The Great Direct Path by Graham Lamont

Nichiren Daishonn is clear.

1) The Four People are the Four Bodhisattvas Who Sprang from the Earth;

2) They are the disciples of the Lord Buddha Shakya from the most distant past.

3) It is they who have been entrusted with the Daimoku;

4)  In Tao-hsien’s commentary this is described as the “Dharma of the One Who Attained Long Ago” (kujo no ho); in other words, Nichiren Shonin is showing us that the Daimoku is from the Buddha Shakya Who Attained in the Most Distant Past.  Apparently some heretical believers have attempted to interpret this passage to mean that this Dharma was assigned to the “Eternal Buddha” whom they identify as Nichiren Shonin but clearly this is not what the passage means: in the same year in the Kanjin Honzon sho  Nichiren Shonin cites the same passage more fully: “’Entrustment’ means: it is this Sutra that is only entrusted to the Bodhisattvas Who Sprang Forth from the Direction Below…” (STN, v. 1, 717)  The meaning is clear: the Daimoku is the Dharma entrusted to the Bodhisattvas Who Sprang from the Earth.  Such an interpretation agrees entirely with the Sutra, as cited above, and is reasonable: the Eternal Buddha, who is ever present but hides His Presence, entrusts His Dharma, “Namu Myoho renge kyo” to His Own Disciples from the most distant past.

In case people do not understand the relationship here, the above-cited work “On Upbraiding Blasphemy Against the Dharma and Extinguishing Sins” (Kashaku hobo metsuzai sho ) says, “During more than two thousand two hundred years it is the painted images and wooden images of the Master Teachings Lord Shakya that worthy kings and saintly rulers have taken as the Object of Worship.  However, although it was only the Buddhas of the Lesser Vehicle, and of the Kegon, the Nehan  (Nirvana ), the Kangyo, the Manifestation Doctrine (Shakumon) of the Hokekyo, the Fugengyo,  of the Great Vehicle, the Buddha of the Dainichikyo  in the Shingon, and Shakya and Taho of the ‘Chapter of the Jeweled Stupa’ that they wrote, the Lord Shakya of the ‘Chapter of the Measure of Life’ is not yet in the temples and monastic residences.” (STN, v. 1, 784)  The Object of Worship, not yet actually installed in Buddhist temples, is to be none other than the Eternal Lord Shakya.  The Dharma is the Daimoku and the ones who are entrusted with that Dharma are the Bodhisattvas Who Sprang from the Earth. ”

We can add one more piece of evidence to this argument, a letter written to Lord Soya in the second year of the Kenji era (1276):

“When this Wisdom and Object are united, one obtains Buddhahood in this Very Body (sokushin jobutsu) …  That this Inner Realization (naisho) is something that the Hearers and Pratyekabuddhas cannot attain to is preached next below [in the Sutra], “It is something that none of the Shravakas (Hearers) and Pratyekabuddhas can understand.”  What, indeed, are these two dharmas of the Field and the Wisdom (kyochi)?  They are just the Five Characters ‘Namu Myoho renge kyo’.  These Five Characters He formed (or, caused to be formed) as the Essence and entrusted (ketsuyo fuzoku) summoning forth the Great Beings Who Sprang from the Earth.  This they call the ‘Doctrine of Entrusting to Those Converted by the Original Buddha’ (honge fuzoku).  At the same time it appears that the Bodhisattvas Jogyo and the others are to come forth and be born in the first five hundred years of the Latter Dharma and spread (or cause to spread) these Five Characters that are these two dharmas of the Field and the Wisdom.  The Sutra text is clear, is obvious.  Who would dispute this?  Although I, Nichiren, am not that person nor again am I his Messenger, I have beforehand roughly spread them as a Preface Section.  Already the Bodhisattva Jogyo having received the water of Wisdom of the Sublime Dharma from the Tathagata Shakya lets it flow and circulate to the withered up multitudes of beings of the evil era of the Latter Age.  This is the principle of Wisdom.  Lord Shakya from Himself cedes and assigns it to the Bodhisattva Jogyo.  At the same time I, Nichiren, also, being in the country of Japan, spread this doctrine.” (STN, v. 2, 1253-1254)

This passage clearly resembles parts of the passage from the “Misawa Letter” but gives more specifics.  The Daimoku is especially formed as the Essence of the Sutra by the Buddha, Lord Shakya, and he has specifically summoned the Bodhisattvas Who Sprang from the Earth and given His Own Inner Realization (the unity of Wisdom and its Field or Object) in the form of “Namu Myoho renge kyo” to them to spread at the beginning of this age of the Latter Dharma.

Though he does not mention the place in the Sutra here, it is in the “Chapter of the Divine Powers of the Tathagata” 21 where the Forming the Essence and its Entrustment (ketsuyo fuzoku) occurs.  As Tendai Daishi states in his Hokke mongu  (T.34.142a), “From ‘At that time the Buddha addressed Jogyo’ and there below is the third,  Forming the Essence and its Entrustment.”  This phrase is cited by Nichiren Shonin in the Kanjin honzon sho  (STN, v. 1, 718) as part of the proof that in that chapter the Buddha entrusted the Five Characters of the Sublime Dharma to the Bodhisattvas Who Sprang from the Earth.

Note that Nichiren Shonin in this letter to Lord Soya praises the clarity of the Sutra text, which is the source for the entrustment of this Daimoku to the Bodhisattva Jogyo and his companions.  It is abundantly obvious that he considers the sutra text on this entrustment to the Bodhisattva Jogyo to be incontrovertible, yet ironically the Taisekiji faction insists on inventing a theory counter to the Sutra, which sets aside the role of this Bodhisattva.  Such a theory thus contradicts Nichiren Shonin’s own views as well and so would have no basis in the words of either the Sutra or the Patriarch.

