Sunday, January 17, 2021

Do you see anything reflective of the Soka Gakkai and the Nichiren Shoshu in these passages by Nichiren Daishonin?

"Great Concentration and Insight says: 'If one lacks faith [in the Lotus Sutra], one will object that it pertains to the lofty realm of the sages, something far beyond the capacity of one’s own wisdom to comprehend. If one lacks wisdom, one will become puffed up with arrogance and will claim to be the equal of the Buddha.'” - Opening of the Eyes

"Volume nine of The Annotations on “The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra” states, “These two types of overbearing arrogance are not without difference in degree between them. One who supposes that ordinary human beings are the same as the Buddha is guilty of great shamelessness.” -- Nichiren, Attaining Buddhahood in One's Present Form [1275]

"...and [they] boast that “we ourselves surpass the Buddha!” Persons such as these are descendants of the Great Arrogant Brahman of southern India, in the class of those who “draw blood from the body of the Buddha.” - Refuting Ryokan and the Others [1276].

"...Devadatta, however, did not command such respect from others, so he began to consider whether there was not some way he could gain worldly fame that would surpass that of the Buddha. He came across five criteria by which he might surpass the Buddha and gain recognition from society..." Letter to Horen

“These various sutras expound partial truths such as ‘the mind itself is the Buddha, and the Buddha is none other than the mind.’ The Zen followers have allowed themselves to be led astray by one or two such sentences and phrases, failing to inquire whether they represent the Mahayana or the Hinayana, the provisional teachings or the true teaching, the doctrines that reveal the truth or the doctrines that conceal it. They merely advance the pprinciple of nonduality without understanding the principle of duality, and commit an act of great arrogance, claiming that they themselves are equal to the Buddha. They are following in the tracks of the Great Arrogant Brahman of India and imitating the old ways of the Meditation Master San-chieh of China. But we should recall that the Great Arrogant Brahman, while still alive, fell into the hell of incessant suffering, and that San-chieh, after he died, turned into a huge snake. How frightful, how frightful indeed!" - A Sage and an Unenlightened Man

"But the Zen school, revering the Buddha, which is the essential nature of phenomena, supposes that the self and [Shakyamuni] Buddha are equal, which is to fall into the error of overbearing arrogance. Surely a person who does so will be condemned to the AvÄ«chi hell. Hence the Lotus Sutra says, “The monks who are overbearingly arrogant will fall into a great pit.” - Letter to Renjo

"The priests of the True Word school all pay homage to the Thus Come One Mahāvairochana and declare that Shakyamuni, the lord of teachings, is a Buddha who is still wandering in the region of darkness and is “not worthy even to tend our sandals!” In the end, they conduct their ceremony of anointment, stepping on the head of Shakyamuni Buddha. The priests of the Zen school declare that their teachings represent a “separate transmission outside the sutras,” regard all the various sutras as of less worth than waste paper, and boast that “we ourselves surpass the Buddha!” Persons such as these are descendants of the Great Arrogant Brahman of southern India, in the class of those who “draw blood from the body of the Buddha.” - Refuting Ryokan and the Others

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