An Honest and Upright Bloke [unlike Steve Milburn]

Steve Milburn's Old Time Religion

It is the business suited Soka Gakkai priests with perverse wisdom and hearts who are the Buddha's worst enemies

"Shakyamuni Buddha is the father, sovereign, and teacher of all the other Buddhas and all the gods, of the whole assembly of human and heavenly beings, and of all living beings. How could the heavenly gods and benevolent deities rejoice if the Buddha were killed? Today all the people of our country have proved to be enemies of Shakyamuni Buddha, but more than laymen or laywomen, it is the [business suited Soka Gakkai] priests with perverse wisdom and hearts who are the Buddha’s worst enemies. There are two kinds of wisdom, correct and perverse. No matter how wise a person may appear, if his assertions are warped you should not listen to him. Nor should you follow priests merely because they are venerable or of high rank. But if a person has the wisdom to know the true meaning of the Lotus Sutra, no matter how lowly he may appear, pay respect to him and make offerings to him as though he were a living Thus Come One. Thus it is written in the sutra. That is why the Great Teacher Dengyo says that the men and women who believe in this sutra, even if they lack knowledge or violate the precepts, should be seated above priests who observe all two hundred and fifty precepts of the Hinayana teachings, and never be seated in a humble position, and that this is all the more true of the priests of this Mahayana sutra."

What a Low Life Condition

"Some protest video clips were posted earlier in this thread. Here's an interesting related clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHQ5t1iMPY0

Some of those same protestors, on another day, are being tailed through the streets by an earpiece wearing undercover soka (MIB=Men In Black, but in this case light brown) James Bond wanna-be stalker. He appears at the beginning of the clip (~20 sec. mark) and is confronted toward the end of the clip (~2:00 min. mark).

Take a look at his face at the beginning of the clip --> psycho eyes. At the end of the clip, when confronted, he is reaching for his communication piece in the back of his waist." Hitch, ex SGI fortune baby and Cult Education forum poster

_{A joyful bodhiNOTva is he. Unbelievable clip. Those anti-SGI people are such fearsome desperados. He looked so angry. What a low life condition. -- Mark}

Daisaku ikeda Buddha of the Modern Age

More SGI BSG or More SGI Cult BS Propaganda

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbwIriRIhgs&list=UUwyaSFSokcu5eXEzgZXTHtg&index=4&feature=plcp

Billions of people throughout the world get up each morning early to go to work or school but these lowlife SGI YMD can only do so if they have a connection to the Soka Gakkai and D.Ikeda.

Charge of the Light Brigade and the Terror of Normandy

Robin "Nichiren" Buddhist of the Ikeda Sect Responds (4)

4).Destructive cults generate some kind of external “pet devil” with which to threatentheir members if they should doubt, or fail, or ever leave the group.

The SGI has dozens of “pet devils”. Those who leave will have misfortune on their jobs, in their families, in the social lives,have accidents, fall into hell, etc. President Toda stated: “If you keep this up, you’re going to cometo a pitiful end in life.” and “Betraying the Soka Gakkai is betraying the Daishonin. In the end, they’llreceive the punishment of the Buddha, you’ll see.” Ikeda says, “To take action to fight againstwhatever forces appear as the enemies of the Soka Gakkai is our most noble mission.” Matilda Bucksays, “How tragic it would be for even one person to have found the great means of bringing forth Buddhahood only to be diverted to another, seemingly similar, path that is incapable of leading that individual to his or her deepest happiness.” This is the jist of the Gakkai’s attempt to chain themembers to the Gakkai way of life. The Biggest ”pet devil” is Nikken of the Nichiren Shoshu:

“When Buddhism speaks of “devilish functions,” what does that really mean? These represent whatever tries to prevent us from advancing in our Buddhist practice. In a sense, they are frightened when we expand the Buddha?s forces, because the realm they want to control will be changed into a pure land. In our case right now, this function is being manifested in the current high priest of Nichiren Shoshu.”

Robin: Again, as far as I can tell this is the same with all Nichiren sects with “Ikeda” being the “pet devil”. I used to hate all the demonizing of Nikken and felt the SGI should move on and focus on the teachings of the Lotus Sutra and the Gosho (which they now seem to do in the UK), but most Nichiren sects seem more obsessed with President Ikeda than you say SGI members are. 

Mark: I guess you are not familiar with the SGI UK Soka Spirit. I suggest you do a google search. A component of Fascism are those “WHO ARE URGED TO ENGAGE IN A HEROIC COLLECTIVE EFFORT TO ATTAIN A METAPHYSICAL GOAL against the machinations of a SCAPE GOATED DEMONIZED ADVERSARY”: [from Scruton]. For your benefit, I have included my commentary proving that the Soka Gakkai has features of Fascism

The following passages with capitalized words are from Scruton along with commentary proving that the SGI has the essential features of Fascism :

“[Fascism is] more notable as a political phenomenon on which diverse intellectual influences converge than as a distinct idea; as political phenomenon, one of its most remarkable features has been the ability to win massive popular support for ideas that are expressly ANTI-EGALITARIAN.”

Despite their rhetoric, there is a huge chasm between general members and their religious leaders in the Soka Gakkai. If a general member or lower level leader disagrees with a higher level leader, it is always the general member who lacks faith or should reflect. If a leader visits the home of a member, the leader invaraibly leads prayers even if the member has been practicing many years more than the leader.

"Fascism is characterized by the following features (not all of which need be present in any of its recognized instances"): nationalism; HOSTILITY TO DEMOCRACY,” TO EGALITARIANISM”

Not one leader has ever been elected in the Soka Gakkai but they call themselves, “the flower of Buddhist democracy”. Whenever members like the IRG group or individuals bring up elections of leaders, the higher level leaders, questions their faith or spins it that, “the SGI is already a Buddhist democracy, of what use are elections.” A leaders term is indefinite and the higher level leaders serve at the whim of the unelected “President”. Some leaders have been Vice General Directors, General Directors, or Vice Presidents for decades.

‘and to the VALUES OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT” [The Age of Reason]:

Another name for this age is the Age of Free Thought. As we have seen there is no free thought in the Soka Gakkai. See how far one gets in the organization were one to take Shakyamuni, Buddha, Nichiren Daishonin, or Michio Kaku as their mentor instead of Daisaku Ikeda. Free thought extends to the sphere of freedom of study. One can not even study the various extant Gohonzons in the Soka Gakkai because it is forbidden to photograph the Gohonzon. Even an independent study of the Lotus Sutra and the writings of Nichiren Daishonin is frowned upon. One must utilize the commentaries of the mentor. There were dozens of debating societies during the Age of Enlightenment. There is no debate in the Soka Gakkai. It is the mentors way or the highway and they are loathe to debate the other Nichiren sects, particularly the Kempon Hokke.

“The CULT OF THE LEADER,”

One need only observe the 20 foot banners, monuments, plaques and reliefs of Ikeda to know that the Soka Gakkai is a cult of personality. The teaching of the Oneness of Mentor and Disciple too is evidence. The memorizations ["fusing with", "burning into ones life"] of Ikeda’s guidances, aphorisms and poems, is another example. Naming dozens of parks, buildings, schools, and monuments after Ikeda, is yet another example.

“AND ADMIRATION FOR HIS SPECIAL QUALITIES”:

His voluminous and often ghost written books, his hundreds of paid for honorarium; “his ability to read minds and know what others are thinking.”; “‘The sun always shining when he comes to visit.”; His fidelity; loyalty; sincerity; never erring on religious or secular matter; the list literally goes on and on.

“A RESPECT FOR A COLLECTIVE ORGANIZATION, AND A LOVE OF THE SYMBOLS associated with it, such as UNIFORMS, PARADES and ARMY DISCIPLINE”:

One finds dozens of claims of the inability of people to attain Buddhahood outside the SGI organization. Every Division has their own flag and special symbols. The SGI has its own flag and symbol. Uniforms were a big part of the USA organization for years and are still worn in Japan. Uniformity, especially among the young men’s division is highly valued. Many fail to move up the organizational ladder if they have a moustache or beard. They have grandiose parades and their young men’s and young women’s divisions are run with military inspired discipline.

“The ultimate doctrine contains little that is specific, beyond AN APPEAL TO ENERGY AND ACTION”:

“Victory or defeat”; “ever victorious”; “life condition”; “take action today”; “It is essential for our members to raise their voices and take action.”; “Develop the will and spiritual energy to guide your members.”; give your very life for the Soka Gakkai.” “A lion is fearless. A lion is never defeated. A lion never laments. A lion is swift. A lion roars. A lion runs. And, above all, a lion wins without fail.”

“Another way to look at fascism is as a movement of extreme racial or CULTURAL NATIONALISM, combined with ECONOMIC CORPORATISM and AUTHORATARIAN AUTOCRACY”:

The Soka Gakkai is a country within the countries to which it has spread. There most definitely is a culture of Soka. The minor differences in the organizations of the various countries is window dressing rather than a true cultural assimilation. We would not be wrong to say it is an organization based on the Japanese cultural baggage of Bushido or way of the warrior [fierce loyalty, honor, feudalism]. They are one of the largest multi-national religious corporations in the world.

“masked during its rise to state [world] power by PSEUDO-RADICAL POPULIST appeals to overthrow a conspiratorial elitist regime”:

Anyone who opposes the goal of “world peace” based on the Soka “value creation” philosophy are elitists, intellectuals, or priest-like.

“SPURRED BY A STRONG CHARISMATIC LEADER”:

Duh!

“WHOSE REACTIONARY IDEAS ARE SAID TO ORGANICALLY EXPRESS THE WILL  OF THE MASSES”:

Nothing could be more reactionary than the autocratic pyramidal structure of the Soka Gakkai formulated by Three Presidents and perfected by Daisaku ikeda, “The Buddha of the modern age who looks upon the people as his children”.

“WHO ARE URGED TO ENGAGE IN A HEROIC COLLECTIVE EFFORT TO ATTAIN A  METAPHYSICAL GOAL against the machinations of a SCAPE GOATED DEMONIZED ADVERSARY”:

Daisaku Ikeda’s Concept of Peace Cosmology is an example of SGI’s grandiose metaphysical goal. It doesn’t even limit the metaphysical goal to the earth but the entire cosmos. 

In his internal speeches since 1991, and in the latest Human Revolution series, we come to see that the evil Nichiren Shoshu priests and the the other evil Nichiren sects, in general, are the only thing preventing the realization of the worldwide actualization of Soka peace cosmology or the spread of the true teachings [Kosen Rufu].

“In any case, in most definitions of fascism the themes of conspiracism and a NEEDED SCAPEGOAT emerge”:

The Nichiren priests, in general and the Nichiren Shoshu, specifically, according to the SGI are the Third of the Three Powerful Enemies, to be crushed. They can’t even see that their high paid business suited lay leaders are what Dengyo terms, nominal Bhikksus or priests.

The parallels between fascism and the Soka Gakkai are conclusive. Other parallels are, elitism, xenophobia and drive for control, for example. Then there is the false propaganda and propagandists, those like yourself.

Daisaku Ikeda is not our pet devil nor is he even the reincarnation of Devedatta. He is our best friend in the entire World because without Ikeda and his organization, there would be no way to contrast the SGI with the Kempon Hokke.

Robin "Nichiren" Buddhist of the Ikeda Sect Responds (3)

3).Destructive cults reduce everything to a bi-polar attitude: “for us, or against us.”

Robin: "Within the UK, I’ve never come across this “for us or against us” attitude, but I’ve certainly met wise people that criticise the SGI and the Lotus Sutra as well as foolish people that praise the SGI.

"Daisaku Ikeda’s words show his compassion for people being deceived by priests, which is again common among all religions. Going back to your website, you have the same view that SGI members are being deceived by Daisaku Ikeda as well as criticising Rissho Kosei-Kai and Gene Reeves.

On March 25 you say “If one accepts the transgressions of the Soka Gakkai, Nichiren Shoshu, Nichiren Shu and Shingon without discriminating between the correct and incorrect, can they really be considered disciples of Nichiren Daishonin?”. Surely this is a “for us or against us” statement in which you either are or aren’t a disciple of Nichiren? Also, is this your quote? Most of the Kempon webpage refers to Nichiren as Shonin not Daishonin or are the two interchangeable in Kempon Hokke?"

Mark: It might have been instructive to point out what I wrote to prove the point.

Anyone who criticizes the SGI, no matter how wise, is a fool and anyone who praises the SGI, no matter how foolish, is wise:   http://www.mindspring.com/~sonoda/yamaz.htm

Here is another example:

“Seven years have passed since then. The outcome of the struggle of good and evil and the workings of the law of cause and effect have been strict and uncompromising. The decline of the crazed and destructive Nichiren Shoshu is clearly apparent. The victims, unfortunately, are the la ybelievers who practice with the temple, who are not aware of Nichiren Shoshu’s evil and have been deceived by the priests.” -- Daisaku Ikeda

The Kempon Hokke, on the other hand, accepts criticism from whatever quarter as long as it is based on the Lotus Sutra, writings of Nichiren Daishonin, and the truth. We also are not above criticizing our own, be they priest or laymen, should they deviate from the Lotus Sutra and teachings of Nichiren.

In the case of the Soka Gakkai it IS us against them:

"We, ourselves, cannot produce the Gohonzon. Since it's the
enlightened entity of Nichiren Daishonin, no one has the authority
other than the successive high priests who have been the sole heirs
to the heritage of the True Law. We take no part in this. Therefore,
the objects of worship inscribed by those in the Butsuryu and Minobu
factions [of the Nichiren sect] are absolutely powerless. They are
worthless because they are fake. In fact, they contain the power of
evil spirits. That is why they are dangerous." Former SGI president,
Josei Toda, Daibyaku Renge, 98, p. 98.

"Members of the Minobu school of the Nichiren sect chant daimoku.
They have the Gosho Their recitation of the sutra also includes the
Hoben and Juryo chapters. And, in the Shoshinkai, which consists of
ex-priests of Nichiren Shoshu , and the portions of the sutra they
recite and the daimoku that they chant are identical to the practice
we observe. Though their religion may seem the same as ours, they
lack the single, unbroken heritage of the law recieved directly from
Nichiren Daishonin. If one's faith is not based on this line of
inheritance, it is worthless to embrace any Gohonzon, for no benefit
will be forthcoming. That is to say, "Without the lifeblood of faith,
it would be useless to embrace the Lotus Sutra." " Daisaku Ikeda,
Buddhism in Action, vol 3, p 254

I suggest also that you search out the SGI Bible of Shakubuku:

Here are a few excerpts and my responses as a Kempon Hokke member.
The SGI Bible of Shakubuku (1951), supervised by Daisaku Ikeda,
was published by the Soka Gakkai to train believers. The Soka
Gakkai  no longer publishes the Bible of Shakubuku because it
promotes the Nichiren-Shoshu. Nevertheless, SGI's fundamental
doctrines have not changed except for denying that the heritage of
the Law is transmitted through the person of High Priest of Nichiren
Shoshu. Now they claim that the heritage is only transmitted through
the Successive Presidents of the Soka Gakkai.

"Shakyamuni's dharma is the dharma of the past and no longer
 beneficial". (page 63, The Bible of Shakubuku)

Nichiren taught that Shakyamuni's Lotus Sutra is the only teaching
to be spread in the Latter Day.

"It is necessary to realize that we no longer have a connection
 to Shakyamuni's Buddhism." (page 65, The Bible of Shakubuku)

Nichiren taught that we are the direct disciples of the Original
Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni.

"You should know that Nichiren Daishonin is the only true Buddha
 because Shakamuni's Buddhism is useless." (page 67, The Bible of
 Shakubuku)

Nichiren taught that Shakyamuni Buddha is the Original Eternal Buddha
and we can not even discard the Theoretical Section of the Lotus Sutra,
let alone the Essential Section.

"Buddha Shakamuni is inferior to the true Buddha Nichiren." (page
316, The Bible of Shakubuku)

Nichiren taught that all Buddhas throughout the past, present,
and future, are emanations of Shakyamuni Buddha. He also taught
that those who abandon Shakyamuni will fall into the Avici hell.

"The Lotus Sutra which is the long-cherished wish of Buddha
 Shakamuni is no longer valid in this era, not in the least." (page93,
The Bible of Shakubuku)

Nichiren says the Lotus Sutra is the ultimate teaching of the past,
present, and future

"If you don't worship the Gohonzon of NST (SGI), you will know no
well-being in the age of Mappo." (page70, The Bible of Shakubuku)

Yet, the deluded SGI members criticize us for pointing out that the
Nichikan Gohonzon breeds evil men.

'If you worship the Honzon of a wicked religion, you will naturally
experience misfortune (page280, The Bible of Shakubuku).

The misfortune of the SGI senior leaders and their family members,
is actual proof that they worship a Honzon of a wicked religion and
the tremendous good fortune of the believers in the Kempon Hokke
is proof of the righteousness of our Honzon and the goodness of our
religion.

"All other sects except NST (SGI) are wicked religions and are a
negative influence on society. (page280, The Bible of Shakubuku)

The reality is that wherever the SGI has spread, the people have
suffered every manner of misfortune and even their own members
obtain neither merit nor virtue.

"The teachings of Buddha Shakamuni is as useless as last year's
calendar. If you are guided by his teachings, your life will surely
fail as a logical result." (page303,The Bible of Shakubuku)

Then why so many unrealized dreams among the Soka Gakkai
members and why such wonderful benefits in the life of the Kempon
Hokke believers who embrace the Lotus Sutra and Shakyamuni Buddha?

"Every person who doesn't worship the Gohonzon of Fuji-Taiseki temple
(SGI) are bad people who slander the true dharma.' (page314, The Bible
of Shakubuku)

Then the SGI members are bad because, according to their own criteria,
they slander the "true dharma" of Fuji-Taisekaji temple. The reality is
that they are bad people, especially their high salaried leaders, for
other real and serious transgressions: For abandoning the Lotus Sutra
and Lord Shakyamuni Buddha and exploiting the Dharma for personal
gain.

"The family which believes in the so-called Nichiren-shu will have
children who have deformities, mental retardation or madness."
(page321, The Bible of Shakubuku)

Then why do so many children of SGI top senior leaders never make
it past their twenty first birthday while most Nichiren Shu priests' and
believers' children not only survive but thrive? The reason is that the
SGI's leaders curses and particularly Ikeda's curses have returned to the
originator. For slandering votaries of the Lotus Sutra they or their SGI
family members suffer everymanner of disease and death before they grow
old.

