra. Occasionally he chanted Namu myoho renge kyo and imagined that his spirit was flying in the boundless sky, where he was filled with the joy of a transcendent life, and from which he returned to earth having acquired strength and courage to endure a life of suffering.
Miyazawa took up an extremely stoic life, wearing plain clothes and eating simple food. At the age of thirty-three, in addition to being overworked, he came down with the tuberculosis that would soon kill him. In February of the following year, looking his own death in the face, he wrote poems beginning with the following words:
I will die soon
today or tomorrow.
Again, anew, I wonder, What am I?
And he ended this way:
The original Dharma of all the buddhas is nothing but
the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma Sutra.
Praise to the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma Sutra.
Life, too, is the life of the Wonderful Dharma.
Death, too, is the death of the Wonderful Dharma.
In life and in death I uphold the Wonderful Dharma.²⁹¹
The view of life and death in these closing words is in much the same vein as that of Tendai original enlightenment thought introduced earlier. Yet Tendai original enlightenment thought was so taken up with absolute states that it forgot the reality of actual death, and in turn tended to fall into idealistic and monistic affirmation of actual reality. Compared with it, there was fear and trembling in Miyazawa’s existential gaze at death. In a piece called Night, from April 28²⁹² of the same year as the poems above, he wrote:
So far, for two hours
the blood from my throat hasn’t stopped.
Outside, people walk no longer.
Trees quietly breathe and bud on this spring night.
This very place is spring’s place of practice.
The bodhisattva has discarded a billion of his bodies.
The many buddhas here experience life and nirvana. And so
tonight, now, here, seen by no one,
I can die alone.
I’ve held this thought many times,
telling it to myself.
But once again lukewarm
new blood wells up. And
once again pale-white, I become frightened.
An appointment book that he apparently wrote in while on his deathbed was found after he died. Words and phrases from the Lotus Sutra were written all over it, and in it we can see his readiness for death. On the inside of the back cover, written in Chinese, are the words from chapter 21 of the Lotus Sutra: You should understand that all such places are places of the Way. . . . They are where the buddhas reach complete nirvana.²⁹³ This was one of Nichiren’s favorite passages, one that he read often. It is also one that Dogen chanted when he was seriously ill.
From this note we can see that Miyazawa’s previously overeager faith had receded into the shadows. In its place we see an introspective and humble attitude. This is recorded, for example, in the following poem:
I do not want pleasure.
I do not want fame.
Now I just
want to offer
this base, useless body
to the Lotus Sutra;
to light up a speck of dust
and, if forgiven,
become a servant to my father and mother,
to return their billions of favors.
Sick and faced with death,
I have no other wish.
This famous poem dated November 3, is written in his appointment book:
Neither yielding to rain;
Nor yielding to wind.
He also said that he wanted to be
What everyone calls a good-for-nothing,
No one praises
And no one worries about—
This is the kind of man
I want to be.²⁹⁴
On the day before his death on September 20, 1933, he wrote a poem that said:
I will be glad if my life
Rotting away from disease
Results in some fruit.
Once again so sick that he couldn’t get up, he was crushed with grief, fell into depression, and was gripped by a sense of failure. But his faith in the Lotus Sutra was strengthened, and he lived a solid life to the end despite being very sick, often helping poor peasants with fertilizer problems, while enveloped by the infinite cosmos and embraced by eternal life.
On September 21, 1933, ready to meet death, he chanted the daimoku and left some final words for his father saying that he wanted to send a thousand copies of the Japanese translation of the Lotus Sutra to his acquaintances. Inside the back cover he wanted him to write words to the following effect: My whole life’s work has been to deliver this sutra to you. I hope you will enter the supreme Way by coming in contact with the will of the Buddha.
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9.People-Centered Faith—Socialist Followers of Nichiren
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9
People-Centered Faith—Socialist Followers of Nichiren
LAST TO BE discussed is a group among the new religious movements of Japan that have a people-centered faith. Twentieth century new religious movements in Japan can be divided broadly into two kinds: Shinto and Buddhist. Almost all the Buddhist groups are related to Nichiren or Lotus faith. These new religious organizations were flourishing until recent years, with anywhere from a few hundred thousand to several million members.
