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THE DHARMA FLOWER SUTRA SEEN THROUGH Preface
The Meaning of the Title:
Before I go any further into this preface, I would like to say that if it were not for the encouragement of Gerhard Lenz and his enormous effort in turning my handwritten pages into a published work, as well his patient advice and editing, none of this “web project” would ever have come into existence. Another person who has added an invaluable service as our proofing and style expert is Harley White. Lastly, for his support and encouragement, I want to express my gratitude to my friend and mentor, the Venerable Yumu Yamane. The object of this web project is that the existing translations, either those of the powerful lay organization or at least two of the persuasions that are monkish orders, tend to be either misleading or in the case of the lay organization sycophantic and misguided. This is mainly on account of a finicky desire to do translations that are either a reiteration of word for word of what was memorized verbatim by Ananda at the council of Râjagrha (ôshajo) near Spirit Vulture Peak (ryôjusen) or the writings of Nichiren Daishônin or the notes written down by his closest disciple Nikkô Shônin. This may well be scholarly accuracy, but if such a teaching is to be valid to westerners, then maybe a lot of soul-searching will be necessary in order to make sense out of the incoherent utterances of monks who have made little attempt at learning the languages of the West or even the dictatorial claptrap of those responsible for the powerful lay organization. It is also extremely apparent that both these types of organizations have incredibly little knowledge of the enormous research conducted into the Buddha teachings by sinologists, sanscritologists, tibetanologists and japanologists in various countries in the West. What is being attempted here is a close study of what it was that made Nichiren realize that the salvation of humankind is to be found within the text (montei) of the Dharma Flower Sutra. I think it can be said that only at extremely sparse intervals in the course of history have there been a few individuals who have really comprehended what existence is all about. Many of these persons came from the East. The first I would mention has to be the historical Shākyamuni, but apparently his teachings only really began to have a profound meaning after Nâgâjuna, Vasubandhu, Tendai, Myôraku and Nichiren had made their appearance. Prior to the Buddha teaching there were Fu Xi, Shen Nong, Confucius, Mencias as well as many others who gave ordinary people the formula for the enlightenment of Buddhahood. The message is to devote our lives to and found them on the dimension where existence occurs whose interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect pervades the entirety of existence and is Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô in Japanese. It is the recitation of the title and subject matter of the Dharma Flower Sutra that makes us realize that the meaning of existence is here and now in each and every moment of our lives and that the white lotus flower-like mechanism is the totality of all the possible reaches of our minds. This is neither a strictly scholarly translation of the Sutra on the White Lotus Flower-like Mechanism of the Utterness of the Dharma (Myôhô Renge Kyô) nor is it a flat rendering of the Oral Transmission on the Meaning of the Dharma Flower Sutra of Nichiren Daishônin (Ongi Kuden). Nevertheless this is a serious attempt to make both of these texts more accessible to people who have less experience with Buddhist literature in general. The purpose of this project is to encourage readers who seek individuation as C.G. Jung calls it and for those who already are familiar with the teachings of Nichiren to embrace the implication of opening up one’s inherent Buddha nature with our persons just as they are. C.G. Jung wrote that individuation means beings undivided which entails a fundamental sense of well-being that harmonizes with all persons and everything that surrounds us. In other words we are happy. In the teaching of Nichiren this sense of completeness means that our real identity is life itself, which has always been the basic ingredient of the whole of existence. This is not a handbook for some kind of quackish beatification, but a serious examination of the Buddha enlightenment of Nichiren who saw in the Sutra on the White Lotus Flower-like Mechanism of the Utterness of the Dharma, or simply the Dharma Flower Sutra (Hokkekyô), the real meaning of the whole of life. According to Nichiren in his Oral Transmission on the Meaning of the Dharma Flower Sutra, which was put into writing by his closest disciple Nikkô, Kyô or Sutra refers to the dimensions in which existence takes place and wherein the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect (Renge) functions, which is throughout the entirety of all existence (Myôhô). When it comes to the Dharma Flower Sutra there are two distinct parts. The first part consists of the discourse that the Buddha Shākyamuni preached, which is the very essential part. Then there is the part that I describe as metric hymns. Originally these verses, which some scholars call stanzas, often consisted of a recurring group of five ideograms which may or may not have rhymed. These verses are also called gathas in Sanskrit and in Japanese ge. It is my suspicion that these verses were a later addition in order to facilitate committing the contents of the sutra to memory. Even the Buddha who saw existence as the singularity of its Utterness, as the Buddha himself says in the Sixteenth Chapter on the Lifespan of the Tathâgata, as neither being its reality nor not existing at all (hijitsu hiko), might have found it difficult to compose such verse spontaneously. What I feel is important in such translating work is to try and bring the intention and the meaning of such a subject within the reach of the intelligent reader. In other words these translations are similar to the “explanatory interpretations” of the various schools that are involved in the propagation of this kind of teaching. The next question arises as to what authority I have to undertake this task. I am now eighty years of age and first started to seriously study both classical and modern Chinese when I was seventeen years old. This long and varied journey of life is filled with deep research and serious study that also included literary and modern Japanese, Tibetan and most of the languages of Western Europe. If one is embracing a language, then I suppose it must involve a similar inclusion of the cultures of the idioms concerned. Apart from my linguistic endeavours these translations are the expression of forty years of faith in the teaching of Nichiren Daishônin that was inherited by his successor Nikkô Shônin. Before I started the practices of the teaching of Nichiren I studied portions of the doctrines that came before the Dharma Flower Sutra both from the Chinese point of view as well as from the Tibetan. Here we are immediately placed in the contradictory situation of enlightenment as the total extinction of nirvana and the Buddha awakening as opening up our inherent Buddha nature with our persons just as they are (sokushin jô butsu). The latter concept of the purpose of the Dharma is reasonably applicable by means of the daily practices of Nichiren Schools (Kômon) that follow Nikkô Shônin. According to Nichikan Shônin (1665-1726), it is not so much to admit how deeply we consciously believe, but the fact that we just get on and do our practice. The Sutra on the White Lotus Flower-like Mechanism of the Utterness of the Dharma is a celebration of life itself even though some passages are difficult to swallow. If it were not for the Oral Transmission of Nichiren, the deeper significance of many parts of this sacred writing would have been lost. The real meaning of this sutra is tucked away in the title which in plain English would read “the time and place of the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect that constitutes the totality of existence”. The reality of our lives is that we are suspended in a balloon in which the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect, in which both 1) birth, maturing, becoming old, sickness, decline and the finality of death (shô, rô, byô, shi) which applies to living beings and 2) coming into existence, lasting as long as they should, falling apart and finally ceasing to exist (shô, jû, i, metsu) of all that is inanimate including stellar entities are completely valid equations. I will attempt to explain how this contradictory equation is dealt with on the Fundamental Object of Veneration (gohonzon), which is a graphic description of all that the Dharma Flower Sutra entails as well as being a representation of everything that concerns our lives.
The oldest translation of this sutra into a western language was produced by M. E. Burnouf. In 1852 he completed a translation from the original Sanskrit into French and gave it the title “Le Lotus de la Bonne Loi.” Ever since this pioneer work appeared nearly all subsequent translations of this text have been referred to as the Lotus Sutra which in the eyes of the present translator is a distorting misnomer. However, since this translation is being directly taken from the Chinese version of Kumârajîva (344-413 BCE) to which all the interpretations of Nichiren Daishônin (1222-1282 C.E.) have been applied, it has little or nothing to do with any Indian concepts of the Buddha teaching. From the earliest times, Chinese literary, philosophical or poetical texts commonly used titles that gave the reader a broad indication of their contents. This same principle concerns our present text which in the Chinese ideograms is called Miao fa lien hua ching or Myôhô Renge Kyô in Japanese. The reason why I use the expression “white lotus flower-like mechanism of the Utterness of the Dharma” is that relativity (kû, shûnyatâ) is a continual movement of cause, concomitancy and effect that underlies the whole of existence. This continual activity was in the final teachings of Shākyamuni referred to as the white lotus flower (renge, pundarîka). One has the impression that the Buddha never really said that existence exists eternally until he expounded the Sixteenth Chapter of the Sutra on the White Lotus Flower-like Mechanism of the Utterness of the Dharma on the Lifespan of the Tathâgata. Even then it was only alluded to as something that had a beginning in an infinitely long time ago. Buddhist thought is an evolving continuous development and those who hold faith in the Buddha teaching conceive existence (Dharma) as something that has neither a beginning nor an end. When I was studying the Buddha teaching in Hong Kong under the Venerable Hsin Kuang he instructed me to repeat every morning, “All dharmas are only the workings of the mind (shin, kokoro), and the three realms (sangai) that consist of a dimension of 1) hunger, needs, wants and sexual desires 2) that is incarnated with all the accompanying physicalities and 3) all that can be reached in our heads are simply ways of knowing.” This is entirely due to this lotus white flower-like mechanism which makes life go in a forward direction and the hallucinatory images and patterns that run through our minds when we are just dropping off to sleep being always on the move. The Tibetan title of this sutra (Dam pai chos kyi pundarîka’i mdo) clearly implies the white lotus (pundarîka) and the ideogram for “ren” in (renge) in Buddhist texts means the white lotus unless specified as being otherwise. The reason why it is a white lotus flower in the title of this sutra is because this white lotus flower-like mechanism that underlies the entirety of existence does not get soiled with its own karma. Hence, the title is the Sutra on the White Lotus Flower-like Mechanism of the Utterness of the Dharma albeit the term Dharma Flower Sutra can be used as an abbreviated alternative which corresponds to the shortened version of this title in Chinese (fa hua ching) or the Japanese reading of the same ideograms (hokkekyô). Throughout this work the Japanese Buddhist terms are not followed by their Sanskrit equivalents. This is because I am working from the Chinese version of the Dharma Flower Sutra [Taisekiji edition] of this canonical text. Even though Nikkô Shônin originally wrote the Oral Transmission in a kind of a Classical Chinese that was not Chinese in flavour or style, but such an artificially erudite language that it could very easily be compared to the thirteenth century Latin writings of Northern Europe, I am using the version of the Oral Transmission in the Taisekiji edition of the Writings of Nichiren Daishônin. As I have said on other occasions, I am not interested in making a mirror image of these texts in English since this has already been done, only to leave the reader baffled as to what the intention of these texts are about. Rather, I am offering an explanatory interpretation for the benefit of my fellow occidentals who have an interest in, but little knowledge of, the Buddha teaching. At this point I have to admit that I have never seen either the Sanskrit or the Tibetan version of this sutra. However, because the teaching of Nichiren is in Japanese I have given privilege to this language which I have been using on a daily basis for the last forty or so years.
The Teachings derived from the external events of the Buddha Shākyamuni’s life and work (shakumon) These teachings refer to the first half of the twenty-eight chapters of the Dharma Flower Sutra, that is to say, from the First and Introductory Chapter to the Fourteenth Chapter on Practicing with Peace and Joy. The Universal Teacher Tendai (T’ien T’ai) divided the Dharma Flower Sutra into two separate parts. The first fourteen chapters refer to the external events of the Buddha Shākyamuni’s life and work (shakumon) for which some schools use the term “the theoretical teachings”. The following fourteen chapters are referred to as the “teachings of the original archetypal state” or as some schools call it “the essential teachings” (honmon). The teachings derived from the external events of the Buddha Shākyamuni’s life and work are, as this expression implies, the teachings expounded by the Buddha Shākyamuni who is described as having attained enlightenment in Buddhagâya under the bodhi tree when he was about thirty years old, whereas the teachings of the original archetypal state refer to the time when the Buddha Shākyamuni realized the indestructibility and eternity of life, not only that of himself but also that of us ordinary people. At that time the eternal and indestructible quality of life was expressed as a concept in the depths of our minds as the uncountable grains of dust that would be left should someone grind five hundred universes from their inception to their termination into powder. This concept is perpetuity itself, which we experience in our daily lives as the ever-present infinite in time (gohyaku jidengo). In this way the Buddha Shākyamuni puts his present incarnation to one side so as to reveal the eternity of his and our own lives. The Universal Teacher Tendai (T’ien T’ai) compares the relationship between the eternal Buddha and his incarnation as Shākyamuni to the moon in the sky and its reflection in a pool of water. The essence of the teachings derived from the external events of the Buddha Shākyamuni’s life and work is the second chapter of the Dharma Flower Sutra on Expedient Means, where he expounds the real aspect of all dharmas as being every way they make themselves present to any of our six organs of sense [eyes, ears, nose, tongue, bodily touch and the mind which perceives dharmas]. This chapter also points out that the advent of all the Buddhas into this world is to lead all sentient beings toward opening their inherent store of perceptive wisdom (kai), to demonstrate and point out its meaning (shi), to cause sentient beings to apprehend and be aware of it (go), so as to lead humankind into the perceptive wisdom of the Buddha (nyû). This chapter also makes clear that the three realms of dharmas – 1) intellectual seekers who at the time of Shākyamuni were people who exerted themselves to attain the highest stage of the teachings of the individual vehicle [i.e. to become arhats (arakan)] through listening to the Buddha (shômon), 2) people who were partially enlightened due to their affinity with the arts, music, literature or all the branches of the sciences, medicine or philosophy (engaku) and 3) the altruists or bodhisattvas whose object was to become enlightened and to enlighten other people – were simply three kinds of expedient means in order to lead people onto the path of Buddhahood.
The Teaching of the Original Archetypal State (honmon) This is the teaching expounded by Shākyamuni when he reveals his real identity of being life itself. This teaching is comprised of the last fourteen chapters of the Dharma Flower Sutra, from the Fifteenth Chapter on the Bodhisattvas who swarm up out of the Earth to the Twenty-eighth Chapter on the Compelling Encouragement of the Bodhisattva Fugen. The Universal Teacher Tendai (T’ien T’ai) in his “Textual Explanation of the Dharma Flower Sutra” (Hokke mongu) divides the Dharma Flower Sutra into two parts. The first fourteen chapters consist of the teachings derived from the external events of the Buddha Shākyamuni’s life and work (shakumon) and the latter fourteen chapters comprise the teaching of the original archetypal state (honmon) which is a dimension that can only be reached by deep contemplation, only to discover that it lies at the very foundation of our lives and implies life itself. The difference between the teachings derived from the external events of the Buddha Shākyamuni’s life and work and those of the original archetypal state is that the first fourteen chapters indicate that the possibility of enlightenment is inherent in all human beings, whereas the essence of the original archetypal state is in the Sixteenth Chapter on the Lifespan of the Tathâgata where Shākyamuni tells the assembly that he attained enlightenment in an infinite past and that his enlightenment will perpetuate into an eternal future. Since Buddhahood is not separate from the other nine realms of dharmas [a realm of dharmas is a space where dharmas occur i.e. 1) the various hells, 2) hungry spirits, 3) animality, 4) titans or giants (shurakai), 5) human equanimity, 6) provisional ecstasies, 7) intellectual seekers, 8) people who are partially enlightened and 9) bodhisattvas], this would imply that the dimension of Buddhahood is the wisdom of understanding all the connotations that involve Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô which is what life is itself. It is in the Chapter on the Lifespan of the Tathâgata where Shākyamuni makes the three principles of Utterness (Myô) conspicuously clear. These are 1) the Utterness of the original fruition (hongamyô) which is the enlightenment of the Buddha that infers the original mind as being absolutely pure and intelligent and also regarded as the embodiment of the Dharma [i.e. existence (hosshin, Dharmakâya)], 2) the Utterness of the original cause (honinmyô) which implies the practices observed in order to attain Buddhahood and 3) the Utterness of the original terrain (honkokudo) which is where the Buddha lives and teaches. These three principles of Utterness make the enlightenment of the Buddha clear as to where, when and how it happened. Occasionally Nichiren uses the expression “the teaching of the original archetypal state” to specify his concept of the Buddha doctrine. This can be compared to Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô which means to devote our lives to and found them on the Utterness of the Dharma [entirety of existence] permeated by the underlying white lotus flower-like mechanism of the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect in its whereabouts of the ten realms of dharmas and summarizes all that life is in a nutshell. The three esoteric Dharmas (sandai hihô) – 1) the Fundamental Object of Veneration of the teaching of the original archetypal state (honmon no honzon), the recitation of the theme and title of the teaching of the original archetypal state (honmon no daimoku) and 3) the altar of the precept of the teaching of the original archetypal state (honmon no kaidan) – are all considered to be provisional teachings but Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô is the fundamental teaching of the original archetypal state.
