Nichiren Daishonin deviated sharply from the teachings of his immediate predesessor Dengyo the Great. Dengyo taught the primacy of the Buddha-nature [Buddha Wisdom] and the doctrine of Original Enlightenment [Hongaku Shiso] while Nichiren taught the primacy of the seeds of Buddhahood or Namu Myoho renge kyo. Without the seeds of Buddhahood, the field of Buddha-nature lies forever fallow. This is the meaning of the Ceremony in the Air and the rationale for the oneness of Shakyamuni Buddha and we common mortals [both of whom plant the seeds of Namu Myoho renge kyo "into the wasteland of the people’s lives in the evil world
*from Essentials for Attaining Buddhahood
(quick reply to your comment on "The Ikeda cult of personality")
ReplyDeleteWhat an honor – Me, a nobody from across the water – And I have a limited wisdom? ... better that no wisdom at all I should say.
Dear Mark, do I take issue with Hachiman? – of course not, you said it yourself, he is a minor tutelary god, and as a rule, I tend to treat Gods and Deities in my framework of thought for what they are – Figures of old, derivatives from a cultural folklore background, not to be taken serious in the 21st century.
And T’ien-t’ai (Chih-i) has a place in the Gohonzon too you say? Course he has … Question being: are you referring to the man that dedicated half of his work to the task of bringing together the practices of the Meditation Masters from India (that he criticized for being empty containers, teaching meditation techniques with no Sutra knowledge) and synthetized dhyāna (the very practice conducted by Siddhārtha Gautama) into what we now know as Ch’an or Zen? Or to the man that in order to conciliate correct contemplation (Ch’an) with correct knowledge (Sutra Recitation) set’s about the task of Sutra classification (that later Nichiren used and abused)? I believe Nichiren picked (and inscribed) the latter and repudiated the former by default.
And what about Saichō - do you mean the founder of the Japanese Tendai school (Tendai-hokke-shū)? The man that traveled to China to learn about T’ien-t’ai’s doctrines - the man that actually collaborated and exchanged Chinese writings with his rival Kūkai, with whom later he politely agreed to disagree? And the man that won the favor of the imperial court (not by fierce debate or submitting forcible treatises, but by showing superior knowledge and sublime understanding of Buddhist doctrine) and was granted the grounds where Mt. Hiei still stands today?
Can you spot any differences?
These two men mentioned above are founders of plural, all inclusive encompassing schools.
As for your claim that Nichiren was The Supreme Votary of the Lotus Sutra – All I can see is a man that molded the foot to fit the shoe (of the LS), a Self-proclaimed Votary, (much like Toda and Ikeda themselves) with a following of around 300 men and woman at the time of his death (according to a paper produced by leading Kamakura scholar, Dr. Jacqueline Stone), which isn't a lot really.
I was just so puzzled (to begin with) about how can a ROTTEN org like SGI could steam from such a pure form of Japanese Buddhism … And all that I could find was a pattern of Criticism and Appropriation going right back to Nichiren himself – Ikeda appropriated and criticized/discarded Shoshu – Shoshu appropriated and criticized/discarded Nichiren Shū – Nichiren appropriated and criticized/discarded Tendai Shū – And in my very ignorant understanding of the whole subject – I discarded my faith in all of them alike.
Thx once again for the exchange, very enlightening indeed :)
Leaving aside the inappropriatness of the practices of Tientai and Dengyo in the degenerate age, not one person alive or dead had realized a bodily reading of the Sutra to the extent of Nichiren. It is thanks to Nichiren that tens of million chant the Daimoku. Neither you nor I could live for a day as Nichiren had for nearly 30 years for the sake of Namu Myoho renge kyo. You are a firefly laughing at the sun, Pedro.
ReplyDeleteHey Mark! A happy firefly laughing at the sun (if I may add :)
ReplyDeleteWhich of these do you find more inappropriate to express devotion to the Lotus Sutra?