What are the reasons for this flourishing? The answer is related for the most part to three common characteristics of the new religious movements, which put simply are thanksgiving (okage), being cursed (tatari), and correction (naoshi). Thanksgiving involves receiving benefits in this world. Being cursed has to do with the worship of ancestor spirits, as it is understood that present unhappiness is caused by curses from restless ancestor spirits. And correction, which includes social reform, making fresh starts, and restoration of everyday life, involves improvement and reform of society. Of these three common characteristics, it is thought that thanksgiving and being cursed are rooted in ancient Japanese ways of thinking. We know from ancient myths that the Japanese were very strongly oriented to this world and had a strong animistic interest in ancestor worship. This interest underlies all of Japanese history. On the other hand, correction, especially social reform, is related to the social background in which the new religious movements arose.
We find harbingers of the new religious movements, of both the Shinto and Buddhist types, at the end of the Tokugawa period. The earliest among the Shinto groups was the Fuji-ko,²⁹⁵ organized from the mountain-worshipping Fuji faith. The Assembly Established by the Buddha²⁹⁶ was a Nichiren group founded by Seifu Nagamatsu (1817–90).²⁹⁷ At thirty-two, Nagamatsu, born as the son of townspeople in Kyoto, became the Buddhist priest Nissen²⁹⁸ in the Eight-chapter Faction of the Lotus Sect²⁹⁹ (now the Main Gate School of the Lotus Sect).³⁰⁰ Later, he decided that it was necessary to return to lay life, where he organized a lay-oriented group called the Assembly Established by the Buddha.
We find the three characteristics mentioned earlier in the new religious movements that appeared at the end of the Tokugawa period. Correction, especially social reform, was related to and continued in the popular movements that peaked at the end of the period, known by such names as pilgrimage of thanksgiving³⁰¹ and Why not?³⁰² As the Tokugawa period drew to a close, group pilgrimages to the Ise Shrine became popular, pilgrimages of thanksgiving largely being the reason for this. These pilgrimages were also called pilgrimages of slipping away,³⁰³ indicating that they sometimes involved sneaking away from family or employer without permission to go on a pilgrimage to the Ise Shrine. Such pilgrimages were called pilgrimages of thanksgiving because pilgrims were given food and lodging by people along the way.
Pilgrimage to Ise, where the Ise Grand Shrine is located, initially became popular during the Muromachi period (1392–1573) when this pilgrimage was known for its atmosphere of pleasure. From the seventeenth century on, it took the form of group pilgrimage, and in the eighteenth century it developed into a large-scale movement involving the whole country. Rumors that Ise Shrine talismans had fallen from heaven spread widely, and groups from several hundred thousand to several million made pilgrimages to the Ise Shrine. Records show that the number of people making pilgrimages of thanksgiving in 1830 reached a total of 4,862,088.
Pilgrimages of thanksgiving allowed people to express their frustrations and provided some temporary release. They were a kind of passive resistance to the feudal regime. In fact, there were
cases in which such pilgrimages transformed into definite resistance movements in the form of riots and uprisings. One case in which such pilgrimages turned into a kind of social reform movement was the popular wild dance of the Why not? movement that occurred in the fall and winter of 1867. The movement was initiated in late August by a rumor in the Nagoya area that Ise Shrine talismans had fallen from heaven. Men and women, young and old, went crazy with joy and danced wildly. By October, this exuberance had spread over much of Japan, from the Kyoto-Osaka area, through the areas along the Tokaido highway from Kyoto to Edo (Tokyo), to such places as Edo itself, Kofu, Matsumoto, Tokushima, and Fukushima. This was just at the time when the Tokugawa government came to an end, returning control of the country to the emperor. The faction that overthrew the Tokugawa shogunate encouraged and took advantage of the Why not? movement among the people.
