"These are all persons of profoundly distorted views. In this connection, we find, among the true and golden words of the Thus Come One: “[This devil king Pāpīyas will in time try] to destroy the correct teaching of mine. He will be like a hunter who wraps his body in a priestly robe. He will change his form into that of a stream-winner, a once-returner, a non-returner, an arhat, a pratyekabuddha, or a Buddha, and will try to destroy the correct teaching of mine.”
"The host said: You have clearly seen the sutra passages that I have cited, and yet you can ask a question like that! Are they beyond the power of your mind to comprehend? Or do you fail to understand the reasoning behind them? I certainly have no intention of censuring the sons of the Buddha. My only hatred is for the act of slandering the Law. According to the Buddhist teachings, prior to Shakyamuni slanderous monks would have incurred the death penalty. But since the time of Shakyamuni, the One Who Can Endure, the giving of alms to slanderous monks is forbidden in the sutra teachings. Now if all the four kinds of Buddhists within the four seas and the ten thousand lands would only cease giving alms to wicked priests and instead all come over to the side of the good, then how could any more troubles rise to plague us, or disasters come to confront us?"
"In practicing the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, there are three principles that must be understood. The first is that regarding slanderers. The monk Superior Intent, the monk Shore of Suffering, the Scholar Vimalamitra, and the Great Arrogant Brahman are examples. These men dressed their bodies in the three robes, lifted a single begging bowl up before their eyes,15 and meticulously observed the two hundred and fifty precepts, and yet they were in fact enemies of the Mahayana and in the end fell into the great citadel of the hell of incessant suffering."
"The third group is made up of monks living in secluded places. These monks have all the outward signs of being holy men. They possess only the prescribed three robes and one begging bowl, and live in seclusion in a quiet spot in a mountain forest, so that everyone looks up to them as though they were the arhats living at the time of Shakyamuni Buddha, and all people revere them as though they were Buddhas. When these men see the monks who read and uphold the Lotus Sutra in accordance with its teachings, they hate and envy them, calling them great fools or holders of grave erroneous views, claiming that they are completely lacking in compassion, and that they preach non-Buddhist doctrines. And because the ruler looks up to such men and believes what they say, everyone down to the common people gives alms to them as though they were Buddhas. Thus the Buddha taught that persons who read and uphold the Lotus Sutra in accordance with its teachings will invariably be hated by these three types of enemies."
"Accordingly, the Nirvana Sutra, which was preached in the grove of sal trees just before Shakyamuni Buddha’s passing, states that there will appear frightful persons whose offenses are graver than the ten evil acts or the five cardinal sins—icchantikas, or persons of incorrigible disbelief, and those who slander the correct teaching. We also read there that such persons will be found nowhere else but among the company of wise men who observe the two hundred and fifty precepts, wrap their bodies in the three robes of a Buddhist monk, and carry a begging bowl."
"The Buddha stated that, in the latter age, monks and nuns with the hearts of dogs would be as numerous as the sands of the Ganges.3 By this he meant that the priests and nuns of that day would be attached to fame and fortune. Because they wear robes and surplices, they look like ordinary priests and nuns. But in their hearts they wield a sword of distorted views, hastening here and there among their patrons and filling them with countless lies so as to keep them away from other priests or nuns. Thus they strive to keep their patrons to themselves and prevent other priests or nuns from coming near them, like a dog who goes to a house to be fed, but growls and springs to attack the moment another dog approaches. Each and every one of these priests and nuns is certain to fall into the evil paths."
"However, the people of our time—whether clerics or lay believers, nobles or commoners—all revere persons and do not value the Law. They make their own mind their teacher and do not rely on the sutras. Consequently, they take up the provisional teachings of the Nembutsuand discard the wonderful scripture of the great vehicle, or employ the erroneous doctrines of the True Word school to slander the correct teaching of the one true vehicle. Are they not slanderers of the great vehicle? If what is written in the sutras is true, how can they escape the sufferings of hell? And those who follow their distorted teachings will also suffer the same fate."
"Yet it should be known that, while the non-Buddhist practitioners possessed such impressive powers, they could not escape the flames of the Avīchi hell, not to mention those with only trivial powers of transformation. Even less can slanderers of the great vehicle avoid this fate. The priests of the True Word school are evil friends to all living beings. Avoid them; fear them. The Buddha states: “Have no fear of mad elephants. What you should fear are evil friends! Why? Because a mad elephant can only destroy your body; it cannot destroy your mind. But an evil friend can destroy both body and mind. A mad elephant can destroy only a single body, but an evil friend can destroy countless bodies and countless minds. A mad elephant merely destroys an impure, stinking body, but an evil friend can destroy both pure body and pure mind. A mad elephant can destroy the physical body, but an evil frienddestroys the Dharma body. Even if you are killed by a mad elephant, you will not fall into the three evil paths. But if you are killed by an evil friend, you are certain to fall into them. A mad elephant is merely an enemy of your body, but an evil friend is an enemy of the good Law.”Therefore, even more than venomous serpents or malevolent demons, one should fear the evil friends who follow Kōbō, Shan-tao, and Hōnen. This is just a brief clarification of the error of holding distorted views."
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