"All other sects except NST (SGI) are false heresies  who exert a
bad influence on society." (page323, The Bible of Shakubuku)

Then why does France label the SGI a dangerous cult and has
Daisaku Ikeda never once received an award or honor from his
own people, the Japanese? Why did the Komeito suffer such a
brutal beating in the last election? Because they are a good
influence to society?

It is not we of the Kempon Hokke against others, it is we who are united with the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the universe and Nichiren and those who aren't from whatever quarter. We also acknowledge Nichiren's teachings on complicity with evil and who is and who isn't a good spiritual friend. From the vast corpus of writings of Ikeda and the Soka Gakkai, it is apparent that SGI members and, especially leaders, are poor spiritual friends.

Robin "Nichiren" Buddhist of the Ikeda Sect Responds (2)

2).Destructive cults claim to offer absolute Truth. Their teachings are not (to them) mere theory or speculation. The most effective cult doctrines are those which are unverifiable and unevaluable.

Mark: The SGI claims that their believers are the only Nichiren Lotus Sutra believers capable of obtaining Buddhahood, going so far to claim that all SGI members are Buddhas while those of the Nichiren Shu and Kempon Hokke are “deluded Shakyamuni worshippers”.

Robin: First, all religions (Christian, Islam, Judaism and even their subdivisions Catholic vs Protestant, Orthodox vs unorthodox, etc) claim that they are the one true path to heaven, the promised land, etc and the others are deluded, so this doesn’t automatically indicate a cult.

Mark: There are two general schools of thought within most religions, pluralism and exclusivism. The SGI is neither animal nor bird, it is a bat. Privately it eschews other religions but publically it celebrates interfaith, contrary to the teachings of Nichiren. It is their claim to absolute truth at the expense of the Nichiren Gohonzon and the orthodox believers that distinguishes it as a cult. More importantly the lack of actual proof in the lives of SGI leaders and members, despite your unverifiable and unevaluable testimonials, proves that it is a cult.

Robin: Second, from a brief look at most Nichiren sects (including your blog) there seems to be the same view that people should quit the SGI as they won’t find enlightenment under these false teachings and instead follow the correct Buddhism of our sect.

Mark: True about quitting the Soka Gakkai and joining the Kempon Hokke, and "from a brief look at my blog", it might seem that we endorse all disciples and believers of Nichiren to join the Kempon Hokke. From a deeper look and what the Kempon Hokke actually teaches, it is not the Nichiren sect one belongs to but the doctrines upheld and the behavior of the individual. It is a stretch to call the Soka Gakkai a Nichiren sect or SGI members Nichiren Buddhists since you fail to follow many of the tenets of Nichiren and as a group, especially SGI top leaders, you exhibit extremely poor behavior.

Robin: Finally, you have a new post on May 12 that says SGI teachings are dangerous to kids because an online SGI quiz asks “Who is a Buddha?” with the answer “Everyone”. Surely to support this 2nd cult point, the answer should be “Only SGI members”.

Mark: This was not the point of the article although I do indeed possess statements by Ikeda and his leaders where it is either explicit or implied that SGI members are Buddhas to the exclusion of others. The point of the article was that teaching children that "everyone is a Buddha" is dangerous because it will place an indiscriminately trusting child in danger. Were it even true that all SGI members were Buddhas, why the background checks of those who would lead and teach children?

From the Kempon Hokke Archives

Thanks for your thorough reply:

A few things... You could say that ("imitao dei"). St Francis was quite
successful with this methodology although his movement became corrupted
because only he could follow to the letter the Christian precepts. As far as
Nichiren Daishonin, following his manner of reading the Sutra, it too has become
corrupted because it too is difficult to practice as Nichiren did.

Everyone wishes to be liked and believes his way is the best and only
way. Nichiren states,

"It is said that good medicine tastes bitter. Similarly, this sutra dispels
attachments to the five vehicles and establishes the one supreme teaching. It
reproaches common mortals and censures saints, denies Mahayana and refutes
Hinayana... All those who are repudiated persecute the believers in the Lotus
Sutra."

We only care that that his teachings are maintained and transmitted perfectly
which is not easy for imperfect beings. The more we model ourselves on Nichiren
rather than Daisaku Ikeda, Nichinyo, Nissei, Nichidatsu, Nichiki and Nissatsu,
the more Nichiren's life is reflected in our own lives and the more perfectly we can
maintain and transmit his teachings.

The transmission in the Latter Day is chanting Namu Myoho renge kyo to an
authentic Gohonzon. Nichiren doesn't advocate a model based on "The Patriarchal
Transmissions", "The Patriarchal Transmission of the Golden Mouthed Ones" or "
The Patriarchal Transmission Through Current Masters." What does the Nirvana
Sutra say about the Transmission of the Buddha's teachings in the Latter Day:
"In the Latter Dharma there is a group of 120,000 great bodhisattvas who keep
the Dharma, ensuring that it will not perish." If we are numbered among these
Bodhisattvas, the Law will long endure

"More on the Transmission. 'One should consider the fact that, if the Buddha had
not attained enlightenement in the distant past, there could not have been so
many people converted to his teachings......'"(Kaimoku Sho)

Thus the Buddha is the source of both the Specific and the General transmission.
The Gohonzon, though a text, is the the reality of the Buddha.. The Gohonzon is
the entity of Ninpo-ika. Those who look upon it merely as a text lack faith. The
Maka Shikan says: "If one lacks faith in the Lotus sutra he will object that it
pertains to the lofty realm of the sages, something far beyond the capacity of
his own wisdom to comprehend. If one lacks wisdom, he will become puffed up with
his own arrogance and will claim to be the equal of the Buddha."(Kaimoku Sho).

In Shakyamuni's and Nichiren's True Buddhism, there is neither an oral nor a
patriarchal transmission of the teachings. This is why the Succession through
the Scrolls of the Sutra reigns supreme and is the true meaning of exoteric
Mahayana Buddhism. Nichiren writes:

"Are persons who receive instruction orally from their teacher invariably free
from error, while those who appear in later ages and who seek and investigate to
be regarded as worthless? If so, then should we throw away the sutras and
instead follow traditions handed down from the four ranks of bodhisattvas?
Should a man throw away the deed of transfer received from his father and mother
and instead rely upon oral transmissions? Are the written commentaries of the
Great Teacher Dengyo so much trash, and the oral traditions handed down from the
Great Teacher Jikaku the only guide to truth?" (Gosho Zenshu, p.1258)

"Putting all this aside, I will point out the truth for the sake of my
followers. Because others do not choose to believe it now, they are persons who
thereby form a reverse relation. By tasting a single drop, one can tell the
flavor of the great ocean, and by observing a single flower in bloom, one can
predict the advent of spring. One does not have to cross the water to faroff
Sung China, spend three years traveling to Eagle Peak in India, enter the palace
of the dragon king the way Nagarjuna did, visit Bodhisattva Maitreya [in the
Tushita heaven] the way Bodhisattva Asanga did, or be present at the two places
and three assemblies when Shakyamuni preached the Lotus Sutra, in order to judge
the relative merits of the Buddha’s lifetime teachings. It is said that snakes
can tell seven days in advance when a flood is going to occur. This is because
they are akin to dragons [who make the rain fall]. Crows can tell what lucky or
unlucky events are going to take place throughout the course of a year. This is
because in a past existence they were diviners. Birds are better at flying than
human beings. And I, Nichiren, am better at judging the relative merits of sutras
than Ch’eng-kuan of the Flower Garland school, Chia-hsiang of the Three Treatises
school, Tz’u-en of the Dharma Characteristics school, and Kobo of the True Word
school. That is because I follow in the footsteps of the teachers T’ien-t’ai and Dengyo.
If Ch’eng-kuan and the others had not accepted the teachings of T’ien-t’ai and
Dengyo, how could they have expected to escape the sin of slandering the Law?

I, Nichiren, am the richest man in all of present-day Japan. I have dedicated my
life to the Lotus Sutra, and my name will be handed down in ages to come. If one
is lord of the great ocean, then all the gods of the various rivers will obey
one. If one is king of Mount Sumeru, then the gods of the various other
mountains cannot help but serve one. If a person fulfills the teaching of “the
six difficult and nine easy acts” of the Lotus Sutra, then, even though he may
not have read the entire body of sutras, all should follow him." (Opening of the
Eyes)

Nichiren is also a more accomplished master than the men I cited above.

"The Great Teacher Dengyo was disparaged by the priests of Nara, who said,
“Saicho has never been to the capital of T’ang China!” (ibid.)

"The Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai trusted and obeyed Shakyamuni and worked to uphold
the Lotus school, spreading its teachings throughout China." (On the Buddha's
Prophecy).

"In the Tendai school, however, there appeared a priest known as the Great
Teacher Miao-lo. Though he lived more than two hundred years after the time of
the Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai, he was extremely wise and had a clear
understanding of the teachings of T'ien-t'ai..." (Repaying Debts of Gratitude).

Who credentialed or certified Tientai, Miao-lo, or Nichiren? Nichiren gave
himself the Buddhist name Nichi-Ren. Who ordained Shakyamuni Buddha? The
nonsense of seeking a living master stifles growth and development as a direct
disciple of the Original Buddha. It is the evil priestly and monastic agenda to
coerce you into accepting them as teachers and offering them alms, rather than
the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha and Nichiren Daishonin. This is not True
Mahayana (exoteric Buddhism) which is based on the Succession Through the
Scrolls of the Sutra and the Authentic writings of Nichiren. The Lotus Sutra and
Nichiren Daishonin teach that we are direct disciples of the Original Eternal
Buddha Shakyamuni. Buddhism is accessible to all with or without a "face to
face" transmission. Nichiren states:

"While the Great Teacher Jikaku was in Japan, he made a thorough study of the
teachings of both Dengyo and Kobo, and he spent a period of ten years in China
studying under the eight distinguished priests, including the Tripitaka Master
Pao-yüeh of southern India, learning all the loftiest and most secret doctrines.
On this basis, he completed his commentaries on the two sutras. In addition, he
prayed to the image of the Buddha, and awoke from dreaming that he had seen the
arrow of wisdom strike the sun of the Middle Way. So great was his joy that he
requested Emperor Nimmyo to issue an edict acknowledging Mount Hiei as a center
of the True Word practice.

Though he was the chief priest of the Tendai school, he virtually became a True
Word prelate, declaring that the three True Word sutras were the works that
would ensure peace and protection of the nation. It has now been more than four
hundred years since he spread these doctrines. The eminent leaders who have
accepted them are as numerous as rice and hemp seedlings, and the fervent
believers who have embraced them are as plentiful as bamboo plants and rushes.

As a result, of all the temples established throughout Japan by Emperor Kammu
and the Great Teacher Dengyo, there is not one that has not become a propagator
of the True Word doctrine. Both courtiers and warriors alike invite True Word
priests to attend to their religious needs, look up to them as their teachers,
confer offices upon them, and place them in charge of temples. And in the
eye-opening ceremony carried out at the consecration of wooden and painted
Buddhist images, the priests of all the eight schools of Buddhism now use the
mudras and mantras of the Thus Come One Mahavairochana and the honored one
Buddha Eye! (Repaying Debts of Gratitude)

Look what happened to Buddhism. Jikaku studied under, "the Eight Distinguished
Teachers", every one of them certified, credentialed, ordained, honored,
or distinguished. Also, adopting a priestly or living mentor diminishes one
faith in the Supreme Law affirmed by all Buddhas (Myoho renge kyo).

Question: When it comes to those who maintain that the Lotus Sutra is superior
to the True Word teachings, should they try to make use of these commentaries by
Jikaku, or should they reject them?
Answer: Shakyamuni Buddha laid down a rule for future conduct when he said that
we should “rely on the Law and not upon persons.” Bodhisattva Nagarjuna says
that one should rely on treatises that are faithful to the sutras, but not rely
on those that distort the sutras. T’ien-t’ai states, “That which accords with
the sutras is to be written down and made available. But put no faith in
anything that in word or meaning fails to do so.” And the Great Teacher Dengyo
says, “Depend upon the preachings of the Buddha, and do not put faith in
traditions handed down orally.”(The Selection of the Time)

"Instead of wasting all those supplies and making work for other people by
insisting upon traveling all the way to China, they should have made a more
careful and thorough study of the doctrines of the Great Teacher Dengyo, who was
their own teacher!. " (Repaying Debts of Gratitude)

"But after he went to China at the age of forty, though he continued to call
himself a disciple of Dengyo and went through the motions of carrying on
Dengyo’s line, he taught a kind of Buddhism that was wholly unworthy of a true
disciple of Dengyo." (ibid.)

Although I am merely an ignorant layman, I think that those like Makiguchi,
Toda, Daisaku Ikeda, High Priest Nichinyo and Nittsu, should have made a more
careful and thorough study of the doctrines of Nichiren. Then they wouldn't be
teaching a kind of Buddhism that is wholly unworthy of true disciples of
Nichiren. Daisaku Ikeda, in particular, has shackled his disciples to himself
like a sick siamese twin and will eventually end up killing both himself and his
sibling.

"At that time, after the great assembly had heard the Buddha speak of the
great length of his life-span, incalculable, limitless asamkhyeyas of
living beings gained a great advantage. At that time, the World-Honored
One declared to the bodhisattva-mahasattva Maitreya: "O Ajita!
When I preached on the great length of the life-span of the Thus Come
One, living beings to the number of sands in six hundred and eighty
myriads of millions of nayutas of Ganges rivers gained acceptance of
[the doctrine of] the unborn dharmas. Again, a thousand times this
number of bodhisattva-mahsattvas heard and were enabled to take hold
of the gateway of the dharanis. Again, bodhisattva-mahasattvas equal
to the number of the atoms in one world-sphere gained joy in preaching
and unimpeded eloquence. Again, bodhisattva-mahasattvas equal in
number to the atoms in one world-sphere gained the dharani that can
be turned to a hundred thousand myriads of millions of incalculable
[uses]. Again, bodhisattva-mahasattvas equal in number to the atoms
in the thousand-millionfold world were enabled to turn the unreceding
Wheel of the Dharma. Again, bodhisattva-mahasattvas equal in number
to the atoms in two thousand middle lands were enabled to turn the
pure Wheel of the Dharma. Again, bodhisattva-mahasattvas equal in
number to the atoms in a minor thousand of lands were destined
after eight rebirths to gain anuttarasamyaksambodhi. Again, bodhi­
sattva-mahasattvas equal to four times the number of atoms under
four heavens were destined after four rebirths to gain anuttarasamvak­
sambodhi. Again, bodhisattva-mahasattvas equal in number to three
times the number of atoms under four heavens were destined after three
rebirths to gain anuttarasamyaksambodhi. Again, bodhisattva-maha-
sattvas equal in number to twice the atoms under four heavens
were destined after two rebirths to gain anuttarasamyaksambodhi."
(Lotus Sutra Chapter 17, Leon Hurvitz)

Nan-yueh:

"The Daigo shojin Sutra says: ‘Ordinary beings and the Thus Come One share a
single Dharma body. Being pure and mystic beyond comparison, it is called
Myoho-renge-kyo.’"(Entity of the Mystic Law)

Nan-yueh:

"Those who practice the Lotus Sutra are pursuing through this single act of
devotion the mind that is endowed with all manner of fortunate results. These
are present simultaneously and are not acquired gradually over a long period of
time. This is like the blossom of the lotus which, when it opens, already
possesses a large number of seeds or results. Hence such persons are called the
people of the one vehicle."(ibid)

Nichiren:

"In essence, the entity of Myoho-renge-kyo is the physical body that the
disciples and followers of Nichiren who believe in the Lotus Sutra received from
their fathers and mothers at birth. Such persons, who honestly discard expedient
means, put faith in the Lotus Sutra alone and chant Namu myoho renge kyo, will
transform the three paths of earthly desires, karma and suffering into the three
virtues of the Dharma body, wisdom and emancipation. The threefold contemplation
and the three truths will immediately become manifest in their minds, and the
place where they live will become the Land of Eternally Tranquil Light. The
Buddha who is the entity of Myoho-renge-kyo, of the Juryo chapter of the
essential teaching, who is both inhabiting subject and inhabited realm, life and
environment, body and mind, entity and function, the Buddha eternally endowed
with the three bodies--he is to be found in the disciples and followers of Nichiren.
Such persons embody the true entity of Myoho-renge-kyo; these are the meritorious
workings that the spontaneous transcendental powers inherent in it display. Could
anyone venture to doubt it? Indeed it cannot be doubted! (ibid. Entity)

"Thereupon Shakyamuni Buddha rose from the seat of the Dharma, and by great
supernatural powers, put his right hand on the heads of the innumerable
Bodhisattva-mahasattvas, and said: "For many hundreds of thousands of billions
of asamkhyas of kalpas, I studied and practiced the Dharma difficult to obtain,
and [finally attained] Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. Now I will transmit the Dharma
to you. Propagate it with all your hearts, and make it known far and wide."
[Lotus Sutra, Chapter 22 Transmission]

The merit of the Buddha comes from the Buddha. After the close of Chapter 22,
the replicas of Shakyamuni Buddha never appear. They went back to their home
worlds at the end of this chapter. So where does the transmission of Buddhahood
come from? The Original Buddha Shakyamuni. Here are the words of Nichiren, from
the "Ho'on Jo", enumerating the three great secret dharmas ("san dai hi ho"):

"The first is the object of worship (honzon). All the people in Japan as well
as the rest of the whole world should revere the Lord Buddha Shakyamuni
(Original and Eternal Buddha) revealed in the essential section (honmon) of the
Lotus Sutra as the object of worship (honzon)..." Then again in the "Kanji
Honzon Sho", Nichiren says: "Shakyamuni Buddha, the Lord preacher of this pure
land, has never died in the past, nor will He be born in the future. He exists
forever throughout the past present and future." In the "Senji Sho", Nichiren
says, regarding his ability to make the prediction about the forthcoming Mongol
invasion: "It was not I, Nichiren, who made these three important predications.
I believe it was solely the spirit of Shakyamuni Buddha, entering my body, who
made them."

Within these chapters of transmission, the four stages of faith and five stages
of practice expounded in the in Fumbetsu Kudoku chapter represent the most
important essential in the practice of the Lotus Sutra, a mirror to persons
living in the time of the Buddha and after his passing.

