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The Supremacy of the Lotus Sutra
The following is a Letter written by Nichiren to Ueno-ama Gozen, the mother
of Nanjo Tokimitsu, who latter donated part of his estate to help Nikko
Shonin establish the head temple of Nichiren Shoshu at Taiseki-ji.
I have added my own comments in bold.
Wu-lung and I-lung
I have received one horse load of polished rice (four to1) and a bale of taros and respectfully chanted Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
Lay believers and followers of priests would traditionally offer gifts of food, clothing and other necessities as alms and to uphold respect for great teachers to keep them from the need to go about begging.
Myoho-renge-kyo is likened to the lotus. The mahamandara flower2 in heaven and the cherry blossom in the human world are both celebrated flowers, but the Buddha chose neither to compare to the Lotus Sutra. Of all the flowers, he selected the lotus blossom to symbolize the Lotus Sutra. There is a reason for this. Some plants first flower and then produce fruit, while in others fruit comes forth before flowers. Some bear only one flower but many fruit, others send forth many flowers but only one fruit, and still others produce fruit without flowering. Thus there are all manner of plants, but the lotus is the only one which bears flowers and fruit3 simultaneously. The benefit of all the other sutras is uncertain, because they teach that one must first make good causes and only then can one become a Buddha at some later time. The Lotus Sutra is completely different. A hand which takes it up immediately attains enlightenment, and a mouth which chants it instantly enters Buddhahood, just as the moon is reflected in the water the moment it appears from behind the eastern mountains, or as a sound and its echo arise simultaneously. It is for this reason that the sutra states, "Among those who hear of this Law, there is not one who shall not attain Buddhahood.4" This passage means that if there are a hundred or a thousand people who embrace this sutra, without a single exception all one hundred or one thousand of them will become Buddhas.
In your letter you mention the anniversary of the death of you father, Matsuno Rokuro Zaemon Nyudo. You say, "Since he left many sons behind, memorial services for him will be conducted in as many different ways. I fear, however, that such ceremonies will be slanderous unless strictly based on the Lotus Sutra." Shakyamuni Buddha's golden teaching states, "The World-Honored One has long expounded his doctrines and must now reveal the truth."5 Taho Buddha gave testimony, declaring that all the teachings of Myoho-renge-kyo are true. And all the Buddhas of the ten directions gave credence to the sutra's verity by extending their tongues6 to the Brahma Heaven.
To the southwest across the ocean from Japan, there is a country named China. In that country, some people believe in the Buddha but not in gods, while others believe exactly the opposite.
This could easily apply to the teachings and countries to the West and the teachings of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Most all of the religions founded on the Old and New Testaments are direct copies and interpretations of the teachings and stories of Buddha and older pagan rituals from Druids and further.
Perhaps a similar situation existed in the early days of our own country. Be that as it may, in China there once lived a calligrapher named Wu-lung. In his art he was without peer in the entire country, just as was Tofu or Kozei7 in Japan. He hated Buddhism and vowed that he would never transcribe any Buddhist scriptures. As he approached his end, he fell seriously ill. On his deathbed he expressed his last wishes to his son, saying, "You are my son. Not only have you inherited my skill but also you write with an even better hand than I. No matter what evil influence may work upon you, you must not copy the Lotus Sutra." Thereupon blood spurted like fountains from his five sense organs.8 His tongue split into eight pieces, and his body fell apart in ten directions. Yet his relatives, ignorant of the three evil paths, did not realize that this was an omen that he would fall into hell.
The son's name was I-lung. He, too, proved to be the best calligrapher in China. Obedient to his father's will, he pledged that he would never transcribe the Lotus Sutra. The king of the time was Ssu-ma9 by name. He believed in Buddhism and held the Lotus Sutra in especially high regard. He desired to have this sutra transcribed by an excellent calligrapher--none but the most skilled in all the country--so that he could have a copy of his own. So he summoned I-lung. I-lung explained that his father's will forbade him from doing so and beseeched the king to excuse him from the task. Hearing this, the king called another calligrapher and had him transcribe the entire sutra. The result, however, was far from satisfying.
