Hatred and Jealousy
The Definition of "onshitsu" is hatred and calumny. Onshitsu is the expression of fundamental darkness. It is also the natural tendancy to fear change, harm, or anything that is new and different. Nichiren writes:
"The fourth volume of the Lotus Sutra states, "The offense of uttering even a single derogatory word against the priests or laity who believe in and preach the Lotus Sutra is even graver than that of abusing Shakyamuni Buddha to his face for an entire kalpa."
The Lotus Sutra also states,
"[If anyone shall see a person who embraces this sutra and try to expose the faults or evils of that person, he will in the present age be afflicted with white leprosy,] whether what he speaks is the truth or not." Take these teachings to heart, and always remember that believers in the Lotus Sutra should absolutely be the last to abuse each other. All those who keep faith in the Lotus Sutra are most certainly Buddhas, and one who slanders a Buddha commits a grave offense."
Further
Nichiren writes:
However, there is a difference if one chants the daimoku while acting against the intent of this sutra. There are many forms of slander that go against the correct practice of this sutra. Let me sum them up by quoting from the fifth volume of the Hokke Mongu Ki:"In defining the types of evil, the Hokke Mongu states briefly, �Expound among the wise but not among the foolish.�One scholar enumerates the types of evil as follows:
�I will first list the evil causes and then their effects.
The Fourteen Slanders
Nichiren writes:
- There are fourteen evil causes:
- arrogance,
- negligence,
- arbitrary, egotistical judgment,
- shallow, self-satisfied understanding,
- attachment to earthly desires,
- lack of seeking spirit,
- not believing,
- aversion,
- deluded doubt,
- vilification,
- contempt,
- hatred,
- jealousy and
- grudges.�"
"Since these fourteen slanders apply equally to priesthood and laity, you must be on guard against them.
Despite these admonishments not to "onshitsu", the arguments (see index.html or personal.html) between the various schools of Nichiren's followers have sometimes tended to be heated, abusive and full of acrimony. People have tended to get personal and disregard the fact that even people with radically different perceptions are respectworthy. Almost invariably the same people are in person polite, reasonable and decent seeming folks. And conversely, people who may be "contentious" or seem "negative" are often in fact the most well meaning of folks. Conversely people who seem nice, are often actually "fawning" and "crooked." It is really true that you can't judge a book by it's cover.
The debates are natural and have a number of causes. Buddhism is not a religion that can be easily pigeonholed into a single dogmatic school of thought,(see literal.html). Secondly, people have a tendancy to try to fit religions into their existing worldview, and with Buddhism this is disasterous. Buddhism teaches "Zuiho Bini" but "Zuiho Bini" means that one can accommodate Buddhism to existing philosophies and cultures to the extent that it isn't invalidated. Foolish people destroy Buddhism when they seek to make it fit into their existing World view. Nichiren, for instance, pointed out that Japan was a land of Gods and Buddha, while China was a land of the Buddha but no "Gods", since the Chinese tended to be more athiestic and philosophical and took that approach to Buddhism. In my essay A Strict Warning I point out how Japanese Buddhists have tended to seek to use Buddhism as magic and in the process have totally missed it's meaning.
The three Powerful Enemies
The tendancy to distort Buddhism is the function of "fundamental darkness." Even this concept can be distorted to make it look like there is an actual "devil" at work maliciously entering people's minds and making them "evil". Buddhists err if they see "evil" in that manner. Samsara is simply the progression of life in the six worlds and suffering is intrinsic to that life. Breaking the Hold of Suffering is the Goal of Enlightenment, incorrect notions don't doom one to misery so much as prevent one from breaking the hold that misery already has on people. I discuss this in my essay the Three Powerful Enemies.
Nichiren dissected the self serving and magical teachings of the teachers of his time and showed how Japan's suffering was aggravated by such teachings and teachers.