Ching-hsi writes: "'To produce even a single moment's faith and understanding'
represents the beginning in the practice of the essential teaching." Of these
various stages, the four stages of faith are intended for those living in the
Buddha's lifetime, and the five stages of practice for those living after his
passing. Among these, the first of the four stages of faith is that of
producing even a single moment's faith and understanding, and the first of the
five stages of practice is that of rejoicing on first hearing the Lotus Sutra.
These two stages together form a casket containing the treasures of the
"hundred worlds and thousand factors" and the "three thousand realms in a
single life-moment"; they are the gate from which all Buddhas of the ten
directions and the three existences emerge.

Nichiren Goes on to say,

Answer: This is a very important question, and so I will be referring to the
text of the sutra in answering you.. In describing the first, second and third
of the five stages of practice, the Buddha restricts those at these stages from
practicing precepts and meditation, and places all emphasis upon the single
factor of wisdom.. And because our wisdom is inadequate, he teaches us to
substitute faith, making this single word "faith" the foundation. Disbelief is
the cause for becoming an icchantika and for slander of the True Law, while
faith is the cause for wisdom and corresponds to the stage of myoji-soku.

And again,

Answer: Such persons are restricted from practicing almsgiving, the keeping
of the precepts, and the others of the five paramitas, and are directed to chant
Namu-myoho-renge-kyo exclusively. This practice corresponds to the capacity
of persons at the stages of "producing even a single moment's faith and
understanding" and "rejoicing on first hearing the Lotus Sutra." It represents
the true intention of the Lotus Sutra. "

And further along:

Question: When your disciples, without any understanding, simply recite with
their mouths the words Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, what level of attainment do
they reach?
Answer: Not only do they go beyond the highest level of the four tastes or the
three teachings as well as that attained by practitioners of the perfect teaching
set forth in the sutras that precede the Lotus Sutra, but they surpass by millions
and billions of times the founders of the Shingon and various other schools of
Buddhism--men such as Shan-wu-wei, Chih-yen, T'zu-en, Chi-tsang, Tao-hsuan,
Bodhidharma and Shan-tao."

This can be said about the learned priests and laymen of the Kempon Hokke.

KUDEN HOMON
Nichiren departed from the tradition of kuden homon, or oral transmission.
Tendai emphasized the idea of Dharma transmission passed in a direct lineage
from master to disciple. Kechimayku literally means -- blood vessel -- and is
used to indicate the transmission from master to disciple, and also the content
of the transmission. Nichiren viewed _kechimayku_ as the transmission of the
Dharma that makes it possible to escape the suffering of birth and death.
At times the notion of kechimyaku, with the image of the flow of blood, was
taken so literally that priests endeavored to pass on their lineage only to
their own sons (jisshi sojo). Nichiren, on the other hand departed from this
concept of the master and disciple relationship. Nichiren had no one person
contemporary to himself that he looked up to throughout his life as "master".
(Nichiren: sono kodo to shiso, p.32)

Nichiren, according to his writings, did retain lifelong feelings of gratitude
and affection for Dozen-bo in Awa, where Nichiren had taken the tonsure at
sixteen. But, Nichiren left Dozen-bo's mode of Amida Buddhist practice and
understanding. Nichiren also showed no special allegiance to anyone at Mount
Hiei or any of the other major Buddhist centers where he studied from 1238-1253.
It is obvious that Nichiren, based on his own writings, saw himself as standing
in a line that begun with the Historical Shakyamuni and passed to Chih-I, Saicho
and himself. We can conclude from Nichiren's writings that he believed that he
had received a spiritual transmission directly from the Eternal Shakyamuni.

"Although Nichiren dwells in such a remote and forlorn retreat [Minobu], within
the heart of his fleshly body he holds concealed the secret Dharma of the sole
great matter (ichidaiji) transmitted by the Eternal Shakyamuni, master of
teachings, on Vulture Peak." (Nanjo Hyoe Shichiro-dono gohenji)

The Dharma is not something handed down from a master to a disciple, but
directly accessible to anyone at any moment via a personal relationship formed
with the Buddha and the Lotus Sutra by chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo."

From the "Kanjin no-honzon sho":

"..the Eternal Lord Shakyamuni's practices undertaken as the cause (for
attaining Buddhahood), and his virtues acquired as their effect, are completely
contained within the five characters of Myoho-Renge-Kyo. When we receive and
hold these five characters, he will spontaneously transfer to us the merit of
his causes and effects."

To conclude, when we chant Namu Myoho renge kyo with faith and reverence
for the Gohonzon, the Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni, the Daimoku, and spread
the teachings to the best of our abilities, we are Bodhisattvas of the earth, requiring
no intercession by either priest or layman. Of course, since we may not have
trained ourselves to do shakabuku (break and subdue practice) and certainly not
to inscribe or eye-open Gohonzon, then we can support the priest that has been
trained in these facets of Lotus Sutra Buddhism. This is the phenomenological
concept of the division of labor found in the Lotus Sutra, Nichiren's teachings,
and the world at large. The SGI doesn't teach this, lumping all priests, except
Nikko and Nichiren, as evil and demonic.

Chris, not taking the Lotus Sutra literally, living the Lotus Sutra literally.
Becoming Medicine King Bodhisattva, becoming Bodhisattva Fukyo, becoming
Superior Practices, becoming the Eternal Buddha.

As far as persecutions for the sake of the Lotus Sutra, citing Honen, proves you
aren't reading for content. Many people suffer persecutions, even for political
or socio-economic positions. But only votaries of the Lotus Sutra suffer
persecutions on behalf of the Lotus Sutra. If you adopt Nichiren's manner of
reading the Lotus Sutra you will have no doubts about the origin of your
obstacles and perseutions.

We may have been arguing for ten years or more but for most of those years,
I was arguing exclusively from the standpoint of myself. Now I argue from
the standpoint of Nichiren. Logic is important but the Atsuhara martyrs did
more for Buddhism than a thousand logicians.

Regarding arrogance, Nichiren writes:

"The eighth volume of The Annotations on “The Words and Phrases of the Lotus
Sutra” comments as follows: “In this passage, three types of arrogance are
cited. First, there is a section that exposes people of mistaken views. This
represents [the arrogance and presumption of] lay people. Next, there is a
section that exposes the arrogance and presumption of members of the Buddhist
clergy. Third is a section that exposes the arrogance and presumption of those
who pretend to be sages. Of these three, the first can be endured.. The second
exceeds the first, and the third is the most formidable of all.. This is because
the second and third ones are increasingly harder to recognize for what they
really are.” Opening of the Eyes)

If arrrogance is so difficult to to recognize, how much more so Buddhahood?

As far as customs, current times, and reality, you put too much emphasis on the
country and capacity while failingy to realize the true nature of the Latter
Day which hasn't changed since the times of Nichiren: Earthquakes, wars,
pestilence, famines, tsunamis, global warming, inflation, deflation, misleading
religions and philosophies, Pure Land, Soka Gakkai...

As far as more than one view being worth exploring, lets start by exploring
Nichiren's view before we jump to the Rabbis' views. Everyone has a different
view than Nichiren except me and a handful of other adherents, as

I ask those having an SGI view, a Nichiren Shu view, an HBS view
an independent view, to try and have a Nichiren view, to put yourself in
Nichiren's shoes, refute misleading religions and philosophies and promote the
exclusive faith and practice of the Lotus Sutra. Instead of little Ikedas
running around lets see what happens with little Nichirens. It will shake up the
world. We will be banished again and again, we will be exiled, we will be put to
death. The Lotus Sutra will spread like never before. Nichiren says by suffering
relatively minor hardships, such as exile, death and banishements, the True Law
will spread.

Shakyamuni in his "dhuta" form is one aspect of the Eternal Buddha. Throwing out
the Manifestation Body Buddha is throwing out the Dharma Body Buddha and the
Reward Body Buddha. Throwing out the Eternal Buddha is throwing out all Three
Bodies. No one property (of the Three Properties) of the Buddha is independent
of the others. Nichiren corrected those who saw the "dhuta" body, the
Manifestation Buddha, as the sole property of the Buddha.

Robin "Nichiren" Buddhist of the Ikeda Sect Responds (1)

Robin "Nichiren" Buddhist of the Ikeda Sect responds to the post, The Soka Gakkai is a Destructive Cult by Definition:

1). Destructive cults actively recruit new members, often through deceptive “front” organization

Robin: Many thanks for responding to my post. I’ll try and respond to your points as best I can. I’ve had a quick look at your blog to try and familiarize myself with your beliefs.

I found it a little difficult to search around your site though and while some people may look forward to all the SGI / IKEDA posts, I have enjoyed reading the articles I’ve come across that focus specifically on the LOTUS SUTRA and would genuinely like to know more about the BASICS of Kempon Hokke, but as the blog seems predominantly anti-SGI, it’s hard to find the basics of your faith and practice. As a gentle suggestion, it might be an idea to add labels to your posts, so that people can find SGI, LOTUS or KEMPON posts more easily.

Mark: The basics of the Kempon Hokke are the same Three Treasures and Three Great Secret Laws as taught by Nichiren Daishonin and the principle of the Transmission Through the Scrolls of the Sutra [Gohonzon and Twenty--Eight Chapter Lotus Sutra] and Writings of Nichiren Daishonin. We Chant the Daimoku, Namu Myoho renge kyo and recite the Second and 16th Chapters of the Lotus Sutra as prescribed by Nichiren:

Robin: Personally, as an enquiring mind, I would much rather have the facts of your religion and then decide for myself what to believe in rather than just be continually told why I shouldn’t believe in something else.

Mark: The writing, Establishment of the Correct Law for the Peace of the Land teaches, "Rather than offering up ten thousand prayers for remedy, it would be better simply to outlaw this one evil."

The facts of our religion are easy to research and readily appreciated through our faith and practice. Outlawing the "one great evil" of the Soka Gakkai is a difficult endeavor. Our struggle with the Fuji sects is no less serious and profound than Nichiren's struggle with the Pure Land and Shingon: http://kemponhokke.blogspot.com/2012/01/time-circumstance-and-teachings-kempon.html

Robin: While the anti-SGI stuff may attract a lot of support from like-minded people, it may turn off some people that are actually interested in learning the differences between the Nichiren Sects and deciding for themselves which one is teaching the true Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra. Countless examples of why the SGI is wrong, is not proof that Kempon Hokke is right and may turn away the very audience you are hoping to reach.

Mark: Several points: At this time, we are far more concerned about quality and preserving the correct teachings than we are with numbers. The spread of the true teachings will last as long as the Latter Day, for ten thousand years and more and the number of faithful believers, according to Nichiren [at least for the forseeable future], will be less than the amount of dirt that can fit on a fingernail; we are growing at a rate of hundreds of percent a year and our members are not drawn solely from the SGI, the Nichiren Shoshu, and the Nichiren Shu. We are attracting new members, with little or no background in Nichiren's Lotus Sutra Buddhism who are as fresh as the first blossoms of spring.;I advise you to worry more about the deeply flawed teachings of the Ikeda Cult that is hemorrhaging members than the Pure and Perfect teachings of the Kempon Hokke that is experiencing steady growth.

1). The SGI has the Boston Research Center, the Institute for Oriental Philosophy, and others where their affiliation to SGI is rarely if ever mentioned.

Robin: The Boston Research Center is now called the Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dialogue and the Institute for Oriental Philosophy mentions its association with the SGI on its UK homepage and the history page of the IOP Japan page. Maybe these have just been updated since your post on May 12.

Mark: The SGI also has dozens, if not hundreds, of deceptive front organizations, some that you might be familiar with, such as Victory Over Violence, and others that I'm sure even you are not familiar with, for example: SGI has several charter schools in the United States where even some of the teachers don't know that they are funded and sponsored by the Soka Gakkai; Artists for Peace and Justice; the Japanese equivalent of our 7/11 chain; travel agencies; recording studios; iShining and Phiten products; PCE International; and The Shachokai, a group which consists of CEOs from SG front companies; the World Poetry Society; and here's a list of Soka Gakkai owned companies:

http://antisgi.blog124.fc2.com/blog-entry-4.html

Not to mention their association [cemetary business, banking etc.] with the largest defense contractor in Japan, the Mitsubitchi corporation.

The SGI is a Destructive Cult by Definition

The SGI is a Destructive Cult by Definition

1). Destructive cults actively recruit new members, often through deceptive “front” organizations.

The SGI has the Boston Research Center, the Institute for Oriental Philosophy, Human Rights Education Research association, 7/11 [hehe] and others where their affiliation to SGI is rarely if ever mentioned.

2).Destructive cults claim to offer absolute Truth. Their teachings are not (to them) mere theory or speculation. The most effective cult doctrines are those which are unverifiable and unevaluable.

The SGI claims that their believers are the only Nichiren Lotus Sutra believerscapable of obtaining Buddhahood, going so far to claim that all SGI members are Buddhas while those of the Nichiren Shu and Kempon Hokke, for example, are “deluded Shakyamuni worshippers”.

3).Destructive cults reduce everything to a bi-polar attitude: “for us, or against us.”

Anyone who criticizes the SGI, no matter how wise, is a fool and anyone who praises the SGI,no matter how foolish, is wise. Daisaku Ikeda writes, for example:

“Seven years have passed since then. The outcome of the struggle of good and evil and the workings of the law of cause and effect have been strict and uncompromising. The decline of the crazed and destructive Nichiren Shoshu is clearly apparent. The victims, unfortunately, are the la ybelievers who practice with the temple, who are not aware of Nichiren Shoshu’s evil and have been deceived by the priests.”

4).Destructive cults generate some kind of external “pet devil” with which to threatentheir members if they should doubt, or fail, or ever leave the group.

The SGI has dozens of  “pet devils”. Those who leave will have misfortune on their jobs, in their families, in the social lives,have accidents, fall into hell, etc. President Toda stated: “If you keep this up, you’re going to cometo a pitiful end in life.” and “Betraying the Soka Gakkai is betraying the Daishonin. In the end, they’ll receive the punishment of the Buddha, you’ll see.” Ikeda says, “To take action to fight against whatever forces appear as the enemies of the Soka Gakkai is our most noble mission.” Matilda Buck says, “How tragic it would be for even one person to have found the great means of bringing forthBuddhahood only to be diverted to another, seemingly similar, path that is incapable of leading thatindividual to his or her deepest happiness.” This is the jist of the Gakkai’s attempt to chain themembers to the Gakkai way of life. The Biggest ”pet devil” is Nikken of the Nichiren Shoshu:

“When Buddhism speaks of “devilish functions,” what does that really mean? These represent whatever tries to prevent us from advancing in our Buddhist practice. In a sense, they are frightened when we expand the Buddha?s forces, because the realm they want to control will the nbe changed into a pure land. In our case right now, this function is being manifested in the currenthigh priest of Nichiren Shoshu.”

5).Destructive cults lead their members to believe they are somehow superior to all other humans on the earth.

In many of Daisaku Ikeda’s speeches we see how the SGI members are to view themselves:

“Sons of the Gakkai”,

“Inheritors of Myoho”,

“Lions of the Mystic Law”,

“The sole group of true believers”,

“Truly praiseworthy are you who resolve to work hard for kosen-rufu and the SGI. You are the most noble of all people.”

6).Destructive cults put the will of the group above the will of the individual. This is often reinforced with simplistic games or rituals of some type designed to make the individual subservient to the group.

If you search, you will find such quotes from the eternal Soka Gakkai mentor, “the Soka Gakkai is more important than my life.” We also see the special Soka Gakkai holidays like May 3rd, day of mentor and disciple, and such slogans as, “reaffirming the prime point of the Soka Gakkai”

We see inordinate references to Soka Gakkai, SGI, and Ikeda in nearly every experience given by an SGI member. There used to be dress and hair (short) and beard(none) codes for the SGI Young Men’s Division and on saturdays everyone had to dress in whitepants and white tee-shirts.7).

7).Destructive cults teach that the end justifies the means.

How they misuse upaya (expedient means) is a travesty. Flirtatious shakabuku by young women’s division, telling peoplethey can get new cars and even drugs if the chant, teaching people that they will immediatelybecome Buddhas if they join the SGI, and the list goes on and on how they utilize the ends justifythe means philosophy of Machiavelli, the antithesis of the Buddha’s teachings.

8).Destructive cults teach strict obedience to superiors and encourage the developmentof behavior patterns that are similar to those of the leader.

Is there any doubt why the SokaGakkai is known throughout the ten directions as the Ikeda cult? Guidance division, never criticizing leaders, “follow no matter what”, this is so apparent to everyone but the brainwashed SGI memberhimself. Lately, the SGI has abandoned any subtle pretense with such overt youth division guidelinesas, “

Reveal your true identity as Shinichi Yamamoto” and “I want to be ShinichiYamamoto”

9).Destructive cults offer acceptance by the group for good performance, and conversely,withhold it for poor performance.

Moving up the ladder from Jr Group Chief, to Group Chief, toDistrict Chief, to Chapter Chief, to Area Chief, to Territory Chief, to Joint Territory Chief and so on.Busting people from their position or moving them at the leaders will.

10).In destructive cults, fear is a major motivator. Guilt is a close second, and shame isthird. Only the cult leader is perfect, so everyone below is fearful that those above willfind out their shortcomings. Cult members feel constantly guilty for having those real or imagined shortcomings, and are ashamed that they haven’t worked harder to get rid of them.

“Never talk about your problems to the members until they are resolved.”

“Did you know that so and so got hit by a car and is paralyzed. He should have stayed with the Soka Gakkai.”

“She turned in her SGI Gohonzon and lost her job and her house.”

“He committed suicide not soon after joining the Nikken sect.”

11).Destructive cult members swing from emotional highs, to emotional lows regularly. Lows are not long tolerated, and result in more indoctrination, or even ejection from the group if they last too long.

Here are some examples of SGI speech used to control their members: “You have weak faith.”. ‘You had better go for guidance if you want to resolve that problem”. Rumors to stay away from depressed individuals. Not inviting less than enthusiastic members to certain meetings or not telling them about “important” meetings. Lectures about “emotionalism”, [unless the emotion is rapture about the SGI and the mentor]. Every last former SGI cult member will attest to this.

12).Destructive cults tend to re-write their members’ past, manipulate their present, and distort their future. Disrupting time orientation is an honored technique of all such cults.