After my first encounter with the Soka Gakkai, I was abruptly confronted with the baffling expression “The Mystic Law”, a term I believe was later modified to “The Wonderful Law”. However both those “Gakkaisms” are translators’ inaccuracies and are also misrepresentations of what the teachings of Nichiren Daishônin are concerned with. When I first read Nichiren’s “Thesis on the Real Aspect of All Dharmas (shohô jissô shô)” I came across the statement, “All dharmas are the point in question of the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect (shohô to wa Myôhô Renge Kyô to iu koto nari),” which is in the Taisekiji Temple’s edition of “The Buddha Writings of Nichiren Daishônin (Nichiren Daishônin Gosho)” pp. 665 and in the Soka Gakkai’s “Complete Collected Buddha Writings of Nichiren Daishônin (Nichiren Daishônin Gosho Zenshu)” pp. 1359. To start with, any interpretation of the word Myô that does not infer some kind of totality reduces the whole of the Buddha teaching to the meaninglessness of pink elephants. The Chinese ideogram for Myô was Kumârajîva’s (344 – 413 C.E.) understanding of the Sanskrit word “sat” which has been vicariously translated in the West as “wonderful”, “mystic”, “supernatural”, “subtle”, “mysterious”, “existing”, “real” or “good”. In the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu there is a phrase in the first verse where he says, “If the Tao is named, it is the mother of all things; therefore those without desires [or hang-ups] can perceive its Utterness (myô).” Even in F. S. Couvreur’s Chinese-French Dictionary there is a quotation, which I must admit not knowing where it comes from, stating, “That which is mind is putting the Utterness of all things into words.” In the teachings of Tendai (T’ien T’ai) the word myô is understood as being beyond thought or discussion, and at this moment while I am writing this avant propos, I do not think there is in the scientific world a complete theory which covers both the dimensions of the atomically very, very small and the immense vastness of astronomical space. In actual fact, however one may try to fathom out any concept that implies Utterness which is every living being and all things both huge and tiny, it is an undertaking that cannot be brought to a satisfactory conclusion. The teaching of Nichiren does have an answer to this ticklish problem with his title and subject matter of the Dharma Flower Sutra (daimoku) which is “Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô” which means to devote our lives to and found them on the Utterness of the Dharma [entirety of existence] permeated by the underlying white lotus flower-like mechanism of the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect in its whereabouts of the ten realms of dharmas. The Dharma Lotus (tôtai renge) [see the explanation of relativity (kû) in the Introduction] has many of the qualities of what I believe the scientists refer to as “dark matter” which according to my limited understanding is what makes events occur in the way they do. The teaching of Nichiren Daishônin is more concerned with living and dying as an experience that we must all undergo and is not particularly bothered about the dimensions of the material world. What the Buddha teaching of Nichiren is concerned with is how we must find a measure of happiness in an existence that is full of various kinds of adversities. In Nichiren’s doctrine we found our lives upon life itself, because life is none other than what constitutes our real identity, so that through our practice we have every possibility for changes for the better. The Tibetan version of the Dharma Flower Sutra was translated in the ninth century by the Indian pundit Surendra who worked from a later version of this text that has been found in Nepal and is roughly dated as coming from the twelfth century. The word that the pundit Surendra used to translate the Sanskrit word “sat” was “dam-pa” which the late David Snelgrove of the London School of Oriental and African Languages, who incidentally also taught me classical Tibetan, said that, in spite of all the erroneous interpretations of the word “dam-pa” in the same way as there are in the Chinese ideogram for Myô, the equivalent for Myôhô, which in Tibetan is Dam-pa’i chos, really means “what the Dharma really is” or “the Dharma itself”. When it comes to semantics then this is what this book is really about. Although the Soka Gakkai has given many people a grounding in what the Buddha teaching is about, as well as having printed and published many excellent books in Japanese, the monks of Taisekiji Temple have simply given orders not in a dissimilar manner to the non-commissioned officers of some army or other. Both of these religious bodies tell us that we must believe in what they say and it is better if nobody asks difficult questions. Those of us who have had some familiarity with Christianity or some similar kind of teaching probably already had this kind of authoritarian experience. This of course, for those of us who belong to the western hemisphere, is totally unacceptable. It is on account of our long history of scientific studies that it is fundamental to inquire and ask questions. In a modest way I have tried to make the Buddha teaching of Nichiren Daishônin accessible to ordinary thinking people. I have made no attempt to make a literal translation of the Buddhist terminology, but I have tried to make these terms comprehensible by paraphrasing them. For instance, the word “shômon” or its Sanskrit equivalent “shrâvaka” is interpreted as “the people who exerted themselves to attain the highest stage of the teachings of the individual vehicle (hinayâna) through listening to the Buddha or the intellectuals of today”. In some cases I have simply used a Sanskrit word that has already crept into English such as “kalpa”, “deva” or even “Dharma”. Since we do not really know what a deva is, all gods including Jesus Christ, all his angels and saints exist in no other place except in our heads. Although the word “deva” refers to some kind of celestial being, they are also as Hayao Miyazaki depicted them in his film “Spirited Away” where he projects them as fundamental cultural and psychological archetypes. It is these cultural and psychological archetypes that prevent us from slipping into the dimensions of our own animal or instinctive or even sinister ways of behaving. In any case, it is my knowledge of Latin, Greek and Chinese that prevents me from falling into the pit of demons that make people do the wrong things. I use the Japanese word “ten” to express this archetype of our human ecstasy. Again a kalpa is often understood as the length of time for a universe to come into existence, to last as long as it may last, to fall apart at the seams and finally cease to exist altogether. No doubt physicists can do better, but having little or no sense of astronomical enormities, a kalpa is simply a kalpa. The Romanization of Japanese that I use is more or less the Hepburn system even though I write “honmon” instead of “hommon” so that the reader who knows Japanese can at least make an intelligent guess as to what the Chinese ideograms for these Buddhist terms might be. As for Sanskrit, I have avoided using the usual diacritical marks associated with the language and have used an anglicized Romanization rather like that of the Soka Gakkai. In most places I have added the Japanese words after some of my paraphrasing of Buddhist terminology and then inserted the Sanskrit equivalent for the benefit of those people who have studied the Buddha teaching from the viewpoint of Shākyamuni. The object of this undertaking is to encourage those people who are disillusioned by the existing organizations to continue with their practice. Also I would like to help them understand the teaching of Nichiren Daishônin in a way that is compatible with the concepts of existence and our values of the twenty-first century.
The Ideograms of Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô I promised a friend of mine that I would explain what the title and subject matter of the Dharma Flower Sutra means as it is inscribed on the Fundamental Object of Veneration for most of the Nichiren Schools. Along with this title and theme, I also would be clarifying the significance of the individual Chinese ideograms concerned. In a number of cases the meaning and purport of these signs has changed over the millennia that separate the Buddhist language of Nichiren and the inscriptions on the oracle bones of the Hsia (Xia) dynasty 2205 BCE. Also I would like to underline the fact, in spite of what some scholars say, that without The Oral Transmission on the Meaning of the Dharma Flower Sutra it might be impossible to reach a real understanding of what this profound teaching is about. As for the archaic definitions of the Chinese ideograms concerned I have solely relied on Mr. Chang Hsüan’s book The Etymologies of 3000 Chinese characters in common usage that was published by the Hong Kong University Press in 1968. The Buddhist term for devotion is written with two ideograms “nan” which means south and “mu” which means “to come to nothing” or obliterate. Both these Chinese ideograms are used only for their phonetic value to represent the sound of the Sanskrit word “namas”. The first ideogram “nan”, as I said before, in the present day languages that either use or refer to Chinese ideograms means “south”. In one of the oldest glossaries of the Chinese language, the Shuo wên chieh tzû (setsu mon ge ji) or “Discerning the signs and explaining the ideograms”, it says, “The branches of trees and plants grow in a southerly direction.” The next ideogram that is used in this phonetic representation of “Namu” as in the “Discerning the signs and explaining the ideograms” means “to come to nothing” and it is pronounced (in present day Chinese) as wu. My teacher in Buddhist studies the Venerable Hsin Kuang explained this character as being a picture of a thicket of trees being consumed by fire and coming to nothing. However, if we are to understand this word “nam(u)” properly then perhaps it might be better to quote what Nichiren had to say about it. The Oral Transmission on the Meaning of the Dharma Flower Sutra states that nam(u) is a word that comes from Sanskrit; here when rendered into Chinese it means to devote and establish one’s life. The Object of Veneration upon which we devote our lives and establish them is both the person of Nichiren and the Dharma which involves the one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces. The person is the eternal Shākyamuni who is present within the text of the Sutra on the White Lotus Flower-like Mechanism of the Utterness of the Dharma [The Dharma Flower Sutra]. The Dharma is the Dharma Flower Sutra as the recitation of its title and subject matter (Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô) and its Fundamental Object of Veneration upon both of which we dedicate and establish our lives. Again devotion means to turn to the principle of the eternal and unchanging reality (shohô jissô) which must entail the one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces as it is expounded in the teachings derived from the external events of Shākyamuni’s life and work (shakumon). The establishment of one’s life means that it is founded on the wisdom of the original archetypal state (honmon) which is reality as it changes according to karmic circumstances. This introduction to the Sutra on the White Lotus Flower-like Mechanism of the Utterness of the Dharma [The Dharma Flower Sutra] subsequently states that the Nam(u) of Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô is derived from Sanskrit and that Myôhô, Renge and Kyô are words of Chinese origin. In the inscription on the Fundamental Object of Veneration Nichiren uses a style of writing that is referred to as “Calligraphy with whiskers” (hige monji). In the case of Nam(u) the ideogram for “south (nan)” sits straight on top of the ideogram “to come to nothing (mu)” which may imply that those two characters are pronounced as a monosyllable. When the question is raised 'why such a peculiar writing?' then I would suggest that even outside of our teaching, prayers and mantras are often recited and intoned in a particular way. This is simply because they are too important to utter in an ordinary conversational voice. In China, Taoist talismans and charms are often written in what also might be described as “whiskery writing (hige monji)” because the content is supposedly too profound for an ordinary calligraphic style. Regarding myô, in the text of Discerning the Signs and Explaining the Ideograms there is a small addendum that says, "It is unthinkable since it is known that the book of Hsü (Xu) must have originally had this ideogram. I can only suggest that it had been overlooked. It seems to have been derived from the category of ideograms (radical) under feminity, and the ideogram for few (hsiao), serves as an indication of how this ideogram was pronounced.” However from a Buddhist point of view the Universal Teacher Tendai (T’ien T’ai) defined the ideogram myô as that which cannot be pondered over nor can it be discussed (fushigi). Nichiren in his thesis on The Real Aspect of All Dharmas states that the real aspect of existence (hô) has to be all dharmas (i.e. include the whole of existence). Then all dharmas have to include the ten ways in which dharmas make themselves present to any 1) of our six sense organs [i. eye, ii. ears, iii. nose, iv. tongue, v. body and vi. mind] (Nyoze sô), 2) their various inner qualities (Nyoze shô), 3) their substance or what they really are (Nyoze tai), 4) their potential strength and energy (Nyoze riki), 5) the manifestation of that energy and strength which is their influence (Nyoze sa), 6) their fundamental causes (Nyoze in), 7) along with their karmic circumstance (Nyoze en), 8) the effects they produce (Nyoze ka) and 9) their apparent karmic consequences (Nyoze hô). 10) Also any way dharmas make themselves present to any of our six sense organs has coherence with their “apparent karmic consequences” which are present in every instant of life (nyôze hon makku kyô tô). These ten ways in which dharmas or existence can become apparent must involve the ten psychological dimensions of existence, or what it is called in Buddhist terminology the ten [psychological] realms of dharmas [1) hell and suffering, 2) hungry ghosts or craving or wanting, 3) animal instinctiveness, 4) shuras or the bombastic extravaganza and anger of titans, 5) human equanimity, 6) impermanent ecstasies and joys, 7) intellectual research, 8) partial enlightenment due to affinities with the arts, literature, music and philosophy, 9) benevolent beings and people who think of others, 10) the enlightenment of the Buddha. These ten [psychological] realms of dharmas have to possesss some kind of embodiment and an objective environment or as beings in the intermediary dimension between dying and being reborn or the realms of the imagination. Later on in the same thesis Nichiren says that the whole of existence or all dharmas are Myôhô Renge Kyô. I suggest that if we read over these two passages carefully we will come to understand that the ideogram (myô) is Utterness or an entirety that infers the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect by simply being the whole of its own existence. So it is the common denominator and the motivating force of this thing we call life. Here it might be useful to mention that the word utterness or myô implies the enlightened realm of the Buddha which is the immateriality and the latency of noumena along with the empty space that separates one atomic particle from another (kû, shûnyatâ). The state of enlightenment that was attained by Shākyamuni Buddha is said to be the extinction of all being and all illusion as well as the destruction of all karma, which in his teaching is the cause of rebirth. According to the doctrine of the universal vehicle (mahâyâna), nirvana denotes neither coming into being (fushô) nor coming to nothingness (fumetsu). This enlightened dimension is also equated with the wisdom (chi) and discernment (e) of the enlightened that have the ability to perceive with no error what is true and what is false. On the other hand the word dharma (hô) designates existence as what we take in through our various organs of sense. This is probably the reason why people who do the practices of the various Nichiren schools concentrate on the ideogram (myô) when they chant the title and theme (daimoku). There are schools that would prefer to translate the ideogram (myô) as having meanings such as “mystic, wonderful” or “without equal” in the sense that this concept is beyond comprehension. In this context the Universal Teacher Tendai (T’ien T’ai) explains the meaning of this ideogram from two points of view in order to demonstrate the depth of the Dharma Flower Sutra. The first meaning is comparative (sotai myô). This means that when the Dharma Flower Sutra is measured up to all the other sutras, then it is this sutra that surpasses all in its underlying profundity. Then there is the concept of (myô) as an absolute which is not only the common denominator of all existence but also its dynamism (zettai myô). This vision of the Dharma Flower Sutra cannot be compared to any other Buddha teaching because it integrates every aspect of the Dharma. The ideogram for (hô) or Dharma has an extremely exotic archaic etymology of “where the Kirin (Kylin) or the Chinese unicorn goes it is the law”. However the usual definition is more or less “where water goes” which I would interpret as that water finds its own level. Buddhists use this ideogram to express the various implications of the words Dharma and dharma or dharmas since they never come singly or in the singular. From the Buddha’s enlightened viewpoint all existence is the oneness of Myôhô Renge Kyô which must involve the one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces. Be that as it may we as ordinary people perceive existence as something multifarious, complex and definitely a plurality. This concept in my translations is written with a small “d”, as dharmas. These are anything that touches upon any one of our six senses, whether it is physically perceptible or even if it is something that is just in our minds. This concept has practically nothing to do with the original definition except that ideograms, like the words in our language change over the millennia. As a result, my understanding of Myôhô is either the Utterness of the Dharma or the entirety of all dharmas as the whole of existence. Next we come to the ideogram “ren” which also has a native Japanese reading “hasu”. This ideogram is classed in a category (radical) of plants which in this case is at the top. The other part of this ideogram “ren” or “lien” in Chinese is simply used as a phonetic to show how this ideogram should be pronounced, but nevertheless has an independent meaning of “joining”, “connecting” or “to accompany”. The part of the ideogram “ren” has no bearing on its meaning. In many Japanese supermarkets this ideogram “ren” which can also be read “hasu” refers to the roots of the lotus plant which is the part that we eat and in Chinese medicine is said to be good for the lungs. But in actual fact this word stands for the whole of the lotus plant. In the teaching of Nichiren, in his definition of Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô, this ideogram has the undertone of the fruition or effect as in the sentence “The Lotus Flower is the two dharmas of cause and effect; this again is cause and effect as a single entity.”, or as in the Writing on the Eighteen Perfect Spheres where it states that the lotus plant has the implication of “the blossom (ge) is the cause that brings about the fruition”. Here I would like to stress that since Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô implies the whole of the Dharma or all dharmas, the ideograms of this title and subject matter (daimoku) cannot be seen as independent or individually separate. Those who are familiar with the teachings of Nichiren Daishônin must be aware that “ge” is the word that almost inevitably follows “ren”. In the text of Discerning the Signs and Explaining the Ideograms, this ideogram simply defines this word for “flower” as “They look attractive and are splendid.” This character is derived from the category of ideograms (radical) for plants and also an archaic ideogram that seems to be the graphic representation of a flower in which the Book of Hsü (Xu) says that “This ideographic image also shows how this ideogram should be pronounced.” In the teachings of the Dharma Flower Sutra this particular ideogram (ge) usually refers to the flower of the White Lotus, the famous pundarika. This becomes apparent in the Tibetan title of this sutra “Dam pai chos kyi pundarikai mdo”. Also in the combination of the words “ren” and “ge”, the flower which is “ge” tends to have the implication of being the cause in the concept of the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect. The Universal Teacher Tendai (T’ien T’ai) in his Recondite Significance of the Dharma Flower Sutra (Hokke Gengi) gives two explanations of the lotus flower. The first is the lotus flower as as simile or a metaphor to explain the fundamental nature of the Utterness of the Dharma (Myôhô). The lotus plant at the same moment has its flowers and seeds and is used as a symbolic image to allude to the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect which is the nature of the essential reality that runs through the whole of existence (shinnyo, bhûtathâta). Furthermore the lotus plant grows in muddy swamp water and the emergence of the white flower hints at the awakening of the Buddha nature in the ordinary individual. However this is still the Buddha teaching of Shākyamuni, whereas in the teaching of Nichiren, our Buddha nature manifests the first instant we decide to do the practices of his doctrine and to hold faith in it. Then there is the second concept of the essence of the Dharma [in the sense it is existence] being comparable to the lotus plant, a concept that refers to the entirety of the Dharma Flower Sutra not just as a symbol but what existence really is. In Nichiren’s writing on the Thesis of the Actual Substance (Totaigi shô), he clearly states that Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô is the total embodiment of the Dharma. Fundamentally the white lotus flower-like mechanism of the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect which is the underlying workings of the entirety of existence (tôtai renge) is what makes life move ahead in the way it does. In the earlier teachings of Shākyamuni, all things came into existence through what a number of translators call “dependent arising” (Engi, patitya samutpada), which also implies that existence arises from causation. Since all that exists comes about on account of the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect (Engi) and is devoid of a self-nature as well as being impermanent, hence in this case existence is the relativity of kû. This concept of all things arising from the consciousness that is the fundamental store of all dharmas (zôshiki, âlaya) was an idea that was used by the Chinese Kegon (Hua-yen) school, which is a way of thinking that begs the question, “How did it all begin?” Even though we may think of our lives as merely being subjective and that all that may be involved will come to an end with the attainment of Buddhahood, it is only after the teachings of such people as Tendai (T’ien T’ai) that we have the concept of each dharma being all dharmas and all dharmas being contained in the one, each dharma being a universal cause. This of course can be equated with the one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces (ichinen sanzen). If we are to understand the nature of relativity (kû, shûnyatâ) properly, this underlying vacuity is not static. Just like the white lotus flower having its seeds and bloom at the same time and the flower being pure white, this is because this mechanism is the workings of the whole of existence and does not acquire karma. The spade left in the garden does not go rusty due to oxidization alone, but because of this lotus flower-like mechanism that lies behind it, in addition to any chemical explanation that may accompany its rustiness. A further examination of the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect can be illustrated by taking out a coin and tossing it up into the air. It is a foregone conclusion that the coin will hit the ground, the cause being that the coin was thrown up into the air. In fact all actions bring about a result; all actions are causes in themselves which generally speaking are referred to as “karma”. This word really means the “workings” and is derived from the Sanskrit root kr. The English word “create” is possibly related to this root. Even though there is a certain lapse of time between that action that is the cause and whatever result it may have, in the Buddha teaching it is a fundamental concept that cause, concomitancy and effect are built into each other. In the Thesis on the Significance of the Actual Substance (of the Utterness of the Dharma) (Tôtaigi shô) it says that the Buddha had the insight to comprehend that the Utterness of the Dharma was contained in the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect. It is as if one were to conceive the underlying workings of the whole of existence like the cogs and wheels of some enormous clockwork machine. Some wheels and cogs are bigger and there are others that are smaller, each moving at different speeds but instead of a tightened spring it is their entirety which makes them all work together. The last of these five ideograms that form the Chinese title of the Sutra on the White Lotus Flower-like Mechanism of the Utterness of the Dharma is “kyô” which in this case is equated with the Sanskrit term “sutra”. In the Discerning the Signs and Explaining the Ideograms it defines the ideogram “kyô” as “to weave”. It belongs to the category of the ideograms (radical) for thread and the picture of running water beside it is an indicator as to how this ideogram should be pronounced [which in modern Chinese is ching (jing)]. This ideogram is used to express “longitude”, “canonical texts”, “a classic” and “the warp in weaving”. Some readers may have heard of the title Tao Tê Ching which is the caption of the text attributed to Lao Tzû. Here the word “ching” is the same ideogram. In imperial China many books have been given the title ching throughout its long history. In English the word “sutra” is usually understood as one of the discourses of the Buddha Shākyamuni of which there are many hundreds. In spite of the abundance of possible meanings of this ideogram, Nichiren at the beginning of his Oral Transmission on the Meaning of the Dharma Flower Sutra gives this word “kyô” a special significance. “The Dharma realm or the realm where dharmas occur is the sutra (kyô) itself.”