Namu-ichijō-myōhō-renge-kyō (Namu to the one vehicle, the Lotus Sutra Blossom of the Wondrous Dharma)
Namu-nyohō-myōhō-renge-kyō (Namu to the Sutra of the Lotus Blossom of the Wondrous Dharma)
Namu-byōdō-daie-myōhō-renge-kyō (Namu to the impartial great wisdom, of the Sutra of the Lotus Blossom of the Wondrous Dharma)
Namu-gokuraku-nan-chigū-myōhō-renge-kyō (Namu to the Sutra of the Lotus Blossom of the Wondrous Dharma, the utmost bliss, which is difficult to encounter)
Namu-kugyō-kuyō-ichijō-myōden (Namu with reverence and offerings to the wondrous scripture of the one vehicle)
Namu-shōjō-sese-chigū-myōhō (Namu to the Wondrous Dharma to be encountered throughout lifetime after lifetime and age after age)
Namu-Hoke-myōhō (Namu to the Lotus, King of Sutras)
Namu- Kanzeon-Bosatsu, Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō
Namu-Amida-Butsu, Namu-myōhō-renge-kyō, Namu- Kanzeon-Bosatsu (Namu to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sanga)
Note: These are all actual practices of devotion to the Lotus Sutra found within the Tendai context in existence prior to 1222, not quotes from books and treatises. Some of these were to be recited at the opening of a lecture on the LS; Others are simple forms of recitation for illiterate monks; Some are daily recitations. There are also documents that depict a ritual that includes a three dimensional Honzon of the Lotus Sutra with stupas placed in a circular arrangement depicting the Ceremony in the Air – Ceremony included Daimoku and Sutra recitation. And some gave rise to the expression: Daimoku in the morning, Nembustsu in the evening.
Tendai Shū abandoned devotion to the Lotus? Did Japan abandon the Lotus? (Hardly)
Hongaku Thought, hence The LS, permeated Japanese medieval culture (as well as east-Asian culture) and was so deeply rooted that it’s influence affected the arts, flower arrangement, poetry, Noh theatre, codes of conduct, and social behaviour at large, and continued to do so for centuries to come. If there is One thing the Lotus did not need in the context of Kamakura was – Defending.
Nothing that you state alters one iota the fact that not one Dharma teacher,save for Shakyamuni Buddha and Nichiren had realized a bodily reading of the Sutra and therefore, their wisdom reigns supreme.The Latter Day is the time for the exclusive faith and practice of the Lotus Sutra, not the time for mixing extraneous faiths. By the Kamakura era, Tientai/Saicho's teachings had degenerated into Tendai/Mikkyo. Of course the Lotus Sutra needed defending as it does now. Here is what the Buddha teaches [and Nichiren]
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"At that time the World-Honored One, wishing to restate this meaning, proclaimed gathas, saying:
Bhiksus and bhiksunis
Harboring arrogance,
Upasakas with pride,
And upasakas of no faith --
In the fourfold assembly,
The likes of these,
Five thousand in number,
Not seeing their own faults,
Having flaws in their discipline,
And jealously guarding their blemishes,
These of slight wisdom have already left: The chaff of the multitude,
Thanks to the Buddha's imposing majesty, Is gone.
These persons, ill-equipped with merit, Are not worthy to receive this Dharma. This multitude has neither branches nor leaves, But has only firm fruits.
Shariputra, listen well:
The dharma that the Buddhas have gained By resort to incalculable expedient powers They preach to the beings. The thoughts thought by the beings, The sundry ways trodden by them, The nature of their several desires, The good and evil deeds in their former births --
The Buddha knows them thoroughly.
Knowing them, and
Resorting to various means and parables
And to their powers,
and to the powers of phrases and other expedients,
He causes all to rejoice.
Now he preaches sermons,
Gathas and former matters,
Former lives and things that have never been before.
Again, he preaches cause and condition,
Parables and verses repeating the prose,
And dialogue scriptures.
Those of dull faculties,
Who desire lesser dharmas,
Who out of sheer greed cling to birth and death,
Who in the presence of incalculable Buddhas
Still fail to tread the profound and subtle Path,
And who are tormented by multitudinous woes --
For these I preach nirvana.
Devising this expedient device,
I enable them to enter into the Buddha's wisdom.
I never told them, "You all
Shall be able to achieve the Path of the Buddha."
The reason I never told them
Is that the time to tell it had not yet come.
Now is precisely the time
To preach the Great Vehicle definitively.
This Dharma of mine, in nine divisions,
I preach by matching it to the beings,
Keeping the entry into the Great Vehicle as the basis:
This is why I expound this teaching.
There are sons of the Buddha
Whose thoughts are pure and supple,
And also whose faculties are keen,
Who in the presence of incalculable Buddhas
Have trodden the profound and subtle Path.
For these sons of the Buddha
I preach this sermon of the Great Vehicle.
I prophesy to such persons as these
That in a future age
They shall achieve the Buddha's Path,
Because with profound thought
They are mindful of the Buddha
And because they practice
And keep a pure discipline.