The king sent again for I-lung and said to him, "Since you say your father's will forbids you, I will not compel you to copy the sutra. I do insist, however, that you at least obey my command to write the titles of its eight volumes." I-lung begged repeatedly to be excused. The king, now furious, said, "Your father was as much my subject as you are. If you refuse to write the titles for fear of being unfilial to him, I will charge you with disobedience of a royal decree." In this way the king repeated his strict order. I-lung, though unwilling to be unfilial, realized that he could no longer disobey the royal command, so he wrote the titles [of the eight volumes]10 of the Lotus Sutra and presented his work to the king.
Returning home, I-lung faced his father's grave and, shedding tears of blood, reported, "The ruler commanded me so strictly that, against your will, I wrote the titles of the Lotus Sutra." In his grief that he could not escape the offence of being unfilial, he remained by the graveside for three days on end, fasting until he was on the verge of death. At the Hour of the Tiger11 on the third day, he was almost dead and felt as if he were dreaming. He looked up at the sky and saw a heavenly being, who looked like Taishaku in a painting and whose multitude of followers filled both heaven and earth. I-lung asked him who he was. The heavenly being replied, "Do you not recognize me? I am your father, Wu-lung. While I was in the human world, I adhered to non-Buddhist scriptures and harboured enmity toward Buddhism, particularly toward the Lotus Sutra. For this reason, I fell into the hell of incessant suffering.
"Each day I had my tongue wrenched out several hundred times. Now I was dead, now I was alive again. I kept crying in agony, alternately looking up to heaven and flinging myself to the ground, but there was no one to heed my screams. I wanted to tell the human world of my anguish, but there was no means of communication. Whenever you insisted upon adhering to my will, your words would either turn into flames and torment me or be transformed into swords which rained down from heaven upon me. Your behaviour was unfilial in the extreme. However, since you were acting thus in order to abide by my will. I knew I could not entertain a grudge against you, for I was only receiving the retribution for my own deeds.
"While I was thinking thus, a golden Buddha suddenly appeared in the hell of incessant suffering and declared, 'Even those who have destroyed enough good causes to fill the universe, if they hear the Lotus Sutra even once, they will never fail to attain enlightenment.'12 When this Buddha entered the hell of incessant suffering, it was as if a deluge of water had been poured over a great fire. As my agony subsided a little, I joined my palms together in prayer and asked him what kind of Buddha he was. The Buddha replied, "I am the character myo, one of the sixty-four characters which compose the titles [of the eight volumes] of the Lotus Sutra, which your son, I-lung, is now writing." As eight characters form the title of each of the eight volumes,13 a total of sixty-four Buddhas appeared and shone like sixty-four full moons, and the utter darkness of the hell of incessant suffering was instantly transformed into a dazzling brilliance. Moreover, in accordance with the principle that any place is, without changing its characteristics, in and of itself a Buddha land,14 the hell of incessant suffering immediately became the capital of Eternally Tranquil Light.15
This is a paramount precept. Read carefully, it states that all "place", that is time and space, is the Buddha land. In other words, whatever we experience from hell to rapture, we are in fact in the Buddha land. Our experiences are limited by our grasp of the truth, which is that we are constantly in the Buddha land and need only awaken to that truth in order to experience Buddha-hood.
I as well as all the other inmates became Buddhas seated on lotus blossoms,
and we are now ascending to the inner court of the Tushita Heaven.16 This
I am reporting to you before anyone else."