I personally think that it is of little importance to make a fuss about how we pronounce the Sanskritized Chinese word “Namu”. The letter “u” in Japanese is pronounced in a similar way to this vowel in English, like in the word “put” but with the lips not rounded but left slack. So we have a pronunciation of this word rather like “naahmer” which easily makes it apparent how one pronunciation became confused with the other. What is of greater significance is how we understand the meaning of the word. Namu is the Chinese phoneticization of the Sanskrit term Namah or the Pali Namo, which means “to make obeisance” or as an expression of complete commitment and is a word that has been constantly used in Buddhist liturgies of all schools. In our practice, Namu is the equivalent of two Sino-Japanese ideograms “ki-myô”. “Ki” on its own means “to commit oneself to” or “devote oneself to” and “myô” means “life, the length of life”, “to decree” and “destiny”. However, the sixty-sixth patriarch [of Nichiren Shoshu] Nittatsu Shônin in his sermon on Nichiren’s Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô at the beginning of the Ongi Kuden adds another meaning to this Chinese ideogram “myô” which has the implication of “making the foundation for our lives” or “something which our lives are based upon” (motozuku). What we devote our lives to, which on the first page of these translations says, “Again devotion means to turn to the principle of the eternal and unchanging reality (shohô jissô),” alludes to the one instant of thought that contains three thousand existential spaces (ichinen sanzen) as it was expounded in the teaching derived from the external events of Shākyamuni’s life and work (shakumon). This means that “to devote our lives to” has all the implications of what has been transcribed on the Fundamental Object of Veneration (gohonzon). The establishment of one’s life means that it is founded on the wisdom of the original archetypal state (honmon) which is reality as it changes according to karmic circumstances. In fact we devote our lives to and found them on (Nam) the Utterness of the Dharma [entirety of existence] (Myôhô) permeated by the underlying white lotus flower-like mechanism of the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect (Renge) in its whereabouts of the ten realms of dharmas (Kyô), (Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô).
When Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô was first recited The Dharma Flower Sutra along with Nichiren’s Meaning of the Dharma Flower Sutra are both texts that try to explain the workings of all existence. Some of us remember reading the various books by Alan Watts discussing Zen, in which his translations of various kôan (which are catechetic questions for meditation) all seem to have pointed to the fact that the Dharma which is the expression of the enlightenment of the Buddha is in fact life itself. Somewhat historically later, various monks analyzed the concept of the entirety of existence and came up with the answer that the contents of existence are apparently all that is inscribed on the Fundamental Object of Veneration (gohonzon). According to various Chinese records, the Universal Teacher Tendai (T’ien T’ai 538-597 C.E.) was the first person to recite Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô which means to devote our lives to and found them on (Nam) the Utterness of the Dharma [entirety of existence] (Myôhô) permeated by the underlying white lotus flower-like mechanism of the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect (Renge) in its whereabouts of the ten realms of dharmas (Kyô). In the Attestations of the Hsiu Chan Temple, the Universal Teacher Tendai (T’ien T’ai), as reported in the daily record of his practice, read and recited the overall essence of all sutras ten thousand times [one hour’s practice]. Later in the Disclosure of Recondite Masters it says, “This overall essence is the five ideograms for Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô.” This is the proof that the Universal Teacher Tendai (T’ien T’ai) recited the title and theme (daimoku) in whatever way the Chinese of the sixth century was pronounced.
Before discussing the more sensitive question of the Fundamental Object of Veneration (gohonzon), I would like to explain what a mandala is. With regard to the Fundamental Object of Veneration itself, I will translate what Nichiren says about it in his Threefold (Buddha) Transmission on the Fundamental Object of Veneration (Honzon sando sôden) which was transmitted to and written down by Nichigen. Essentially a mandala is a circle around a cross creating four points much like a compass. In the psychology of C.G. Jung the word mandala is used as it refers to ritual or magic circles which in numerous cultures were and are used as instruments of contemplation. In many texts related to the teaching of Nichiren, mandalas are described as “the place of enlightenment [under the bodhi tree] (dôjô)”, “a stage, rostrum, dais, terrace or altar (dan)”, “endowed with everything (gusoku)” and as “a gathering of meritorious virtues (kudokujû)” etc. In pathology, a child who has to adapt to the outside world is forced to receive a number of psychological shocks, for example, the first day at school, a day which involves surprises, pain and even being teased by other children, or the sorrow, affliction and the complete confusion that comes from the first experiences with death. Children will now and again see dreams of circular images with a nucleus and possibly they will express these dreams in either drawings or in paint so as to protect themselves against such kinds of trauma. Mandala-like images usually symbolize the very essence of the psyche. If we are to consider a mandala in the light of how our minds work, then coming back to the image of a circle with a cross in it, the point at the very top of the diagram represents thought, the left point of this compass-like image stands for sensation, the right hand point would indicate intuition and the bottom point stands for feeling. Of course these faculties that emanate from the central cross-point can easily be interchanged with each other so as to account for various types of personalities. In terms of anthropology, mandala shapes have existed since Paleolithic times. The cave paintings of Grotta Badisco in Italy apparently point to their use for some kind of religious ceremony. The centre of mandalas nearly always refers to the supreme essence of existence of the users. Within the Buddha teaching there are many kinds of mandala. The real purpose of a mandala is to gather meditative powers together in order to invoke various forces within us in order to deal with the realities of life. Mandalas are not an ointment or cure-all for immediate beatification. The power of any mandala depends on faith, understanding and the sincerity of the person who uses it. No mandala has any intrinsic powers of its own, even though monks of certain temples or the functionaries of powerful lay organizations have done their utmost to fix it in the minds of their followers. This creates a credulous blind belief in an object of veneration that most practitioners cannot even read or understand in all of its implications. Such a misrepresentation would open up the idea of a Fundamental Object of Veneration in Roman script, rather in the same way that the Soka Gakkai has used it as material for instruction.
The Four Universal Deva Sovereigns At each of the corners of the Fundamental Object of Veneration there are the ideograms for the four universal deva sovereigns. These four universal deva sovereigns are the lords of the cardinal points of the compass, generals who are in the service of Taishaku (Indra) whose role in ancient India was to protect the continents on all four sides of Mount Sumeru. When we face the Fundamental Object of Veneration that was originally inscribed by Nichiren there are Daijikokutennô (Dhritarâshtra Mahâdevarâja) whose function is to protect the east, situated on the top right corner; Daikômokutennô (Virûpâksha Mâhadevarâja) whose duty is to protect the west, on the bottom right-hand corner; Daibishamontennô (Vaishravana Mahâdevarâja) whose purpose is to be a guardian of the north, on the top left-hand corner; and Daizôjotennô (Virûdhaka Mâhadevarâja) whose duty is to protect the south, positioned on the bottom left corner. This Fundamental Object of Veneration is a rectangular-shaped mandala which in general terms is divided into two parts, 1) subjective wisdom (chi) and 2) our individual psychological environments (kyô).
The Sanskrit letters on the Fundamental Object of Veneration On both sides of the Fundamental Object of Veneration (gohonzon) are two Sanskrit letters. On the right is the germ syllable for Fudô Myô’ô (Achala) which is (ham). Both these germ syllables are written in the Siddham alphabet. As we look on the right-hand side of the Fundamental Object of Veneration, this germ syllable when written properly is -- . But as I have already explained about “whiskery writing” (higemôji) earlier on in this Preface, these Sanskrit letters have also suffered considerable modification over the centuries. This germ syllable is composed of two parts. One is the Opposite the Siddham inscription of the germ syllable for Fudô Myô’ô on the facing left-hand side of the Fundamental Object of Veneration,
The One Instant of Thought Containing Three Thousand Existential Spaces (ichinen sanzen) Many, many years ago while living in Katmandu, I was on my way to visit the famous stupa at Bodnath, Nepal. If my memory does not misguide me, I was walking along the road flanked by a wooded grove when a magnificent looking Hindu ascetic came up to me and said in very British English, “Young man, what are you seeking?” to which I replied, “I am looking for the truth of what is life,” or something to that effect. Then the sannyasi responded, “We live all space all time simultaneously and without effort. Beyond that there is nothing more to learn. Good morning to you.” Many years passed by before I fully realized that this elderly holy man had taught me a fundamental truth that is barely removed from the Buddhist concept of the “one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces”. Sometime later I heard this concept from my Chinese teacher the Venerable Hsin Kuang. It took many years of patient study and practice before I would fully understand that this philosophical and psychological equation is the whole of life which is Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô. Founding our lives on and devoting them to the location and time of the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect entails the whole of existence and is the total celebration of life itself. Even though the Buddha teaching does give room for stimulating prayer, reciting this formula can be used for supplication or beseechment, in time we can really learn through the experience of practice what our innermost desires and longings consist of. Throughout these translations the term “the one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces” has been used exclusively, I shall now try to explain all the implications of this formula. Three thousand (sanzen, trisahasra) is a concept in ancient Indian philosophy that appears to be a number of completeness, possibly because in the Indian countryside there were many who were unable to count. The term “three thousand” was first used to express “the entirety of all dharmas” (issai shohô), a dharma being anything that we can perceive through any of our sense organs or anything that goes on in our heads. So the idea of one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces means that even the tiniest fragment of mental activity involves the totality of existence. Even though this numerical theory appears to be somewhat medieval, we might try to understand that in our own western languages, words like life, existence or water are more or less singularities. For instance if we say the word “existence” it has something of the undertone of “all existence” or if we just use the word “water” it has the implication of “all the water in the sea” or in the faucet. For convenience, the one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces is figured in the following way. The first is the ten [psychological] realms of dharmas. I use this term because the Chinese ideograms define them in this manner. These are the ten realms where dharmas exist as opposed to the whole of existence (Myôhô) which is the oneness of the enlightenment of the Buddha, which in the teaching of Shākyamuni, has all the implications of non-existence or nirvana. Nevertheless each one of these ten [psychological] realms of dharmas contains the other ten so that these ten states of mind are all found in one another. In this way these ten [psychological] realms of dharmas become one hundred. To this we have to modify one hundred realms of dharmas by the ten ways in which dharmas make their existence felt (jûnyoze) or the ten qualities of suchness so that we now have one thousand realms where dharmas occur. These one thousand varieties of realms where dharmas come about in various intensities are now modified and multiplied by the three existential spaces which are in fact three principles of differentiation, the 1) existential spaces of the five aggregates, 2) the existential spaces of sentient beings and 3) the existential spaces which consists of the environments in which various kinds of existence take place. Now we have 10 realms x 10 realms x 10 ways of existence x 3 existential spaces which equals 3000 existential spaces . I must say for the sake of putting our various mental states and moods into a schema where they can be grasped with greater clarity, as they are often indefinable at the edges, such as our complexes, joys, angers and sufferings, it is necessary to enumerate and describe each one of these states one by one. The unhappiest realm of dharmas is hell (jigokukai) and the suffering of its denizens. This includes all suffering either physical or mental. Suffering begins at the stage of a thorn in your little finger, feeling the lash of pain caused by words that hurt, the pain of broken relationships, illness, injuries and loneliness, also including the horrors of war and the almost unimaginable dimension of the perpetrators and victims of things that happened during the second World War as well as well current bloodshed in Africa and the Middle East. Hell is also hate. Each one of us has suffered in some way or another. From a more conventional and stereotypical Buddhist point of view, there are, according to various teachings of the individual vehicle (shôjô, hînayana) or the universal vehicle (daijô, mahâyâna), eight hot hells, eight cold hells which are situated under the world of humankind. Usually the descriptions of these hells are medieval and sadistic. In their iconographic way these portrayals are far removed from the real pain, suffering and mental anguish that many people experience. Among the objectives of the teachings of Nichiren is to lead people away from such torments and to bring about their happiness and inner realization. The second of these ten [psychological] realms of dharmas is the dimension of hungry demons. In the Buddha teaching of Shākyamuni these hungry demons are seen more like ghosts who live in a purgatorial state which some people say is under the ground. It is their sad destiny that they are condemned to continually hanker after food, sex, drink, drugs and other things. It is documented that there are 39 classes of these unfortunate creatures. This dimension is the second of the three lower karmic destinations. In traditional Buddhist iconography these beings are depicted as having long thin necks with swollen bellies that force them to crawl on the ground. There are also a number of Japanese paintings of the Edo period depicting hungry ghosts hanging around the more sordid and seedy establishments of the red light districts. The present day visualization would be closer to heroin addicts in need of a fix or alcoholic derelicts haunted by their thirst or the tobacco smoker who cannot do without a cigarette. This is the part of us that craves or wants and must have in order to continue. From a positive view, the perpetual need for food, nourishment, money etc. is the mechanism to defend the life within us in order to do the things that make life worth living. Again like all the other realms of dharmas, the mental state of the hungry demon is also endowed with all the other ten [psychological] realms of dharmas. In the teachings prior to those of Nichiren the realm of dharmas of animality (chikushôkai) meant to be born as an animal, even though there must be psychic entities that can only be incarnated in the animal world, such as those beings who were also animals in their former lives. One of the concepts of animality is a sentient being who is motivated by animal instincts and territorialities. Since we humans have also been described by some people as “hairless apes” then perhaps we can recognize that our animal qualities are not only limited to eating, defecation and sex but are also partly responsible for our class systems, hierarchies and feudalism in the office or other work places. However to be born with a human body gives us the opportunity to open up our minds so that we can understand what our existences are all about. The ashuras (shurakai) originally in the brahmanic and Vedic mythology, were titanesque beings were always vying with the devas (ten or shotenzenjin) for superiority. Traditionally they were defined as “ugly”, “not devas” and “without wings”. There were four categories of these beings that depended on the manner of their birth, which means that they were born from eggs or from a womb or born by transformation or as spawn in the water. Their habitat was the ocean which only came up to their knees, but other less powerful ashuras lived in mountain caves in the west. In popular iconography the kings of the ashuras were represented with three or four faces and had either four or six arms. They also had palaces and realms similar to the devas. In the teaching of Nichiren this realm of dharmas corresponds to the psychological mechanism of wanting to be the centre of attention, to be noticed by others and the desire to control. Often when these tendencies are frustrated they easily turn into anger, rage and jealousy. In simpler terms it has a lot to do with our being pretentious or a show-off. In the Thesis on the Fundamental Object of Veneration for Contemplating the Mind, Nichiren mentions cajolery, wheedling and “buttering up” as part of this dimension. In a more positive sense this is the part of us that says that we need our own space which enables us to mentally and physically carry on living, in other words, all that our egos need. The realm of dharmas of humanity (jinkai) is the sense of human equanimity and rationality. In spite of all the troublesome worries (bonnô) that plague our lives, there is a part that reassures us that things are not as bad as they seem and that everything is all right. It is this aspect of our personalities that gets on with daily living without too many upsets, in other words a satisfactory life. In the Buddha teaching of Shākyamuni the realms of dharmas of humanity meant to be born as a human being. From the viewpoint of the teaching of Shākyamuni the realms of dharmas of the devas (tenkai) refer mainly to the merits of the divinities of Brahmanism and other Vedic teachings. The devas were said to have golden bodies, superhuman powers and extremely long lives filled with joy and ecstasy, but like all other Lifespans at some time or another they must come to an end. Many devas are the protectors of the Buddha teaching. According to Nichiren’s writing on Securing the Peace of the Realm through the Establishment of the Correct Dharma one concludes that the devas protect human interests and that they are also nourished by religious rites especially the recitation of the title and theme (daimoku), Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô. There are many cultures with legends and mythologies concerning this kind of sentient being that would fit into the category of devas, for example elves, guardian spirits, local gods, saints, angels and ancestral divinities. There are a number of devas whose names are important to the Buddha teaching of Nichiren Daishônin and are inscribed on the Fundamental Object of Veneration (gohonzon). One might ask if these tutelary essences could be archaic archetypal elements in the depth of our psyches that have influence over our lives in one way or another? When we create so much bad karma by doing things that are wrong, these archetypes can no longer take part in what we do. Then these devas may no longer make their presences felt allowing more destructive energies to take their place. For anyone who has practiced the rites of the teachings of Nichiren, we can only be aware of forces that in some way guide our lives, often in the most unexpected way. What I have just said about the devas is based on personal intuition. However someone might ask the question, “What are the devas?” I thought an allusion to their existence might be food for conjecture. Devas have extremely happy and ecstatic long lives that eventually must come to an end in a protractedly distant future. The concept of the realms of dharmas of the devas in the teaching of Nichiren refers to our joys and epiphanies like falling in love, getting the right job, a great night out or the enjoyment of doing something useful or creative. However exhilarating or joyful our experiences may be we are always sooner or later compelled to return to the more stark dimension of normal realities of daily living. The realms of dharmas of the devas refer to the impermanence of all our joys, raptures and delights. Next we have the realms of dharmas of the people who listen to the Buddha’s voice which is a literal translation of the Chinese ideograms. In the teaching of Nichiren it refers to the dimension within us that wants to be informed, the desire for intellectual pursuits or just wanting knowledge. This is the part of us that is the inquirer and the part of us where learning is still a work in progress. This concept is applicable to the intellectuals of the present day. Historically speaking, during the time of Shākyamuni these were the people who exerted themselves to attain