"The Great Teacher Chia-hsiang wrote the ten-volume Hokke Genron, and that would under ordinary circumstances have condemned him to fall into the hell of incessent suffering. But he set aside his own manner of reading the Lotus Sutra and served the Great Teacher Tientai, and thus was able to escape the pains of hell." (Akimoto Gosho)
"The passages I have quoted from these four sutras are perfectly clear— what person in ten thousand could possibly doubt their meaning? And yet the blind and the deluded recklessly trust to distorted doctrines and fail to recognize the correct teaching."
"Consumed by their erroneous views, they slander the correct teaching."
"When it comes to the correct teaching, they show no inclination to protect, treasure, and establish it over the ages...their words replete with error."
"One who is able to distinguish right from wrong among all these different opinions may be said to have a correct understanding of the teaching."
"If so, then there must be very few who have a correct understanding of the teaching."
"...as well as those who present what they describe as a separate transmission outside the sutras, disparaging the correct doctrine of the Lotus Sutra."
"Limited though my ability may be, when I observe the situation in the world these days, it seems to me that the great majority of both lay believers and members of the clergy are guilty of slandering the correct teaching."
"The impurity of thought has been such that, as the Former and Middle Days of the Law gradually passed, people transmitted insignificant erroneous teachings while destroying the unfathomable correct teaching."
“This correct and equal sutra is the eye of the Buddhas.”
"But when I investigated the basic doctrines of the school, I found that they are founded on views that in fact are a slander of the correct teaching."
"But this does not mean that they knew what is correct and what is not in the Buddhist teachings, or that they understood the principle of cause and effect."
"Unable to distinguish between what is correct and what is erroneous, all they will do is face monks and lay believers and declare in this fashion, “I can understand what is right, I can see what is right."
"And yet you say that, without inquiring into what is right and what is wrong... without attempting to determine what is correct and what is erroneous..."
"If you have repented of your former errors and are ready to adhere to the correct doctrine, then without doubt you can swim in the calm and quiet depths [of nirvana], and dwell at ease in the palace of the unconditioned."
"Because the minds of people are warped and twisted, and provisional teachings and slander alone abound, the correct teaching cannot prevail."
“Are persons such as these not slanderers of the correct teaching? One can never be too severe in condemning them, or admonish them too strongly.”
“The meaning of this passage is that, if a person striving to propagate the correct teaching of the Buddha should hear and see others propounding the teachings of the sutras in a mistaken manner and fail to reproach them himself or, lacking the power to do that, fail to appeal to the sovereign and in this way take measures to correct them, then he is betraying the Buddha’s teaching. But if, as the sutras direct, he is not afraid of others but censures these slanderers himself and appeals to the sovereign to take measures against them, then he may be called a disciple of the Buddha and a true priest."
“Being therefore determined to avoid the charge of ‘betraying the Buddha’s teaching,’ although I have incurred the hatred of others, I have dedicated my life to Shakyamuni Buddha and the Lotus Sutra, extending compassion to all living beings and rebuking slanders of the correct teaching. Those who cannot understand my heart have tightened their lips and glared at me with furious eyes. But if you are truly concerned about your future existence, you should think lightly of your own safety and consider the Law above all. Thus the Great Teacher Chang-an states, ‘ “[A royal envoy . . . would rather], even though it costs him his life, in the end conceal none of the words of his ruler” means that one’s body is insignificant while the Law is supreme. One should give one’s life in order to propagate the Law.’"
"The meaning of this passage is that, if a practitioner of Buddhism should fail to chastise evil persons who slander the Law but give himself up entirely to meditation and contemplation, not attempting to distinguish between correct and incorrect doctrines, or provisional and true teachings, but rather pretending to be a model of compassion, then such a person will fall into the evil paths along with the other doers of evil..."
"Even less do they distinguish between correct and incorrect in Buddhism, or good and evil in their teachers."
"Men of this kind steal and usurp the correct teachings of Buddhism and use them to supplement and bolster the erroneous writings."
"Consumed by their erroneous views, they slander the correct teaching.
"The Lotus Sutra alone is correct and good."
"That is why the votaries of the correct teaching do not receive any sign of divine favor but, on the contrary, encounter severe difficulties."
“The Buddha replied: ‘Kashyapa, it is because I was a defender of the correct teaching that I have been able to attain this diamond-like body."
"If one befriends another person but lacks the mercy to correct him, one is in fact his enemy."
"Neither non-Buddhists nor the enemies of Buddhism can destroy the correct teaching of the Thus Come One, but the Buddha’s disciples definitely can."
"When I look at the situation in Japan, I find that the devil king of the sixth heaven has entered into the bodies of wise persons, transforming correct teachers into erroneous teachers, and good teachers into bad teachers."
"Be that as it may, one should understand that, at present, when it comes to teachers, there is a difference between correct teachers and erroneous teachers, between good teachers and bad teachers."
"Those that I call correct and good teachers are persons who take Shakyamuni Buddha’s golden words to mean just what they say, namely, that the other sutras represent expedient means and the Lotus Sutra represents the truth."
"I ask you to consider with the utmost care whether I deserve to be called a correct teacher or an erroneous teacher."
"In any case, like me, you should condemn the slander of the Law committed by the followers of the other schools and cause them to reject the erroneous and embrace the correct."
"And if, having been born as such, you do not do your best to distinguish between the correct doctrine and the incorrect so that in the future you may attain Buddhahood, then you are certainly not fulfilling your true worth as a human being."
"They have opposed the correct teaching and revered erroneous doctrines and teachers instead."
"Could they have met such horrible fates if they were actually votaries of the correct teaching? How do you read the Meditation on the Buddha’s Ocean-like Characteristics Sutra and other sutras, or Bodhisattva Nagarjuna’s treatise that describes the state of death?"
"If what he says is correct, then a person who upholds the Lotus Sutra just as it teaches must be superior to the king Brahma and more worthy than the lord Shakra."
"The Nirvana Sutra states that, in the Latter Day of the Law, those people who slander the Buddha’s teaching and fall into the hell of incessant suffering as a result will be more numerous than the dust particles that comprise the land, while those who uphold the correct teaching will be fewer than the specks of dirt one can pile on a fingernail."
"If you are disbelieving or slander the correct teaching even in the slightest, you will certainly fall into the great citadel of the hell of incessant suffering."
"The Nirvana Sutra, referring to the Lotus Sutra, states: “Even the offense of slandering this correct teaching [will be eradicated] if one repents and professes faith in the correct teaching."
"THE correct teaching of the time can be propagated only by a person of wisdom."
"The monks Shore of Suffering and Superior Intent thought they knew the correct teaching and intended to save the people, but they fell into the hell of incessant suffering along with their disciples and lay believers."
"So the sage Nichiren said to them, “We will decide whose teachings are correct through this prayer for rain."
"Answer: According to the sutra text, the votaries of the Lotus Sutra in the Latter Day of the Law, who are so faithful in upholding the sutra that they are hated by others, are the true priests of Mahayana. They are the teachers of the Law who will propagate the Lotus Sutra and bring people benefit. As for priests who are thought well of by others, who go along with other people’s desires and so come to be revered, one should regard them as the enemies of the Lotus Sutra and as evil influences to the world. A sutra passage likens persons of this type to a hunter who spies sharply about him as he stalks a deer, or to a cat who hides its claws as it creeps up on a mouse. In just such a way, we are told, do they flatter, deceive, and mislead the lay men and women."
"There are two kinds of wisdom, correct and perverse."
No comments:
Post a Comment