When they hear that they
Shall attain Buddhahood,
These persons have a great joy
That permeates their bodies.
The Buddha,
Knowing the course of their thoughts,
Therefore preaches the Great Vehicle to them.
A voice-hearer or a bodhisattva
Who hears of the Dharma I preach
So much as a single gatha
Shall in every case achieve Buddhahood,
Of that there is no doubt.
Within the Buddha-lands of the ten directions
There is the Dharma of only One Vehicle.
There are not two, nor are there yet three,
Save where the Buddha,
Preaching by resort to expedients
And by merely borrowing
Provisional names and words,
Draws the beings to him.
In order to preach Buddha-wisdom,
The Buddhas come into the world.
Only this one cause is true,
For the other two are unreal.
To the very end
He does not resort to the Lesser Vehicle
To ferry the beings across.
The Buddha himself dwells
In the Greater Vehicle;
Whatever dharmas he acquires,
Adorned with the strength
Of concentration and wisdom,
Through them does he rescue the beings.
He himself bears witness
To the Unexcelled Path,
To the undifferentiating Dharma
Of the Great Vehicle.
If by resort to the Lesser Vehicle
I were to convert
So much as one person,
I should have fallen victim to greed,
And this sort of thing would never do." -- LS Chapter 2
"Tientai/Saicho's teachings had degenerated into Tendai/Mikkyo", yet they have a place in Nichiren's Gohonzon. We've gone full circle here :)
ReplyDeleteAnd if "here and now is what maters" why then chant a set of words to a depictions of a Ceremony in the Air that supposedly happened 2500 yrs ago? (to form a bond, yeah, I kinda know that by now)
I'm bored, sorry :(
Ceremony in the Air has been going on since the infinite past, is happening at this moment, and will continue forever.
ReplyDeleteAnnen, Jikaku, and Eshin, the founders of Mikkyo are not on the Gohonzon. If you mean the Siddam characters, they predate Mikkyo by a thousand years or more.
Well, that's new!! The Ceremony is 13.7 billion years old and counting ...
ReplyDeleteMight as well write to CERN or NASA and tell them to stop bothering with the Higgs Boson research, cause Mark Rogow has all the answers one might need.
.....
and that's what I call cherry picking ... or in other words - Criticism and Appropriation https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/2689
(enjoy, good read)
(moving on) to common ground:
ReplyDeleteWhere do you put your money?
Mr Obama visited Japan from the 23rd to the 25th of April – with two hot topics on his agenda: The Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement and the push for a revision of article 9 from the post-war Japanese constitution - from self to collective defense (long promoted by Abe and the LDP and long opposed by Komeito).
SGI holds consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council since 1983 and is an NGO working with the United Nations active in public education with a focus mainly on peace and nuclear weapons disarmament, human rights and sustainable development.
What’s gonna weight more on next month’s issue of SGI Quarterly?
1. A picture of the little old man shaking hands with an US president/Noble Peace Prize Winner for propaganda purposes?
2. A stance against the strengthening of the bilateral military alliance and a point of no return in Japan’s commitment to a no-war policy? (therefore, no picture).
I’m putting my money on the first one, but I might be wrong.
Could well be [were Ikeda still alive with half a brain]. Lately New Komeito has been making a show of supporting a permanent Article 9 [to appease their constituents] but who knows what goes on behind closed doors?
ReplyDeleteI read Professor Dulce's article before. Mahavairochaina too predates Mikkyo. He too is an emanation of Shakyamuni Buddha. Nichiren utilized Shan-wu-wei's writings to edify the Lotus Sutra but that didn't stop him from harshly criticizing him for those beliefs and writings that destroyed the intent of the Sutra. The sun utilizes nuclear fusion and fission to give life and sustenance. Edward Teller utilized the same laws to rain down destruction. Because Edward Teller utilized the same laws as the sun, he should be praised rather than vilified?
ReplyDeleteWell, there is that possibility, you're right.
ReplyDeleteFound this earlier today, you might find it interesting to rebuke some deluded Gakkay members ..
http://education-portal.com/articles/Whats_the_Value_of_an_Honorary_Degree.html
Very good.
ReplyDeleteOut of my depth with the fusion and fission thing ( I thought the Sun would never reach the fission stage due to lack of mass/temperature, but who am I to contradict that).
ReplyDeleteI apologize for any inconveniences during our exchange and I'm backing off ... My regards, P