the highest stage of the individual vehicle (shôjô, hinayana) through listening to the Buddha. [Here I use the term “individual vehicle” because these teachings were for individual enlightenment. We can say that these people were only practicing for themselves as opposed to the practices of the universal vehicle (daijô, mahâyâna) which was an exposition of the Dharma for the people who were prepared to practice not only for the benefit of themselves but for others as well (bosatsu, bodhisattvas).] Later the expression shômon was used to designate people who understood the four noble truths; 1) suffering is a necessary aspect of sentient existence, 2) the accumulation of suffering is brought about by our lusts and our attachments to them, 3) the extinction of such suffering is possible and that 4) the teaching of the Buddha path leads to the elimination of such lusts and attachments. These people practiced with all their might to become arhats or arakan which is an inner realization of existence being nirvana. The object of the teaching of Nichiren, as I have said earlier, is to open up our inherent Buddha nature with our persons just as they are, which is not only within our grasp but a path towards a real fulfillment and realization. The realm of dharmas of the people who are partially enlightened due to karmic circumstances (engaku) are from the viewpoint of the teaching of Nichiren, individuals who through an involvement with the arts, music, literature, the sciences, philosophy or even religion have a deeper insight into the meaning of existence. This is a psychological dimension that is contrasted with the search for understanding and wanting to know the how and why of their circumstance. This realm of dharmas involves those people who have a deep understanding of what life entails but not all its secrets. This kind of mental state is not only concerned with people who follow the various teachings of the Buddha, but also many scientists, writers, artists, musicians and other people who try and have tried to follow an enlightened existence fall into this category. However from a Buddhist historical viewpoint these partially enlightened individuals were those who fully understood the links in the chain of the twelve causes and karmic circumstances that run through the whole of sentient existence. [There are 1) A fundamental unenlightenment which is brought about by, 2) natural causes and inclinations inherited from former lives, 3) the first consciousness after conception that takes place in the womb, 4) both body and mind evolving in the womb which leads to, 5) the five organs of sense and the functioning of the mind, 6) contact with the outside world, 7) as well as the growth of receptivity or budding intelligence and discernment from the age of six to seven onwards, 8) the desire for amoropus love at the age of puberty and, 9) the urge for a sensuous existence that forms, 10) the substance for future karma, 11) the completed karma ready to be born again that faces in the direction of 12) old age and death.] Nevertheless the Buddha Shākyamuni saw people of the realm of dharmas who were partially enlightened due to karmic circumstances (engaku) as essential seekers of enlightenment for themselves. The realm of dharmas of the bodhisattva (bosatsukai) is the ninth of these ten [psychological] realms of dharmas. Originally this term bodhisattva is derived from two Sanskrit words, 1) bodhi which means knowledge, understanding, perfect wisdom or enlightenment and 2) sattva which has the sense of being, existence, life, consciousness or any living sentient being. While this concept is not entirely foreign to the teachings of the individual vehicle (shôjô, hinayana), it was almost used exclusively to designate Shākyamuni in his former existences. In tales concerning the former lives of the Buddha he is often referred to as the Bodhisattva. According to the earlier teachings of the universal vehicle (daijô, mahâyâna) this expression referred to any person whose resolve was to attain enlightenment which in Chinese texts was understood as “a sentient being with a mind for the universal truth”. Later the term was used for people with an awareness that was all-embracing. In the teachings of the universal vehicle the people who listened to the Buddha’s discourses (shômon) and those people who were partially enlightened due to various karmic circumstances (engaku) only made endeavours for their own enlightenment whereas the bodhisattva aims at the illumination and the realization of others. Roughly speaking this realm of dharmas designates the desire to seek their own enlightenment and at the same time have the compassion to strive for the happiness of others. The tenth of the realms of dharmas is that of the Buddha enlightenment. To describe this psychological dimension is the most difficult since such an enlightenment is beyond any of my personal experiences. This realm of the Dharma is the oneness of existence as perceived by the Buddha. This perception of the singularity of the Dharma is understood as one of total freedom and a consciousness of the ultimate truth. The Dharma Flower Sutra makes it clear that the Dharma Realm of the Buddha is inherent in the lives of all sentient beings. As an experience this dimension is probably the clear light that is often seen by people in near-death states which in the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo thos sgrol) is described as “the point of entering the intermediary state between dying and rebirth” (hchi khahi bar do). In the teaching of Nichiren this is pointed out as “the silence and the shining light” that is in fact the fundamental nature of life itself which also accompanies us through our respective deaths. It might be possible to define the Dharma realm of the Buddha (bukkai) as life and all that Myôhô Renge Kyô implies. These ten [psychological] realms of dharmas are in fact ten states of mind and also the dharmas that contribute to the composition of these mental and emotional conditions. That is the reason for using the term “realms of dharmas”. Just as in our ordinary lives there can be no experience that is not tinged with all the other things that have happened to us in our respective lifetimes, for instance no suffering is separate from all the other events in our existences, there cannot be any anger that is not correlated to what happened to bring about such a situation. It is the same with all of these realms of dharmas, none of which exist entirely on their own. The mutual possession of the ten [psychological] realms of dharmas is a concept of the Universal Teacher Tendai (T’ien T’ai) based on the teaching of the Dharma Flower Sutra. Here Tendai propounds that each one of these realms of dharmas contains the latent potentiality of the other ten. This is one of the concepts that form the basic structure of the theory of the one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces (ichinen sanzen). The mutual possession of the ten [psychological] realms of dharmas implies that our lives are not rooted in any one particular realm. But at any moment any one or more realms of dharmas can become manifest if there are the right karmic circumstances. One of the more important implications of this concept is that all ordinary people who normally inhabit the first nine of the realms of dharmas, such persons can open up their inherent Buddha nature with their individualities just as they stand. In addition to this the Buddhas are also endowed with the first nine realms of dharmas and are fundamentally the same as we who are common mortals. The idea of the reciprocity of the ten [psychological] realms of dharmas can produce the notion that people have a propensity towards a particular realm of dharmas. However through continual practice and study people can come to realize that their real identity is the essence of life itself. As I explained earlier, each realm of dharmas is furnished with the other ten giving us a total of one hundred realms of dharmas. The ten ways in which existence can become perceptible to our various senses or the ten qualities of suchness (jûnyoze) which literally mean these ten factors of existence are “just like this” (nyoze=kaku no gotoki) is an analysis of existence which included all its changing aspects. Consider that machines used in modern hospitals can scan the human body layer by layer and other devices can view objects on a molecular level. While orbiting around Earth the Hubble Space Telescope allows astronomers to observe distant supernovae and uncover evidence that the universe is expanding at a greater rate than previously thought. The total human knowledge driven mostly by technology is now doubling every four years and will continue to do so, yet the ten facets of existence remain the same. The Buddha Shākyamuni first expounded these ten qualities of suchness in the Second Chapter on Expedient Means of the Sutra on the White Lotus Flower-like Mechanism of the Utterness of the Dharma (Myôhô Renge Kyô, hôben bon dai ni), where he says, “Stop Sharihotsu, don’t say anything more. The reason being is that what the Buddha brought to perfection is the most awe-inspiring primary and difficultly understood Dharma.” The real aspect of all dharmas (Shohô jissô), can only by exhaustively scrutinized between one Buddha and another. What this real aspect is said to be is (sho’i shohô) 1) in any way dharmas make themselves present to any of our six sense organs (i. eyes, ii. ears, iii. nose, iv. tongue, v. body and vi. mind (nyoze sô), 2) their various inner qualities (nyoze shô), 3) their substance or what they really are (nyoze tai), 4) their potential strength and energy (nyoze riki), 5) the manifestation of that energy and strength which is their influence (nyoze sa), 6) their fundamental causes (nyoze in), 7) along with their karmic circumstances (nyoze en), 8) the effects they produce (nyoze ka), and 9) their apparent karmic consequences (nyoze hô). 10) Also any way dharmas make themselves perceptible to any of our six sense organs has coherence with “their apparent karmic consequences” which are present in every instant of life (nyôze hon makku kyô tô). This particular text gives us a foundation and a reason for replacing the three categories of vehicles to enlightenment with the single vehicle. The three vehicles are 1) the hearers of the Buddha’s voice who were people who exerted themselves to attain the highest stage of the individual vehicle (shôjô, hînayâna) through listening to the discourses of the Buddha or the intellectuals of today (shômon), 2) people who due to their affinities with the sciences, arts, literature or music are partially enlightened (engaku) and 3) the bodhisattvas (bosatsu) who seek enlightenment not only for themselves but for others as well. This concept was expounded in the teachings derived from the external events of Shākyamuni’s life and work (shakumon) which stand in contrast to the doctrine that refers to the original archetypal state of existence (honmon). The teachings derived from the external events of Shākyamuni’s life and work tend to have a somewhat theoretical, presumptive and academic flavor. Nevertheless, be that as it may, those ten ways in which existence can become manifest or these ten qualities of suchness (jûnyoze) are applicable to all dharmas in such a way that there cannot be any real distinction between the Buddha and ordinary people. The process of clearing away these three vehicles to enlightenment in order to establish the single vehicle is referred to as “clearing away the three vehicles in order to reveal the one” or kai san ken ichi in Japanese. The Universal Teacher Tendai (T’ien T’ai) takes advantage of the authority of this passage in the Sutra in order to establish the theory of the one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces (ichinen sanzen). Whereas the ten [psychological] realms of dharmas express different states of mind and their illusory accompanying states of affairs, the ten qualities of suchness or the ten ways in which existence can become perceptible (jûnyoze) can be applied to any existential situation whatsoever. In this way both the realms of suffering (jigokukai) and the realm of the enlightenment of the Buddha (bukkai), in spite of their differences, have the ten ways in which existence can be perceptible (jûnyoze) in common. Reviewing these ten ways in which existence becomes apparent (jûnyoze), Nyoze sô which is in any way that dharmas make themselves present to any of our six organs of sense. The same way they become perceptible from the outside which includes attributes such as colour, shape, composition, behavior and every other physical aspect. Nyoze shô refers to the various inner qualities of dharmas, the words that we attach to them, those thoughts that we associate with them along with the characteristics that cannot be discerned from the outside. When it comes to human beings it refers to our psychological makeup, spiritual individualities and consciousness. Nyoze tai is the substance of what beings or things really are which is a combination of their physical and psychic aspects. When it comes to the inanimate, it includes the various mental or spiritual features that we would like to assign to them, for instance what a child might endow its teddy bear with or a religious image along with all the special qualities that the devotee might attach to it. These first three qualities of suchness (nyoze) refer to the threefold explanation of reality (santai) 1) that existence is only its physical attributes (ke) which in terms of these first three ways in which we perceive dharmas is nyoze sô. 2) The second is existence which is the relativity and immateriality of the latency or noumena and can only be reached through our minds (kû, shûnyatâ) which in this case is nyoze shô. 3) The third of these threefold explanations is the reality of all dharmas which is a combination of the two aspects of reality ke and kû which I have just explained. This is the middle way of reality (chûdô jissô) and in terms of the qualities of suchness is nyoze tai. The following six qualities of suchness beginning with “their potential, strength and energy (nyoze riki).”to “their apparent and karmic consequences (nyoze hô), are the functions, the various ways and intensities of the workings of life. “Their potential strength and energy (nyoze riki)”, which is the fourth quality of suchness, represents the force or the potential energy in order to realize something in our lives or to set an action in motion. The fifth quality is “the manifestation of that energy and strength which is their influence (nyoze sa)”. This is the action that comes about when the latent potentiality is set into motion. The sixth quality of suchness is “their fundamental cause (nyoze in)” that is the causes inherent in our lives which produce an effect which is either positive or negative. The seventh quality is “along with their karmic circumstances (nyoze en)” which is understood as a contributing cause or a concomitancy. A karmic circumstance is a condition or a situation that contributes to an effect. The eighth quality is “the effects they produce (nyoze ka)” that are the result of what happens in the depth of our lives especially when there are karmic circumstances to bring such an effect about. Since the fundamental causes and the dormant results are somewhat latent in the deeper trenches at the bottom of our existences, there is often a certain lapse of time between the manifestation of that energy and the strength and the action that it caused and the effects that actions can produce. “Their apparent karmic consequences (nyoze hô)" is the ninth quality of suchness. This is the concrete result that appears after an unspecified period of time as the consequence of both “the fundamental cause” “along with their karmic circumstances”. Also any way dharmas make themselves perceptible to any of our six sense organs [i. eyes, ii. ears, iii. nose, iv. tongue, v. body and vi. mind] have coherence with “their apparent karmic consequences” which are present in every instant of life (Nyôze hon makku kyô tô). This last and tenth of these qualities of suchness is the integrating link between the way dharmas make themselves present to our six sense organs (Nyôze so) and their apparent karmic consequences (nyôze hô). These ten qualities of suchness are continually present to some degree or another throughout the whole of existence. The first three of these ten qualities of suchness are grouped together and collectively defined as the substance of any dharma or any being that exists. The following six qualities of suchness (riki, sa, in, en, ka, hô) are the various functions and qualities of all dharmas. All those ten ways that dharmas can become perceptible are inseparable from each other. This in fact is what the substance and the roles of the whole of existence consist of. In the theory of the one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces (ichinen sanzen), these ten qualities of suchness (jûnyoze) modify the hundred realms of dharmas. Ten times the hundred mental states that have already been mentioned become a thousand qualities of suchness. It might also be of interest that these ten qualities of suchness are not mentioned in the original Sanskrit text of the Dharma Flower Sutra. One can assume that Kumarâjîva (Kumarajû) was making Shākyamuni’s preaching more explicit. This is precisely what we are doing with these interpretive translations. In conclusion to the theory of the one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces we come to the three existential spaces upon which sentient beings depend in order to exist (san seken). These three existential spaces are in fact three formulas for the differentiation that exists between one person and another. The first is the existential spaces of the five aggregates (go’on seken); the second is the existential spaces of sentient beings as individuals (shujô seken) and the third is the existential spaces of individual environments (kokudo seken). Although these concepts have their origin in the writings of Nâgârjuna (Ryûjû), they were assimilated by the Universal Teacher Tendai (T’ien T’ai) as the third supposition to support his meditational perception of the one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces. It is worth mentioning that the Universal Teacher Tendai (T’ien T’ai) is generally considered to be the Buddha of the formal period of the Dharma (zôbô). The five aggregates (go’on) are the elements that are the makeup of living beings and the existential spaces (seken) are where sentient beings do what they do or where they live and die. These five aggregates are 1) Shiki which is the physical aspect of any living beings which also includes five of their six organs of sense [i. eyes, ii. ears, iii. nose, iv. tongue, v. body] with which the external world however illusionary can become perceptible to them. 2) Ju is the function of taking in external information through our various sense organs including the mind that coordinates the impressions of the first five senses. 3) Sô is conceptualization and thought. It is the way beings apprehend and form some kind of idea of what they have experienced. 4) Gyô is the decision to take on a course of action on account of what our minds have understood, thus having formed an idea of what to do. 5) Shiki, which is written with a different ideogram from the first aggregate, is the consciousness that has the function of discerning and the ability to distinguish one thing from another. Our consciousness can also establish opinions and store them up. This last aggregate integrates the other four. The first aggregate refers to our physical aspects while the other four signify our mental behavior. The existential spaces of sentient beings as individuals (shujô seken) consists of a temporary union of the five aggregates as mentioned. So we are what we are from one moment to the next because living beings or sentient beings are only expressions that refer to this mutable instability of the five aggregates (go’on) that give us the impression we are conscious individuals. Whereas the significance of the five aggregates analyzes the physical and mental workings of a sentient being, the existential spaces of sentient beings as individuals (shujô seken) designates a personality that is already established and is capable of functioning in relationship to its environment. This is a concept which implies what sort of sentient beings we are. Are we denizens of hell, wild animals in the forest or ecstatic devas above the world? At the same time this idea can be covered with a notion of plurality which suggests various groups of people. For instance are we French or Japanese? The existential spaces of individual environments (kokudo seken) specifies the places which sentient beings inhabit and where their activities take place. This concept essentially differs from the ten [psychological] realms of dharmas (jikkai) in the sense that they are varying states of mind, whilst the existential spaces of individual environments are the manifest surroundings and conditions in which different kinds of sentient beings live. Originally, in the teachings prior to those of Nichiren, the existential spaces of individual environments (kokudo seken) were actual physical locations. For instance people who suffer were placed in various hells under the ground due to their karma. The ecstasies of the devas dwelt in a heavenly rapture somewhere high above the world. However since the ten [psychological] realms of dharmas are subjective experiences, then the existential spaces of individual environments also reflect the various aspects of life that are our own karmic fabrication. As we continue with the theory of the one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces (ichinen sanzen) we now have three existential spaces upon which these thousand qualities of suchness (nyoze) are able to act out their respective modes of being. Both Dr. Soothill’s Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms and the Universal Dictionary for Buddhist Studies (fo hsueh ta tzŭ tien) of Ting Fu-pao list the entry for three thousand (sanzen) as a technical term to express all things everywhere, in other words, all dharmas (issai shohô). Hence the idea that one flash of mental activity pulls along with it the whole of existence. This is the same as the one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces.
