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Chapter II:

Nichiren

The Life of Nichiren

4. Extinction (continued from the last issue)


Following his proclamation of a new school of Buddhism, Nichiren devoted his whole being to the propagation of the Lotus Sutra. But the forced endurance of one hardship after another, especially the two-odd years spent on frigid Sado Island, quietly ate away at Nichiren's health. Shij Kinga, one of the Founder's most dedicated followers and a person knowledgeable in medicine, prepared various medicinal cures for Nichiren, but the debilitation resulting from long years of rigorous missionary activity was not to be relieved.

Even so, in his last letter to Lord Hakiri, Nichiren revealed that his warmth of character remained unchanged when he mentioned that he would allow the horse he had ridden from Mt. Minobu to remain with its keeper since it was so cute and to separate the two would be cruel. When he sensed the final moment's arrival, Nichiren appointed the six elder monks in whole hands he placed the future of his Temple. Then, in the hour of the dragon, on the thirteenth of September, he ended a stormy life spent in the propagation of the Lotus Sutra.

The Founder was then sixty-one years old. On the fourteenth, his body was cremated and his remains, in accordance with his will, were returned to Mt. Minobu for burial. The procession carrying his ashes left Ikegami on the nineteenth and arrived at Minobu on the twenty-third.

8. Nichiren's Major Writings

Nichiren's written works number over 500. Among these are treatises, letters and diagrams, but because all of his writings were composed with the aim of transmitting faith to his disciples and lay followers, it is extremely difficult to distinguish between treatises and letters. However, five of his texts demand special attention: Rissho ankoku ron, Kaimoku sho, Kanjin honzon sho, Senji sho and Hoon sho are held in particular reverence.

The Rissho ankoku ron was presented to the ex-regent Raja Tokiyori through the mediation of Nichiren's follower Saishin. In this work, Nichiren points out that the then current crisis of strange heavenly phenomena, earthquakes, famines and epidemics was forecasted in the brilliant mirror of the Lotus Sutra and that the nation should convert to faith in the Lotus' One Vehicle.

The Kaimoku sho was written in the spring following his exile to Sado as a remembrance for his disciples. Among his followers, not a few began to have doubts or renounced their faith in the face of unendurable pressure and suppression. In response to such doubts, Nichiren reflected on the Buddha's teachings and the history of their transmission and revealed his conviction it was he who had carried out the role of the bodhisattva Superior Conduct prophesied in the Lotus and who was the teacher to follow in Mappo.

The Treatise on Spiritual insight and the Object of Worship was written to clarify the proper religious training, i.e. spiritual insight, and the proper object of worship for the era beginning with the 2,001st year after the Buddha's extinction. This text explains the concept of exposure and revelation that transcends the traditional doctrines and philosophies of Buddhism and maintains that the Lotus Sutra contains within itself the practice and the enlightenment of the Buddha and that its ultimate thesis is exclusive trust and preservation of the Lotus along with absolute faith in the eternal Buddha, Sakyamuni.

The Treatise on Selection of the Time was compiled on Mt. Minobu. In this work, Nichiren affirmed that in order not to be troubled by the Bun'ei disturbances, "one must, considering the time, grasp bold of Buddhism." 2

Upon hearing of the death of his first teacher, Dozen, at Kiyozumi, Nichiren wrote the Treatise on Repaying Kindness in which he reviewed that part of his life which he had lived as the true Buddhist and concluded with the belief that all of the merit that he had thereby generated would be bestowed upon his old master.

9. Preservation of the Founder's Writings

Toki Nichijo in 1299, seventeen years after Nichiren's death, left a farewell message in four articles regarding the permanent maintenance of Nichiren's writings at the Nakayama Hokekyo-ji Temple. He charged in the first article that none of Nichiren's personal letters or any of the some sixty volumes of his teachings should be allowed out of the temple." In the second article, Nichijo said with regard to the storage of the teachings that "as during my lifetime this work should be pursued without even a moment's neglect." From this it can be inferred that Nichijo had been consciously collecting Nichiren's treatises and epistles even while the Founder lived. Thus even in his farewell message he strongly asserted that Nichiren's writings should not be taken out of the temple. This tradition continues today, not only at the Nakayama Hokekyo-ji founded by Nichijo but at the major temples in each branch, as can be seen in the complete collection of Nichiren's works compiled by the Center for Nichiren Doctrinal Studies at Rissho University in Tokyo.

The Buddhism expounded by Nichiren had a definitely prophetic character to it, especially following the exile to Sado Island. Nichijo and others, sensing this aspect, probably decided on their own to gather actively the existing works. Also, it is highly probable that Nichiren entrusted the preservation of such works as the Treatise on the Awakening and the Treatise on Spiritual Insight and the Object of Worship to his followers as his testimony to the future. Among these important works, custody of the first was placed in the hands of Shij Kingo while the second was bequeathed to Toki Nichijo for safe keeping.

However, perhaps more than anything else, the reason for Nichiren's writings being so vigorously preserved lay in the fact that each says something meaningful to every reader and does not stop merely with generalized instructions.

II. Nichiren and the Lotus Sutra


10. The Devotee of the Lotus Sutra

Nichiren held the Lotus Sutra to be foremost among the Buddha's teachings. That is, he put his faith in the Lotus Sutra alone of all the Buddhist literature and recognized the value of other sutras only in so far as they served as stepping stones, or stages, to the teachings at the heart of the Lotus.

Such exclusive dependence on the Lotus Sutra was not simple a matter of choosing one text from the many existing sutras. Therefore we shall take a few moments here to discuss the meaning of this decision.

The phrase that comes to mind about Nichiren's choice of the Lotus is this statement in a letter to Nanjo Hyoeshichiro, "I, Nichiren, am the foremost devotee of the Lotus Sutra in Japan." Nichiren's biography tells us that when he realized that he was the "devotee of the Lotus," he recognized that the difficulties he had suffered for spreading the Lotus Sutra constituted a "personal reading" of the Lotus. In other words, Nichiren's forced departure from Kiyozumi-dera after preaching the Lotus, the attack on and burning of his hut at Matsuba-ga-yatsu, his exile to Izu peninsula, the attack on his person by Tojo Kagenobu at Komatsubara, the attempted execution at Tatsu-no-kuchi and, finally, his exile to Sado Island were all chapters in his personal reading of the sutra.

This question naturally arises as to why Nichiren was so harshly persecuted. In this regard Nichiren pointed to the "Dharma Master" chapter which says, "Even when the Tathagata is present, the enemies of this sutra are many. How much more so after his extinction," and to the chapter which says, "Throughout the world enmity is everywhere and belief is difficult." In this way he emphasized just how difficult it is to accept and preserve the Lotus Sutra. He noted also that although many were punished for unlawful activities, no one besides Nichiren was troubled, much less persecuted, for spreading the Lotus. Quoting the chapter in which the bodhisattva stated "I fear not for my life. I seek only the unsurpassed way," Nichiren strove constantly to put this vow into actual practice.

That Nichiren is called "the devotee of the Lotus" means primarily that the enmity which he had to endure matches the predictions in the Lotus Sutra stating how much suffering the missionaries and followers of the sutra's teachings would have to bear. (To Be Continued

By Dr. Hoyo Watanabe Chairman of the Department of Buddhism in Rissho University. i


(To be continued)

Gassh __/\__ Y k, Namu Myh Renge Ky.

http://nichirensangha.com

From: Watakushi-tachi no Nichiren-shu.

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