THE CORRECT PATH TO BUDDHAHOOD

THE CORRECT PATH TO BUDDHAHOOD 

"If there is a man who utters words of disparagement: "You are nothing but a madman!  In vain are you performing these practices!  You shall never get anything for them!"  The retribution for sins such as this shall be that from age to age he shall have no eyes. If there is anyone who makes offerings and gives praise, in this very age he shall get his present reward. If, again, one sees a person receiving and holding this scripture, then utters its faults and its evils, be they fact of not fact, that person in the present age shall get white leprosy.  If anyone makes light of it laughs at it, from age to age his teeth shall be far apart and decayed, he shall have ugly lips and a flat nose, his arms and legs shall be crooked, his eyes shall be pointed and the pupils out of symmetry, his body shall stink, he shall have sores running pus and blood, his belly shall be watery and his breath short: in brief, he shall have all manner of evil and grave ailments." (Chap.28 Lotus Sutra) 

Nichiren believed that denying the truth of the Lotus Sutra, was the most serious of sins. Nichiren referred to this as "Hobo" (Slander of the Dharma). He warned that those who denounce the truth of the Lotus would suffer in the deepest Hell. Because, the Lotus Sutra promises salvation to beings in the "latter, evil age," Nichiren taught that anyone in the age of Mappo who believed in other doctrines, or trusted in evil teachers (like Nikken or Ikeda) were destined for hell. 

"The Lotus Sutra is the correct path to Buddhahood." 

"If someone does not believe the Lotus Sutra and slanders it, he kills his seeds of Buddhahood in this life.  When his life is over, he will be reborn in the deepest hell. After a kalpa he will be born again in hell, and this cycle will continue for countless kalpas." 

"Disbelief is not following the teaching. What is called slander of the sutra is nothing other than disbelief." (Nembutsu mugen jigoku sho, STH, p.34) 

"I was led through the alleys of Kamakura like a traitor. They destroyed the room in my hut in which I enshrined the teachings of the Buddha and where I worshiped Shakyamuni. Several of them trampled the statue of Buddha and the scrolls of the scriptures into the mud. They even took the scrolls of the Lotus Sutra which I held and beat me ith them. There had been no provocation which should have led to this; I had committed no crime. I was guilty only of spreading the Lotus Sutra." (Jinkoku Gosho, STH, p.892) 

"This scripture has many enemies even now when the Tathagata is present. How much worse it will be after his nirvana."  (Chapt.10 Lotus Sutra) 

"After the Buddha's passing into extinction, in a frightful and evil age": "ignorant men," "monks of twisted wisdom, their hearts sycophantic and crooked," and "prideful hermits, who say of themselves that they are treading the True Path, holding mankind cheaply because they covet profit and nourishment." (Chapt. 13 Lotus Sutra) 

Take refuge in the Lotus Sutra.