Unfortunately his disciples are just as human as the incorrect teachers of ancient Japan. After his death Nikko and Niko shonin (Hokibo and Sadobo), specifically, and the 6 elder priests generally, fell out over the behavior of Lord Hakiri of Minobu and over each others behavior and teachings. These "falling outs" led to Toki Jonin becoming a full fledged priest and forcing his own nephew (Nitcho) to leave the temple he controlled near Kamakura, and to a permanent schism loosely centered around Minobu on the one hand and the Fuji area on the other. I think it particularly important to us in this day that we should look objectively at this falling out between these priests, because while Nikko Shonin and his disciples may have been absolutely right to believe that they were the "true lineage" of Nichiren Buddhism, this created permanent issues and an lingering habit of members of one or another school refusing to associate with others or debate honestly with them. Hagiographies made of Nikko Shonin and efforts to justify Nikko's lineage may have led to the creation of Bogus Documents and other things which make getting to the truth difficult. This is particularly Ironic because Nichiren wrote in the Ho'on Sho about similar behavior of the disciples of Kobo Daishi and concluded that the resulting conflict in the Shingon (and Tendai) sects was due to the "accumulation of deceit" and that efforts to use the dharma.html in this fashion were like "piling up dung" and calling it incense. When it burns, it really stinks.
Consequently, we his disciples, have tended to see "slander of the Dharma(Law)" as more likely to be coming from our co-religionists than from people in other sects such as "Shingon," "Zen", "Jodo" or "Kegon!" This state of affairs is worse than deplorable, it is itself a severe misinterpretation of Nichiren's teachings worse than all of the other ones that are condemned due to this misinterpreation. Why? Because Nichiren enjoined his followers to work out their differences and become "one as fish and the sea they swim in."
The master warned about this in his Gosho. I would advise to read two Gosho, "letter From Sado" and "The Hero of the World" which I wrote about in an essay:"A Strict Warning."
For more about the resultant issues, just read the rest of this website
Arrogance and heritage
Buddhism teaches that the fundamental cause of conflict is fundamental darkness, and that this darkness is so fundamental that if anything good is going to come about then first this darkness must be faced and overcome. In Buddhism the manifestation of this fundamental darkness is called the Sansho Shima when it affects individual believers, and it's most critical manifestation is known as the Three powerful enemies. Nichiren says that when the three powerful enemies arise we should rejoice. We have a duty, as admonished by the Gosho, to rebuke slander of the Law, but that duty first requires us to recognize what slander of the Law is correctly and to not commit it in our effort to rebuke it. This fundamental caution has been rejected by some people involved in this dispute. This may be because of their arrogance or the arrogance involved in teachings that are quick to triumph the wisdom of specific teachers over the general wisdom of the Dharma itself. Our great teacher Nichiren says in the Gosho Reply to Sairenbo:
"Although I, Nichiren, am not a man of wisdom, the Devil of the Sixth Heaven has attempted to take possession of my body. But I have for some time been taking such great care that he now no longer comes near me. Therefore, because the power of the heavenly devil is ineffectual against me, he instead possesses the ruler and his high officials, or stupid priests such as Ryokan, and causes them to hate me."The key word here is "take great care" and that effort to "take great care" in seeing through mistaken, incomplete, or partial understandings, is what has been missing from this dispute. When that sort of "care" is once again exercised, these disputes will be able to be ended naturally. Nichiren prescribed the cure of following two examples, the spirit of Bodhisattva Never Despise, and the attitude of Boy of Snow Mountain to be willing to give ones life to receive and transmit Buddhist teachings.
Sites with information on Nichirens Buddhism
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Sources
Gosho:Fourteen Slanders (at http://www.sgi-usa.org/buddhism/library/Nichiren/Gosho/14Slanders.htm)
Probable source is Lotus Sutra Chapter 13: http://www.sgi-usa.org/buddhism/library/Buddhism/LotusSutra/text/Chap13.htm