I-lung said, "It was my hand that wrote the titles. How could you
have been saved? Moreover, I did not write them with sincerity. How could
it possibly have helped you?" His father replied, "How ignorant
you are! Your hand is my hand, and your body is my body. Your act of writing
characters equals my doing so. Although you had no faith in your heart,
you nevertheless wrote the titles with your hand. Therefore, I have already
been saved. Think of a child who sets fire to something and, without the
least intention of doing so, causes it to be burned. The same holds true
with the Lotus Sutra. If one professes faith in it, he will surely become
a Buddha, even though he may not expect it in the least. Now that you
understand this principle, never slander the Lotus Sutra. However, since
you are among the laity, you are in a better position to repent of my
past slanderous words, no matter how grave they may have been."
Once again Nichiren makes reference to the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, which states that we are all inherently Buddhas, and need only awaken to that divine reality.
I-lung reported all this to the king. The king said, "My wish has been answered with splendid results." From then on, I-lung basked increasingly in the royal favour, and the entire populace of the country came to revere the Lotus Sutra.
The late Goro17 and Lord Matsuno were, respectively your son and father. You are the lord's daughter. I believe, therefore, that he must at this very moment be in the inner court of the Tushita Heaven. Hoki-bo18 will explain this to you. Since I wrote in haste, it was impossible to furnish details.
With my deep respect,
Nichiren
The fifteenth day of the eleventh month
Footnotes:
1. To: A volume unit of measure. One to is equal to about 18 litres.
2. Mahamandara flower: One of the four kinds of exquisite flowers said
to bloom in heaven, according to Indian tradition. It emits a beautiful
fragrance and delights those who see it.
3. This refers to the lotus's seedpod.
4. Lotus Sutra, Chap. 2.
5. Ibid.
6. A Buddha is said to possess an extremely long and broad tongue-one
of his thirty-two distinguishing features. According to an ancient Indian
belief, the length of the tongue projected when one spoke indicated the
profundity of the truth uttered. The Buddhas extending their tongues to
the Brahma Heaven is described in the Jinriki (21st) chapter of the Lotus
Sutra.
7. Tofu or Kozei: Ono no Tofu (894-966) and Fujiwara no Kozei (972-1027),
two of the three most outstanding Japanese calligraphers of their time,
along with Fujiwara no Sukemasa.
8. Five sense organs: The eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body, which perform
the five corresponding sensory functions of sight, hearing, smell, taste,
and touch.
9. Ssu-ma: A ruler of Ping-chou in the northern part of China. Ssu-ma
was probably an official title. Further details about him are unknown.
10. This means that I-lung wrote the titles on separate paper to be used
on the covers of the eight scrolls of which the sutra consists.
11. Hour of the Tiger: One of the twelve horary signs used in China and
Japan to measure time of day by dividing it into two-hour intervals. This
indicates the hours between 3:00 and 5:00 in the morning.
12. Hokke Denki, vol. 8.
13. The title of each volume of the Lotus Sutra comprises eight Chinese
characters: the five characters of the title, myo-ho-ren-ge-kyo, and the
three characters indicating the volume number.
14. Nichiren Daishonin here borrows the wording of the Hokke Gengi Shakusen,
which states that living beings in any of the nine worlds can attain Buddhahood
just as they are without changing their individual characteristics. The
Daishonin applies the same principle to the insentient environment.
15. Eternally Tranquil Light: A name for the land where the Buddha dwells.
16. Tushita Heaven: "Heaven of Satisfaction" the fourth of the
six heavens in the world of desire. It is said that bodhisattvas are reborn
there just before their last rebirth in the world when they attain Buddhahood.
Bodhisattva Miroku is said to reside in the inner court of this heaven.
17. Goro (1265-1280): Nanjo Shichiro Goro, the fifth son of Ueno-ama Gozen
and a younger brother of Nanjo Tokimitsu. Although he showed splendid
promise, he died at the age of sixteen.
18. Hoki-bo (1246-1333): Hoki-bo Nikko, the Buddhist name that Nikko Shonin
received in 1258 on becoming Nichiren Daishonin's disciple.
Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 4, page 305.