The people, expecting social reform and stirred up by the words Why not? Why not?, danced around in the streets day and night with fanfare, disguised in strange costumes of the opposite sex. In the process, groups would push their way into the homes of long-disliked landlords or rich merchants, taking wine and money, and chanting, Why not have this? When they got sleepy, they slept, not caring whether or not they were in a stranger’s house. And when they woke up, they resumed dancing and chanting, Why not? Why not?
Pilgrimages of thanksgiving, especially the Why not? movement, were an outlet for the dissatisfactions of suppressed people, which they turned to in a kind of religious ecstasy. Some feared that the excitement and trance of such religious ecstasy would make people lose their minds and drive them to immoral acts. Further, since these movements were not organized, lacked leaders, and were driven by mass psychology, it would have been difficult for them to exercise any unified power to accomplish anything as a group.
A mass movement that was clearly organized and well-directed was the so-called new religions movement. Consequently, some of the new religions have been able to engage in various kinds of social reform. In some of the new religions, the social reform element was weaker than those of thanksgiving involving this-worldly benefits or of being cursed by ancestor spirits. But on the other hand, some of the new religious groups do advocate social reform.
The new religious movements developed from the alienated class or lowest social stratum of society—in other words, so-called oppressed peoples grew frustrated and exploded. They emphasized the idea that if a new religious group grew, its teachings spread, and if the world was reformed, a happier world would emerge with the people at its center. A lot of people were brought into new religious movements in this way.
In a typical society, people at the lowest level can gain status by participating in religious organizations and experiencing the comforts and joys of the group. This is a kind of acquisition of special social identity through religious faith. Groups that managed to instill such identity gained many followers. Among the new Buddhist religious organizations, Nichiren and Lotus Sutra groups, such as Soka Gakkai,³⁰⁴ Rissho Kosei-kai,³⁰⁵ and Reiyukai,³⁰⁶ were dominant. This was a consequence of the fact that they found in Nichiren and in the Lotus Sutra a social identity and an idea of social reform. Of course, we cannot ignore the influence of a positive attitude toward this world and the idea of gaining benefits in this world, which were the most prominent characteristic of such groups.
Chogyu Takayama, discussed earlier, also gained a special social identity through Nichiren, but in his case we might see social identity as a kind of sacred identity. In new religious movements such a sense of identity created a sacred group through a process of socialization. Generally speaking, such groups provide a sense of fellowship, something that is a great support for people.
Further, there was a group of socialistic followers of Nichiren within the popular social reform
movements, which became politicized—the so-called left wing Nichiren movement. Movements such as that initiated by Giro Senoo³⁰⁷ were of this kind. Senoo was born into a sake-producing family in Hiroshima in 1890. He entered the Ichiiko High School, but he got tuberculosis and dropped out of school. He fought against the disease for over ten years. While recuperating he became a follower of Nichiren and later joined Nissho Honda’s (1867–1931)³⁰⁸ Toitsukaku group.³⁰⁹
Honda was a priest in the Kempon Hokke-shu³¹⁰ who inspired turning the image of Nichiren toward nationalism, and like Chigaku Tanaka was very influential. A number of prominent men of the time praised Honda’s 1916 book, Lectures on the Lotus Sutra.³¹¹ Honda was expelled from the sect at one time because of his effort to reform it. But he returned to the fold and was head abbot for a long time, contributing to the movement for the unification of Nichiren sects. In addition to founding the Toitsukaku in 1912, he founded various organizations, such as the Tenseikai in 1909,³¹² the Jikeikai in 1917,³¹³ and the Chiho Shikokukai in 1928,³¹⁴ in an attempt to unify thought according to national policy. And he played a leading role in the emperor’s awarding Nichiren the honorary title Great Teacher for Establishing the Truth³¹⁵ in 1922.
Senoo felt dissatisfied with the lack of spirit in established Buddhist groups, and in 1919 with some colleagues he established the Great Japanese Nichiren Youth Group,³¹⁶ which leapt into vigorous, practical action. At that time the group had a nationalistic color but was based on a kind of humanism, using such slogans as faith and love. Its core members were youth from farming villages. Later, having directly witnessed a succession of economic crises, labor disputes, and tenant farmer disputes, Senoo’s social concern intensified. Sometimes he was so involved in solving tenant farmer disputes that he was revered as greatly as Nichiren is now.
