THE SO-CALLED ‘SHÔJU’ INITIATIVE AND ITS SPONSORS
continued...

Nichiju Shonin ~ Reciting Fujusho
(Picture From "Tradition of Nichiren Doctrine", pg. 93)

part - 5 of 8
 
 
 

    To continue with the Nyosetsu shugyô shô we note that Nichiren Shônin
specifically condemns the use of the Four Practices of Peaceful Joy (shi anrakugyô) as inappropriate 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 Hokekyô 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 Hokekyô?  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 Hokekyô
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 Shônin 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 bôkoku) and “the Ritsu or Vinaya Sect are
rebels against the country” (Ritsu kokuzoku), was taken up by our founder
Nichijû Shôshi:

  “...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 Nichijû’s Legacy”).  In any case why is it that Nichiren Shônin says this:
it relates to this time, the age when there are “only” (nomi) evil (blasphemous) people and “only” the Hokekyô 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” (Daihatsunehangyô  3 (T.12.381a).

 Nichiren Shônin, 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 shugyô shô, we find, moreover, that Nichiren Shônin 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 Hokekyô], stretched the bow of ‘I have never yet revealed
the Truth’ [Muryôgikyô (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 Myôhô renge kyô’, 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 Shônin 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 Hokekyô 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 mappô; it was something more fundamental and absolute, something inherent in the nature of the Hokekyô 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 Hokekyô is in contrast to the Nehangyô (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 Shônin cites this Hokke shakabuku 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 Hokekyô] of His time in the world practiced Breaking and Subduing. Tendai Daishi [did this] for more than thirty years and Dengyô 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 Hokekyô in the last eight years of his life, for the Hokekyô in and of itself casts away all the other teachings.  The same applies to Tendai teachers of the Counterfeit Dharma era, Tendai Daishi and Dengyô Daishi, who were the Messengers of the Buddha (STN, v. 2, 1850-1851, 1661) as is Nichiren Shônin himself (STN, v. 2, 1875).  All of these ultimately did Breaking and Subduing when they propagated the Hokekyô as the Supreme Truth against all other teachings.

 In the Nyosetsu shugyô shô Nichiren Shônin 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 Muryôgikyô it says, ‘For more than forty years I have never yet revealed
the Truth’” [(T.9.386b1-2)].

 In the Hokekyô 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 Tahô 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 jôbutsu) limited to the Hokekyô.  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 Hokekyô itself; this Hokekyô alone is the Supreme Truth:

 “All the Sutras (issaikyô) 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 Hokekyô they are like lies, like prevarications, like bad-mouthing, like duplicity (or, double-dealing).”

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

 

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(Compilation and translations by H. Graham Lamont; formatted here by
Steven Polito. Copyright ©2000-2001 Rev. Kubota & H.G.Lamont all rights reserved)