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The King Devil of the sixth heaven is often personified in buddhism. Part of this is that it manifests itself in human behavior. People such as Devadatta,and others such as Judas Iscariot have come to be associated with evil on account of their behavior. This personalization is meant to explain the nature of fundamental darkness that is associated with these people as examples. For many years "evil" was personalized by various metaphoric "devils", such as the "Ten Forces of the Demon king" who were often depicted as actual devils.
- The "Ten forces of the Devil King" are depicted as follows:
- (1) desire,
- (2) care and worry[Klesa],
- (3) mental and physical hunger,
- (4) love and pleasure,
- (5) mental vagueness and lack of responsiveness,
- (6) fear,
- (7) doubt and regret,
- (8) anger,
- (9) preoccupation with wealth and fame, and
- (10) arrogance and contempt for others.1
King Devil of the Sixth Heaven
The King Devil of the sixth heaven is pictured as a party animal of a devil living in a pleasure pallace filled with devils enjoying revelry and having a great time. This pallace sits right on top of a hell containing souls bearing the weight of all that pleasure. He is said to rule this "Saha World" or world of endurance, already. When he sees someone begin to excape his grip he gets jealous and tries to prevent him from doing so.
The Process of Demonization
This process of "demonization" causes some people to identify various historical or even living people with "evil" and to sometimes paint those people as entirely evil. In general life, people such as Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao Tse Dung, Pol Pot, and a whole host of characters have come to fit this bill as "agents of evil" or evil persons. However, demonizing these people often is not the best way to understand evil, and instead it is better to make a balanced appraisal of them, as that is far more instructive.
The Devil in our own hearts
Mahatma Gandhi is said to have said:
"The only devils in this world are those running around inside your own hearts, and that is where all our battles should be fought."In real life, the existence of a literal devil would actually be an easier "enemy" to deal with. But just as Buddhism teaches that the world of Buddha exists in our hearts, so it also teaches that there are "10 worlds" that interpolate in our lives, and so both "hell" and the "devil" exist in our hearts as well. The worlds of destruction are actually broken down into four of them: Hell, Hunger, Animality(Animosity --Chikuso), and Anger. The "King devil" of all this is associated with "Mara" or illusion itself. People suffer because they live lives of illusion and delusion. As M. Scott Peck said, they become "people of the Lie." If you think about it the worlds of pleasure (heaven) and the worlds of humanity (ordinary life) are also part of this domain -- because they interpenetrate one another.
So both Gampon No Mumyo and Gampon no Hossho are potential at each moment, depending on our behavior and mindset (thoughts, words and deeds).
For more on this subject see my essay on theThe three Powerful Enemies It is also frequently referred to in Nichiren's Gosho.
Examples of "Evil" in Nichiren Buddhism.
On this website I have profiles of various people considered "evil" at one time or another in the history of Nichirenism. At some point one or another advocate, preacher, or polemicist, has used nearly all of them as examples of people "possessed by the King devil." But if you think that is literally true in any real sense, then you may be under the influence of fundamental darkness yourself, because a balanced look at all these people shows that they had both excellent qualities and negative ones. If you take some time to read each of the profiles I'm listing you'll see what I mean. Even so I'll enumerate some of the names below:
Historically, Nichiren criticized the errors of Jikaku Daishi, Kobo Daishi and the teacher Honen, in his major writings. Later Nichiren received troubles from even his own leading disciples such as Sanmibo, and others who deserted him and even turned on him. And after his death, his disciple Nikko Shonin, labelled the other Six Priests as evil, and levied specific charges against Niko Shonin who had once been his ally. And I could go on...
In our present day nearly all the people involved in the dispute between the two groups Nichiren Shoshu and Sokagakkai have been cast as evil. Nikken Shonin, is made "synonymous with evil" by Gakkai leaders, while Hiroe Clow,Daisaku Ikeda, Hojo, and Akiya are seen the same way by Nichiren Shoshu. Both of them see Yamazaki, a lawyer in Japan, as evil. Even Mr. Williams, of the SGI-USA was called "evil" at one time.
Finally, I've found myself labelled as evil at times, for criticizing this behavior of "demonizing opponants" as I did by participating in the IRG and Reform efforts and in helping write the "appearance Issue" paper and by creating these web pages. I guess I am fighting fundamental darkness. Indeed I am. For more on this visit my Personal Issues page
Links and References
- A great book on the subject of Evil is this one:
- http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/0684848597/reader/29/104-3651554-8230309#reader-link, The People of the Lie, by M. Scott Peck
- Fundamental darkness is described in the Shrimala Devi Sutra, where it is referred to as "nescience entrenchment."
- http://hjem.get2net.dk/civet-cat/mahayana-writings/lions-roar-of-queen-srimala-sutra.htm
- Ten forces of the devil king of the sixth heaven: The various illusions that plague human beings. They are:
- (1) desire, (2) care and worry, (3) mental and physical hunger, (4) love and pleasure, (5) mental vagueness and lack of responsiveness, (6) fear, (7) doubt and regret, (8) anger, (9) preoccupation with wealth and fame, and (10) arrogance and contempt for others.
Footnotes
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buddhist_dialogue_group/message/11742