Martin, a Pure Land believer writes: A Nichiren believer wrote: "...from a Nichiren Buddhist perspective, if I turn someone away from a provisional teaching of Buddhism, I am acting like a father to him." This is known as the doctrine of the Main Enemy (see Stalin, about 1932).
Me: Lets say you have a son. Your son is an A student who scored 1500 on his SAT's. He meets several worldly, cheerful, and youthful army recruiters who are lurking around the high school like cats spying for mice (an analogy to our so called Buddhist priests and present day Buddhist scholars). These recruiters tell your son of the greatness of the intelligence, chemical, biological, and radiation divisions of the Army. They take a special interest in your son, go out to eat with him, tell him about the Japanese, southeast Asian, and Italian women, the camaraderie, the special friendships he will develop in the army, and the peace and security of being among the worlds greatest fighting machine. They tell him he will have his choice of assignments and will get a bonus of $64,000 for a mere six years of service. You are a wise and perspicacious father who knows the truth about the army, these recruiters, their promises, and their practices. Your son has a chance to enter into the accelerated medical program of the Boston University Medical School on a full scholarship because of his original work on the reversal of the reproductive mechanism of the HIV virus. Would you just sit back while your son made a decision that would adversely affect his destiny and possibly the destiny of all mankind (because of his brilliance and understanding of the mechanism of the growth and transmission of the HIV virus)? Would you not at least sit down with him and attempt to persuade him of the benefits and risks of the decisions that will shape his future and possibly the future of all mankind? Would you fail to tell him of the possibility that he might, rather than securing a choice research position in Army Intelligence, be placed in Infantry and sent to the front lines?
Don't liken me to Joseph Stalin. If you can not discern the relative profundity and merits of the various teachings both Buddhist and non-Buddhist, that is not my fault . If you haven't been really listening to what I and others have had to say about the relative and absolute merits and profundity of the Lotus Sutra and the other sutras, that too, is absolutely no fault of mine.
Don't liken me to Joseph Stalin. If you can not discern the relative profundity and merits of the various teachings both Buddhist and non-Buddhist, that is not my fault . If you haven't been really listening to what I and others have had to say about the relative and absolute merits and profundity of the Lotus Sutra and the other sutras, that too, is absolutely no fault of mine.
We all likewise realized the nature of things,
ReplyDeleteSo why did the Tathagata
Use the small vehicle, to transform us?
The fault was ours and
Not the World Honored One's.
If you can't see the great vehicle in the provisional, whose fault is it?
I see it but it is like the appearance of the sun just before sunrise. There are the principles of the comparative Myo and absolute Myo which Nichiren discusses at length. From the "dreaded" SGI dictionary:
ReplyDeletemyō ［妙］ (Jpn): Wonderful, mystic, without peer, or beyond conception. This term is used to describe the Buddhist Law, which is wonderful and beyond ordinary understanding. In The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra, T’ien-t’ai (538–597) interprets the word myō (wonderful) of the title Myoho-renge-kyo, or the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law, from two perspectives to show the profundity of the sutra. The first is the relative myō, also referred to as the comparative myō. The relative myō means that the Lotus Sutra is wonderful or mystic because, when compared with all other teachings, it is superior. Myō does not merely mean that the Lotus Sutra is superior to all other teachings, however. Hence the second interpretation, the absolute myō. This means that the Lotus Sutra cannot be compared with any other teaching because it encompasses and integrates all other teachings; no teaching exists outside it, and thus none can be called superior or inferior to it. From this viewpoint, all teachings when based on the Lotus Sutra express various aspects of the ultimate truth. Nichiren (1222–1282) interpreted myō as referring to Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, which he deemed the essence of the Lotus Sutra. In The Daimoku of the Lotus Sutra, he explains three meanings of the character myō: to open, to be fully endowed, and to revive. “To open” means to open up the darkness of illusion and reveal the Buddha nature. “To be fully endowed” means to possess all Ten Worlds and three thousand realms, while permeating and integrating the whole of the phenomenal world. It can also mean possessing the practices and resulting virtues of all Buddhas. “To revive” means enabling one to attain Buddhahood. For example, women, evil men, and those of the two vehicles (voice-hearers and cause-awakened ones), who were denied the possibility of enlightenment in the provisional teachings, can all attain Buddhahood through the daimoku of the Lotus Sutra. “To revive” also means that all teachings and doctrines, when based upon the Mystic Law, assume their correct perspective and fulfill their intrinsic purpose."