This is the key part of his speach3:
"The Daishonin uses a single word to express the condition that one must fulfill in order to become truly happy by chanting this Nam-Myoho- Renge-Kyo, the condition that one must fulfill in order to accomplish what we call "attaining Buddhahood." This is the word "honesty." In the "The Meaning of the Entity" (Totaigi Sho) the Daishonin teaches:
"The people who honestly discard the provisional teachings, believe only in the Lotus Sutra, and chant Nam 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. For them, the threefold contemplation and the three truths will be actualized in a single mind. The place where these people dwell is the land of eternal, tranquil, light. The Buddha of the entity "Renge" of the Juryo chapter of the Essential Teachings...is to be found among the disciples and supporters of Nichiren.(Gosho Zenshu, p. 512)He further teaches:
�"Because Nichiren's followers honestly discard the heretical doctrines of the hereticals laws and heretical teachers of the provisional teahings and honestly believe in the correct doctrines of the true Law and true teacher, they will attain the enlightenment of the entity "Renge" and manifest the mystic principle of the entity of eternal, tranquil light. This is because they believe the golden words of the Lord Teacher of the Juryo chapter of the Essential Teachings and chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo." (Gosho Zenshu, p. 518)In these passages, the Daishonin uses the word "honestly" three times. It is faith with this feeling of "honesty", faith with the feeling to correctly uphold the truth no matter what comes, even at the cost of giving one's life, and to promote that faith to other people, that one can naturally receive the great benefit of attaining enlightenment in one's present form.
�If one interprets Buddhism with one's own ideas at the center, using one's own views, one will end up totally off base. A good example of this is the person named Daisaku Ikeda, who unfortunately used to occupy the top lay believers' position in this religion. The way he went wrong the most was in chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo with his own egotistic views, with an erroneous view of the teachings of the true Buddha Nichiren Daishonin. Guiding many people based on egotistic views centering on himself has been the cause for great unhappiness.
This year I am seventy-one. The thing that I can say from the bottom of my heart is that ****because I was a common mortal, and because I am a common mortal now, in various senses I have made mistakes in the past.**** When the Soka Gakkai was going to obtain status as a religious corporation I was only in my twenties. Even so, I told the people in the Bureau of Religious Affairs at the time that it would be a mistake. However, they didn't listen. Later, I had the experience of meeting Mr. Josei Toda and spending two hours talking together with him while drinking sake. At that time, I heard from Mr. Toda that he was going to give his whole life from� then on for kosen-rufu. I then tried to make myself like the Soka Gakkai, which I had previously disliked, and I did come to actually like them. This was because I believed that, under the direction of Mr. Josei Toda, the Soka Gakkai was a true organization for kosen-rufu. Before long, the Gakkai entered the age of its third president, Daisaku Ikeda. But to be honest, since I still felt the same way, I failed to see through to the fundamentally base mind of Daisaku Ikeda.
�If I look back, I remember that a priest came to see me 18 or 19 years ago when I was the chief priest of Heianji Temple in Kyoto and chief of the study bureau. This priest later went over to the Shoshinkai. He said to me, "Daisaku Ikeda is off track. In Daisaku Ikeda's mind, he has the idea that he himself is the true Buddha. Ikeda makes light of the teachings of the Daishonin and thinks that he is at the center." However, I turned him away, saying, ****'That's not true. It's just that he's working with all his might for kosen rufu.' But ultimately, what that person said was true.****
�When I think about it, Daisaku Ikeda was already fundamentally mistaken. ****In failing to see that, I fervently reflect on myself now.**** However, this must be considered in terms of cause and relation in Buddhism, from the wider viewpoint of the broader, deeper whole. I may not have seen that then, but I am confident that I have always handled situations and exerted myself honestly in terms of how events have unfolded according to the cause and relation in Buddhism. Therefore, leaving aside what that priest said at that time, the former priests who ran over to the group that calls itself the "Shoshinkai" have stubbornily persisted in overlooking and violating the fundamental meaning of the Daishonin's Buddhism. They weren't actually right, in terms of everything that happened after that.
�Anyway, in the flow of upholding and protecting Buddhism, it has always been my intent to make "honesty" my foundation throughout my life. To truly serve Buddhism means to correctly ****protect**** the Law no� matter what comes along, and that is the spirit I have always had.
�Form the view point of that spirit, I have honestly protected the Law from start to finish. Even though up until now I was fundamentally deceived by Daisaku Ikeda, I am confident that the conditions for ****correcting these errors**** have truly been solidified through the faith of many people, both believers and myself and other priests.
�If you think about it, dishonesty is no good even in the affairs of society. Even when it may look as though a person will win the trust of many people and reveal his or her true worth by progressing with honesty as his or her standard.
�The source for doing this is the Lotus Sutra. It is chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. The completely dishonest state of the Soka Gakkai, which guided by Daisaku Ikeda's egocentric views, is the opposite of this. They are abusing the priests of Nichiren Shoshu, centering� on myself, by fabricating all sorts of things. But before long, that will all melt away."
"...Among the poems of Nichiden Shonin, there is a verse that goes:
- The bamboo toppled to the ground springs back up naturally
- The snow that toppled it disappears without a trace.
- (Nichiden Shonin Den, p. 82)
Even if straight, true bamboo is toppled over by snow, that is, even if it is knocked down by somethng bad, the bad thing (in this example, the snow) will natrually disappear and the true bamboo will stand back up just the way it was before. This is definitely what will happen.
In other words, from now on we will overcome the mistaken thinking of those such as Daisaku Ikeda,and not only that, sometime within the eternal future we will save them all. It seems that they are now furiously chanting Daimoku to put a "curse" on us, chanting Daimoku in order to make us fall into hell. But if a person wants others to fall into hell, he himself is already in a state of hell. We, however, follow the great compassion of the true Buddha, Nichiren Daishonin. We chant Daimoku both for ourselves to be saved and to save others. In the end, we will save everyone, INCLUDING DAISAKU IKEDA (caps from Michael Cody). this is the kind of Daimoku we chant. It is from this that the kosen-rufu of the Hokkeko derives its merit."
Related pages:Ikeda, temple Issues, Personal page, Nikken, Kawabe memo
- Should still be at:http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&threadm=7q4p6a%24k4n%241%40nnrp1.deja.com&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DISO-8859-1%26safe%3Doff%26q%3DNikken%2BAdmits%2Bhe%27s%2Ba%2Bcommon%2Bmortal%26btnG%3DGoogle%2BSearch%26meta%3Dgroup%253Dalt.religion.buddhism.nichiren.*
- I'm not sure if this is the beginning or the end, as I lifted it from old reliable alt.religion.buddhism.nichiren a while ago. I cleaned up the HTML a bit, and removed some pointed comments by the provider aimed at me.
- The important part is the part near the end where Nikken admits he bungled his relationship with the Gakkai and shows his true feelings (just as President Ikeda shows his true feelings in the stormy April essay I have here as well). This essay posted to ARBN to refute my assertion that Nichiren Shoshu has a doctrinaire and authoritarian attitude, but it does nothing of the kind. Nikken admits these things but still insists that members must obey him based on his "heritage face to face." What it does show is the true feelings of the High Priest during a time when he was praising the Gakkai and the Gakkai was praising him and backing his authority. And it shows that claims for the authority of the High Priest cannot rest on any assertion of infallibility on his part and that he admits this himself.
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