Nichiren was sometimes tolerant and other times not. In the Opening,
of the Eyes he says:
"Intolerance is opposite to tolerance just as fire is to water.
We can be tolerant of people who are ignorant and immoral.
But we must be intolerant of people who have wrong views
But we must be intolerant of people who have wrong views
and slander the Lotus Sutra."
We must be intolerant of wrong views. Nichiren also says in On
Practicing the Buddha's Teachings:
"The teachings of the Lesser Vehicle and of the provisional Mahayana
were valid only for the people who lived during two thousand years after
the extinction of the Buddha. We are living in the first five hundred years
after the beginning of the Age of Degeneration. Now is the time to
propagate the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra is the Pure Law, the Perfect
Law, the One True Teaching. According to the Daijikkyo Sutra, in the first
five hundred years after the beginning of the Age of Degeneration, people
resort to fighting, and the right teachings of the Buddha are forgotten. In
these years, the provisional teachings are mistaken for the true teachings.
Now the teaching of the One Vehicle should be propagated and the
provisional teachings criticized. What we should do is criticize wrong
views."
Later in the same writing:
"I have appeared in Japan in this time of emergency by the order of the
Buddha. I dare say that I am not fortunate. However, the order of the
King of the Law is categorical. Therefore, according to the Lotus Sutra,
I raise the army of the true teaching against the forces of provisional
teachings, wear the armor of patience, take the sword of the Wonderful
Law, bend the bow of the Revelation of the Truth, fix the arrow of honesty,
ride in the white bullock-cart of equality, break the gate of provisional
teachings, and hurl criticism at the followers of the Nembutsu, Shingon,
Zen, Ritsu, and other sects. Some of them run away or withdraw, while
others are captured and become my disciples. I will repeat the offensive.
I will march on, although they are many and my friends are few."
WOW !
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