Human Revolution, New Human Revolution, New New Human Revolution. Need I say more?

13).And, finally, there is never a legitimate reason for leaving a destructive cult. The only reason members leave a perfect system, is because they are imperfect in some respect and will be punished for it.

“He was angry.”

“He was jealous.”

"He couldn’t get along with his leader.”

“He had weak faith.”

(even if "he" continues to chant three hours a day and does shakabuku with the Nichiren Shu or the Kempon Hokke). “No matter which destructive cult you choose, the above 13 items will almost universally apply".

The author of these 13 points [whose name escapes me] then goes on to conclude: Study the methods of est, LaRouche, Transcendental Meditation, Truth Station, Soka Gakkai, TheWay International, Children of God, Temple of Set, Synanon, Scientology ®, The Peoples Temple, Unification Church, Hare Krishnas, House of Judah, Ramtha, Garbage Eaters, Rajneesh, ECK, ChurchUniversal and Triumphant, Elan Vital, Posse Comitatus, or any of the others…. they use the same techniques, even though each of them claims unique and absolute ownership of the “truth.”

They [SGI leaders and Nichiren Shoshu priests] are puffed up with arrogance

Nichiren Daishonin writes:

"Those who call themselves my disciples and practice the Lotus Sutra should all practice as I do. If they do, Shakyamuni, Many Treasures, Shakyamuni's emanations throughout the ten directions, and the ten demon daughters will protect them." On Establishing the Four Bodisattvas as the Object of Devotion WND, 978

Let us put it this passage into context, first with the entierty of this writing and then with the entierty of Nichiren's Gosho. Two salient points of the writing, On Establishing the Four Bodhisattvas as the Object of Worship, I would like to bring out [to validate my assertions about the SGI teachings].

Another passage reads,

"In your letter you asked: "You have told me that an object of

devotion should be made of Shakyamuni Buddha of the essential

teaching, who attained enlightenment in the remote past, attended by

the four bodhisattvas who sprang from the earth and who have been his

disciples since that remote past. If this is correct, when is such an

object of devotion to be established? "

The SGI denies that the object of devotion is is Lord Shakyamuni of the essential teachings. This is not practicing as Nichiren did.

Finally, Ncihiren writes in the concluding paragraphs,

"You also mentioned in your letter that the people connected with

Ota Jomyo are apparently saying that the theoretical teaching of the

 Sutra can in no way lead to enlightenment. They are making a

sLotuserious mistake. Remember this about the theoretical and essential

teachings of the Lotus Sutra: Which is shallow and which profound,

which superior and which inferior, which lenient and which severe,

and which subordinate and which primary must be judged in accordance

with the time and the people's capacity. There are three periods in

which the sacred teachings of the Buddha's lifetime should be

propagated; the people's capacity should be thought of in the same

way.

In the first five hundred years of the Former Day of the Law

following the Buddha's passing, only Hinayana teachings spread, while

in the next five hundred years, provisional Mahayana teachings

spread. The thousand years of the Middle Day of the Law saw the rise

of the theoretical teaching. In the beginning of the Latter Day of

the Law, only the essential teaching spreads, but even so, the

theoretical teaching should not be discarded. Nowhere in the entire

Lotus Sutra do we find a passage suggesting that we should discard

the first fourteen chapters, which comprise the theoretical teaching.

When we distinguish between the theoretical and the essential

teachings on the basis of the threefold classification of the entire

body of the Buddha's teachings, the pre- Lotus Sutra teachings were

to be spread in the Former Day, and the theoretical teaching, in the

Middle Day, but the Latter Day is the time to propagate the essential

teaching. In the present period the essential teaching is primary,

while the theoretical teaching is subordinate. But those who

therefore discard the latter, saying it is not the way to

enlightenment, and believe only in the former, have not yet

understood the doctrine of Nichiren's true intention. Theirs is a

completely distorted view.

This doctrine concerning the theoretical and essential teachings is

not my own [but was expounded by the Buddha]. Those who would distort

it can only be possessed by the heavenly devil, or Papiyas, and will

topple others along with themselves into the great citadel of the

hell of incessant suffering. How foolish they are! Teach this

doctrine to others clearly as I have taught you these many years.

Those who call themselves my disciples and practice the Lotus Sutra

should all practice as I do. If they do, Shakyamuni, Many Treasures,

Shakyamuni's emanations throughout the ten directions, and the ten

demon daughters will protect them. Yet, for all that, [some people

associated with Ota Jomyo distort the teaching]. I cannot fathom what

could be in their minds.

The priest Nichigyo's [Sammibo's] death was indeed pitiful. I recited

the Lotus Sutra and chanted Nam-myoho-renge- kyo for him here in

Minobu, sincerely praying to Shakyamuni, Many Treasures, and the

Buddhas of the ten directions to receive him on Eagle Peak. I have

not yet recovered from my illness, so I have written only briefly. I

will write to you again."

The SGI teaches the Nichikan doctrine: "We chant the Juryo-hon to smash the Hoben-pon and we chant the Daimoku to smash the Juryo-hon." They also teach, for example:

"Although LS and Gosho are great teachings, they are limited to

certain countries (Asian countries) and certain era (India 6

centuries BC, or 13th century Japan). It may need some explanations

and interpretations in applying their principles to modern times and

to other countries, such as Western countries and Africa. The person

who is doing this unprecedented task is SGI President Ikeda. With

his Ichinen and wisdom, Nichiren Daishonin's teachings has spread

to 14 million people in 128 countries. President Ikeda is the mentor

for our Buddhist practice. There is no other person in the world who

can do this. . . . KHS members assert that LS and Gosho can be

understood clearly by reading and interpreting as they are. This is

an arrogant attitude. When someone falls into arrogance that he/she

can understand everything by him/herself, the individual growth

stops and he/she will fail to attain enlightenment. Buddhism is

profound. No matter how many years we practice, still we always

make new discoveries when we read Sensei's lectures and

speeches."

Nichiren says we can not even abandon the Theroetical section of the Lotus Sutra but here, the SGI teaches that the Lotus Sutra only applies to 6th Century India while the Lotus Sutra itself says it applies to to the entire world [Jambudvipa] and in this time period -- Lotus Sutra Chapters 13, 14, 15, 21, 22 and 23.

In asserting that the Lotus Sutra is too difficult and not applicable to us, this teaching is no different than those of the Nembutsu and Zen founders. In the Opening of the Eyes, Nichiren writes:

"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."

As far as being puffed up with arrogance, we read:

"...Buddhism is a teaching of mentor and disciple, expounding as it

does the oneness of the Buddha (mentor) and living beings (disciples). "

"Encounter With a Mentor" World Tribune, Jun 25, 1999 PAGE 7

In other SGI writings they make the claim that all SGI members are Buddhas while, in reality, the members are treated as anything but Buddhas by their senior in faith.

There are ten epithets of a Buddha used in the Lotus Sutra: Worshipful. All Wise, Perfectly Enlightened in Conduct, Understander of the World, Peerless Leader, Controller, Teacher of Gods and Men, Buddha, Tathagata. Would a Buddha say to another Buddha, "you lack faith" or "you ask too many questions, like Sharihotsu"? Why would a Buddha need guidance? Since when do Buddhas receive guidance from other Buddhas? When a Buddha expounds his teachings they are all true without a single exception. Every last Buddha has their own retinue of disciples and believers. Thus there is no need for a centralized organization of Buddhas since each one is autonomous and creates their own organization of believers.

If you compare the way the SGI and the Kempon Hokke treats their members, you will see that the Kempon Hokke comes much closer to the ideal of treating their members as Buddhas, with all the faith, wisdom, and respect accorded to a Buddha.

As promised, here are some similar passages to the one cited by the SGI member at the top of this letter.

"If you are of the same mind as Nichiren, you must be a Bodhisattva

of the Earth." (The True Aspect of All Phenomena)

"In the same way, one who chants the Daimoku as the Lotus Sutra

teaches will never have a twisted mind." (MW vol 5, Letter to

Myomitsu Shonin, pg 196)

"They entirely look up to groups of icchantikas and rely on them as

leaders and, reverencing blasphemers against the Dharma, make them

national teachers. Taking up the Classic Filial Piety of Confucious,

they beat their parents' heads and, while chanting the Lotus Sutra of

Lord Shakya with their mouths, they go against the Master of

teachings." (Letter to Tonsured Layman Soya).

"Those who practice Buddhism but adhere to distorted views destroy

this loftiest of Sutras." (MW vol 5, Reply to Soya Nyudo, pg 164).

The Annhilation of Caste: A Reply To Mahatma Ghandi

Presented to you in solidarity with our Dalit [untouchable] brothers and sisters in India.

http://dalitsvoice.blogspot.com/2011/11/free-download-of-drbrambedkar-books.html

The Lotus Sutra is the Way!

THE SO-CALLED ‘SHOJU’ INITIATIVE AND ITS SPONSORS

THE SO-CALLED ‘SHOJU’ INITIATIVE AND ITS SPONSORS

By Hamilton Graham Lamont

We in the Kempon Hokke, the spiritual descendants of old Jumonryu, have received a recent initiative by certain people who, on the pretext that there is an “illness” in Nichiren Buddhism, have called for an end to the method of propagation called shakubuku (lit., “Break and Subdue”) and the adoption of the method of shoju (lit., Subsuming and Acceptance”); the claim is made that the violent language used among various “Nichiren” groups especially on the Internet is ruining the reputation of Nichiren Buddhism and keeping them from making converts. They say that if they adopt an attitude of complete tolerance and the use of other types of teaching that they will be able to get more converts. They then cite a number of passages from some translation or other of Nichiren Shonin’s works trying to prove that Nichiren Shonin would have approved their abolition of his methods.

First, we should ask: is there, indeed, an illness in “Nichiren Buddhism” especially on the internet? Yes, there is and it is mainly the very work of the people who now desire to abandon Nichiren Shonin’s fundamental standpoint: many of these same people have participated in some of the most vicious, dishonest exchanges and smear campaigns ever seen on the internet; armed with misinformation, disinformation, half-truths, faulty translations, and erroneous, preconceived notions and personal obsessions, they have reacted to any factual refutations of their fantasy Buddhism with violent hostility masquerading as kind of religious version of “political correctness”; their leaders are allowed to “refute” any contrary opinion by cutting off debate on their own server or by launching ad hominem counterattacks against any one who differs from their arbitrary pronouncements on doctrine and practice.

They have confused (and I think it is safe to say, deliberately) the rudeness of their own internecine warfare on the Internet with the true meaning of shakubuku and in order to silence all opposition they have issued what is in effect a peremptory order, disguised as a ‘shoju’ pledge, cutting off all debate and leaving their position as the only acceptable one: to all intents and purposes whatever ideas and practices are currently favored by the leadership of this movement are to be accepted: they sound almost like the old Roman pontiffs: “we have spoken, the case is finished.”

The real reason behind this is that many of these people do not really believe in the fundamental conceptions of Nichiren Shonin’s religion, with which they are extremely uncomfortable. The origin of this situation lies in the fact that all of these people were trained by the Soka Gakkai to follow a version of “shakubuku” which consisted largely of intimidation, smear tactics and the standpoint of “win at any cost”. About ninety-five percent of those who come out of this milieu do one of two things: they either become more extreme than the Soka Gakkai in its worst phases or else they abandon the exclusive practice and genuine shakubuku of Nichiren Shonin (the fundamental nature of which they have never really comprehended in any case). But even when they take the latter course in formal terms they simply cannot avoid going back to their old tactics.

THE KEMPON HOKKE POSITION

The Kempon Hokke in America itself fell victim to this kind of situation when for four long years it was run by people of the former type, given to extreme language and unethical tactics (even by the standards of the Soka Gakkai). But, fortunately, those people no longer have anything to do with us and their approach was never the real position of the Kempon Hokke.

As long ago as October 25, 1995, in defending the orthodox position on the mandala I stated: “I am not really interested in personal remarks; I am interested in truth and salvation.”

Moreover, our genuine viewpoint can be seen in the “Fundamental Principles” which includes the following unambiguous passage:

Second, the rule of conversion and instruction (the method for spreading the true teaching to others) is “breaking and subduing” (shakubuku) which corresponds to this terrible Age of the Latter Dharma when the other teachings of Buddhism outside the Hokekyo have hidden and sunk and lost their effectiveness. In other words, we fervently disprove the teachings and practices at variance with the true teaching (smashing the wrong) and fully assert the right doctrine (revealing orthodoxy). It is said, “Assert aloud, ‘The various sutras have no attainment and are the source of falling to hell; the Hokekyo alone is the Dharma for Attaining Buddhahood and try to break and subdue the people and dharmas of the various sects.” (“On Practice According to the Preaching”) The True Teacher Nichiju also holds that, “The monks and laity who are disciples should reverence and make offering to the person who has firmly declared, ‘The various sects are the source of falling to hell; the Hokke sect alone will attain Buddhahood.’” (“The Testament of One Meaning in Three Copies”)

(N.B. In the above statements and in Buddhist works “hell” is really a type of purgatory; there is no “eternal damnation” in Buddhism.)

Moreover, lest there be any misunderstanding concerning the practical interpretation of ‘shakubuku’ in light of its literal meaning, “break and subdue”, there is in the same place the following clear statement:

“Fourth, when we spread the teaching by means of “breaking and subduing” we confront believers in wrong doctrines and have discussions from a rational standpoint based on the above-mentioned Three Proofs (Textual Proof, Reasonable principles, and Actual Proof). Taking the previous teachers of our sect as exemplars we will not use vulgar methods and words.”

What could be clearer than these statements? The Kempon Hokke Sect practices shakubuku through the rational method of argument employing the Three Proofs, Textual, Rational and Actual.

(Lest Kempon Hokke believers be misled, the whole of these “Principles” in Japanese were submitted twice to Rev Kubota who published the English translation in his “Hotoke no hikari” in August, 1996 (No. 395) with a letter which stated: “I read the Japanese version, I was very pleased to know that he understood and described the principle (doctrine) of Buddhism very well.” (op. cit. p. 10) Unfortunately, though known in the U.S., they were not followed in practice by the American group under its Soka Gakkai-oriented leaders.)

It is obvious then that we, as we are now constituted, have nothing to do with the “illness” which it is claimed is engulfing Nichiren Buddhism. We also state that we are not responsible for the actions or words of the former “leaders” of the Kempon Hokke, who emerged from the Soka Gakkai. Thus we can hardly be included in the present blanket accusation.

A SMOKESCREEN FOR IGNORANCE AND LACK OF FAITH

What has happened here is that the ‘shoju’ supporters have confused rudeness, smear tactics, unsupported assertions and personal insults (which they have long used) with the genuine, Sutra-based shakubuku that we espouse.

This initiative is, I believe, largely a smoke-screen put forward by people who have long since abandoned the fundamental ideas of Nichiren Shonin (if, indeed, they ever held them in the first place). There are two aspects of Buddhist practice: one’s own practice (jigyo) and converting others (keta); it is obvious that the proposed change is not merely a shift in “converting others” but rather the ratification of their own beliefs and practices which seem in many cases to be merely a form of syncretism to which various bits and pieces of Nichiren Shonin’s religion have been added. In other words, many of these people do not really uphold Nichiren Shonin’s “exclusive practice of the Hokke” (senji Hokke) as their own ideal and, indeed, some have even said in the past that there is “not one bit of evidence” to show that Nichiren Shonin believed in “exclusive practice” (an assertion that would surprise Japanese Buddhist historians.).

The problem then is that these people neither believe in Nichiren Shonin’s historic doctrines nor do they understand the fundamental doctrinal background of his words; as a result they simply substitute what all of them learned in the Soka Gakkai, personal abuse, for Sutra-based and rational argument. Even now as they put on the mask of reason and learned debate, we can see their thorough-going confusion in their seeming apologetic for Nichiren Shonin’s methods and their simultaneous call for abandoning his methods because, they claim, we live in a different era. Their nominal goal of getting rid of the abusive language and hatred might be laudable, if that were, in fact, what they were aiming for, but that is not their real goal.

MAPPO, THE AGE IN WHICH WE LIVE

First of all, they do seem to concede that Nichiren Shonin taught according to the time (ji) and the capacities (ki) but they deny the clear teaching that we as well as Nichiren Shonin live in the same age of the Latter Dharma which is to last ten thousand years; the Kyo gyo sho gosho, which they cite as proof for some of their assertions, specifically condemns the idea that the Latter Dharma is limited to the five-hundred-year period which constitutes its beginning. (STN, v. 2, 1481) (If they should then argue that they do not accept Nichiren Shonin’s argument on this and wish to go back to the Tendai Sect---and not a few of them really wish to do so--, they should know that the argument broached there is based on the interpretation of the Tendai Patriarch Myoraku Daishi (Hokke mongu ki 1B T.34.157b))

Moreover, elsewhere Nichiren Shonin asserts that the degenerate age of the Latter Dharma last for ten thousand years:

“After the Counterfeit Dharma the Latter Dharma is ten thousand years” (STN, v. 1 322)

          
“Furthermore, it is not that one should personally speak differing principles (doctrines). The Tathagata reflected on the future and [said ‘I] separate and assign the people who would spread My Doctrine as well as the various sutras each and every one during the one thousand years of the True Dharma, the one thousand years of the Counterfeit Dharma, and the ten thousand years of the Latter Dharma after My Extinction. However, when people who turn against this appear in the world, even though they be wise ones or worthy kings, one should not employ them.’” (STN, v. 2, 1316)

and of his own mission he says:

“If Nichiren’s compassion is broad and great, “Namu Myoho renge kyo” will flow on to the future, beyond ten thousand years.” (STN, v. 2, 1248)

And in a surviving fragment (STN, v. 3, 2477 frag. 1) Nichiren Shonin specifically says the teaching of widely spreading and diffusing in the fifth five hundred years will not be cut off into the entire future until Lord Ajita (Maitreya, the next Buddha) comes forth in the world.

          
Nowhere does the Sutra or Nichiren Shonin predict or state that there will be a change after so many years and the world shall revert to the better times of the Lord Buddha in ancient India when “Subsuming and Accepting” (shoju), i.e, a gradual preparation of capacities (ki) by means of provisional and expedient teachings. is to be put to the fore.