As in the Misawa Letter  he modestly denies his identity as the Bodhisattva Jogyo and denies that he is his messenger but says he is spreading this doctrine only as the Preface Section.  Then he says that the Bodhisattva Jogyo having already received this water of Wisdom which is the Sublime Dharma from the Tathagata Shakya is, in effect, the spiritually desiccated people of this age.  He then reaffirms that this Wisdom embodied in the Daimoku came from Lord Shakya and modestly separates his own propagation of the doctrine from that of the Bodhisattva Jogyo.  Yet it is obvious again he is simply showing that he is doing what that Bodhisattva is to do.

It is obvious then:

(1) The source of the Daimoku which contains the Buddha’s Inner Realization is Lord Shakya.

(2) That same Lord Shakya transfers this Daimoku to  the Bodhisattva Jogyo and his fellow Bodhisattvas Who Sprang from the Earth.

(3) This transfer has already taken place as described in an undeniable Sutra text referring to Forming the Essence and its Entrustment.  In other words, the doctrine was Sutra-based.

(4) Nichiren Shonin modestly denies that he is actually that Bodhisattva but indicates he is at least their forerunner.

Despite Nichiren Shonin’s modesty, it is obvious from the other documents cited above that he and his immediate followers identified him as being precisely that Bodhisattva, who had received the Daimoku from Lord Shakyamuni.

The Objective Truth is the Source of Our Salvation

It may seem to many that the rather long arguments expounded above are of no practical use; however, if we are to obtain salvation, the Great Direct Path (daijikido) to Buddhahood, we must try to see the Objective Truth and then make that Truth part of our subjective life.  We must internalize it through the right faith and practice of chanting the Daimoku and worshipping the Eternal Shakyamuni.  If we confuse the messenger with the one who sent the message or if we misread the message then we make a critical and terrible mistake.  If our worship, the content and object of our faith is thrown off course, misdirected by teachers who are propagating misconceptions of what Nichiren said, then, although we have a form of the Daimoku, our practice will really be a kind of rebellious connection or condition (gyakuen); to be sure even through this connection we shall eventually attain Buddhahood but why not enter into that Direct Path now?  The Eternal Buddha’s Fundamental Intention, His Every Thought, is that we ‘rapidly achieve the Buddha Body’. (‘Chapter of the Measure of Life’ 16)  Why not take advantage of the Buddha’s offer through His Messenger right now?

Today those Americans and other Westerners who know anything about Nichiren Shonin have a largely erroneous idea of what he actually taught.  Even among academics who have not been trained in the history of Buddhism and have no solid linguistic access to the documents involved, an extremely distorted view of his mission and self-identity.  Because of the sheer volume of publications by Taisekiji, the erroneous view that Nichiren Shonin actually proclaimed himself the True Buddha has become a commonplace view among Western academics as well as other people.  It is bad enough that scholars have in many instances swallowed this historically unsubstantiated position but people who have sought salvation from the teachings of Nichiren Shonin are being led astray.  Alas, that their attainment of Buddhahood will be delayed and they will suffer purgatorial punishment because they have accepted view contrary to both the Sutra and the writings of the real Nichiren Shonin.

Once again we should heed the Patriarch’s own warning: “No matter how much they chant, everybody who has hatred for Nichiren, first must fall to the Unremitting Hell; after immeasurable kalpas, having become the disciples of Nichiren, they shall attain Buddhahood.” (Kyoo gozen gosho, STN, v. 1, 687)  Now there are those who say “we don’t hate Nichiren Shonin and we chant so this does not apply to us!  This is just your idea.”  But stop and think about this for a moment: what greater hatred could there be for Nichiren Shonin than deliberately substituting a false doctrine for what he really taught?  If he was, indeed, the Messenger sent by the Lord Buddha to save us beings of this terrible age, is it not the greatest hatred of the Messenger when any person deliberately distorts, adulterates or replaces that saving message?  The physical person of Nichiren Shonin no longer exists; no one can hurt him in a material sense as his enemies did when he lived.  He has returned to the Eternal Pure Land to abide in his Original State, the Great Bodhisattva Jogyo.  However, what remains of him here is his teachings, as he transmitted them in his own lifetime.  To destroy these teachings and replace them with different doctrines under his name is surely more destructive than killing the physical body of the person.  When Nichiren Shonin showed the greatest reverence for the Beginningless and Endless Lord, Teacher, and Parent Shakyamuni and the authority of the text of the Hokekyo, is it not the most terrible contempt for that same Nichiren Shonin to degrade both that Buddha and that Sutra?  And is it not also contemptuous of him to chant the Daimoku, which he brought from the Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni, and at the same time say that Nichiren Shonin’s teachings are passe?  Or is not hatred for him to modify his clear instructions to please one’s personal preferences?

If the Patriarch’s words are true, the fate of such people is clear.

Repentance

I hope that the above has been something of a corrective to these wrong views and I pray that those who have accepted these heretical doctrines will repent and turn to the True Doctrine of our Eternal Lord Shakya sent to us through His Messenger, Nichiren Shonin, the Manifestation of the Great Bodhisattva Jogyo.  Heed the advice of the Sutra in the “Chapter of the Parable” 3: “Abandon evil spiritual friends, draw near to good friends.”  This is precisely what Nichiju Shonin did when he renounced his affiliation with original lineages of Nichiren Shonin’s movement, because they had betrayed the Patriarch’s principles in doctrine and in practice.  Repent and enter the original Sutra-based faith of Nichiren Shonin restored and proclaimed by Nichiju Shonin and witnessed repeatedly, often at the cost of suffering, exile, and even death, by his disciples.  This is the Great Direct Path (daijikido) for our age.