The Five Periods and the Eight Ways of Teaching The five periods and the eight ways of teaching is a comparative classification of the Buddha teachings of Shākyamuni which was established by Tendai in The Recondite Meaning of the Dharma Flower Sutra (Hokke Gengi), in order to show the superiority of the Dharma Flower Sutra as opposed to all the other sutras and teachings of Shākyamuni. This classification is the alleged order in which the teachings were expounded. The Garland Sutra (Kegon gyô, Avatamsaku) was Shākyamuni’s first exposition after his enlightenment under the bodhi tree and was expounded for the benefit of his five companions who were practicing various Brahmanical austerities alongside him. Hence this teaching is often understood as a specific doctrine for bodhisattvas. The essence of this teaching is that each and every single dharma is impregnated by all the other dharmas in existence. It is also the sutra that clearly enumerates all the stages of bodhisattva practice. The teaching of the individual vehicle lists four in Chinese and five in Pali. These teachings are often called the Agon gyôor the Âgamas which are understood as “The Traditionally Transmitted Teachings”. This nonspecific term is used to cover these earlier teachings of Shākyamuni which were no doubt riddled with various Brahmanical prejudices and concepts of purity. Here it might be wise to emphasize that all individuals are victims of their own culture including enlightened individuals such as Shākyamuni, Tendai and Nichiren. Hôdô (Skt. Vaipulya) may well be translated into English as “Equally Square”. It is a term applied to the third of the teaching periods of Shākyamuni and is often referred to as the provisional universal vehicle. In Soothill’s Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms, it says that the equally square teachings (Hôdô, Vaipulya) are distinguished as an expansion of doctrine and style. These sutras are apparently of a later date, showing the influence of different schools. Their style is lengthy and with tedious repeating of the same idea over and over again. Probably such repetitions were for instructional purposes, since learning in medieval China was simply learning by memorization. The fourth period of teaching was the Hannya or Wisdom doctrines. Hannya or Prajñâ in Sanskrit means ‘to know’, ‘to understand’, or ‘wisdom’. The type of wisdom is described as the “supreme”, “highest”, “incomparable”, “unsurpassed” and “unequaled”. There are a number of sutras referred to as the Prajñâparamitas which describe the wisdom that carries people from the shores of mortality to that of nirvana. The essence of these teachings is spoken of as the principal means of attaining nirvana through their revelation of the unreality of existence (kû, shûnyatâ). The final period is the Dharma Flower Sutra which is the fundamental canonical text of all the Nichiren and Tendai schools. There are various versions of this sutra in Sanskrit, either from Central Asia, Nepal or Cashmere; also there are six Chinese translations and one Tibetan. For those who are involved with the practices of the Nichiren schools, the most important translation of this sutra is that of Kumârajîva (Kumarajû) [approx. 409 C.E.] which is also the basis for this interpretive and explanatory translation. At the time of Shākyamuni there were in Brahmanistic circles enormous prejudices against women, even though at the same time there were Tantric practices that were based on sexual rituals. Still, it is stated here in the Dharma Flower Sutra that women can attain enlightenment as well as very misguided people and also individuals whose intelligence is not outstanding. The four teachings of the doctrine and the four teachings according to their methods of instruction are 1) Zôkyô, which are teachings mainly based on those of the individual vehicle, 2) Bekkyô, the teachings based on the Garland Flower Sutra (Kegon, Avatamsaku) which specifically for the instruction of mature bodhisattvas, 3) Tsûgyô, the intermediary teachings that act as a link between the teachings of the individual vehicle and the universal vehicle and 4) Engyô, the all-inclusive teaching which is the Buddha teaching that can lead all sentient beings to perfect enlightenment. The four ways of teaching are classified as follows: 1) Tongyô, the teaching of instantaneous enlightenment as opposed to the doctrines that propound a Buddha awakening after numerous kalpas of practice, 2) Zengyô, the teaching of gradual enlightenment, the step by step attainment of Buddhahood, 3) Himitsukyô, teaching in a secret way by which one can hear the Dharma without being noticed in the assembly and 4) Fujokyô, the indefinite way of teaching by which people in the same assembly will each interpret the Dharma in a different manner and each individual will derive benefit from it.
Karma is a Sanskrit word that has now become part of the English language. This word evokes powerful forces that lie deep within our existence which manifest themselves in various ways over the course of our lives. In Sanskrit the word means “working” or “actions”. The Chinese ideogram gô expresses the same idea and has a meaning of “deeds”, “business”, or “act”, although this ideogram has a different etymology. In the Buddha teaching, the word karma has the undertone of mental actions, verbal utterances and physical deeds. Every single thought that we think, every word that we speak, and every gesture or action that we undertake, whether they be positive or negative, always has a resulting effect on our lives. From both a physical and a psychological aspect these forces are what produce our respective characters and the features on our faces. Another way of looking at this is that when there are either external or internal stimuli they all produce their corresponding effects. According to this notion, past actions have an influence on the present and present karmic actions determine our future. It is through the accumulation of karma from past existences that the result of where and in what society we are born into is produced. Karma that continues to influence either our present or future existences can also be understood as latent or intrinsic karma. According to the teachings of the universal vehicle (daijô, mahâyâna), this inherent mechanism that makes us who and what we are is tucked away in what the Buddha teaching refers to as the storehouse consciousness (arayashiki, alayavijñâna) which is where all that can possibly constitute our individual psychological predictabilities is stored. This is the foundation upon which human consciousness is based. This area of the mind is often referred to as the eighth of the nine consciousnesses and is also the last but one of the deeper levels of our psyches. The deepest profundity is the very essence of life itself as well as the wisdom and compassion to perceive it for what it really is. This may well be the unexcelled, correct and all-embracing enlightenment (anuttara samyak sambodhi) or its Japanese transliteration (anokutara sanmyaku sambodai). This is something we might only encounter on our deathbeds as is strongly suggested in the Thesis of Becoming a Buddha in a Single Lifetime (Issho Jo Butsu sho) [Gosho Shinpen p. 45-57]. However, the eighth of these nine consciousnesses is much less attractive. Since all humans are essentially animals, we are endowed with an inherent greed, an intrinsic anger and a fundamental stupidity. In the past ages when we were simply hunters and gatherers, our greed was limited to a bigger share of the prey or whatever that had been collected. Our anger, as always, is not getting what we want and our feeble-mindedness is our basic lack of wisdom. All of these less enchanting qualities are packed away in the storehouse consciousness and are what induce our negative karma. If we do unpleasant things to others and continue to do them, then our lives are filled with unpleasantness. It goes without saying that the opposite notion also applies. Here I had better mention that both the ninth consciousness (amarashiki, amalavijñâna) which is the essence of life itself and the eighth consciousness (arayashiki, alayavijñâna) are intrinsic elements of our whole being. The ninth consciousness cannot be changed whereas the eighth consciousness is modifiable through religious practice. Religious practice, which in the teachings of Nichiren is founded on psychological truths, as well reality itself, is a sort of psychological gymnastic exercise to bring about an understanding of what our lives really are. Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô is not just a magic formula or even the recitation of the beginning of the second chapter or the whole of the sixteenth chapter of the Dharma Flower Sutra. All of our practice consists of words whose meaning has been made clear in the Oral Transmission on the Meaning of the Dharma Flower Sutra. The concept of karma came long before the Buddha teaching. But the Buddha teaching developed this perception considerably. We become responsible for what our fixed [immutable] or modifiable [mutable] karma is, whether it is the karma of being born as a human being or whether it is produced through religious practice or through fundamentally perverse actions.
The Nine Levels of Consciousness (kushiki) The immaculate consciousness (amarashiki, amalavijñâna) For those people who are interested in the various teachings of the Tendai and Nichiren schools, the most important level of consciousness is the ninth (amarashiki, amalavijñâna). Often this consciousness is referred to as the “immaculate consciousness” or “the sovereign of the mind”. In many other teachings this ninth level of consciousness is understood as the clear light sometimes seen in near-death states which is the very essence of life and the mind itself. Also for those people who adhere to the teachings of Nichiren Daishônin it is all that is inscribed on the Fundamental Object of Veneration (gohonzon). The storehouse consciousness (arayashiki, âlayavijñâna) Just above the level of consciousness of the clear light (tathâta, shinnyo), we have the storehouse consciousness which is to all intents and purposes the deepest part of all our mental activity. Sometimes we can see this dimension when we are just dropping off to a relaxed sleep or when we are anesthetized while undergoing surgery or even under the effects of hallucinogens as described in Aldus Huxley’s “Doors of Perception”. This is a psychological realm where we perhaps see fields of clouds, stripes, alien landscapes with no perspective full of strange toys or all sorts of dots on an indigo background. All the images in this area of the mind are continually on the move. This is due to the white lotus flower-like mechanism of relativity (kû, shûnyatâ). Although it has been said more than once, it is this area of the mind that is the storehouse of all the mythology, religion and folk beliefs of humankind. It is here that all our racial, cultural and linguistic memories are stored. However without manas which roughly corresponds to the mind as an organ of mental activity the other levels of consciousness could never come into play. The perception of light from the immaculate consciousness (amarashiki, âmalavijñâna) is what makes those visionary experiences possible. It is a speculative assumption that we fall back into the depths of all our mental activity when we die, although this section is not concerned with the problems death and dying. The consciousness of the workings of the mind (i, manas) There can be no perception of the dream without the role of what is thought of as the seventh level of consciousness (i, manas), which is simply the workings of our individual minds. It is aware of the presence of the storehouse consciousness (arayashiki, alayavijñâna) behind it. This consciousness of the workings of the mind imagines itself to be an ego. It clings to the storehouse consciousness as if it were reality and handles what the other consciousnesses have perceived according to its own discretion. Simply put, this consciousness of the workings of the mind (i, manas) is our will to live out our lives and also the principle whereby we discriminate between one thing or idea and another. The consciousness or awareness of both physical and mental events The sixth consciousness is simply being aware of what goes on outside ourselves or what goes on inside our heads (ishiki, manovijñâna); the consciousness of the workings of the mind is always functioning even when we are unconscious or asleep. Therefore people are forever in the grips of the appearances of existence whether they are within or outside of us. Simple consciousness (ishiki, manavijñâna) This consciousness is what makes us aware of what is occurring in our minds as well as what we perceive of the outside world by means of our other five consciousnesses. These are “visual consciousness”, “the consciousness of audibility”, “the consciousness of a sense of smell”, “the consciousness of taste” and “the consciousness of bodily touch”. In summary, the preceding order is reversed to aid in explaining the functions of the nine levels of consciousness. The following is the common listing:
The Guardian Deities and the Spirits of Good (shoten zenjin) All archetypes have the tendency to differentiate enormously as well as having the possibility of being developed. Religious archetypes are nearly all identical with their external images but remain deeply rooted in our psyches as psychological energies. All these psychic energies are forces of our desire for enlightenment and are in fact the Utterness of the Dharma (Myôhô) or the entirety of existence permeated by the underlying white lotus flower-like mechanism of cause, concomitancy and effect in its whereabouts of the realms of dharmas. However, for those of us who hold faith in the Buddha teaching, this concept may be fragmented into separate representative elements comparable to God, Jesus, the Virgin Mary and the angels along with all the saints that are found in Western mythology. In the Buddha teaching, similar subdivisions occur and are conceived as the Buddha, Taishaku (Indra), Bonten (Brahma), Monju (Mañjushrî) or Miroku (Maitreya) etc. In the Shinto religion these divinities are conceived of as being outside ourselves. Individual believers are all prone to upheavals of their psyches because of the workings of the different primitive archetypes. The Guardian Deities and the Spirits of Good (shoten zenjin) in our teaching are the psychic forces that prevent us from making very regrettable mistakes or doing the wrong thing. Nevertheless, they are all forces that exist in our own heads and are to be found nowhere else. This also applies to all the negative forces that are located in the depths of our minds. Here I would like to define the word psyche or mind as corresponding to the nine consciousnesses (kushiki) as understood in the teaching of Nichiren.
One of the more difficult words encountered in Buddhist studies is Dharma with a capital “D” and dharma with a lowercase “d”. Dharma when it is written with a lowercase “d” refers to anything that touches upon our senses whether it be seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling or something conjured up in our minds. Although Buddhas perceive existence as a oneness, we ordinary people tend to see existence as an enormous agglomeration of all sorts of different items, tables, chairs, pencils, music, sounds outside or inside the house, smells and the search for words in our heads. Whatever anything may be, it is a dharma which in Japanese is hô. Nichiren in many of his theses uses the word hô (dharma) in this way. For those who study the Buddha teaching the word dharma is very convenient since “phenomena and noumena” do not convey this term. In The Oral Transmission on the Significance of the Dharma Flower Sutra (Ongi Kuden) it says in the first article on Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô, “Myô is the essence of the Dharma [i.e. the triple body independent of all karma]; dharmas are unenlightenment; both unenlightenment and the essence of the Dharma as a single entity are the Utterness of the Dharma (Myôhô).” In the “Thesis on the Real Aspect of All Dharmas” Nichiren says, “The answer given is the actual quintessence (tôtai) of the subjectivities and their dependent environments of the ten conditions of life (jikkai, ten worlds), from hell at the bottom to the state of Buddhahood at the top. All of them without leaving out a single dharma (hô) out are what the text of the Sutra on the White Lotus Flower-like Mechanism of the Utterness of the Dharma (Myôhô renge kyô) is concerned with." Each dharma whatever it may be is its own one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces (ichinen sanzen), so that any allusion to existence must involve the whole of existence. There was a time when I considered translating the word dharma as existence, but since the word dharma has entered many European languages it is important for those who follow the teachings of Nichiren to understand this word in a Buddhist sense rather than with Brahmanistic undertones. In Edward Soothill's and Lewis Hodous’ Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms they define the Chinese ideogram Fa, or as read in Japanese as hô or nori, in the following manner: Dharma, Law, truth, religion, thing, anything Buddhist. Dharma is ‘that which is held fast or kept, ordinance, statute, law, usage, practice, custom, duty, proper, morality, character’. Monier Williams’ Sanskrit English Dictionary has it as used in the sense of all things or anything small or great, visible or invisible, real or unreal, affairs, truth, principle, method, concrete things, abstract ideas etc. Dharma is described as that which has entity and bears its own attributes. It connotes Buddhism as the perfect religion; it also has the second place in the Triratna–Buddha, Dharma, Sangha ... etc. With regard to the word Dharma as a oneness, the obvious quote is Myôhô Renge Kyô which is the sutra on the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect that pervades the whole of existence. Although I have translated Myôhô as the Utterness of the Dharma, the intended meaning remains the same. Dharma as a teaching involves the whole of existence without leaving anything out as well as being the solution to all our problems. Dharma with a capital letter refers to the Buddha’s vision of life as a singularity. Therefore what does this wholeness imply within the bounds of available experience? The English painter John Constable (1776–1837) said something to the effect of, “You will find the glory of creation under every English hedgerow.” In the writings of many nature artists there are numerous references that all visual experiences are aesthetically valid. This sort of experience is often referred to as “a sense of wonderment”. This means that however sensitive people may suffer, nothing can take away the wonder of the branches of the trees in winter, the crumbling wall or the rubbish in the gutter. Again this kind of impression makes haiku spiritually significant. Musicians and composers hear all sounds as music, whether they be the shuffling of slippers on the wooden floor, running water or the sound of an electric saw. Needless to say poets and writers perceive even single words as poetry. Is this how the Buddha views the universe but with the underlying compassion as well as the wisdom to perceive the realms of sentient existence in terms of the one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces? Finally the Buddha has the wisdom to solve every problem that besets the whole human race. This is the oneness of the Buddha realm. The object of our teaching is to realize how our lives work, so that we can rectify what has gone wrong with them.