Our times may seem more “advanced” to these people but, from the point of view of the Buddha, where is the change? It is all mappo, the degenerate age of the Latter Dharma, predicted by the Buddha; speaking of a prophecy of the Great Nirvana Sutra Nichiren Shonin says:

“In this sutra text the World-honored One prophesied the future. Now Lord Shakya is for us, on top of being a Worthy Father, an Enlightened Teacher, a Sagely Lord. In the prophetic text wherein He reflects on and prophesies the future evil age by means of the Buddha Eye of the Buddha Who in one body is endowed with the Three Virtues He says, ‘After My Nirvana in immeasurable hundreds of years’: it appears to be after the two thousand years after the Extinction of the Buddha.” (STN, v,. 2, 1319)

Why did not the Buddha, endowed with omniscient Buddha Eye, predict a return to the age of gradual teaching and shoju after just the first five hundred years of mappo? And if the Buddha’s “Golden Words” are wrong, then why did Nichiren Shonin believe in them implicitly? And if he was wrong why do these ‘shoju’ people claim him as their master?

Nichiren Shonin advises: “In sum, when one would practice the Buddha Dharma, one may not use the words of humans. One should just respectfully guard the Golden Words of the Buddha.” (STN, v. 1, 734 ll. 2-3) And Nichiren Shonin warns against this very kind of twisting of his words which are themselves merely “respectfully guarding the Golden Words of the Buddha” when he said

“However, when people who turn against this appear in the world, even though they be wise ones or worthy kings, one should not employ them.” (STN, v. 2, 1319, cited above)

          
Is he not warning against the very kind of argument being put forth by these ‘shoju’ people: in effect, they are saying that our time is not the mappo predicted by the Buddha and recognized by Nichiren Shonin as the time of shakubuku.

If we look at our time, how can we deny that it is the time of mappo? Look at the type of Buddhism or what frequently passes for Buddhism is propagated? Japanese Buddhism has largely ossified into sects that simply repeat the rituals of the past without any understanding. In the U.S. people flock to Tibetan Buddhism, even though it is clear most of them have no idea what they are embracing; Hollywood stars give money to Tibetan religious groups who “recognize” them as tulkus or reincarnated lamas. Lamas of the Vinaya-observing Gelugpa Order attend cocktail parties where they are hugged and kissed by scantily clad starlets under the gaze of the Dalai Lama himself. (Such touching is strictly forbidden according the Vinaya.)

          
Tibetan Buddhism itself, a form of Esoteric Buddhism appropriate, at best, only to an earlier age, clearly led to the downfall of Tibet as a political entity at the hands of China (cf. The Mongol invasions in Nichiren Shonin’s writings); Tibetan Buddhism proper is only a shadow of what it used to be within living memory. (For those who still uphold an idealistic view of Tibetan Buddhism, I suggest you read Orville Schell’s Virtual Tibet, Donald S. Lopez’ Jr.’s Prisoners of Shangri-La, and Peter Bishop’s Dreams of Power and The Myth of Shangri-La.

Moreover, just recently were not the Taliban Muslims firing explosives at ancient statues of the Lord Buddha Shakyamuni in Bamiyan Province in Afghanistan? Consider that in the True and Counterfeit Dharma eras that same land was a flourishing center of Buddhism; now it is a land of non-Buddhists, who are so fanatically anti-Buddhist that cannot even abide the sight of the image of the Lord Buddha. How can the ‘shoju’ partisans say that it is a not the terrible age of Mappo!?

We need not even review what passes for Zen in the West but we must ask: has Zen itself suddenly become something good in light of Nichiren Shonin denounced to the Ikegami brothers:

“the evil [spiritual] friends that persuaded them to the Zen Sect: Dharma (Datsuma: Bodhidharma), Hui-k’o are these.”(STN, v. 1, 923 l. 2)

“These {Zen and other ‘evil friends’] are [instances of] the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven entering into the persons (or bodies) of Wise Ones and deluding good people. When in the fifth fascicle of the Hokekyo it is preached, ‘great evil demons have entered their bodies’ [T.9.36c] refers to this.” (STN, v. 1, 923ll. 3-4)

Has this moral and spiritual situation suddenly changed now? Do Zen and pseudo-Zen now do no spiritual evil?

What of the spiritual evil which comes from those “Nichiren Buddhists” who deny the clear teaching of the Sutra and of the Patriarch? In order to avoid the teaching of the Hokekyo, one group has declared it to be a “modern teaching” not by the Buddha and even say that Nichiren Shonin recognized this fact and did not rely on the Sutra. On the other hand, there are others who say the Hokekyo is not the absolutely Supreme Sutra but much like the other Mahayana Sutras. Still others have attacked the Master of Teachings Lord Shakya and deny the Eternal Buddha on the excuse “too much like Krishna” or “like Santa Claus”.

Moreover, is our age, for all its marvels, even an era of even material perfection: is there not the ever increasing threat of global warming and the persistent destruction of species after species and the very basis of life in this world? Is our food supply safe from the pollution of terrible diseases? Read the news: I do not think I need say more on this aspect.

          
Let us return to what is ultimately important: the state of the Buddha Dharma. How can one say that this is not still the period of which Nichiren Shonin states: “This time is fixed as the time when ‘they are firm in struggle and the Pure Dharma is hidden and sinks’, an occasion of the mixing and confusion of the Provisional with the Real.” (STN, v. 1, 735, citing the Daijikkyo 55 (“Embudai hon”) (T.13.363)) Is there not strife among Buddhists? Has strife ceased in the world? Are not weapons more terrible than ever? And is not the most terrible aspect of all this the falsification of the Dharma?

SHAKUBUKU AND SHOJU

Let us now turn to the ‘shoju’ partisans argument from the Kaimoku sho that in mappo there is both shoju and shakubuku. Nichiren Shonin always recognized that there are these two methods but the real question is which is the one to use now; which one to put to the fore. By “now”, of course, is meant the era in which we live: mappo; once again we note that neither the Lord Buddha nor His Messenger Nichiren Shonin limited this to his lifetime in medieval Japan.

          
Nichiren Shonin, analyzing of our age of mappo, writes:

“In the Latter Dharma the Greater and the Lesser, the Provisional and the Real, the Exoteric and the Esoteric [Teachings] are all only Teachings and have no Attainment. The whole of Jambudvipa has all become blasphemous against the Dharma. For the sake of the rebellious condition it is limited to just the Five Characters 'Myoho renge kyo' (Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Sublime Dharma) only. For example, it is like the ‘Chapter of Fukyo’. My disciples are the obedient condition (jun en); the country of Japan is the rebellious condition (gyaku en). (STN, v. 1, 816)

And he states

“....because this era is ‘firm in struggle and the Pure Dharma is hidden and sinks’ [Daijikkyo 55 (“Embudai hon”) (T.13.363)], and, on top of this, there are only evil countries, evil kings, evil ministers, evil commoners and they turn against the True Dharma and revere perverted dharmas and perverted teachers, so evil demons enter into the land and the Three Calamities and the Seven Disasters have arisen in abundance.” (STN, v. 1, 735)

          
As we can see from these passages Nichiren Shonin regarded his age and the whole of the human world (Jambudvipa), not merely Japan, as blasphemous and evil in terms of their disbelief in the Hokekyo, the True Dharma, and their support for wrong teachings. Such beings, their countries and so on are the proper objects of shakubuku, rightly understood.

          
Nichiren Shonin explains the important difference between the method of conversion used by the Lord Buddha Shakyamuni in His historical Manifestation and that used by the Bodhisattva entrusted with the teaching for this evil age.

“In the ‘Chapter of Expedience’ and so on it appears one is to preach this Sutra in light of the capacities [of the audience]; in the ‘Chapter of Fukyo’ it appears that, even though they blaspheme, one should just forcibly preach it. The former and latter [parts] of the one Sutra are like water and fire. However, Tendai Daishi reconciles them, saying, ‘As to those who already originally had good [karmic roots], Shakya guards them with the Lesser [Vehicle]; as to those who originally never yet had good [karmic roots], Fukyo forcibly poisons them with the Great [Vehicle].’ [Hokke mongu 10B (T.34.141a27-b1)] The heart (meaning) of the text is: For those who originally had good [karmic] roots and who should obtain understanding within the present lifetime one should directly preach the Hokekyo. However, if among them there are still capacities who hear yet are likely to blaspheme, one should temporarily prepare them with the Provisional Sutras and afterwards preach the Hokekyo. Those who originally have not had the good [karmic] roots of the Great [Vehicle], even now they are not going to believe the Hokekyo and for whatever reason are going to fall to the Evil Ways [of Rebirth] so just forcibly preach the Hokekyo and cause them to blaspheme and also make them form a rebellious condition. According to this commentary, in the Latter Age those without good [karmic roots] are many; those having good [karmic roots] are few. Therefore there is no doubt they will fall to the Evil Ways [of Rebirth]. We should all the same forcibly preach and cause them to hear the Hokekyo and they should form the condition of the poison drum, should they not? So there are none who contest that this is the season for preaching the Hokekyo that they may form the condition of blasphemy, are there?” (STN, v. 1, 204-205)

Comment: clearly Nichiren Shonin is basing himself on the Tendai interpretation of the Sutra and he notes that the people of this era in general are without the good seeds planted by the Buddha; they are people without good karmic roots; so even if one concedes that there might be people who have such good karmic roots, who formed a connecting condition (kechien) during the Lord Buddha Shakya’s earthly lifetime, now they are few and far between; thus the overwhelmingly predominant method of propagation in this age of the Latter Dharma is shakubuku: the unalloyed assertion of the Unique Vehicle of the Hokekyo.

This passage explains the difference between the age of the Manifest Buddha Shakyamuni (i.e., the historical Buddha, not be confused with the Eternal Shakyamuni of the sixteenth chapter) and the age of the Messenger of the Buddha, the Bodhisattva, who propagates the Dharma in the age long after the Extinction. The ages, the people (capacities) of those ages, and the means of propagating the orthodox Dharma to those respective people are as different as can be.

          
These two ages, types of people, and methods are clearly distinguished by the treatment of recalcitrant audiences by the manifest (historical) Buddha in the first instance and by the Bodhisattva Jofukyo in an age after the Extinction of a former manifest Buddha in the second. The Buddha treats his audiences with great care and preparation as may be seen in the Five Periods of the Buddha’s teaching career worked out by Tendai and restated by Nichiren Shonin (ichidai goji): after His Enlightenment the Buddha immediately tested those who might listen with the Sudden Teaching of the Kegongyo but, finding that a large part of the audience remained deaf and dumb before its message He began to prepare the capacities of his hearers with progressively more difficult teachings until they are ready to hear His declaration just before He preaches the Hokekyo proper that all of the previous teachings are not yet the real Truth. Yet even when he begins to abandon Expedience and preach the Truth of the Hokekyo there are some who are not ready; five thousand “surpassingly arrogant” listeners, thinking they have realized the Truth already, when in fact they have not, rise and depart from the assembly and the Buddha is silent and does not hinder them; He then declares the branches and leaves are no longer present but only the true core, the true, sincere ones. We see that the Buddha does NOT pursue them for they are of a capacity (ki) that would not believe and only blaspheme; to save them from a terrible karmic fate He lets them depart and says it is a good thing. (Hobenbon 2 (T.9.7a5-13) This method is based on their having already planted some good karmic roots: after suitable maturation (juku) he saves them later in the Great Parinirvana Sutra (Daihatsunehangyo) and is able to do so because he allowed them not to blaspheme the Supreme Truth. (STN, v. 1, 944-945) Even later in the Sutra when He prepares to reveal the Hommon, he removes gods and humans to other lands (T.9.33a13-14,23-24,b4-5). Even in the Buddha’s Lifetime (zaise) with a predominance of good karmic influences in the principal capacities there are those with some good but without faith in the Ultimate Truth: the Buddha either allows the Five Thousand to depart or even deliberately removes the gods and humans (STN, v. 1, 705).

Nichiren Shonin concludes very clearly that in general “in the Latter Age those without good [karmic roots] are many; those having good [karmic roots] are few.” This is a general characteristic of the Latter Age (matsudai), meaning the Latter Dharma (mappo). People of our age are blasphemers but there were almost none in the time of the Buddha and so for this age the method must be different: “The Buddha did not cure any blasphemers against the Dharma, because there were none when the Buddha was in the world. In the Latter Dharma (mappo) it is full of the Strong Enemies of the One Vehicle. The benefit of the Bodhisattva Fukyo refers to this.” (STN, v. 2, 1850) In this our age of the Latter Dharma the vast majority of people are blasphemers (unbelievers opposed to the truth) and must receive the seed of the good, the seed of Buddhahood and form ‘the rebellious condition (or, connection, gyakuen) by which they eventually attain Buddhahood much later.

The Buddha Shakyamuni was able to present a full panoply of teachings, both Real (jitsu) and Provisional (gon) or Expedient (hoben), to audiences that were superior in terms of their karmic background; able with His Buddha-Eye (butsugen) to read the inner capacities and faculties (kikon) of all beings and endowed with Divine Pervasive Powers (jinzuriki) to cause beings to behave and move in ways conducive to their own salvation, the Buddha was in an incomparably superior position and thus could use the accommodating method of shoju. The Buddha (as He manifested Himself in ancient India) was an omniscient, superior being, a wise one who was able to teach in a more gradual and diverse way; moreover, it should be noted that even in the Buddha’s time, the wisest of his disciples miscalculated the capacities of his students and led them astray. Thus the Great Parinirvana Sutra 26 (T.12.519c-520a) tells how Shariputra misled a blacksmith (konshi or “metal master”) with an inappropriate teaching and states, “Even though it is Shariputra, Maudgalyayana and so on, one does not name them the true good spiritual friends (zenchishiki) of beings. What is the reason? Because of their cause and conditions that gave rise the icchantika mind.” Even with the best of intentions, the Buddha’s own wisest disciples can still cause spiritual disaster. On this Nichiren Shonin writes:

“The person who spreads the Buddhist Teachings of necessity should know the capacities and faculties. The Venerable Shariputra taught a blacksmith the Contemplation of Impurity and taught a laundryman the Contemplation of Counting Breaths: when ninety-days had passed the disciples he was converting had not realized one bit of the Buddha Dharma but on the contrary had given rise to perverted views and become icchantikas. The Buddha taught the blacksmith the Contemplation of Counting Breaths) and taught the laundryman the Contemplation of Impurity and so in the pace of a moment they obtained Enlightenment. Even Shariputra, who was foremost in Wisdom, still could not understand the capacities. How much more difficult is it for the worldling teacher (bonshi) of the Latter Age to understand the capacities. But the worldling teacher who does not understand the capacities should wholly teach the Hokekyo to the disciples whom he converts.” (STN, v. 1, 242)

Now in light of these words we ask: are those who so easily propose the abolition of the teaching methods of Nichiren Shonin, claiming to be as wise as Shariputra? Or perhaps they are claiming to be as wise as the Buddha Shakyamuni Himself? If Nichiren Shonin felt compelled to use the methods of the worldling (unenlightened) teacher, how is it these people (who cannot even completely agree on a consistent doctrine) claim that they are wiser and can use the methods suited to the Buddha’s Lifetime?

Incidentally the terms, ‘forcibly preach’ or ‘forcibly poison’ in the above passages should not be confused with ‘forced conversions’ in the conventional sense of the expression. Here It means simply to preach the Supreme Truth of the Hokekyo whether the hearers desire and are ready for it or not. It is a public proclamation of the Hokekyo as the only way to Buddhahood but it does necessarily mean violence or compulsion to ensure conversions. The benefit of the ‘poisoned drum’ is from the Great Nirvana Sutra (fasc. 9 ‘Chapter of the Tathagata Nature’ (T.12.420a) and is also mentioned by Myoraku Daishi (Hokke mongu ki 10chu (T .34.349a) “...the surpassingly arrogant still form the distant cause [of Buddhahood]; how should hearing and believing be without manifest benefit?: Therefore, those who disparage and blaspheme form the cause of the poison drum.”

Before we continue let us add one more note here: in commenting on a sentence from the “Chapter of the Bodhisattva Jofukyo” 20 Tendai Daishi, just before he gives the explanation quoted by Nichiren Shonin above, says;

“‘[Jofukyo] would run away and abide at a distance yet would still in a loud voice chant’
(T.9.50c29): and also they not accept the Four Unities of the Original State Which Opens the Recent and Reveals the Original.” (Hokke mongu 10B (T.34.141a24-25) This Original state (honji) is the Eternal Buddha, the being Whose existence is denigrated by the Fuji-ha and likened to “Santa Claus” etc. by certain caucasian representatives of other sects. It is worth noting then that, judging by the Tendai Daishi’s commentary employed by Nichiren Shonin, the people who are proposing the abolition of shakubuku are (in many instances, at least) more like the unbelieving opponents of Jofukyo than Jofukyo himself. Perhaps then little wonder that they effectively wish to destroy his type of teaching.

Nichiren Shonin further explains the difference between and the preconditions for the two methods of propagation:

“Question: If, because the masses of beings would blaspheme, the Buddha at the very first did not preach the Hokekyo but after more than forty years preached the Hokekyo, why do you in the present era not preach the Provisional Sutras but without further ado preach the Hokekyo, cause people to blaspheme and fall to the Evil Ways of Rebirth?

“Answer: When the Buddha was in the world the Buddha sat under the Bodhi Tree and reflected on the capacities and He knew and perceived, ‘If at the present time I preach the Hokekyo, the masses of beings would blaspheme and would fall to the Evil Ways of Rebirth; if I preach after more than forty years have passed, they should rise to the Non-backsliding of the First Abode and so on to Sublime Enlightenment.’

“In the polluted era of the Latter Age it is would be difficult for there to be even one person in ten thousand to be of the matched capacity (to ki) and be likely to enter the First Abode. Furthermore, because the person who converts is not the Buddha, it would be a difficult thing for him to reflect on the capacities. Therefore the Buddha has left it that for the sake of rebellious conditions and obedient conditions (gyaku en jun en) one should first preach the Hokekyo. But there would also be cases even after the Extinction [of the Buddha] when to those who would likely become the congregation of the matched (to ki shu) capacities one would first preach the Provisional Sutras. Furthermore the person who puts pity (hi) first preach the Provisional Sutras first, like the Buddha Shakya. Those who put sympathy (ji) first should preach the Real Sutra first, like the Bodhisattva Fukyo.