According to his own recollections, he realized, through being involved in these disputes, that idealistic lectures and sermons removed from actual life only benefitted landlords and capitalists, and that mediation that merely sought to persuade landlords and comfort the proletariat was not in accord with the Buddha’s intention. When the Showa period arrived, he gradually grew critical of the system of monopolistic capitalism, insisting that such a system was against the egalitarian spirit of Buddhism. He wanted to overthrow it.
In 1931, Senoo, splitting from some of his comrades who disagreed with his views, once again organized the Emerging Buddhist Youth League.³¹⁷ When the League was formed, he put forth three basic principles: proclaiming reverence for Shakyamuni Buddha, establishing the buddha-land of faith and love on earth, and correcting the capitalistic system, which is contrary to the spirit of Buddhism and obstructs the welfare of the people. He began to criticize the Japanese imperial system and to consider its overthrow. He says that he was stimulated by books by Lenin, such as The State and Revolution (1917), and that he found his spiritual support in Nichiren’s criticism of monarchy as seen in his Admonition with Hachiman.³¹⁸
Senoo opposed materialism based on a Buddhist idea of unity of mind and matter, but he accepted the idea of violent revolution as an exceptional means for speedily realizing the buddha-land on earth, and he was willing to entertain the idea that a temporary dictatorship of the proletariat was permissible. He also used internationalism as a slogan. He picked up on Nichiren’s view of the Mongolian invasion as punishment of Japan by saints from a neighboring country. He pointed to this as a model of internationalism and therefore thought it blasphemous to set Nichiren up as a nationalist. He also thought that the sangha during the time of Shakyamuni was a cooperative community with common property and that fundamental Buddhist teachings such as selflessness, emptiness, interdependent relations, interdependent origination, and so forth, implied the socialist ideal of community.
Citing the phrase the innumerable meanings emerge from one Dharma, drawn from the second chapter of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings—regarded as the opening or introductory sutra to the Lotus Sutra—he insisted that Buddhism should always develop in accord with the times and society, and he asked the established Buddhist groups to reflect on their inflexible attitudes.
Senoo turned a critical eye not only toward established Nichiren sects but toward established Nichirenism, which was determinedly nationalistic. When he established the Alliance of New Buddhist Youth, he moved away from Nichirenism as it had been up to then, and began to take a pan-Buddhist stance. Yet he did not deny Nichiren’s relevance, which we know from the fact that he occasionally cited Nichiren. What he discarded in trying to bring life to Nichiren for the coming age was the thick shell that later generations had put around Nichiren. For the April 1931 issue of Under the Flag of New Buddhism (later just New Buddhism), the Alliance’s bulletin, he wrote an essay entitled Turn toward New Buddhist Youth, in which he said, I threw off Saint Nichiren’s old coat, in an attempt to restore his spirit to the contemporary world.
Moreover, as indicated earlier, while maintaining the unity of mind and matter against materialism, Senoo also criticized the spiritualism of the newly emerging Buddhist movements as nothing more than idealistic adaptations of established Buddhism. As an example he pointed to the Truth Movement of Entei Tomomatsu.
Senoo was active in the proletariat liberation movement, labor unions, and labor disputes. As a result, the government’s oppressive power finally caught up with him, and in November of 1936 he was arrested and the Alliance of New Buddhist Youth forced to dissolve. But after the War he took part in the peace movement with his comrades.
Government oppression was not only directed against socialist political activities but toward anything that did not go along with the nationalism of absolute imperial power. As a result, incidents of oppression and imprisonment occurred among Christians and Buddhists and even among the new religious movements.
Among the new religious movements, the oppression of Omoto-kyo³²¹ was the most violent. New religions were often oppressed when they were getting started. At that time they were controlled by strict government regulations, with the excuse that they were dedicated to false and obscene gods. The fact that they were people-centered or interested in social reform sometimes led to antiauthoritarian speech and behavior among the new religious movements. Because of this they were frequently charged with the crime of disrespecting the emperor.
