Will the Three Bodied Tathagata Pass the Doobie brazenly show his face like Priest Two FIres? Will any SGI top senior leader?

Then I said to myself, I would like to decide this matter by means of actual proof. This man constantly tells people that he can cause rain to fall whenever he wills it. Let us see the proof of this. There are many examples in the past in which the power to make rain was used to determine the relative worth of doctrines, as when the Great Teacher Dengyō contended with Gomyō, and Shubin with Kōbō. And as it happens, the priest Two Fires has just now been requested by the authorities to conduct prayers for rain.

The prayers for rain conducted by the priest Two Fires were to begin on the eighteenth day of the sixth month in the eighth year of the Bun’ei era [1271] and last until the twenty-fourth day of the same month. At that time I sent a messenger to Gokuraku-ji temple, making clear that he came from one who had caused the priest many sighs in recent years. “If within the space of seven days you can make it rain even once, then I will become your disciple and will undertake to uphold all the two hundred and fifty precepts,” I stated. “Moreover, I will acknowledge that my condemnation of the Nembutsu as a practice that leads to the hell of incessant suffering is based on an erroneous interpretation. And if I myself submit to you, my disciples will of course do likewise, as will almost all the people of Japan.”

        During the course of the seven days, I three times sent messengers to convey these words to him. But what could have gone wrong? Not only did not a drop of rain fall, but all the eight kinds of winds, roaring winds, howling winds, whirling winds, violent winds, raged without cease throughout the twenty-four hours of the day and night. p.693Moreover, during another seven days [of their extended prayer period] these winds continued without stop, while not a drop of rain fell.

What does this mean? Izumi Shikibu was a licentious woman and the priest Nōin disregarded the precepts,26 yet both, by writing poems in the thirty-one syllable form that the priest Two Fires deplores, were able to make rain fall. And that great thieving bandit of India, by reciting the words “Hail to the Buddha,” managed to steal the gold head of the image of the heavenly god.27

Yet this priest Two Fires and his disciples, several hundred persons abiding by the two hundred and fifty precepts and performing big and little ceremonies of the True Word and Lotus schools, proved less effective with their Buddhist prayers than did a licentious woman with her wanton poem or a great thief with his invocation of “Hail to the Buddha!” Is this not strange?

From this it should have been obvious what a great offense these men were guilty of. But on the contrary their slanderous words were accepted by the authorities and the truth of the matter never came to light. It seemed that the time had come for the country of Japan to perish.

When conducting prayers for rain, if rain actually falls, the nature and aspect of the rain will indicate whether the person conducting the prayers is worthy or unworthy. There are various types of rain, such as heavenly rain, dragon rain, asura rain, coarse rain, sweet rain, and thunder rain.

In the present instance of prayers for rain, of course, no rain whatsoever fell. Moreover, for a period of fourteen days there was even more severe drought than there had been previously, and great evil winds blew without cease throughout the twenty-four hours of the day and night.

If the priest Two Fires had been a man of true sincerity, he should immediately have renounced his erroneous views and hidden himself away in the mountain forests. But far from doing that, he brazenly showed his face before his disciples and patrons, and went even further by spreading slanderous words and urging the government to see that my head was cut off, so that a letter to that effect was sent to the authorities in the province28 where I was exiled. He is a very evil man who would have me done away with. And yet his patrons in their ignorance continue to support him, thus bringing about the ruin of the nation in this existence and insuring that in a future existence they will fall into the hell of incessant suffering. How pitiful!

The Origin of the World Sutra says, “Because the various living beings commit wanton acts and do things that defile their purity of conduct, Heaven refuses to send down rain.” And it also says, “Because people go against the Law and are guilty of greed and stinginess, jealousy, erroneous views, and perverseness, Heaven sends down no rain.”