“Furthermore, it would be difficult for the worldlings of the Latter Age to avoid the Evil Ways of Rebirth anyhow; if just the same they fall to the Evil Ways of Rebirth, if one causes them to blaspheme the Hokekyo and fall, it would not resemble falling by worldly sin (seken no tsumi). As in the text, ‘Hearing the Dharma, giving rise to blasphemy, and falling to hell is superior to making offering to Ganges’ sands of Buddhas.’ and so on. [Maha shikan bugyoden guketsu 1-5 (T.46.174c)] The heart (meaning) of this text preaches that to blaspheme the Hokekyo and fall to hell is hundreds and thousands and myriad times superior to the merit of offering to, adhering to, and adoring Ganges’ sands of Buddhas, the Buddha Shakya, the Buddha Amida and so on.” (STN, v. 1, 260-261)

Here again Nichiren Shonin explains that there are few people with karmic roots with regard to the Buddha Vehicle (not one in ten thousand) and people in this age are overwhelmingly likely to fall to the Evil Ways of Rebirth (beasts, hungry ghosts, hells), based on their past karma, so if they are going to tend that way in any case, why not have them fall and at the same time plant the seeds of future Buddhahood? Nichiren Shonin distinguishes between the punishment of “worldly sin” (seken no tsumi), the conventional sins of lying, stealing, murder and so on with regard to ordinary circumstances, sins which are punished in due course by the law of karma but which do not in and of themselves lead to anything greater and the transworldly sin (shusseken) of blasphemy against the Dharma (hobo). which is far more serious in its nature and consequences but at the same time contains the seed of future Buddhahood. Those who refuse to do shakubuku, that is “conversion by the rebellious (or opposition)” (gyaku ke) or “forced poisoning” (godoku), in this age of mappo with its preponderance of inferior capacities are actually not showing compassion but abandoning those who would receive the seed of Buddhahood (busshu) no other way. Even if there are a few people who will benefit from shoju, to adopt this as the general policy is to ignore the needs of many for the sake of one or two. Those who propose a complete reversion to shoju are wrongly assuming that those ready for the Hokekyo, with good karmic seeds ready to mature, are predominant.

Later Nichiren Shonin explains his position again in terms of history (which, as most scholars have acknowledged, was extremely important to Nichiren Shonin):

“Now at the beginning of the Latter Dharma, by the Lesser they strike the Great and by the Provisional they smash the Real [Great Vehicle]. East and West together are lost, Heaven and Earth are overturned. The Four Reliances of the [Bodhisattvas] Converted by the Manifestation [Buddha] are hidden and do not manifest themselves before [the world]. The devas (gods) abandon this country and do not guard it. At this time the Bodhisattvas Who Sprang from the Earth for the first time come forth and manifest themselves and take only the Five Characters ‘Myoho renge kyo’ and have the young children swallow them. [When Myoraku’s Hokke mongu ki 10chu (T.34.349b)commenting on the ‘Chapter of Jofukyo’ says,] ‘If, caused by blasphemy, they fall to the Evil [Ways of Rebirth], of necessity, caused by it, they shall obtain benefit,’ it refers to this. Let my disciples ponder this. The Thousand Realms [of the Bodhisattvas] Who Sprang from the Earth are the Master of Teachings Lord Shakya’s disciples who first gave rise to the Mind [of Enlightenment. They came not to the Place of Enlightenment Where He Attained Nirvana [Realization] nor did they visit His Final {Parinirvana] at the Pair of Sal Trees and had the fault of unfiliality. Nor did they come to the Fourteen [Chapters] of the Doctrine of the Manifestation (Shakumon) and at the Six Chapter of the Doctrine of the Original [from the Chapter of Yakuo 23 on] they rose from their seats and only during the Eight Chapters did they come back. Such high exalted Bodhisattvas promised to the Three Buddhas [Shakyamuni, Taho and the Buddhas of the Ten Directions] promised to receive and keep this [‘Myoho renge kyo’]. Shall they come forth at the beginning of the Latter Dharma?” (STN, v. 1, 719)

Comment: In this passage likewise we see that Nichiren Shonin notes the utterly confused and hopeless state of the present age; moreover, when he explains the appearance of the Great Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas who are to bestow the Daimoku only on the young children he links this propagation of the Daimoku to Myoraku’s exposition of the ‘Chapter of Jofukyo’ 20 in the Hokekyo which speaks of converting by causing blasphemy; the full text says:

“Question: If by cause of blasphemy they fall to suffering, for what reason does the bodhisattva create the cause of suffering?

“Answer: They have no good cause and, not blaspheming, they will likewise fall. If, caused by blasphemy, they fall to the Evil [Ways of Rebirth], of necessity, caused by it, they shall obtain benefit. It is as when a person falls over on the earth, but on the contrary rises from the earth. Therefore by blasphemy of the True he takes them to the fall of the Perverted.”

         
According to the collection of Nichiren Shonin’s works in the Iwanani shoten Nihon shiso taijei (v. 14), p. 156, this passage of forming a connection to the True Dharma by blaspheming it, being punished, and then attaining Buddhahood in the future, is “forming the condition of the poison drum” (dokku kechien) and is the basis of Nichiren Shonin’s “shakubuku”.

The theory of letting people blaspheme, fall and obtain the benefit of future Buddhahood (forced poisoning, the condition of the poison drum) is in the Tendai commentary itself and Nichiren Shonin connects it closely with the spread of the Daimoku by the Bodhisattvas Who Sprang from the Earth. And their appearance with this type of propagation is a necessity connected with the veracity of the Buddhas themselves:

“These Bodhisattvas having received the Buddha’s Edict, have been under the Great Earth. They have not come forth and appeared in the True or Counterfeit [Dharma eras], If they do not come forth in the Latter Dharma [era], they will be Great Beings {Mahasattvas) of great lies. The prophetic texts of the Three Buddhas also would be the same as foam bubbles.” (STN, v. 1, 719)

This propagation is for the era of the Latter Dharma (mappo) or Latter Age (matsudai) which is not limited to Nichiren Shonin’s time as we demonstrated above.

We should add perhaps one more note here on an immediately subsequent passage (STN, v. 1, 719): “When these Four Bodhisattvas manifest Breaking and Subduing (shakubuku), they become worthy kings and rebuke and attack (kaishaku) foolish kings; when they practice Subsuming and Accepting (shoju) they become monks and spread and keep the True Dharma.”

          
Doubtless people who think they are clever will say that this proves Nichiren Shonin really meant to practice shoju. But clearly he is here using the shakubuku-shoju dichotomy in a different way: namely, the use of force in spreading the Dharma, not the fundamental technique. Obviously the shakubuku here refers to the Mongol king’s chastising of the ruler of Japan. As we shall see in his more or less definitive work on the subject Nichiren Shonin’s use of shakubuku clearly applied to his own propagation and his harsh but entirely logical criticism of other sects. It was closely intertwined with his view of the Hokekyo, its position in the Buddha’s preaching and exclusive practice.

          
THE NYOSETSU SHUGYO SHO

The treatise which most fully brings out Nichiren Shonin’s insistence on the doctrine of “Breaking and Subduing” (shakubuku() not merely in a temporal sense but as fundamental to the nature of the Hokekyo itself. This work, which was composed in the tenth year of Bun’ei (1273) survives in a copy by Nichizon (1265-1345) from the year 1297 (Einin 5), was so important that he instructed his disciples:

“To all of you: You should not let this letter leave your persons and you should read it constantly.” (STN, v. 1, 735 l. 6)

In this Nyosetsu shugyo sho Nichiren Shonin teaches:

“At the present time, it is the Provisional Teachings which have become the enemy of the Real Teaching. If at the time of the age of diffusion of the One Vehicle, there is a Provisional Teaching that becomes an enemy, one may attack it from the Real Teaching. Within the practices of Subsuming and Breaking one calls this the Breaking and Subduing for the Hokke. Tendai says, ‘The Breaking and Subduing of the Hokke smashes the ideal truths of the Provisional Doctrines.’ Truly this has a reason!” (STN, v. 1, 735 l. 13 - 736 l. 1)

“With the lesser good of the Nembutsu of [A]mida, they lose the Great Good of the Hokekyo and the Nembutsu which is the lesser good surpasses the Five Rebellious Sins (gogyakuzai) which is a great evil.” (STN, v. 2, 1543 ll. 10-11)

“Now at the beginning of the Latter Dharma with the Lesser they strike the Great; with the Provisional they smash the Real; east and west are lost together; heaven and earth are overturned.” (STN, v. 1, 719 ll. 9-10)

The Provisional Teachings, good within their own sphere (tobun), are now not merely ineffective but also have become positive hindrances to the fundamental intention of the Buddha which is the spread of the Hokekyo and, in particular, its Essence, exclusively. (We should keep in the mind the quotation from Tendai (Hokke gengi 9A (T.33.792b)); it is important in understanding the nature of shakubuku; in the present case it is applied to the temporal circumstances of the Latter Dharma.

In the Nyosetsu shugyo sho Nichiren Shonin explains the relationship of shakubuku and shoju and the temporal constraints of Buddhist practice:

“In general, those who would practice the Buddha Dharma should know the two aspects (lit., ‘gates’) of Subsuming and Breaking. All the Sutras and Treatises do not go beyond these two. Therefore, although the scholars of the sects within the country roughly learn the Buddha Dharma, they do not know the Way which corresponds to the time.

      
The four times and four seasons change one after another. In summer it is hot, in winter it is cold, in spring the flowers bloom, and in autumn the fruits form. Now in spring one should plant the seeds and in autumn take the fruits; if one plants the seeds in autumn and gathers the fruits in spring, how could they be gathered? In the time of extreme cold, thick garments are useful; in the time extreme heat, what would they do? A cool wind is useful in summer; in winter what would it do?

The Buddha Dharma is also like this. There is a time when the Lesser Dharma is diffused and will have benefit. There is also a time when the Provisional Great Vehicle may spread. There is also a time when the Real Teaching spreads and one will obtain Buddhahood. Moreover, the two thousand years of [the ages of] the True and Counterfeit [Dharmas] are the times when the Lesser Vehicle and Provisional Great Vehicle are diffused. The five hundred years of the beginning of the Latter Dharma is the time when only the Hokekyo, which is the Purely Perfect One Real [Teaching], ‘shall be widely proclaimed and diffused’ [‘kosen rufu’ in the ‘Chapter of Yakuo’ (T.9. 54c22)]. This time is fixed as the time when ‘they are firm in struggle and the Pure Dharma is hidden and sinks’
[Daijikkyo 55 (‘Embudai hon’) (T.13.363)], an occasion of the mixing and confusion of the Provisional with the Real.” (STN, v. 1, 735 ll. 4-12)

This is the era of the wide diffusion and the proclamation of the real teaching of the Hokekyo and the “season” (as the farmer follows those seasons in nature) must be adhered to. The excuse that it is limited to the first five hundred years of mappo, after which there might be a return to the teachings of earlier ages, makes no sense, for then the ideal of “widely proclaiming and diffusing” would be gone as well; rather it is clear that it refers to the beginning of the mission with reference to the fall of the Provisional Great Vehicle (and other) teachings prophesied in the Daijikkyo. As there are only evil people and countries, the whole of Jambudvipa or human world needs to be ‘seeded’ by the Daimoku and the other teachings detract from and hinder this; allowable for the maturation of good seeds in earlier eras, they are now hindrances and, as predicted, even the most rationally-based shakubuku leads to violent, demon- inspired opposition from their partisans. Moreover, these Provisional Teachings now have given rise to evil sects. Thus “when they are dyed by the perverted evil ones of the Shingon, Zen, Nembutsu Sect and so on they necessarily fall to hell; when they are dyed by the Hokekyo, they necessarily become Buddhas.” (STN, v. 2, 1252)

(Incidentally some of the ‘shoju’ partisans claim that ‘mappo is merely in one’s mind’, and deny the significance of history. It is clear from Nichiren Shonin with the objective historical events and the history of Buddhism with frequent references to historical events and so on (e.g., STN, v. 2, 1612ff.); history played a large role in Nichiren Shonin’s thought; mappo was not merely some illusion for his emphasis was not on the non-dual (funi) aspect of reality but the contrasting dual (ni ni) aspect as Professor Tamura Yoshiro and others have shown.(Professor Tamura’s analysis of Nichiren Shonin versus the Zen teacher Dogen shows that the former is distinctly historicist and the latter not (Kamamura Shin Bukkyo shiso no kenkyu, p. 628 and cf. p. 199); the chief ‘shoju’ partisans are clearly more in line with Zen than with Nichiren Shonin.) However, this will lead to another broad question so I shall leave this for now.)

To continue with the Nyosetsu shugyo sho we note that Nichiren Shonin specifically condemns the use of the Four Practices of Peaceful Joy (shi anrakugyo) as in appropriate to this era:

      
“However, if one does the practice of the Four Peaceful Joys, which is Subsuming and Accepting, at the present time, is it not planting seeds in winter and seeking a benefit? A rooster crying at dawn is useful; crying in the night is a baleful specter. At the time of the mixing and confusion of the Provisional with the Real, if one does not attack the enemies of the Hokekyo and closes oneself off in seclusion in the mountains and forest, and does the practice of Subsuming and Accepting, how can one not be a baleful specter that misses the time of practicing the Hokekyo? So at this time of the Latter Dharma who are they that have done the practice of Breaking and Subduing according to the Sutra text? Whoever it may be, let them not spare their voices to cry, ‘The other sutras have no Attaining of the Way and are the fundamental source of dropping to the hells; the Hokekyo alone is the Dharma for attaining Buddhahood!’” (STN, v. 1, 736 ll. 1-6)

(Note that this last phrase, partially a general recapitulation of Nichiren Shonin famous Four Watchwords (shi ka kakugen), “the Nembutsu leads to the Unremitting Hell” (nembutsu mugen), “Zen is of the Celestial Demons” (Zen temma), “the Shingon is the ruin of the country” (Shingon bokoku) and “the Ritsu or Vinaya Sect are rebels against the country” (Ritsu kokuzoku), was taken up by our founder Nichiju Shoshi:

“...whoever it is among the monks’ assembly who are followers, carrying out propagation in the Capital and steadfastly saying, ‘The various sects are the root cause of falling to hell and the Hokke Sect alone shall attain Buddhahood’, to that person you monks and laity alike should show reverence and make offering.” (“On the Matter of Nichjju’s Legacy”)} In any case why is it that Nichiren Shonin says this: it relates to this time, the age when there are “only” (nomi) evil (blasphemous) people and “only” the Hokekyo can save them, even if it means largely doing so by having them fall to hell carrying the hidden seed of future Buddhahood (gyakuen). To do other wise is to act like some ghastly apparition out of season. It is to fail to carry out the Buddha’s injunction, particularly to Buddhist monks (priests) to castigate that which destroys the Dharma:

“If there is a good bhikshu who sees those destroying the Dharma, but sets it aside and does not upbraid, drive out, and accuse and deal with them, you should know this person is a hateful enemy within the Buddha Dharma.”(Daihatsunehangyo 3 (T.12.381a)

Nichiren Shonin, who repeatedly cited this text, saw it as the inspiration for his life’s work (STN, v. 1, 853; v. 2, 1738-1739) and felt that those who “do not fear the character ‘chi’ (set aside)” would live easy lives now but fall to the Unremitting Hell thereafter. (STN, v. 1, 487) together with their disciples (STN, v. 2, 1254-1255).

Returning to the Nyosetsu shugyo sho, we find, moreover, that Nichiren Shonin clearly describes his mission:

“Though it was at such a time, when the time was inauspicious, that I, Nichiren, received the Buddha's Edict and was born in this country, yet the Decrees of the King of the Dharma [the Buddha] are difficult to defy; so, relying upon the Sutra texts,I raised the battle of the two teachings, Provisional and Real,’put on the armor of endurance’ [a quotation from the ‘Chapter of Urging the Keeping’ 13: T.9.36c], brandished the sword of the Sublime Teaching, raised the flag of the Five Characters of the Sublime Dharma, the quintessence of the eight fascicles of the whole work [the Hokekyo], stretched the bow of ‘I have never yet revealed the Truth’ [Muryogikyo (T.9.386b1-2), loosed the arrows of ‘forthrightly abandoning the Provisional’ [The ‘Chapter of Expedience’ 2 (T.9.10a19), mounted the Great White Ox Cart [the ‘Chapter of the Parable’ 3 (T.9.14c14)], smashed through the Gate (Doctrine) of the Provisional, sallied to here, pushed forward to here, and destroyed the enemies, the Eight Sects and Ten Sects, Nembutsu, Shingon, Zen, Ritsu and so on; however, they either escaped, or withdrew, or, the ones taken alive became my disciples. Or they counterattacked, or, though I attacked and subdued them, the enemies were of great power and the one person of the Dharma King was powerless. Until now the battle has not stopped.

“When, because they are the Golden Words, ‘The Breaking and Subduing (shakubuku) of the Hokke (Dharma Flower [Sutra]) smashes the ideal truths of the Provisional Doctrines’ [Hokke gengi 9A (T.33.792b17)], I finally shall have attacked and subdued the groups of the Provisional Teachings and the Provisional Doctrine without excluding one person and made them retainers of the Dharma King and the various vehicles of the myriad commoners of the empire shall have become the One Buddha Vehicle and the Sublime Dharma alone shall flourish, then if the myriad commoners all together chant, ‘Namu Myoho renge kyo’, let each of you see the time: the blowing wind shall not whistle through the branches, the rain shall not smash the clods of earth, the age shall become the era of [Fu-]hsi and [Shen-]nung, in the present life they shall sweep away inauspicious disasters and obtain the technique of long life and not growing old, and persons and dharmas [phenomena] together shall manifest the principle of not growing old and not dying [or not dying before growing old]. One cannot doubt the proof [or prophetic] text, ‘peaceful and secure in this world.’” [The ‘Chapter of the Parable of Medicinal Plants’ (T.9.19b)]. (STN, v. 1, 732 line 14 - 733 l. 12)

We can ascertain from these passages that Nichiren Shonin clearly saw his whole mission in figuratively military terms: a struggle to overcome the Provisional Teachings, which had outlived their usefulness and had become hindrances, and establish the Hokekyo alone as the single truth for our age.