Dharma realm versus realms of dharmas The Dharma realm [with a capital D] or Dharmadhâtu as it is known in Sanskrit is also a term for existence in general which must include both its noumenal and phenomenal aspects. It is also the dimension in which cause, concomitancy and effect operate. This term however is a double-edged sword which may also be understood as the realms of dharmas. What I am trying to say is that each realm of dharmas is furnished with its own objective world of things and beings, along with the subjective possibilities for various psychological dimensions in the minds of its denizens. According to the teaching of Nichiren, there are ten realms of dharmas. 1) The first is the realms of suffering which in the teachings of Shākyamuni consist of the various kinds of hell. 2) The second realm of dharmas is the world where the individuals who inhabit it crave various things like drugs, alcohol, sex, power and money and is referred to as the realm of dharmas of the hungry ghosts. 3) The third realm of dharmas is the instinctive world of animality which is to say that the beings in this dimension function according to their involuntary impulses rather than using reason or higher intuitions. 4) The next realm of dharmas in the traditional Buddhist terminology is the world of the ashuras who in Indian mythology are comparable to the titans in Greek legends or the giants and ogres in our own folklore. These sorts of beings are represented by the bully, the show-off or the aspect of our nature that wishes to subjugate or get something out of other people, and other forms of obstreperous behaviour. 5) The fifth realm is the dimension of human equanimity, which means that in spite of the existence or even the presence of the previous four psychological wavelengths, everything is apparently all right. 6) All of us have experienced fleeting joy or ecstasies which last as long as they should and then sink away into nothing. This sixth dimension is comparable to the world of the devas in Indian myths. These heavenly beings have comparatively long ecstatic lives which sooner or later must come to an end. 7) The realm of dharmas of the intellectual seekers (shômon, shrâvaka) is originally where people were who exerted themselves to attain the highest stage of the teachings of the individual vehicle through listening to the Buddha. However within the bounds of the teachings of Nichiren the psychological dimension is an extension of our childhood curiosity and a wanting to know. If this quality is maintained into adulthood, then the inquiring child becomes an intellectual. 8) In the teaching of Shākyamuni the pratyekabuddhas (engaku) were people who fully understood the chain of the twelve causes and karmic circumstances that run through the whole of sentient existence. They were able to become enlightened to the truth through this particular teaching and thereby were able to get rid of all their vain illusions. The Universal Teacher Tendai used the term “enlightened on their own without a teacher” (dokkaku). These were people who lived in periods when there were no Buddhas and became enlightened by understanding the reality of impermanence through their observation of life. Nowadays, people who are partially enlightened, as were the pratyekabuddhas, tend to be people who have an affinity with the various aspects of science or medicine along with philosophers, artists, musicians, composers, writers and other people who are seeking the meaning of life. 9) In the Buddha teaching of the individual vehicle a bodhisattva was a person who aspired to enlightenment, but with the development of the doctrines of the universal vehicle (daijô, mahâyâna) the understanding of the word “bodhisattva” evolved to be not only seekers of enlightenment, but at the same time those who were also altruists. 10) This is the final dharma realm of the Buddha whose wisdom and perception can penetrate all matters and things that comprise our existence. From the point of view of the teachings of Nichiren, all individuals live within the limits of their realities in the sense that each of these ten [psychological] realms of dharmas contain the other nine or these ten realms of dharmas are all to be found within one another. There are other schools that perceive each one of these realms of dharmas existing in a capsule apart from the other nine. Such ideas are obviously based on the Mount Sumeru concept of existence. The Dharma realm is the entirety of existence and can only be fully understood by those who are fully enlightened and is Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô which means to devote our lives to and found them on (Nam) the Utterness of the Dharma [entirety of existence] (Myôhô) permeated by the underlying white lotus flower-like mechanism of the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect (Renge) in its whereabouts of the ten realms of dharmas (Kyô). What this concept implies is that we as sentient beings devote our lives to and found them on the very essence of life itself.
Meritorious virtues versus benefits For some time now I have had conflicts as to how to translate the Sino-Japanese word kudoku or its Sanskrit equivalent guna or the corresponding term in Tibetan yontan. I tried various formulas such as, “meritorious effectiveness”, “effective advantage”, “benefits”, and so on and so forth. I resisted the word “benefits” which is an expression that has been overused by various organizations that propose to promulgate the teachings of Nichiren Daishônin. This word “benefits” is often used as a manipulative device to incite practitioners to “toe the line”; “if you don’t do Gongyô” or “if you don’t chant daimoku” or if you do not comply with the people who have some authority in such organizations, “you won’t get benefits”. Belief in getting benefits should not become a reason to follow and practice the teachings of Nichiren. The ku part of the word kudoku on its own can be understood as “merit”, “achievement”, “meritorious” or “good results”. But the word toku [the “t” becomes voiced in combination with other words in Japanese] seems to have an original meaning “of the way the Tao works” as Lao Tzu used it in the title of his work the Tao Te Ching which is the Compilation of the Truth of Existence and how it Works”. However, in one of the oldest Chinese dictionaries, “Discerning the Signs and Explaining the Ideograms” (Shu wên chieh tzu, Setsumon geji), it simply says that toku means “to ascend”, “to arise”, “to advance in office” and that the right hand side of the ideogram is a “phonetic” to show how it should be pronounced. Finally I decided to translate kudoku or any of its equivalents in other Buddhist languages as “meritorious virtues”. Meritorious virtues are the virtues that people derive from their devotional acts or religious practice. These can be manifested in the form of various positive qualities in practitioners’ lives, but often such virtues do not become immediately apparent.
Mount Sumeru (Shumisen) was the mountain that stood in the centre of the world according to ancient Indian tradition. It was said to have measured 84,000 yojanas above the earth and another 84,000 yojanas underneath the surface. It was considered that a yojana was a measurement defined by a day’s march of the royal army, which would add up to something close to thirty kilometers a day. Tradition states that Mount Sumeru was made of gold, silver, emerald and crystal. The mountain had four slopes, each one facing in the four directions of north, south, east and west. The Deva Taishaku (Skt. Shakra Devanam Indra) has his palace on the summit whereas the four heavenly deva kings live halfway up its four slopes. Mount Sumeru is surrounded by seven concentric circles of mountain ranges that are of solid gold between which there are seven seas of perfumed water. The seventh mountain range is surrounded by an ocean of salty water in which the four continents Hotsubudai, Kuyani, Uttanotsu and Enbudai are situated accordingly in the east, west, north and south. The world of humankind is Enbudai. Above the summit of Mount Sumeru there are various heavens in which some of the inhabitants have desires and appetites; other heavens have inhabitants that have formed along with their surroundings; other heavens have inhabitants that consist of the immateriality of being without any form at all. There is a sun and moon that rotate around this cosmos and the salty ocean is surrounded by a circular range of iron mountains which form the outer limits of this universe. However here I would like to emphasize that from the point of view of faith there is no contradiction between these ancient psychological concepts as the experience of being alive and our present day view that is based upon scientific thought, along with the psychological and philosophical research of C. G. Jung, Aldous Huxley, R. D. Laing and many others. Although this description of Mount Sumeru is somewhat sketchy, it might be worth pointing out that the cause of its existence is none other than the karma of those whose consciousness has survived the dissolution of other universes.
Before delving into the question of the enormous numbers mentioned throughout the Dharma Flower Sutra, I thought it might be wise to quote the Zen monk Nansen (Nan Ch’üan) (748-834 C.E.) in order to have a kind of instruction as to how we might look at these apparent improbabilities that we encounter throughout this and many other sutras. Nansen said to the assembly of monks, “We know nothing about the existence of the Buddhas of the past, present and future;, all we know by experience are things like badgers and white bulls.” What Nansen was trying to point out is that we have no means of really understanding what a great deal of the arcane and unrevealed content of the sutras really means. All we can actually experience are the realities of our day-to-day lives. However, in spite of the hermetic quality of so many of these kinds of references, it does not prevent us from making a qualified guess. I am personally prepared to accept that what the Buddhas such as Gautama Shākyamuni or Nichiren Daishônin have said is the truth. I have also tried to make sense out of what the implications of those enormous astronomical numbers are. If we are prepared to accept the idea of the one instant of thought containing three thousand existential spaces (ichinen sanzen) along with the concept that plants, trees and the environment have an inherent Buddha nature, then perhaps we can become adjusted to the notion that anything that exists must entail the whole of existence or that any single being or object cannot be separate from the entirety of life. In the theory of Tendai we have only three thousand kinds of existential spaces, but in our experience of everyday reality the number of psychological wavelengths that exist at any given moment would automatically involve the enormous numbers of ciphers that are dotted about here and there throughout this sutra. All we can presume is that these myriads of myriads of myriads that are often mentioned in the sutric text might suggest that whatever our individual realities may be, we live all space, all time simultaneously and without effort.
Nichiren was born on the 16th of the second month of the first year of Jô.ô (1222 CE) in the fishing village of Kominato in the Tôjô district of the Awa province – the present day village of Kominato in the Chiba Prefecture – and died on the 13th of the tenth month in the fifth year of Kô.an (1282 CE). His father was Mikuni no Taifu; his mother was called Umegikunyo. They were said to have led a humble existence along the seashore. As a child he was called Zennichi Maro. At the age of twelve he entered Seichôji Temple under the instruction of the Venerable Dôzen who gave him the name of Yakuô Maro. About the same time, Nichiren made a vow to the Bodhisattva Kokûzô that he would become the wisest man in Japan. He took holy orders when he was sixteen and was renamed Zeshôbô Renchô. Next he left for Kamakura for further studies and three years later came back to the Seichôji Temple only to quickly leave again for Kyôto in order to study and practice the dharma gateways of the Tendai School on Mount Hiei. More precisely it was at the Onjôji Temple, the Tennôji Temple and on Mount Kôya where he studied the doctrinal significance of each and every school that included reading through all the sutras and various Buddhist writings. At the age of thirty-one Nichiren left Mount Hiei and returned to Seichôji Temple. On the morning of April 28th 1253, in the Hall of Holding to the Buddha (Jibutsutô) in the All Buddhas Monastic Residence (Shobutsubô) of the Seichôji Temple, in front of the whole assembly he announced his fourfold criterion of ‘Those who bear in mind the formula of Amida Buddha (Nembutsu) bring about the hell of incessant suffering; the School of watchful attention (Zen) is the work of the Great Demon of the Sixth Heaven; the Tantric (Shingon) School entails the ruin of the state and the Ritsu School are the robbers of the land.’ He also announced that all sentient beings could be saved by the recitation of Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô. When Tôjô Kagenobu, the local ruler who was a follower of Nembutsu – i.e. the people who bear in mind the formula of Amida Buddha – heard this, he flew into a rage and tried to have Nichiren arrested. However the Venerables Jôken and Gijô, acting as guides, were able to organise his escape and he made his way back to Kominato. After taking leave of his parents he embarked upon his life’s destiny of propagating his teaching. He began his mission in Nagoe no Matsubatani outside Kamakura where he had built a hermit’s cottage. At that period he converted numerous people who became his disciples and supporters. In the eleventh month of the fifth year of Kenchô (1253) he was visited by a monk from Mount Hiei called Jôben who was later to become Nisshô, one of the six elder monks. In 1258 on a visit to the Iwamoto Jissôji Temple, the then thirteen year old Nikkô Shônin became his disciple and was to remain so until he became the second patriarch after Nichiren’s demise in 1282. Among the other disciples there was Toki Jônin who was a samurai attached to the Shogunate, as well as other samurais such as Shijô Kingo, Soya Kyôshin, Kudô Yoshitaka and the two Ikegami brothers Munenaka and Munenaga. On the 16th day of the seventh month of the first year of Bun.ô (1260), as a result of the good offices of Yadoya Nyûdô, Nichiren was able to have his well-known Thesis on Securing the Peace of the Realm through the Establishment of the Correct Dharma handed over to the regent Hôjô Tokiyori. The argument of this thesis is that if the correct Buddha teaching were established instead of the incomplete doctrines of the time, then the whole country would find peace and stability. That same year on the night of the 27th of the eighth month, the followers of Nembutsu and the Shogunate organised an attack on Nichiren’s hermitage at Matsubatani. Fortunately he was able to escape harm and moved to the estate of Toki Jônin. On the 12th day of the fifth month of the first year of Kôchô (1261), under the orders of the Shogunate, he was exiled to the Izu Peninsula. His disciple Nikkô and Funamori Yasaburô along with the latter’s wife accompanied him and were constantly in attendance. One year and nine months later Nichiren was pardoned and he returned to Kamakura. In the first year of Bun.ei (1264) he returned to his birthplace in Awa in order to take care of his mother during her illness. During that same time he propagated his teaching throughout the whole of the Awa region. In the same year on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, while Kudô Yoshitaka of Amatsu was returning towards Nichiren's estate, his military escort was attacked by Tôjô Kagenobu, the local ruler, in Komatsubara. Both Kudô Yoshitaka and the Venerable Kyônin were killed in the struggle. Nichiren was also wounded on the forehead. In 1268 the Mongolian court sent a delegation with a letter from Kublai Khan demanding that the Shogunate become his vassal. This particular incident was evident proof of the prediction in the Thesis on Securing the Peace of the Realm through the Establishment of the Correct Dharma which again urged the nation to take refuge in the correct Dharma. At the same time Nichiren called for a public debate with the monks of all the other schools and sent letters to eleven various religious leaders, but he received no reply whatsoever. During the eighth year of Bun.ei (1271) there was a terrible drought from one end of the Japanese archipelago to the other. The renowned monk Ryôkan performed the prayer ritual for rain but was unable to bring it about whereas Nichiren’s success is well-established in the annals of Japanese history. The defeated Ryôkan left Kamakura for the north. This became an opportunity for the monks of the other schools to provoke the Shogunate with slanderous reports concerning Nichiren. On the tenth day of the ninth month of that same year, Nichiren received a summons from Heinosaemon no Jô Yoritsuna to be interrogated by the Court of Enquiry. At the interrogation he severely reprimanded the hypocritical stance of the Shogunate. The outraged Heinosaemon no Jô immediately had Nichiren arrested and taken in the middle of the night to Tatsu no Kuchi to face execution. However, just as the executioner’s sword was about to strike, an enormous crystalline pure white light surged up and covered half the sky. In panic the officials of the Shogunate and the samurai in attendance ran in all directions and hid. No one dared try to execute Nichiren. This is the moment when Nichiren reveals the original terrain of the self-received reward body that is used by the Tathâgata of the primordial infinity of the original beginning. It is also referred to as ‘eradicating the temporary gateway in order to reveal the original’. On the tenth day of the eleventh month he was exiled to the island of Sado. There he began to compose the Thesis on Clearing the Eyes, the Thesis on the Instigator's Fundamental Object of Veneration for Contemplating the Mind and also completed a number of important theses such as the Thesis on the Unbroken Transmission of the Single Universal Concern of Life and Death, the Thesis on the Significance of the Actual Fundamental Substance, An Account of the Buddha's Revelations for the Future and the Thesis on Cultivating Oneself in the Practice as it is Expounded. During this exile, several of his admirers such as the Venerable Abutsu and his wife took refuge in his teaching. At Tsukahara where he was forced to spend his exile in the broken down Sanmaidô Temple, the Nembutsu School challenged him to an open debate in which each and every argument was completely refuted. At this point the Venerable Sairen and the Honma family were converted to the Teachings of Nichiren. After two years or so, in 1274 on the 27th day of the third month of the eleventh year of Bun.ei, Nichiren was granted a pardon and he returned to Kamakura. On the eighth day of the fourth month of the same year he was summoned a second time by Heinosaemon no Jô to appear before the Shogunate. This time they calmly admonished Nichiren and told him to treat and view the monks from the other schools as equals. Naturally the reply was that if the Correct Dharma was not held to then it, then it could not be possible to assure the security of the land. The outcome of this interview was that Nichiren, like other wise men of the past in China and Japan when their efforts to save their country went unheeded, retired to the backwoods to a more hermit-like existence. In this case Nichiren retired to the Hagiri district on Mount Minobu in the province of Kai which is the present day Yamanashi prefecture. There he gave lectures on the Dharma Flower Sutra and for the preparation and education of his disciples he went into the subtlest details so that the dharma would be protracted into eternity. During this same period he also wrote the Thesis on Selecting the Time and the Thesis on the Requital of Grace. The Senior Monk Nikkô promoted propagation in the direction of Mount Fuji. His first major conversion was Nanjô Tokimitsu. Then there were the Matsuno and Kawai no Yui families and others from among the monks of Ryûsenji Temple in Atsuhara. Nisshû, Nichiben and Nichizen also took refuge in the teachings of Nichiren. During the same period a number of the local peasants and farmers did the same. On the 21st day of the ninth month of the second year of Kô.an (1279), all the followers of Nichiren, both monks and laymen, were harassed and pestered as a single sect. Finally twenty people, beginning with Jinshirô, were arrested. Heinosaemon no Jô interrogated the prisoners at his private residence and pressured them to change their religion. With profound faith all of them persisted in reciting the title and theme Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô. Jinshirô, Yagorô and Yarokurô were beheaded and the remaining seventeen were banished from Atsuhara. These events are often referred to as the adversity of the dharma at Atsuhara. Nevertheless it was on account of this particular adversity of the dharma that Nichiren felt that the time had come for him to fulfil his real purpose of coming into the world. On the 12th day of the tenth month of the second year of Kô.an (1279) he inscribed the Fundamental Object of Veneration of the Altar of the Precept of the original gateway. In order to perpetuate his teaching, Nichiren appointed six elder monks to help him in this task but decided to entrust the succession of the patriarchate to Nikkô. In 1282, while undertaking a journey to the hot springs in Hitachi for rest and recuperation, he entered peacefully and auspiciously into nirvana in the mansion of Ikegami Munenaka at the age of 61 years.
