A question on universal reverence (a difficult task)

 Yet you are expected to bow and pay your respect to everyone.

Ideally, IMO, ‘you’ (and this is a rhetorical ‘you’ rather than a personal ‘you’) ought to be bowing (or whatever other means of respect is culturally normative) and paying respect to everyone, regardless of if X or Y person teaches right, teaches wrong, even acts right, acts wrong, etc.

There is a bodhisattva in the Lotus Sūtra named 常不輕 (Cháng Bùqīng, Jōkufyō, Sadāparibhūta, ‘Never Disparaging’). This bodhisattva might or might not be based on a real figure, as little fantastical or mythic elaboration is given to him in the text, and the chapter (20 in the Kumārajīva recension, used in East Asia, and the basis of most English translations of the LS, and 19 in the Sanskritic Nepalese recension) it believed by some to have circulated as an independent text, much like the Tathāgatāyuṣpramāṇaparivarta (Ch 16/15), before being incorporated into the latter ending sections of the LS.

Within, the mythologically attested Śākyamuni buddha tells of this great bodhisattva, and his profound practice:

是比丘，凡有所見、若比丘、比丘尼、優婆塞、優婆夷、
This bhikṣu, to all there were to see, whether bhikṣu, bhikṣuṇī, upāsaka, upāsikā,

皆悉禮拜讚歎而作是言：
to all obediently bowed in praise and said:

『我深敬汝等，不敢輕慢。所以者何？汝等皆行菩薩道，當得作佛。』
‘I deeply revere you all, never daring to disparage any. Why is this? You all, each and every, tread the bodhisattva path, and will attain Buddhahood’

The Lotus Sūtra is mythological in nature, and not everything that is contained within it, needless to say, fits with the dispensation as attested to in the early Buddhist texts. But if we approach this more neutrally, not as “fake Buddhavacana” or “heretic literature” (and this involves ignoring a lot of the polemics against the old, historical, dispensation, śrāvakayāna, in the text, a hefty feat indeed!), and see it simply as “devotional literature”, that IMO this is one of the most universal and profound devotional practices in the text.

The practice of Sadāparibhūtabodhisattva is presented in the LS as a brief string of twenty-four characters:

我深敬汝等不敢輕慢所以者何汝等皆行菩薩道當得作佛

The founder of the school of Buddhism upon which SGI finds its foundations, Venerable Nichiren, a thirteenth century Japanese Taimitsu priest (whom some have not-unwarrantedly characterized as a fire-and-brimstone street preacher) whose Buddhist education was in the Tendai curriculum of his time, directly commented on the fable of the practice of the Bodhisattva Never Disparaging.

In his writing, ‘On the Buddha’s Prophecy’, he says this of the 24 characters associated with Sadāparibhūtabodhisattva’s practice:

"The twenty-four characters of Never Disparaging and the five characters of Nichiren are different in wording, but accord with the same principle. […] Bodhisattva Never Disparaging was a practitioner at the initial stage of rejoicing; Nichiren is an ordinary practitioner at the stage of hearing the name and words of the truth." - (WND I:43)

The ‘five characters of Nichiren’ spoken of above are:

妙法蓮華經

This is the Chinese title of the Lotus Sūtra. With 南無 (namu, namaḥ, ‘[I] bow’) preceeding it, this metaphysical universal concept expressed as a mantra is the chief practice of the Nichiren-derived schools of latter Mahāyāna Buddhism (which in turn are related to the larger movement of ‘New Kamakura [single-practice] schools’, like Jōdo Shinshū). This is what Nichiren Buddhists are saying when they chant ‘Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō’.

It is a heavily conceptual chanting practice, the practice of which is likely somewhat at odds with the fetter of reliance on ritual in śrāvaka (sīlabbataparāmāso, Kv3.5, etc) & earlier bodhisattva Buddhism alike.

But, objections to the stress on what is essentially a chanting ritual aside, if we look at the above gosho (御書, ‘honoured writing’) and take it at face value, the ōdaimoku (お題目, ‘[practice of the] honoured title’) of Ven Nichiren is to be in accordance with the principle of the words of Sadāparibhūtabodhisattva:

I deeply revere you all, never daring to disparage any. Why is this? You all, each and every, tread the bodhisattva path, and will attain Buddhahood

 How to realize such a practice? Universal reverence. A difficult task."