But we can also see that this position was not simply something relative to our time, the age of mappo; it was something more fundamental and absolute, something inherent in the nature of the Hokekyo itself: we saw above the text from the Hokke gengi 9A (T.33.792b17):

“The Breaking and Subduing (shakubuku) of the Hokke (Dharma Flower [Sutra]) smashes the ideal truths of the Provisional Doctrines.”

This fundamental attitude of the Hokekyo is in contrast to the Nehangyo (Nirvana Sutra) which allows Provisional Teachings (T.33.792b18); this is because it is a supplementary re-exposition and re-effacement of the Buddha’s various teachings (tsuisetsu tsuimin).

And Nichiren Shonin cites this Hokke shakubuku again in relation to a more general pattern of propagation, relating not merely to the Latter Dharma but even to the Buddha’s Own Lifetime:

          
“Our fundamental (original) teacher, the Tathagata Shakya, during the eight years [of the Hokekyo] of His time in the world practiced Breaking and Subduing. Tendai Daishi [did this] for more than thirty years and Dengyo Daishi for more than twenty years and now I, Nichiren, have for more than twenty years ‘smashed the ideal truths of the Provisional Doctrines’”. (STN, v. 1, 736 ll. 7-8)

Here the Lord Shakyamuni Himself propagated by “Breaking and Subduing” (shakubuku), when He finally preached the Hokekyo in the last eight years of his life, for the Hokekyo in and of itself casts away all the other teachings. The same applies to Tendai teachers of the Counterfeit Dharma era, Tendai Daishi and Dengyo Daishi, who were the Messengers of the Buddha (STN, v. 2, 1850-1851, 1661) as is Nichiren Shonin himself (STN, v. 2, 1875) All of these ultimately did Breaking and Subduing when they propagated the Hokekyo as the Supreme Truth against all other teachings.

In the Nyosetsu shugyo sho Nichiren Shonin exalted this Hokke gengi quotation by referring to it as “Golden Words”, a term more often limited to the words of the Buddha, and later he further demonstrated the importance of this text:

“In the Muryogikyo it says, ‘For more than forty years I have never yet revealed the Truth.’ [(T.9.386b1-2)]

In the Hokekyo it says, ‘As to the World Honored One’s Dharma, after a long time He is certainly about to preach the Truth.’ [The ‘Chapter of Expedience’ 2 (T.9.6a23)]

          
The Buddha Taho says ‘It is all the Truth.’ [The ‘Chapter of Appearing of the Jewelled Stupa’ 11 (T.9.32c2)]

And so they determine that there is attainment of Buddhahood in the Present Body (sokushin jobutsu) limited to the Hokekyo. No matter how much they preach that there is attainment of Buddhahood in the Previous Sutras, or how the people of the Provisional Sects madly rave, it will be ‘one hammer to a thousand earthen pans’. ‘The Breaking and Subduing (shakubuku) of the Hokke (Dharma Flower [Sutra]) smashes the ideal truths of the Provisional Doctrines’ refers to this. It is a most excellent and secret inner doctrine.” (STN, v. 2, 1634)

          
Here we see that the concept of shakubuku goes well beyond a mere time-related method of propagation but is directly related to the absolute supremacy of the Hokekyo itself; this Hokekyo alone is the Supreme Truth:

“All the Sutras (issaikyo) are all the preaching of the Golden [647] Mouth of the Buddha and are His Words (onkotoba) of no-lies. When we put them against the Hokekyo they are like lies, like prevarications, like bad-mouthing, like duplicity (or, double-dealing).

“It is this Sutra (onkyo) that is the True Word among True Words. It is the Sutra (onkyo) of True Words that the forthright (honest) one masters.” (STN, v. 1, 646-647)

          
Returning to the Nyosetsu shugyo sho, we can see how this Supremacy of the Hokekyo is related to the concept of the proper practice against those who would simply reduce the Hokekyo to a principle of unity which indifferently affirms all teachings and practices:

“Question: For us to say that someone is the practicer who practices according to the preaching, in what way should we say he believes?

“Answer: What the people of the country of Japan of the present age all say is the person who practices in accordance with the preaching (nyosetsu shugyo) is:

“‘When the Vehicles are sublated (opened and merged) into the One Buddha Vehicle, they are all the Hokekyo and there is no matter of superiority and inferiority, shallowness or profundity. When one believes that saying the Nembutsu, keeping the Shingon (mantras), practicing Zen, and in general keeping and reciting all the sutras and the Names of the Buddha and the bodhisattvas are all the Hokekyo, one is said to be the person who practices in accordance with the preaching.’

“I say, ‘It is not so. In sum, when one would practice the Buddha Dharma, one may not use the words of humans. One should just respectfully guard the Golden Words of the Buddha:

      
“Although our Original Teacher, the Tathagata Shakya, thought he would preach the Hokke (Dharma Flower Sutra), because the capacities of beings were not yet mature, he first preached the Expedients, which are the Provisional Teachings, during more than forty years and afterwards preached the Hokekyo,which is the Truth. In the Muryogikyo (Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings), the Preface Section of this Sutra, he points to the boundary marker between the Provisional and the Real and divides the Expedient from the Truth, when he says, ‘By the power of Expedience for more than forty years I have never yet revealed the Truth.’ [Muryogikyo (T.9.386b1-2)] The Eighty Thousand Great Beings, Daishogon, and so on, having understood and distinguished the reasons for ‘putting forth the Provisional, opening (sublating) the Provisional, abolishing the Provisional’ [as expounded in the Hokke gengi] and so on, say as their received understanding, ‘With the Sutras before the Hokke according to which one practices through successive kalpas, “in the end they do not attain Supreme Bodhi.”’ [Muryogikyo (T.9.387a28-b1)]

“Moreover, after coming to the Hokke, which is [the Section of] the Principal Significance, He starts by preaching, ‘As to the World Honored One’s Dharma, after a long time He is certainly about to preach the Truth.’ [The ‘Chapter of Expedience’ 2 (T.9.6a23)] , and issues prohibitions: ‘There are neither two nor again three [Vehicles], excluding the Expedient Preaching of the Buddha’, [The ‘Chapter of Expedience’ 2 (T.9.8a)] ‘forthrightly abandon Expedience’ [Ibid. (T.9.10a)], and ‘do not even receive one verse of other sutras’ [The ‘Chapter of the Parable’ (T.9.16a)]. After this, only the Sublime Dharma of which ‘there is only One Buddha Vehicle’ [The ‘Chapter of the Transformational City’ 7 (T.9.27b2)] is the Great [Vehicle] Dharma, which makes all beings Buddhas, and the sutras outside of the Hokekyo cannot have one bit of benefit; however, the scholars of the present in the Latter Dharma, think that because every [sutra] is the preaching of the Tathagata, they all will have attainment of Buddhahood, and they believe all and sundry of the sects and sutras, whether Shingon or Nembutsu or the Zen Sect, Sanron, Hosso, Kusha, Jojitsu, Ritsu and so on. It was about persons like this that [the Buddha] determined, ‘If a person does not believe but disparages and blasphemes this Sutra, such a one at once cuts off the Buddha seeds of all worlds” and so on to “that person, when life ends, enters Avici Hell.”’ [The ‘Chapter of the Parable’ 3 (T.9.15b)] The Buddha has determined that the one who takes the bright mirror of these rules as basis and does not differ one bit and believes that there is only One Buddha Vehicle is the person who practices in accordance with the preaching.” (STN, v. 1, 733 l. 12-735 l. 2)

This then is the meaning of the ‘Breaking and Subduing’ in the deeper sense: it is closely linked to the concept of the exclusive practice of the Hokekyo (senji Hokke) which, in turn, is based on the concept of the relative sublation (sodai myo kaie) in which the Hokekyo sublates (opens and merges) the various teachings into itself but always remains in a superior position and denies the other teachings; this position was ‘denial in terms of the sections (the five respective periods and types of sutras of the Buddha’s Lifetime: yakubu datsu shaku); this negative view was known in Tendai circles and was associated with the Onjoji (Miidera) Temple and can be traced back to Chisho Daishi and ultimately to Myoraku Daishi (Zhanran/Chan-jan) in T’ang China; Nichiren Shonin’s opponents took the opposite view associated with Hieizan, affirmation with regard to the teachings (yaku kyo yo shaku) that the Hokekyo merely affirmed the validity of all Buddhist teachings and this interpretation was later used by his critics to attack the whole Nichiren Shonin and his whole movement. It is not a question of a mere sectarian superiority or transcending other types of Buddhism as a some sort of boast: it goes to the very heart of the Sutra and its fundamental position in Buddhism.

Nichiren Shonin simply states that the “Golden Words” of Lord Shakya show that He did shakubuku once He came to preach the Hokekyo: all other teachings were abolished and the One Truth, the Unique Vehicle of the Hokekyo is proclaimed. Therefore, when the Hokekyo is preached in the last eight years of the Buddha’s Lifetime and again by the messenger of the Buddha sent to the epoch of the Latter Dharma, it ‘breaks and subdues’ all other teachings and is to be practiced exclusively. According to the Sutra, a hellish punishment awaits those who do not accept this fundamental truth. Thus following in Lord Shakya’s footsteps in preaching the Hokekyo, all those who “practice according to the preaching” (nyosetsu shugyo) must also do ‘breaking and subduing’ on a fundamental level: they must assert the Absolute Truth and Supremacy of the Hokekyo as against the other teachings:

“And so in the more than two thousand years since Lord Shakya's entering Extinction, out of the practicers who have practiced according to the preaching we put aside the three, Lord Shakya, Tendai and Dengyo. Within the Latter Dharma I, Nichiren, as well as my disciples and lay donors are such as these. If they do not say we are the ones who practice according to the preaching, Lord Shakya, Tendai, and Dengyo would not have been people who practiced according to the preaching. If Deva[datta], Kokkuri, Zensho, Kobo, Jikaku, Chisho, Shan-dao, Honen, Ryokanbo and so on are said to be the practicers of the Hokekyo, Lord Shakya, Tendai, Dengyo, and I, Nichiren, as well as my disciples and donors would be practicers of Nembutsu, Shingon, Zen, Ritsu and so on; if the Hokekyo is said to be an Expedient Provisional Teaching, then would the sutras of the Nembutsu and so on, on the contrary, become the Hokekyo? Though east become west and the west become east, though there be examples of the great earth along with the plants and trees which it holds flying up to become heaven and heaven along with the sun, moon, and constellations falling down to become the earth, how could there be this principle [of the Hokekyo and other sutras changing places]?” (STN, v. 1, 736 l. 13 - 737 l. 6)

If we compare Nichiren Shonin’s ideals with those of the so-called ‘shoju’ leaders we can see a clear contrast: the former merely “respectfully guards the Golden Words of the Buddha” and determines that the Buddha has fixed the true practice of the Sutra as the assertion of the One Buddha Vehicle and the punishment of Avici for unbelief; the latter are uncomfortable with many salient features of the Sutra and wish to change things to suit their own tastes and desire to recruit people who will naively follow them. (It is clear where they will follow the ‘shoju’ leaders TO!) Moreover, it is hardly surprising that one of them has already declared his abandonment of Nichiren Shonin and his “return to Shakyamuni”; how sad, for Nichiren Shonin has shown throughout his writings that he is merely following the Decrees of Lord Shakyamuni, as can be seen from of the passages cited above. In reality, of course, this person is not really trying to “return” to the teaching any more than he really wishes to establish the practice of shoju for he and his allies will violently attack anyone who disagrees with them. They are reminiscent of the pseudo-Asian martial arts show whose protagonists claimed to practice “selective non-violence”. (Even the armed forces practice “selective non-violence.) These people practice “selective shoju”: they will be very “accepting” as long as one consents to their ideas.

DOES KYOGYOSHO GOSHO REALLY URGE SHOJU?

(Before I proceed further, I wish to state that I am discussing this work because the ‘shoju’ proponents have introduced it as proof of their position; the work itself, which survives only in later copies, notably that by Gyogakuin Nitcho has some dubious passages; it refers to Ryokan’s appeal to “Hokoji dono”, His Lordship of Hokoji, a reference to Hojo Munetoki (1251-1284) but this title was one applied to Munetoki when he took the tonsure during his last illness in 1284, AFTER Nichiren Shonin’s death; though it is possible he was addressed by such a title before his tonsure, it is noteworthy that the term appears among Nichiren Shonin’s writings only in the notorious forgeries, the autobiographical letters, Hakiri dono gosho (STN, v. 2, 1927) and the Hokke hommon shuyo shu; the Kyogyosho gosho thus appears to be a dubious work, at least in its present form.)

In the Kyogyosho gosho which the ‘shoju’ party puts forward as proof of the abolition of shakubuku it says,

“Now in the two thousand years of the True and Counterfeit [Dharmas] when they kept and relied upon the Lesser Vehicle and Provisional Great Vehicle, and practices putting one’s merit [effort] into them, in general there was benefit. Even so, although everyone who practiced those various sutras thought that they obtained the benefit by the various sutras upon which they relied, when we inquire on the meaning by the Hokekyo, they had not one bit of benefit. What is the reason why? It being when the Buddha was in the world they formed a connecting condition with the Hokekyo but it depended upon whether or not there was maturation or not in their capacities. Those whose capacities of the Perfect Teaching are pure and matured in the time [when the Buddha] was in the world attained Buddhahood. Those whose faculties and capacities were faint and inferior [or not yet mature] backslid to the True Dharma [era] and took their realization from the Jomyo [Vimalakirti], Shiyaku, Kan[muryoju]kyo, Ninno hannya kyo and so on, just as when [the Buddha] was in the world. And so in the True Dharma [era] was jointly possessed together of the three, teaching, practice and realization.

“In the Counterfeit Dharma [era] there was teaching and practice but no realization. Now on entering the Latter Dharma there are the teachings, but there is no practice or realization. There is not one person of those who formed the connecting condition when the Buddha was in the world. The two capacities of the Provisional and Real [Teachings] are all gone. At this time for the two [types] of people who are of the rebellious [sins] and blasphemy of the present era for the first time one takes Namu Myoho renge kyo of the ‘Chapter of the Measure of Life’, the Essence of the Hommon as the laying down of the seed (or, as the Buddha Seed). “‘This good, excellent medicine now I leave here. You should take and swallow it. Do not worry that you will not be cured’” refers to this.

“It is as when long ago in the Counterfeit Dharma [era] of the past Buddha Ionno when there was not one person who knew the Great Vehicle, the Bodhisattva Fukyo came forth and chanted the Twenty-four Characters which the Master of Teachings had preached. Those who heard those Twenty-four Characters not lacking one person also [later] encountered the Great Being (Mahasattva) Fukyo and obtained benefit. This then was because they made the previous hearing of the Dharma the laying down of the seed (geshu).

          
“Now it is also like this. That was the Counterfeit Dharma; this is the polluted evil Latter Dharma. That was a practicer of the First (Elementary) Following Joy [level]; this is a worldling of the Name {Identity]. That was the laying down of seed of the Twenty-four Characters; this is only the Five Characters [of the Daimoku]. Although the times of obtaining the Way (tokudo: Buddhahood) are different, their ultimate meaning of Attaining Buddhahood would be completely the same.” (STN, v. 2, 1479-1480)

Comment: here again there is emphasis on the era of the Latter Dharma, described as polluted and evil (joku aku), and the point is made that there is some difference between the Counterfeit Dharma and the more evil Latter Dharma era. In the Latter Dharma the other sutras exist only as teachings having no practical benefits. Likewise the capacities for such teachings have completely disappeared. As Nichiren Shonin had stated earlier: there are “only evil countries, evil kings, evil ministers, evil commoners and they turn against the True Dharma and revere perverted dharmas and perverted teachers” (STN, v. 1, 735, cited above). Even conceding that there a few people who have planted the seed of Buddhahood, among the great number of blasphemers in the world they are “like a little water in the midst of a great fire” and “only result in evil karma.” (STN, v. 1, 778 ll. 1-4) So the only thing left is to lay down anew the seeds (geshu) of future Buddhahood by the Five Characters “Myoho renge kyo” (Nichiren Shonin ibun kogi zenshu, v. 12, 356-357) and this applies to both evil people who commit the Five Rebellious Sins and those who blaspheme; that is all that there is.

The Kyogyosho gosho then demonstrates the parallelism between Nichiren Shonin’s own case and that of the Bodhisattva Fukyo of the Counterfeit Dharma era of an ancient Buddha. Although the Saint’s narration is somewhat abbreviated but it is clear from the Sutra text itself: the surpassingly arrogant four congregations rejected the Bodhisattva Fukyo’s Twenty-four Character” salutation. (N.B. Nichiren Shonin describes this as having been preached (tokiokitamaishi) by the Master of Teachings; it is a legacy of a Buddha just as the Daimoku has been left by the Buddha Shakya to the Bodhisattva Jogyo, who appears as Nichiren Shonin.) Subsequently, however, after having fallen to Avici Hell for a thousand kalpas and after their sin has been completely atoned for they again meet Jofukyo and the teaching of Supreme Buddhahood. (T.9. 51a26-b1) (Nichiren Shonin zenshu kogi, v. 24, 213).

Now even the ‘shoju’ partisans admit that Jofukyo is a model for Nichiren Shonin and that the latter practices shakubuku (which they want to change); that being the case, we can see that the model for propagation is deliberately approaching the blasphemers (unbelievers) of this age, who are without good seeds, and planting the seeds of Buddhahood in the form of “Myoho renge kyo”; in both cases, that of Nichiren Shonin and that of Jofukyo, it is a deliberately provocative practice which allows those satisfied with lower spiritual goals to be “seeded” with the goal of Supreme Buddhahood by their very rebellious opposition to the Truth; the Sutra says that Fukyo “deliberately went to them” (T.9.51c22) and when Fukyo salutes them with his Twenty-four Character phrase, he is actually telling them their current self-satisfaction with other Buddhist spiritual goals is wrong and that is why they are so violently hostile. His obeisance and his words have nothing to do with conventional politeness. This is clearly a form of shakubuku. If Jofukyo were practicing gentle, gradual shoju, he would not have provoked them so but let them go on practicing their current provisional teachings, confident in their lesser spiritual attainments, for they are described as being of surpassing arrogance (zojoman) (T.9.50c15), one of the seven attitudes of arrogance (shichi man) specifically defined as thinking or claiming to have attained enlightenment even though one has not. (Nakamura Hajime, Bukkyo go daijiten, 588a) In other words, they are in their spiritual disposition a post-Extinction parallel to the Five Thousand Arhats of the Buddha’s Lifetime in the “Chapter of Expedience” 2, which we discussed above. They do not accept the teachings of the Hokekyo with regard to the Shakumon or the Hommon. But the Bodhisattva Messenger of the Buddha, living in a declining or decadent era, must treat them differently from the way the Buddha treats such beings; such a Bodhisattva should deliberately preach the Supreme Truth and thus plant the seeds of Buddhahood (geshu) for future maturation (juku) and liberation (datsu). Thus his practice is exclusively of the Real Sutra, the Hokekyo, and so the “Chapter of the Bodhisattva Jofukyo” 20 concludes with these verses:

“For this reason let the practicers

After the Buddha’s Extinction,

Having heard this Sutra,

Not produce doubts and confusion;

They ought single-mindedly

To preach this Sutra widely.

