Ryuei: Yes - use of FORCE. According to you, Nisshin [the "Pot Headed Priest"] challenged the Shogun to suppress other sects of Buddhism. How do you imagine that sects can be **suppressed** except by the use of force? By demanding that the Shogun suppress other sects of Buddhism except for those that taught the Lotus, Nisshin was asking for the power of the state to be used in behalf of the sects he favored.
The use of force to propagate religion is quite against the Buddhism that I know. Again I would refer you to the teachings of the Dhammapada.
This seems to me to be the very kind of intolerance that makes the various monotheistic fundamentalisms so odious. How regrettable that there should be Buddhist sects also infected with the virus of fundamentalism and the "single truth!"
It is precisely *because* I believe the Buddha that I don't believe you. The example of Nisshin appears quite unbalanced. Such extremism can hardly be an example of the Middle Way. Nevertheless, I am sure that there is little I can say that will convince you. So let us end the discussion here. May you be well and speedily attain realization.
Mark: In India king Danmira beheaded Aryasinha for spreading the Dharma forcefully. Meanwhile, Many of his Buddhist contemporaries, both scholars and priests, remained in their "ivory towers" (monasteries) discussing the Dhammapada and the equality of the various forms of Buddhism. Aryasinha, on the other hand, was out among the people, preaching and speaking out against the injustice of Danmira's suppression of Buddhism.
Nisshin too was a Bodhisattva of Superb Action. He spoke out against the suppression of the Lotus sect of Nichiren's Buddhism by a Zennist Shogun more interested in maintaining his power and the status quo of the Zen teachings then practicing and spreading the compassionate and true teachings of the Buddha. The Shogun was no different than king Danmira.
Standing up to this cowardly, violent and arrogant Zen Shogun, Nisshin suffered severe persecution. However, no cause goes without an attendant effect. Thanks to Aryasinha, Buddhism spread to china and ultimately Japan while Brahmanism remained and continues to remain a regional and stagnant religeon. Thanks to Nisshin (and other Bodhisattvas of Superb Action) Japan has become a country in which the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren's teachings have spread. The Zen teachings, on the other hand, have settled to the natural level befitting its insignificance. Zen is once again proving itself to be the impotent force for change that it was when the Shogun rammed the red hot bronze bowl over Nisshin's head.
Nothing is as mysterious as the workings of Cause and Effect (Namu Myoho renge kyo). Nothing more wondrous. How sublime.
No comments:
Post a Comment