Instead of an Anglo-centric interpretation, how should we call the religious functionaries of the various orders of the Nichiren Schools? It is not so much a question as to whether these persons hold to the precepts (vinaya) of the Buddha teaching of Shākyamuni or not, but as to how they see and refer to themselves. They do not take themselves to be “bokushi” or “shisai” which are standard words for priest in modern Japanese. Instead they call themselves “gosôryo”. The word “go” in Japanese is an honorific prefix that is also found in the words “gohonzon” or “gojukai”. In Gilbert and Sullivan’s light opera, “The Mikado”, this prefix becomes the Pidgin English “honourable”. The sô part of this term is an abbreviation of the Chinese transcription of the word for “sangha” which in present-day Cantonese is “sang ka”. The languages of Southern China are often seen as fossilizations of the medieval Chinese in the same way as Icelandic is thought of as an older form of Norse. In time, the syllable “ka” had been dropped away from this term because the Chinese like to keep their expressions simple. The Japanese reading of this “sang” ideogram is “sô” which is a sound that has been tailored to suit the limits of their phonetics. The word “ryo” means a companion or a follower. The term “gosôryo” literally means “an honourable member of the sangha”. Such an expression can only be understood as a monk or even a friar, even though these monks would like to see themselves as priests, as they occasionally officiate at religious ceremonies; but so do the Franciscan friars in Latin countries today.
However, before discussing the intricacies of the Fundamental Object of Veneration (gohonzon), I have to say that the way the Buddha teaching is being taught by each and all schools here in Japan amounts to little more than coercing people into a low level credulity and superstition. This declaration is particularly applicable to the monks in Taisekiji Temple. To begin with Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô is a title and subject matter that consists of words and not some silly magic spell which if chanted will get the practitioners anything they might want. Nor is the Fundamental Object of Veneration a numinous shamanistic charm which if chanted at will comply with any desire that suits the fancies of the votary. If one would attentively read the first entry of The Oral Transmission on the Meaning on the Dharma Flower Sutra (Ongi Kuden) that is part of this web project which is also the recording of Nichiren’s intention and possibly his words written down by his closest disciple Nikkô Shônin, then it might become possible that the meaning of this title and theme (daimoku) is to devote our lives to and found them on the Utterness of the Dharma [entirety of existence] permeated by the underlying white lotus flower-like mechanism of the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect in its whereabouts of the ten realms of dharmas. The Oral Transmission on the Meaning of the Dharma Flower Sutra says that the word “heard” of what was heard implies the second of the six stages of practice which is the stage of when people hear the title Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô and also read the Sutra (i.e. recite gongyô). They are then able to reason that all existence is endowed with the Buddha nature and are able to open up the Buddha nature within themselves. The meaning of the Dharma is Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô. In regard to being able to hold to the Dharma, one should then think very carefully over the word “able” which refers to our personal capabilities. What this formula in sanscritized Chinese entails is that we are devoting and returning our lives to the very essence of what life really is. If one is patient enough to assimilate the significance of this title and theme, as well as reciting it many times in front of the Fundamental Object of Veneration, we will gradually acquire wisdom, understanding and happiness, as well as knowing what our lives are all about. Equipped with this somewhat deeper insight, we can more easily make headway through the thorns and brambles of our respective existences. This gives us the subjective illusion that we are receiving benefits through our practice. But in actual fact these benefits are the reward for our faith in the existence of the realm of the Buddha in our lives as well as having grown up in what is often not always a benevolent world. Where the problems with our teaching really begin is that we are bedazzled and somewhat confused by the swaying robes of the monks as they piously strut along. Apart from one or two brave individuals who have made enormous efforts to learn local European languages and customs, for the most part, I have never met a single monk whom I could easily talk with in English. Why do I use the word “monk” instead of priest? The simple reason is that the ideogram for sô in the Japanese word sôryo is pronounced “sêng” in Chinese which is the first part of the Chinese rendering of the Sanskrit word for Sangha. The Japanese word sôryo simply means an associate of the assembly of monks, nuns and both male and female believers. I see no reason why we should give these people the special privilege of calling them priests. On the whole their level of study is less deep than one would imagine and in fact these people are neither better nor worse than are we who are ordinary citizens. The Soka Gakkai through their organizational system at least tried to give us some understanding of what the teaching of Nichiren is about. But some of us found that organization an enormous stumbling block. As far as the West is concerned, perhaps the only way to follow this teaching is to practice and study on our own. A lot of translations of Buddhist texts exist in many European languages. We also have a rich tradition of the psychology of the profound. Here I would like to emphasize that the strength of the western mind is curiosity. In order to fathom the depth of Nichiren’s Buddha teaching it might be necessary to plough our way through everything that has been written. Because the Buddha teaching exists in Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan and all languages that use Chinese which in this case also includes Vietnamese and most people who do the practices of the teachings of Nichiren are incapable of seeing the difference between the original version of the booklet of our devotional daily practice and a Chinese restaurant menu, I think it might be better to accentuate that the object of the Buddha teaching is to make us a little more aware of what our existences are all about. I also would like to stress the point that we should do our practice with a full awareness of what we are reciting and reading. One of the most crucial questions asked by someone who practices the rituals of the teaching of Nichiren Daishônin has to be, “What in the hell am I doing and why?” Then a possible answer might be that the practices of the various Nichiren Kômon schools are a constructive and deep psychological exercise to bring about an individuation which makes us realize that our identities are life itself. But such a psychological process does not imply praying to a god for a bag of sweets. Even though the Buddha teaching does give room for prayer and supplication – a series of solemn requests or thanksgiving to the Fundament Object of Veneration can help to lessen severe physical or psychological pain – this is not the real object of our teaching. One of the established and widely-accepted principles in the teaching of Nichiren is that our troublesome worries (bonnô) which are all the things that swirl around in our heads from sex fantasies to working out the intention of a sentence in Classical Chinese or our efforts to absorb the implications of a mathematical equation, all these mental events are not separate from life itself. Another principle that illustrates this is in the cycles of living and dying. The sense that sentient existence has always existed and goes on forever is in no way separate from who and what we are now. What we conceive as being alive is only what we have arranged or disarranged in our heads. The enlightenment of the Buddha Shākyamuni was in essence nirvana which means that it is a state which can be reached by extinguishing all our illusions, attachments, worries as well as the various dispositions we have inherited from former lives which are in fact karma and the cause of rebirth. This of course is something that is extremely difficult to accomplish except for somebody like a Shākyamuni. For ordinary people such as we are, Nichiren’s compassion and sympathy for all of us is that he teaches us to be aware and to awaken our inherent Buddha nature with our respective bodies and personalities and all their little oddities just as we are. Whereas the enlightenment of Shākyamuni is the realization that existence can be extinguished in nirvana as a way out of all kinds of kinds of suffering, the enormous realization of Nichiren’s understanding of the Dharma Flower Sutra is that he makes no distinction between an unattainable nirvana and the realms of dharmas which we all inhabit.
Tathâgata (Nyorai) is one of the ten titles of the Buddha. This implies that he comes from the dimension of the truth or suchness that may be understood as the absolute reality which transcends all the phenomena and noumena that fill up our daily lives. This concept is equated with the Dharma entity (hosshin, Dharmakâya) and cannot be expressed in words or even thought out by unenlightened people such as us. For those of us who follow the teachings of Nichiren, suchness can be none other than Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô which means to devote our lives to and found them on the Utterness of the Dharma [entirety of existence] (Myôhô) permeated by the underlying white lotus flower-like mechanism of the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect (Renge) in its whereabouts of the ten [psychological] realms of dharmas. This is suchness as it has often been defined as that which cannot be pondered over or even explained (fushigi). There are two ways of translating the word Tathâgata. One is Tathâ âgata which means “he who has come from that” (suchness). This is the Sino-Japanese understanding of this Sanskrit word. In the second way, it is interpreted as Tathâ gata which means “he who has arrived at that” (suchness).
Suchness is the true form of what existence is or reality itself. Shinnyo or tathatâ is primarily a term for the universal vehicle (daijô, mahâyâna). Generally speaking, in the usage concerning the universal vehicle this expression refers to an absolute reality which transcends the boundless multitude of phenomena and noumena in our daily lives. It is regarded as being the same as the Dharma nature or Myôhô Renge Kyô which is the entirety of existence permeated by the underlying interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect in its whereabouts of the ten [psychological] realms of dharmas. On the one hand shinnyo or tathatâ is the hard reality of our respective lives and on the other hand it is the relativity (kû, shûnyatâ) of Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô that is inscribed on the Fundamental Object of Veneration (gohonzon). In the Discourse on the Awakening of Faith in the Universal Vehicle (Daijô Kishin Ron) of Memyô (Ashvaghosha), the shinnyo or tathatâ aspect of our minds is absolutely pure and beyond all change. In the same booklet this is regarded as the mind of sentient beings which in Buddhist terminology is referred to as “fuhen shinnyo” or the eternal unchanging reality, which in the first chapter of the Oral Transmission of Nichiren (Ongi Kuden) on Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô is defined as the principle of the eternal and unchanging quintessence of reality (fuhen shinnyo no ri). This unchanging reality that exists as a principle only and is exclusively present somewhere in our heads is seen by Nichiren as belonging to the teachings derived from the external events of Shākyamuni’s life and work (shakumon), whereas the other aspect of suchness (shinnyo, tathatâ) is seen from the point of view of the teachings that belong to the original archetypal state of existence (honmon). This is the wisdom to understand reality as it changes according to the various karmic circumstances (zuien shinnyo no chi) that abound in our lives. Here the latter concept of suchness is the eternal and unchanging reality (fuhen shinnyo) subjected to our fundamental unenlightenment (mumyô) that gives rise to all that occurs in our respective lives. To extend this concept further, existence comes into being from the action of cause, concomitancy and their effects, but this perception points out that our fundamental unenlightenment (mumyô) indents itself onto the shinnyo, tathatâ or suchness which is essentially undefiled and thereby causes it to develop into the totality of what we consider to be the whole of the universe around and within us.
Kû is a fundamental concept of the Buddha teaching. This word has been translated in various ways to mean insubstantiality, emptiness, vacuity, relativity etc. One of the oldest glossaries of the Chinese language (since our teaching is dependent on Chinese ideograms for its terminology), “Discerning the Signs and Explaining the Ideograms (setsu mon ge ji)”, defines the ideogram for kû with another ideogram Kyô which means a hole, cavity, emptiness and even alludes to intelligence or whatever goes on in our heads. What the ideogram kû implies is that it is the reality of that which underlies all existence. However all the dharmas that we encounter in our lives and within ourselves are neither fixed entities nor are they independent. All dharmas exist on account of their interdependence with other entities either physical or mental. They have no fixed substantiality. So relativity (kû, shûnyatâ) is the common denominator that underlies all existence. This concept of relativity (kû, shûnyatâ) brings about the notion of the insubstantiality of sentient beings in the sense that they are only a temporary union of the five aggregates (go’on). As for other dharmas, they are the outcome of all the karmic circumstances that led to their existence. On the Fundamental Object of Veneration (gohonzon) of the schools that follow the teaching of Nichiren Daishônin (as transmitted by his closest disciple Nikkô Shônin), the large characters Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô that flow down the centre of the scroll refer to relativity (kû, shûnyatâ). On the upper left hand side, looking directly at the Fundamental Object of Veneration (gohonzon), are the characters for Bodhisattva Anryûgô (Peacefully Established Practice) which denotes wind, Bodhisattva Jôgyô (Immaculate Practice) which represents water and Buddha Shākyamuni which represents our subjective view of things. On the upper right side of the theme and title (daimoku) are the characters of Tathâgata Tahô (Abundant Treasures) which represents our objective view of existence, Bodhisattva Jogyô (Superior Practice) which represents fire and Bodhisattva Muhengyô (Boundless Practice) which symbolizes earth. Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô, which means to devote our lives to and found them on (Nam(u)), the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect (Renge), in the dimensions where dharmas occur (Kyô), that pervades the entirety of existence (Myôhô), is the white lotus plant-like mechanism of how relativity (kû, shûnyatâ) works. In this way no dharma, whether it be sentient or not, can ever be static. This means that the enlightenment of Nichiren includes every instant in our lives. In The Oral Transmission on the Meaning of the Dharma Flower Sutra, towards the end of the sixth important point of the comments on the Chapter of the Parable of the Imaginary City, Nichiren states, “Now Nichiren and those that follow him reverently recite Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô which means to devote our lives to and found them on (Nam) the Utterness of the Dharma [entirety of existence] (Myôhô) permeated by the underlying white lotus flower-like mechanism of the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect (Renge) in its whereabouts of the ten realms of dharmas (Kyô). This means that the imaginary city is the place where the treasure lies. Hence all the mountains, valleys or wide plains that we live on are the places where the treasures of eternal silence and the brilliance that is enlightenment abide.” This quotation could well imply that we become aware of each and every instant that we live and the benefits of it is to become aware.