Answer: Bodhisattva Never Disparaging lived in the era of the Middle Day of Ionno Buddha and we live in the era of the Latter Day of Shakyamuni Buddha. The people of today realize a practice of universal reverence by propagating Namu Myoho renge kyo, the teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha of the Juryo Chapter of the Lotus Sutra, in the same manner as the Supreme Votary of the Lotus Sutra, Nichiren Daishonin. Since the people of today are even more stained with the Three Poisons of Anger, Avarice, and Stupidity and are more slanderous than were the people in Never Disparaging's day, the principle method of universal reverence are the forceful practices of the Lotus Sutra (shakubuku). The main aspect of this practice are intense activities of admonishing slander of the Lotus Sutra (Myoho renge kyo).

Nichiren's teaching begins and ends with the Lotus Sutra. He advocated a faith of scripture worship. Nichiren gave personality to the Lotus Sutra. He was the first person to not only to arrive at the supremacy of the scripture but he experienced it personality.

Nichiren believed that while the Lotus Sutra contained the highest truth for salvation, the path to it was subject to the "three-countries, four teachers" doctrine. The three countries are India, China and Japan, the four teachers are the Historical Shakyamuni Buddha, Tientai, Saicho (Dengyo) and Nichiren himself. Although Nichiren gave credit to Chih-I and Saicho, he realized that the times were now degenerate (Mappo) and the people were spiritually weak and the times are much different from that of his two predecessors.

Nichiren saw that the second half of the Lotus Sutra (chapters 15 to 24) are the teachings for the Latter Day. These "Essential Teachings" reveal that the Eternal Buddha (Gohonzon) appears for the first time during this time period while the first fourteen chapters preached by the historical or "trace" Buddha are both subordinate to the Essential Teachings and were preached principally for the people of the Middle Day.

Nichiren introduced the concept of "hiho hobo" or "hobo" for short (slander of the True Dharma). The True Dharma (teaching) is the Lotus Sutra (Myoho renge kyo). He considered all other scriptures to be false and hence their subscribers slanderers.

From Nichiren's Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land we see that Nichiren's thinking on what constitutes slander was based on the following passages from the Lotus Sutra. In it, the Buddha enumerates the type of slanderers who obstruct the propagation of the sutra:

"Also, Sariputra,

(1) to the proud, arrogant,

(2) lazy, and indolent,

(3) to those who reckon in terms of "I",

Do not preach this scripture.

(4) To the ordinary fellow of shallow perception,

(5) Profoundly addicted to the five desires,

(6) Hearing yet unable to understand,

(7) If a man not believing,

(8) Malign this scripture

(Then he cuts off all Worldly Buddha-seeds.)

(9) Or, again, he may with contorted face,

(10) Harbor doubts and uncertainties.

You are now to hear me tell

Of that man's retribution for his sins:

Whether the Buddha be in the world,

Or whether it be after his passage into extinction,

(11) There shall be those who malign

Such scriptures as this one

And who, seeing that there are readers and reciters,

And copiers, and keepers of this scripture,

(12) Shall, in disparagement, deprecation, 

(13) Hatred, And envy of them,

(14) Harbor grudges against them,

The retribution for these men's sins

You are now to hear:

These men, at life's end,

Shall enter the Avici Hell." - Lotus Sutra Chapter 3

Nichiren saw, based on his many writings, that one can atone for their past sins only by accepting the title of the Lotus Sutra, propagating it, and confronting one's persecutors.

In the Lotus Sutra, we see two ways of attaining our goal, the moderate (Shoju) and aggressive (Shakubuku). In Shoju, the believer gently persuades the slanderer to accept the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren likened this moderate approach to a compassionate mother coaxing her child to accept her ways or tothe warrior's pursuit of literary arts.

In Shakubuku, we see a more direct and argumentative approach, concentrating on the prospects weakness and admonishing him that he can improve only by accepting the title. This is like a father's stern remonstrance or the warrior's pursuit of military arts.

Nichiren said the the two were inseparable, but depending on the time and person involved either could take precedence over the other. Nichiren was clearly convinced that the people in this time period, (the degenerate world), would only convert through the aggressive method, and only this way could save them.