Because of its universality as a world religion, and its occasionally progressive thought and movements, Christianity became an object of oppression, too. In general, established Buddhists adapted themselves to the will of the government, and those parts of the writings of their founders and others that were examined and found to be undesirable had to be purged. For example, in 1939 the authorities examined Shinran’s words Everyone, from lords to subjects, goes against the Dharma and fails to do what is right, which appear in a chapter of Shinran’s Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Realization,and that part of the book had to be deleted. In Nichiren’s case, several hundred passages had to be deleted as disrespectful. In Nichiren’s writings, the authority of the Buddha and the Buddha-dharma are held high, below which come the authority of gods, emperors, and nations. There were a number of places where his words were examined, criticized, and had to be deleted on account of being disrespectful.
Furthermore, some of Nichiren’s followers were imprisoned for such crimes of disrespect toward the emperor. They were not ideologically believers in socialism and the like, but simply accepted the words of Nichiren as they were. For that they were thrown in prison. Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, the first president of Soka Gakkai, for example, was arrested and put in prison, as were the second president, Josei Toda, and twenty other leaders in 1943. Makiguchi died in prison. Toda was released only at the end of the War. Their arrests were made in connection with Ise Shrine talismans.
At that time the government set up Shinto shrines as part of the system of State Shinto. As a way of controlling various religions, every religious group was forced to accept talismans from the Ise Shrine. But Soka Gakkai refused. This is why it was suppressed and its leaders imprisoned. Their refusal originated from Nichiren’s idea that the good gods had abandoned the country and had returned to the heavenly realm. Nichiren had taught that the Japanese gods had been converted to the Buddha-dharma and had become good guardian deities of the Dharma. But since there was no longer any true Dharma in Japan, they had abandoned Japan and gone to the heavenly realm. Accordingly, there are no gods in the Shinto shrines, and it is a waste of time to visit them. The talismans are empty of value. They are nothing more than plain pieces of paper. Thus, the Nichiren sects developed the idea of refusing to pray at Shinto shrines.
In True Pure Land (shinshu) Buddhism the same idea arose from a different perspective. There, Buddha-dharma means the nembutsu—chanting praise to Amida Buddha—and the guardian deities are pleased so long as the nembutsu is recited. So there is no need to visit Shinto shrines other than for the purpose of reciting the nembutsu. Thus, during the Tokugawa period, scholars of the school of National Learning such as Atsutane Hirata attacked the Nichiren and True Pure Land schools as enemies of the gods.³²⁵
This is why Makiguchi and others refused to accept the talismans from Ise Shrine. Since the gods had returned to the heavenly realm and were no longer at the shrines, the talismans were meaningless. Makiguchi and the others had no political ideology for resisting state power. But they did engage in passive resistance, and for this they were imprisoned.
Other incidents of suppression and imprisonment regarding the mandala of ten realms occurred in the Eight-chapter Faction of the Main Gate School of the Lotus Sect. The mandala of ten realms is a scroll in which representatives of each of the ten realms of existence were inscribed around the daimoku in the center. The names of the Shinto gods Amaterasu—the Sun Goddess—and Great Bodhisattva Hachiman were written under the daimoku. Government authorities attacked this, claiming that Amaterasu was being kicked by the daimoku. Nichiryu (1385–1464), the founder of the Main Gate School, had placed Amaterasu and other gods in the realms of hungry spirits and beasts. This was quoted in a textbook used in the Main Gate School seminary. When the Ministry of Education saw this in 1941, several of the sect’s leaders were arrested for the crime of disrespecting the emperor. One died in prison and the rest were released under the postwar abolition of the crime of disrespecting the emperor.
This incident, too, did not happen as a consequence of having an anti-authoritarian or revolutionary ideology. It was an unintentional demonstration of the fact that, from the point of view of the authorities, there is something dangerous in the thought of Nichiren.
We have now discussed Nichiren and some of his followers. Such things are very interesting and their further examination and analysis would be very valuable.
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