Existence from the Buddhist perspective When it comes to asking what existence is, a basic reply is that existence has always existed and will always exist in the future. The opposite of existence is nirvana. Throughout these translations I have written about extinction in nirvana. Originally nirvana meant extinction or annihilation and the Sanskrit word is understood as the breath of existence coming to a standstill. However nirvana is often thought of as the state of enlightenment attained by Shākyamuni Buddha. As a result, this interpretation of it indicates a state that can be reached by extinguishing all sense of perception in our respective persons and the elimination of all karma that brought about our existence and will be the causes of rebirth. In some schools of the Buddha teaching of Shākyamuni such extinction can be arrived at through a depth of wisdom and knowledge, such as those in which it is said to be entirely positive and eternal. In the teachings of the universal vehicle (mahâyâna), the concept of nirvana has the undertone of not coming into being (fushô) and never ceasing to be (fumetsu). This idea of nirvana is also understood as wisdom (chi, prajñâ) as well as the highest aspect of the threefold entity of the Buddhas (hôshin, Dharmakâya), which is the absolute essence of the mind of the Buddha. There is no way our minds can grasp it; it is completely unmanifested as well as being the immateriality of relativity (kû, shûnyatâ). The equation “the cycles of living and dying are not separate from nirvana (shoji soku nehan)” means that even though we all continually and endlessly revolve in these cycle of living and dying, it is through rediscovering our faith in the teaching of enlightenment that we find a sense of security in founding our lives on the fundamental Buddhahood that has always existed and will eternally continue to exist. In the sutras such as the Lankâvatâra, reality as what we experience is propounded as being comparable to a dream which has its origins in the storehouse consciousness (araya-shiki, âlayavijñâna) according to our respective karma which suddenly appears the instant we open up our six senses to perceive all existence around us. Still, in various teachings of Shākyamuni, reality is impermanent and has no particular existence of its own. There are concepts in Western thinking that try to allude to this idea, but from my personal point of view and since atomic physics is so complicated, while I find such ideas enticing, I cannot really know. Hui Neng (Enô) 638-713 C.E., who is seen as the founder of the Chinese Zen school, wrote the famous line, “Fundamentally there is not a single thing,” which is understood as “there is nothing to cling to” so as to underline the lack of substantiality in all things. But even if life is understood as a dream that is a reflection of our own minds according to their respective karma, the chair I am sitting on is still solidly there – and it is no use pretending that it does not exist. I have a theory that throughout human history there have come into the world various individuals such as Shākyamuni, Nichiren, Fu Hsi (Fuki), Lao Tzu (Rôshi) along with many others, who from the outset of their lives have understood what existence really is and have never fallen into our mundane levels of consciousness that tell us that our surrounding reality is as it seems. This latter version of course is our Western scientific viewpoint. When we come to reading the Sixteenth Chapter on the Lifespan of the Tathâgata in the Dharma Flower Sutra we find that Shākyamuni was also capable of understanding existence in terms of our profane unimaginative way of seeing things. But although he says that everything is real and not emptiness, he goes on to say that he understands ordinary people as those who inhabit the threefold realm of existence (sangai, triloka) 1) where sentient beings have appetites and desires (yokkai, kâmadhâtu), 2) which are incarnated in a subjective materiality with physical surroundings (shikikai, rûpadhâtu), 3) who at the same time are endowed with the immateriality of the realms of fantasies, dreams, thoughts and ideas (mushikikai, arûpadhâtu). This is the way in which we sense existence in terms of distinguishing all the various kinds of dharmas and events produced by karma which often are extremely painful. In spite of this extremely compassionate and sensitive statement, the Buddha continues his discourse by saying that the cycles of living and dying are in truth not as they appear to be but at the same time they are not different from their illusionary semblance. In order for the Buddha teaching to resolve the problem of being able to face existence in a more pragmatic way, humankind had to wait for the arrival of the Universal Teacher Tendai (T’ien T’ai) or as he is sometimes known as Chigi (Chih-i) 538-597 C.E. According to many people who follow the teaching of Nichiren, Tendai is considered the Buddha of the middle period after Shākyamuni’s extinction into nirvâna (Zôbô). This was a period when the Buddha teaching had shifted from India to China. At that time there were periods when the Buddha teaching was under the patronage of the emperor himself. As you can imagine, it was a period when grandiose monasteries were built along with there being monks who were garbed in opulent robes conducting pompous ceremonies. It was also a time when the Buddha teaching was fragmented into numerous schools. Each faction had its own sutra upon which it based its particular doctrine that was considered the path to enlightenment. Tendai who had studied the Dharma Flower Sutra assiduously under Nangaku was said to have become enlightened on reading the twenty-third chapter on the Original Practice of the Bodhisattva Yaku’ô. In the famous compositions of Tendai, The Universal Desistance from Troublesome Worries in order to See Clearly (Makashikan) and the Recondite Meaning of the Dharma Flower Sutra (Hokke Gengi), the Universal Teacher (daishi) Tendai formulated the threefold axiom of how we should understand the dharma in the existential spaces that surround us. The first of these three axioms is relativity (kû, shûnyatâ), which is an expression that has often been translated as the “void” or “emptiness”. This term “relativity” does not deny existence as such, but is a word that indicates that all existence comes about through the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect. Seeing that causes and concomitancies are continually changing every minimal instant, there cannot be a static reality. No one can say that this idea of the void or relativity refers to nihilism or a denial of existence as we know it. A further understanding of the implications of (kû, shûnyatâ) or relativity is the immaterial quality of fantasies, dreams, thoughts and ideas. The second of this threefold axiom is materiality (ke). It is plainly obvious that no physical entity can last forever, so we will pass on to the third of this threefold axiom which is the middle way of understanding the dharmas which are the makeup of our lives. For example, when I look at the pen lying on the table in front of me it appears like a miniature sculpture. This is its outward form which is ke and is impermanent like all other events and things due to the continual mobility of cause, concomitancy and effect which is kû [relativity]. Nevertheless the instant I see this pen, all that I know about pens and all my experiences with them flash into my mind. Immediately I see this pen it becomes the middle way of reality. From a Buddhist point of view we cannot look at life around us without our knowledge of the ten [psychological] realms of dharmas (jikkai) coming into focus. These ten dimensions in which varying dharmas occur are 1) suffering in every imaginable aspect is hell (jigokukai); 2) the existential realm of wanting and craving which in the Buddha teaching of Shākyamuni is the world of hungry ghosts (gakikai); 3) the realm of animality which means that since we are mammals we are not devoid of animal traits (chikushokai); 4) the titanic show-off or the anger that is always latent in all of us (shurakai). 5) In spite of the four previous dimensions of the mind there is the reflex of human equanimity that says, “Life is not so bad as that” (ninkai). 6) The sixth dimension is the exuberant whoopee joy in all of us, which always goes right up into the air and at a certain point has to come down again. It is the transient joy that in some way or another is accessible to all of us (tenkai). 7) This realm of dharmas is rather like a high-class craving which means the search for knowledge, wisdom and the truth. This is the part of us that always wants to know (shômonkai). 8) Through living our lives and having studied we all come to a realization of what existence is all about, but this understanding is incomplete. This is the psychological dimension that is called (engakukai). 9) The ninth realm of dharmas is the psychological sphere of the altruist which extends from a child wanting to give food to a stray cat to someone like Sister Teresa of Calcutta. It is the realm of dharmas of wanting to do good just for the sake of doing good and not wanting anything in return (bosatsukai). 10) The final stage of these ten [psychological] realms of dharmas is the goal of all Buddha practices (bukkai). I must say that such a state is outside of my personal experiences. However, according to my studies, it seems that the Buddhas have an all-embracing wisdom. They are fully aware of the ultimate truth of reality, as well as having an infinite compassion for all beings and things. Within the bounds of those who do the practice and have faith in the teaching of Nichiren, they can attain Buddhahood with their persons just as they are (sokushin jôbutsu) simply by doing the practice along with the indispensible and irreplaceable study. What I have written is more or less the essentials of our practice. After practicing for some forty years and having lived through a somewhat bumpy lifetime, I can say that I am fundamentally secure in knowing that life does not end with death but is an eternal continuum of sentient existence. At this point and since so many of the people who practice are feeling that they are not as young as they used to be, I believe we should face the problem of death and the experience of dying. When Nichiren was young he studied at Seichô-ji, a temple of the Tendai School. During this period, the Tendai School was influenced by the teachings of the Mantra and Tantric persuasion. One can conclude that Nichiren must have been aware of the doctrines similar to those of the Tibetan Book of the Dead with its descriptions of the moment of death as well as the passage through the forty-nine days to being reborn in this world of ours. In C.G. Jung’s essay on this unique book, the first few moments of death are a confrontation with the clear primordial light which is said to be the fundamental of the mind itself which for Buddhists is shinnyo or the Dharmakâya. I suspect that those people who have had a near-death experience might suggest that death is not a blissful retirement since most of us have a lot of karmic remnants from either our present or former lives. Just as Nichiren’s Thesis on Becoming a Buddha in a Single Lifetime (Isshô jô butsu shô) proposes, those who have faith in this teaching should simply recite the theme and title, Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô, in their minds. But how many of us in the West have a thorough understanding of this theme and title which is the wisdom of all the Buddhas that have ever existed throughout the long volatile corridor of time? Just as Nichiren intends in his explanation of Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô at the beginning of The Oral Transmission on the Meaning of the Dharma Flower Sutra (Ongi Kuden), I believe that those who do our practice should familiarize themselves with pages one and two of this translation and realize that Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô are words that are so meaningful that they go beyond any of the concepts of physics or psychology.
nirvana is extinction and was thought of as a state of enlightenment attained by Shākyamuni. The Sanskrit word itself means “the cessation of breathing” and has been translated in various ways such as “extinction”, “emancipation”, “cessation” and also as “quietude” and “no-rebirth”. Originally this concept was considered to be the state in which all illusions, delusions, desires and the cycles of living and dying have come to their end. Traditionally this implies a state which can only be obtained by extinguishing all illusions and all karma which is the cause of rebirth. According to the teachings of the universal vehicle, this idea entails neither coming into being (fushô) nor ceasing to exist (fumetsu) and is equated with the Buddha wisdom as well as being the embodiment of existence (hosshin, Dharmakâya). This is Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô which means to devote our lives to and found them on (Nam) the Utterness of the Dharma [entirety of existence] (Myôhô) permeated by the underlying white lotus flower-like mechanism of the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect (Renge) in its whereabouts of the ten realms of dharmas (Kyô). Nirvana has the four essential qualities of being eternal, happiness, being its own reality, and purity, hence the misnomer of the word being used in various businesses and entertainment. However, in the teachings of Nichiren Daishônin there are two psychological equations. The first, bonnô soku bodai means that our troublesome worries (bonnô) which consist of all the unduly persistent neurotic material that goes round and round in our heads are not separate from and at the same time can lead to our enlightenment, since it is humankind’s fundamental destiny to ponder out the meaning of its existence. The second expression shoji soku nehan is to realize that the cycles of living and dying are not separate from the hosshin (Dharmakâya) which is what existence really is. For the ordinary people like us, it is highly unlikely that we can arrive at the stage of eliminating all illusion and the whole of our inherent karma or even get rid of our fundamental unenlightenment of being continually incapable of realizing what existence really is (gan pon no mumyô).
The big problem with writing about death is that I do not remember my own experiences of the space between dying and being reborn again. However, what I am really qualified to write about is what the Buddha teaching says about this intriguing experience that we must all undergo and have undergone in the past. Death (shi, marana) according to the Buddha teaching, is the disintegration of the five aggregates which give us the illusion of being persons: [1) bodily form, 2) the various ways that the body perceives things, 3) which induces thought which at the same time are influenced by 4) volition and habits acquired from previous lifetimes, all of which create 5) the way we comprehend existence]. Usually it is our bodily form that either ceases to function in a viable manner or is damaged to such an extent that it is no longer capable of living. What does survive is a consciousness in a dream world where all that is seen or heard are simply projections from memories that we have lived and visionary fantasies embedded in our own minds. It would seem that the part of us that is a consciousness in another dimension remains in a state of unawareness for the first three or four days from the moment of death. It is precisely at this time when we are confronted with what we in the West call the clear light. For those who follow the teachings of Nichiren, this is Shinnyo or tathatâ, which might be translated as suchness. It is the true form of things and indicates the absolute reality which transcends the multitude of dharmas that we come across in our daily lives. Shinnyo is regarded as being identical with the hosshin or Dharmakâya and cannot be expressed in words or contemplated by unenlightened beings such as we are. The clear light might also be understood as the immaculate consciousness (amarashiki, amalavijñâna) which is considered to be the pure aspect of the storehouse consciousness (arayashiki, âlayavijñâna). This experience might be seen as nirvana, which originally is the state of enlightenment attained by Shākyamuni. Albeit most of us are in a state of swoon when the apparition of this essential of existence occurs, as well as most of us being incapable of maintaining a state of mind that would correspond to this revealing experience, my personal view is that this mind-revealing event refers to “becoming a Buddha in a single lifetime”. Nonetheless, it would appear that due to our inherent karma and unenlightenment this clear light fades away. It is in these circumstances that the consciousness of what remains of us becomes aware of its own demise. This is where the second phase that exists between dying and living and being reborn (chû’in, antarâbhava) occurs, which is referred to as the transitioned state of what existence is in reality. This second phase differs from the first. According to some texts about this encounter with the reality of existence (Dharma), “It is like a sky without clouds.” This dimension which is completely devoid of any conscious mental activity appears as having no central point or any limits. It is at this stage that practitioners due to the practice and study of a lifetime might be able to identify themselves with this visionary experience and attain complete enlightenment, since this is the relativity (kû, shûnyatâ) of all the realms of dharmas whose underlying white lotus flower-like mechanism of the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect permeates the entirety of existence [i.e. Myôhô Renge Kyô]. During the third phase of the antarâbhava (bardo), a few Nichiren texts mention visions of Spirit Vulture Peak as a manifestation of the Fundamental Object of Veneration or even the text of the liturgical pamphlet of whatever Nichiren school the defunct person may have belonged to. This stage of the space, between dying and being born again, is highly related to the departed person’s fundamental faith. For instance, there may be practitioners of the Nichiren teachings who see what they imagine Spirit Vulture Peak to be. Christians might even see Saint Peter and the Pearly Gates and people who follow other faiths may see apparitions of their respective heavenly paradises. Such experiences all have something to do with the disintegration and the restructuring of the psyche of the person who has passed away. As to the following phase of the space between dying and rebirth, which is an experience that hardly anyone can avoid, the only recommendation I can suggest is that if the deceased can remember to recite Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô it will help that individual to cross over this difficult period. As to the reshaping of the psyche in the womb, I can only imagine that the new person will have visions of the mind’s antipodes which consist of preconscious images of stars, lights, rainbows, fantastic landscapes and colours all of which are the workings of the storehouse of consciousness (alayavijñâna). This would occur when we have opened up our six faculties of perception, even before they will take hold of anything and everything they perceive, even before we have words for these new experiences of reality. On coming to the fourth phase of the passage through the intermediate stage of dying and being reborn again, karma is all powerful, and the persons who have died sink into less illuminating dimensions where they are faced with not so pleasant experiences derived from their religious upbringing, their childhood, their schooldays and other events in their lives. What have these defunct persons done spiritually to rectify all that was wrong in their lives? All this has a bearing on where and what sort of family the departed individual is born into. There are numerous books available on the subject of death. However, those people who are worried about dying and all that it entails should look into what this translation project is about and find sincere people to guide them into the necessary practice.
Martin Bradley
 THE DHARMA FLOWER SUTRA SEEN THROUGH THE ORAL TRANSMISSION OF NICHIREN DAISHÔNIN by Martin Bradley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License. |
nasalization which is a sound pronounced with the breath passing through the nose as m, n, ng, or “un” or “en” in French. This phonetic sound quality is written -- at the top of the letter and is called a bindu in Indian languages; secondly we have the body of the letter ha. This germ syllable (ham) stands for the psychological archetype Fudô Myô’ô (Achala) who aids practitioners to overcome the obstacles that hinder Buddhist practice. The word Myô’ô literally means a sovereign endowed with wisdom (vidyârâja), these sovereigns being archetypes frequently found in esoteric Buddhism. Here I use the word archetype since all Buddhas, devas, Christ and all his angels, as well as all demons and devils exist nowhere else except in our heads. These sovereigns endowed with wisdom are usually represented as having a ferocious and frightening appearance whose role is to destroy all sorts of negative forces on the order of Dainichi Noyorai (Mahâvairochana). This archetype is depicted in a meditative state (sammai, samâdhi) which emits flames (kasho zammai) that destroys all karmic obstacles. Because this archetype Fudô Myo’o (Achala) never yields to any hindrances whatsoever, he is given the name Fudô which means “immovable” and “unyielding”. In popular Japanese images, this archetype is represented as a ferocious personage with protruding lower fang-like teeth whose body is indigo in colour and whose person is surrounded by flames. He holds a sword in his right hand and a noosed rope in his left. Fudô Myô’ô’s germ syllable (ham) is on the facing right-hand side of the Fundamental Object of Veneration that was drawn up by the Patriarch Nikken [67th patriarch of Nichiren Shoshu]. The top of the bindu, i.e. nasalization, is like a comma on the left-hand side of the ideogram “dai” which in this case means “universal” [as in the four universal sovereigns] of the name Daijikokutennô (Dhritarâshtra Mahâdevarâja). The crescent moon part of this bindu is on the left-hand corner of the ideogram “kokû”. The tail of the main body of this letter – touches the ideograms for Daikômokutennô (Virûpâksha Mâhadevarâja). With regard to this germ syllable for Fudô Myô’ô, Nichiren states that this archetype signifies “the cycles of living and dying are not separate from nirvana” [which implies the enlightenment of how existence works, i.e. all that entails the significance of Nam Myôhô Renge Kyô]. As well as representing grace, mercy, benevolence or charity, Fudô Myô’ô also symbolizes perception in the sense of sagacity (kan) as well as astute insight (chi). All these qualities appertain to the mind (shin, kokoro).
we have the germ syllable Hum for Aizen Myô’ô (Râgarâja) whose role is to free humans from their troublesome worries (bonnô) as well as the delusions that stem from our distorted view of things, also on the order of Dainichi Nyorai (Mahâvairochana). On the mandala of the diamond (Kongo, Vajra), which here is a symbol of indestructibility of the Mantra and Tantric School (Shingon), the body of Aizen is red; he has three eyes and six arms. His aspect is ferocious and like Fudô Myô’ô has fang-like lower teeth. In his hands he holds a bow with arrows. On the Fundamental Object of Veneration this Sanskrit germ syllable has the implication of “troublesome worries (bonnô) are not separate from (soku) enlightenment” (Bonnô soku bodai). This germ syllable is also associated with shiki (rûpa) which means the forms of materiality as well as sex. This syllable is also related to the Chinese ideogram jô which is interpreted as samâdhi. Samâdhi is the intensive contemplation or perfect absorption of thought into one object of meditation or abstract meditation in the realms of form and beyond form. Perfect samâdhi is one of the attributes of the hosshin (Dharmakâya) that is an internal state of imperturbability exempt from all external sensations. At the same time this germ syllable is connected to the Chinese ideogram Kyô (vishaya) which means a region, the environment, colours, forms, sounds, smells etc. Or perhaps this ideogram may be understood as any perception of what we understand as reality. On the Fundamental Object of Veneration that was transcribed by the Patriarch Nikken, the top point of the nasalization starts at the upper horizontal stroke of the ideogram “dai” [which means universality] and looks rather like a comma. The moonlike shape of the phonetic sign that indicates nasalization is on the side of the ideogram for “mon” in the name of Daibishamontennô. The bottom of the body of this syllable reaches down as far as Daizôjôtennô.