Age after age they shall meet Buddhas

And rapidly achieve the Buddha Way.” (T.9.51c5-7)

Anticipating the objections of at least some of the ‘shoju’ partisans, I wish to add here that the exclusive practice here is one based on doctrine; some of the ‘shoju’ proponents have tried to misrepresent Nichiren Shonin’s “exclusive practice” as being merely a kind of practical concentration rather than the doctrinal exclusion of the Provisional Teachings. The former assertion is, in fact, typical of the Zen monk Muju (Dokyo Ichien, 1226-1312), Nichiren Shonin’s younger contemporary, who believed in a syncretistic farrago of Buddhist beliefs and who despised both Honen and Nichiren for their respective exclusive-practice ideologies. (See Tamura Yoshiro Kamakura Shin Bukkyo shiso no kenkyu , 290-291, 292-294, 305-306, esp. pp. 292-293) Nichiren Shonin’s exclusive practice is that of asserting only the Hokekyo and not allowing any Provisional Teachings. (This standpoint can be readily seen by the fact that Nichiren Shonin repeatedly attacked other sects on doctrinal grounds, not merely because they were inconvenient for most people.)

If we now return to the text of the Kyogyosho gosho, can we say that it is a shoju document?

After the section on the three eras of this Dharma cycle, mappo and the planting of the Buddhahood the text begins to show the shortcomings of other sects; I shall outline some of his following the commentary of the Nichiren Shonin ibun kogi zenshu, v. 14, 220-277)

Other sects’ scholars do not understand that the Hokekyo plants the seed of Buddhahood: 

“Unskilled, indeed” (tsutanai kana) he calls them. (STN, v. 2, 1481 l. 9), for in reality all attainment really comes from the seeds planted by the Hokekyo.

As in the Nyosetsu shugyo sho, discussed above, the point is made from the Daihatsunehangyo that one should rely on the Sutra text, not human teachers’ words (STN, v. 2, 1482 l. 4) and then this work cites the passage from the Muryogikyo (as above) and says, “Cast them away as ‘not yet having revealed the Truth.’” (STN, v. 2, 1482 l. 5)

Further on, we find the refutation of the theory that the Previous Sutras and the Hokekyo are the same again citing the Muryogikyo text along with an allusion to verses of the “Chapter of Expedience”:

“Through the Buddha Lands of the Ten Directions

There is only the Dharma of the One Vehicle,

There are no two, likewise there are not three

Excepting the Buddha’s expedient preaching

Because only by temporary names

Does He lead and draw in the masses of beings

And preach the Buddha Wisdom.” (T.9.8a17-20) (STN, v. 2, 1482 l.7)

Then Nichiren Shonin explains how to answer the claims of the Shingon Sect: he asserts that it is a falsehood (itsuwari) of the Chinese Tripitaka Masters (STN, v. 2, 1482 ll. 10-11)

“No matter what sect it may be, if they speak the doctrine of the Shingon Sect, one should attack (semubeku) the twisted views of the Shingon.” (STN, v. 2, 1482 l. 14 - 1483 l. 1)

The errors of the Nembutsu patriarchs in abandoning the Real Teaching for Provisional Sutras: 

“And thereafter they should intensely (anagachi: fully or wholeheartedly) smash the human teachers of that sect.” (STN, v. 2, 1483 l. 9)

Asserting the superiority of the Hokekyo to a myriad other sutras, the text attacks the claims of other sects that their fundamental sutras are equal or superior to the Hokekyo but especially notes the bad ends of the various erroneous and heretical Patriarchs these should be pointed out with proper demeanor: “One should relate calmly but also forcefully, with eyes half-closed and with composed facial expression and quietly that they are such unenviable deaths.” (STN, v. 2, 1484 ll. 6-7)

Against the Ritsu (Vinaya) Sect it says; “With the Practicer is the Precept Keeper of the ‘Chapter of the Jewelled Stupa’ one should castigate (inveigh against) these.” (STN, v. 2, 1488 l. 2) The word I have translated as ‘castigate’ (nonoshiru) is quite strong and can even mean curse. The passage from the ‘Chapter of the Jewelled Stupa’ 11 referred to is this verse:

“This Sutra is difficult to keep;

If there is one who keeps it even for short while,

I shall at once rejoice

And the Buddhas shall likewise do so.

Such a person

Is one whom the Buddhas praise:

This one then is bold and fervent;

This one then is effortful.

This one is named keeper of the precepts,

One who practices the dhutas,

And so will quickly obtain

The Supreme Buddha Way.” (T.9.34b15-18)

This passage, cited by Nichiren Shonin even from his early career (STN, v. 1, 70, 135), shows his fundamental position that to keep the Sutra is itself to keep the precepts; other (specific, concrete) precepts are unnecessary and may even hinder the faith of the True Dharma in this age (STN, v. 2 1297 ll. 1-4, l. 9) This position does not mean (as some ignorant “Buddhist” critics of Nichiren Shonin have claimed) that he is urging unethical behavior but indicates that the precepts of other teachings, which are taken formally and separately are not appropriate to this age and even harmful as detracting from the maintenance of exclusive faith in the True Doctrine. As Myoraku Daishi (Zhanran/Chan-jan) warns, those who undertake to keep even one precept are held to that precept and, should they break it, must suffer the dire karmic consequences. (STN, v. 2, 1487 ll. 13-14)

Furthermore, the spread of that Great Dharma which has previously remained unknown, is described in realistic, objective historical terms; with reference to and in the midst of this the Daimoku, which is declared to “gather the merits of the myriad practices and myriad good [acts] of the Buddha of the Three Eras” is said to contain the merits of a myriad precepts: it is the Adamantine (Diamond) Jewel Receptacle Precept and “because it is such an excellent precept, the various precepts of Previous [Sutras] and the Manifestation Doctrine (shakumon) have not one bit of merit.” (STN, v. 2, 1488 l. 11)

To suggest, as the ‘shoju’ partisans have done, that the abolition of such former precepts is merely the “opinion of some people” is effectively to dismiss the whole tenor of Nichiren Shonin’s teaching on the subject. It is to insult the Patriarch and his doctrine based on the Sutra.

          
The final section of the Kyogyosho gosho concludes that it is Ryokanbo’s behavior that is guilty of self praise while disparaging others (jisan kita) and notes his excuses for not debating Nichiren Shonin. Nichiren Shonin instructs his disciples to say “without change” (or, in some versions, “without doubt”) that the Ritsu Sect are rebels against the country (Risshu kokuzoku). He concludes with the passage (cited by the ‘shoju’ advocates) against improper demeanor in a public forum. (If this Kyogyosho gosho were a genuine work and dated to the year 1278 this instruction would be in accord with Nichiren Shonin’s expectation of an imminent debate with the other sects, expressed in the autograph Shonin gohenji (STN, v., 1279)).

In any case Nichiren Shonin instruction that, “because in a public forum one speaks reasonable doctrine, vulgar words and strong words and self-conceited demeanor are not to be seen by others’ eyes; they would be shameful (or base). Be ever more careful of body, speech, and mind and respectfully face the host, face the host”, does not mean--in context-- the abandonment of shakubuku. These are simply the same kind of instructions he had previously given to disciples summoned before the authority. For example, in the Monchu tokui sho (NSIJR, 1135d) (STN, v. 1, 439) addressed to Lord Toki when he was summoned with two others before the Kamakura Shogunate’s Court of Inquiry (monchujo) in 1269 (Bun’ei 6) Nichiren Shonin gives somewhat similar advice about proper demeanor and language in such a court even when provoked by enemies.

Here, in effect, he is saying: do not act in such a way so as to be found in contempt of court and thus wreck our case. It has nothing to do with the abolition or curtailment of shakubuku, which is clearly expressed through much of the rest of this very work. Nor, we may add, does genuine shakubuku have anything to do with personal attacks, misrepresentation or threats that have characterized those who are in or have emerged from the modern Fuji-ha/Soka Gakkai cult.

          
It is the ‘shoju’ partisans who, having emerged mostly from such a milieu, have most frequently indulged in these tactics:

The shoju practice is based on the “Chapter of the Practices of Peaceful Joy” 14 and this chapter includes the instruction: “When they either expound and preach orally or read the Sutra, they are not to rejoice in preaching the faults of people or sutras. Furthermore, they are not to slight or be arrogant towards the various other Dharma preachers. They are not to preach about other people’s good and evil, advantages and shortcomings” (T.9.38a3)

          
The leaders of this movement claim to follow shoju, arrogating to themselves the right to declare Nichiren Shonin’s methods invalid and his clear reasoning wrong; is this not criticizing others’ teaching let alone their own (nominal) master’s teaching? But even leaving that aside, since their ‘shoju’ proclamation, have they not continued their attacks, often ad hominem attacks, on those who do not agree with their policies? How is this shoju? And if it is shakubuku, why is it they denounce shakubuku?

Furthermore, they keep no shoju attitude even among themselves: one of them has openly renounced Nichiren Shonin and, in turn, been denounced by one of his erstwhile allies in vulgar terms. How is this shoju or even common courtesy?

We may say then that, contrary to the ‘shoju’ party’s assertions, the Kyogyosho gosho, does not authorize the abolition of shakubuku and, what is more, this ‘shoju’ party has little to do with genuine shoju.

CONCLUSION

From the above discussion we can see that

(1) the criticisms levelled by the ‘shoju’ party have nothing to do with the Kempon Hokke which states its scriptural, actual, and rational shakubuku policy quite clearly in the ‘Fundamental Principles’; any past action by certain ex-Soka Gakkai members who cleverly insinuated themselves into leading positions in this group have nothing to do with us.

(2) the call for shoju methods, which these people cleverly confuse with mere politeness and ethical behavior (a politeness and ethics they freely ignore whenever it suits their purpose) is little more than a smokescreen for cementing their own current views (whatever they may be) in place; their actions speak louder than their innocent-sounding words: ‘shoju’ to them means that no one may differ from them but they are free to attack with vituperative expressions of any kind those who dare to question their muddled ideas.

(3) contrary to these people’s claims, the era of the latter Dharma (mappo) is not over and Nichiren Shonin’s religion will last till Lord Maitreya descends from Tushita Heaven to become the next manifest Buddha. There is no reason to conclude from the orthodox Buddhist standpoint that a new era, returning to the age of the Buddha, with its use of Provisional Teachings, has appeared. Likewise, it is clear that mappo is regarded by both the Sutras and Nichiren Shonin (and even their supposed hero Udana Nichiki for that matter) as an objective historical concept. To make the statement that mappo is all in your mind and can be safely ignored is a misinterpretation of Buddhist idealism (yuishin engi etc.); it is roughly equivalent to an ignoramus reading that all things are empty and without self-nature and then thinking he can run in front of a Mack truck unscathed because “it’s only an illusion”.

(4) The claims from various texts of Nichiren Shonin that mention shoju do not really back its use in this era in a major way; it might be used in certain cases but the overwhelming practice is to be ‘breaking and subduing’’ (shakubuku), asserting the inherent superiority and exclusive practice of the Hokekyo against all other Sutras, Teachings and their derivative sects; this is conversion by opposition or rebellion (gyakke), forced poisoning (godoku), forming the condition of the poison drum (dokku no en wo musubu); the people of this era are overwhelmingly evil. In contrast to people reborn in earlier eras, where Provisional Teachings might serve as the catalyst (condition: en) to awaken the seed of Buddhahood already planted by the preaching of the Hokekyo in earlier eons, the people of this era are ‘those who have never put down the seed of Buddhahood’ and those who ‘do not yet have good’; mostly doomed to fall to evil rebirths, they must be seeded with the Essence of the Hokekyo, ‘Namu Myoho renge kyo’ and if they blaspheme against this One Truth, they will likewise fall but now with a transcendent reason for the seed buried within them will lead eventually to Buddhahood.

(5) The concept of shakubuku is inherent in the Hokekyo’s assertion of absolute supremacy, ending all expedient teachings; from its very nature as the supreme teaching the Hokekyo ‘breaks and subdues’ all other teachings. In preaching the Hokekyo, the Tathagata Shakya does this ‘breaking and subduing’ of all He has preached previously “for more than forty years” in which he “had never yet revealed the Truth.” Thus shakubuku is closely interrelated with the Sutra itself and with exclusive practice.

(6) All we have now are worldling (unenlightened) teachers (bonshi) who cannot really ascertain the inner capacities of beings; such judgments were extremely difficult even for advanced, saintly or sagely disciples in the Buddha’s own time and led to spiritual disasters (as we saw above). Thus we, worldlings acting as the messengers of the Buddha in the Latter Age, have no choice to press ahead with the highest and final teaching.

(7) There can be little doubt that Nichiren Shonin urged his followers to polite demeanor in presenting Sutra-based, rational, and empirical arguments in public; such an attitude did not at all mean the abolition of shakubuku in favor of a shoju policy based on the Provisional Teachings, let alone its replacement by a freewheeling anything-goes policy. Those who propose a so-called ‘shoju’ method are among the most strident employers of smear-campaigns and ad hominem attacks on the internet, dragging down any semblance of rational discourse and prolonging personal vendettas against anyone who dares to question their opinions, sometimes carrying on until even the authorities in their own sects tell them to shut up; they reject most Sutra-based arguments since at least a number of them have sneeringly dismissed the Hokekyo (and, therefore, the Mahayana Canon). Or else they pick and choose what suits their fancy to dress up their own ideas. This process is known as “adorning one’s own doctrine” (shogon ko gi) and the “twisted harmonization with human emotional obsessions” (goku e shijo) condemned by Nichiren Shonin himself (STN, v. 1, 584)

Occasionally, quite fortuitously, of course, they might actually follow some of Nichiren Shonin’s Sutra-based teachings, but for the most part they seem to dream of a syncretistic soup of various ideas, carefully edited to their own tastes and topped off with chanting the Daimoku and (perhaps, if useful) the name “Nichiren” for its drawing power. They also try to give themselves a kind of aura of majority rule by using such invented terms as “mainstream Mahayana”, a conveniently vague name which gives them a free hand to do whatever they want. At times they claim to be disciples of Nichiren Shonin and at others they claim to represent some amorphous majority opinion within Buddhism. Those who have read some of the above translations can see how this majoritarian argument clashes with Nichiren Shonin ideal of a “one hammer to a thousand earthen pans” (STN, v. 2, 1634). As the Patriarch remarks:

“Though the people who say the Nembutsu, keep the precepts and so on are many, the persons who rely upon the Hokekyo are few. The stars are many but they do not illuminate the great sea. Grasses are many but they do not form the pillars of the Imperial Palace. Though Nembutsus are many, they are not the Way to become a Buddha. Though one keeps the precepts they do not form the seed for going to the Pure Land. It is only the Seven Characters ‘Namu Myoho renge kyo’ that are the seed for becoming a Buddha. Though, when I said this, people were jealous and did not adopt it, the late Lord Ueno by his believing it has become a Buddha.” (STN, v. 2, 1603)

As anyone can see, Nichiren Shonin’s doctrine is not a based on majority opinion, either in terms of the Sutras or the what most people desire or believe, but only on the Hokekyo; the whole of his teachings are predicated on the idea of the embattled minority. And this is what is prophesied by the Great Nirvana Sutra: “The Buddha in the Nirvana Sutra prophesies that those of the True Dharma shall seem as the dirt on a finger nail and those who blaspheme against the Dharma as the dirt of the ten directions.” (STN, v. 1, 555)

The so-called ‘shoju’ leaders, in any case, only pretend to be based on majority rule, though they do, indeed, play to the crowd. When they “study” Buddhism, especially that of Nichiren Shonin, they are not looking for the Truth or salvation or anything of that sort. What they are doing is reminiscent of an anecdote about W.C. Fields. Fields was notoriously anti-religious all his life so when a friend visited him in the hospital during his final illness he was surprised to find the great comedian propped up in bed reading the Bible. Asked what he was doing, Fields replied in his trademark nasal voice, “Looking---- for loopholes.” That about sums up what these people are doing.

We must now pose this question: why do these people not just leave Nichiren Buddhism instead of trying to undermine from within? (Nichiren Shonin cites the Sutra teachings which predict that the Buddha Dharma will be destroyed from within by monks not by external persecution: STN, v. 2, 1050-1051) At least past apostates such as infamous Shincho (1596-1659), who left the Nichiren movement for the Shinzei Branch of Tendai and spent the remainder of his life writing scurrilous attacks on Nichiren Shonin while chanting the Nembutsu, had enough honesty to admit they did not really believe in the teachings of Nichiren Shonin and that they even resented everything he said; thus they departed for other forms of Buddhism. These ‘shoju’ people, however, want to have their cake and eat it too: having found priestly patrons who gladly receive their toadying and offerings and who, in return, back anything these people say, it would simply be too much of a sacrifice for them to give up their cushy positions and privileges.

Finally let me remind honest, sincere Kempon Hokke believers of this fact: we ultimately come from a group of spiritual forebears who were a minority, unfairly denounced even by the officials of their own sect. Holding fast and true to the original teachings of Nichiren Shonin, they suffered untold persecutions and difficulties. Are we now to hold their sacrifice at naught and cave in to those who would efface virtually all that Nichiren Shonin said and did based on the Sutras? Are we now to compromise, nay, sell out the martyrs’ noble principles so as to follow the whims of a few ambitious people? Are we to turn against the Patriarch Nichiren and the Sutras?

I know that if you are of the true Kempon Hokke faithful, you can give only one answer. But you, not I, must give it Consider well what I have presented to you and pray to the Eternal Lord Shakyamuni for guidance.

c 2001-2008 Hamilyon Graham Lamont