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Grade 1 Study Course material 2008 Section A. Nichiren Daishonin’s Life |
Childhood periodNichiren Daishonin was born on 16 February 1222, into a fishing family in the village of Kominato, in the region of Awa (presently in the Chiba prefecture). His parents called him Zennichimaro (‘Splendid Sun’). At the age of 11 he became a novice-monk at Seicho-ji temple, near Mount Kiyosumi in Awa; in those days there were no schools, and temples served as centres of learning. Initially, Seicho-ji was attached to the Tendai school [1], which taught the supremacy of the Lotus Sutra. Later it fell under the influence of first the True Word school [2], with its mystic rituals, and later the Pure Land school [3], which taught belief in Amida Buddha. There was much confusion within Buddhism at that time about what was the true or correct teaching.
Becoming the wisest person of Japan
As Zennichimaro advanced in his studies, serious doubts arose in his mind about Buddhist teachings and their effect on the society of his time. How was it that the doctrines taught by the Buddha had given rise to schools with such contradictory tenets? And why, despite sincere Buddhist prayers for peace, had Japan been subjected to years of conflict? Zennichimaro prayed to a statue of Bodhisattva Space Treasury to become the wisest person in Japan. In a letter to a follower in 1277, Nichiren Daishonin wrote, ‘Since childhood, I, Nichiren, have never prayed for the secular things of this life but have single-mindedly sought to become a Buddha.’ (WND p. 839)
The years of study
In his search for truth, Zennichimaro thoroughly studied the doctrines of the Eight Schools [4] as well as those of the later Zen and Jodo schools, and on 8 October 1237, in his sixteenth year, was ordained a priest by Dozen-bo, the chief priest of Seicho-ji. In becoming a priest he took the religious name Zesho-bo Rencho [5].
For a while Rencho remained at Seicho-ji but, probably during the spring of 1239 at the age of seventeen, journeyed to Kamakura, where the shogunate was based, to further his studies. He briefly returned to Seicho-ji in the spring of 1242 before undertaking a second study journey, to Nara and Kyoto.
Rencho spent 12 years at the temples of Nara and the monasteries of Mount Hiei and Mount Koya [6], near Kyoto, and read all the important Buddhist texts he could. After some fourteen years of study, he finally became convinced that Shakyamuni’s ultimate teaching was found in the Lotus Sutra. Proclamation of Nam-myoho-renge-kyoWhen Rencho returned at the end of his long years of study, his old master, Dozen-bo, was very proud of him. To celebrate his return and to discover the depth of his knowledge, the priests organised a meeting at which Rencho was to preach a sermon, and invited dignitaries from the surrounding area. Very early on the morning of 28 April 1253 he chanted Nam-myoho-renge-kyo for the first time. Later that day a large audience duly gathered and at noon Rencho appeared and recited Nam-myoho-renge-kyo three times, declaring it to be the only teaching that would enable all human beings in the Latter Day of the Law to reach supreme enlightenment in this lifetime. His audience was surprised – no one had ever heard this invocation before.
Rencho declared that he had taken a new name, Nichiren (‘Sun Lotus’), and then refuted the four most influential Buddhist schools of the time. He criticised the Nembutsu School because of its teaching that salvation could be attained through the external power of an absolute being; Zen for its assertion that enlightenment could only be arrived through the direct perception of one’s own mind and with being content with that self-enlightenment; The True World School for teaching that benefit could be gained through mystic practices; and The Precepts School because of its focus on controlling people through strict precepts and rituals.
In pronouncing these so-called ‘four dictums’- Nichiren Daishonin [7] effectively declared that none of the existing Buddhist schools had the power to save humanity, and that practising their teachings actually caused suffering to individuals and society.
When the steward of the region, Tojo Kagenobu, a fervent believer of the Pure Land school, heard that Nichiren Daishonin had predicted the hell of incessant suffering to all those who practised it, he immediately issued an arrest warrant. With the help of Dozen-bo and others, Nichiren Daishonin escaped.
In the summer of 1253, Nichiren Daishonin went to Kamakura and settled in the small hermitage of Matsubagayatsu. In November 1253, a travelling priest became the first of Nichiren Daishonin’s disciples. He later became the eldest of the six elder priests, taking the name Nissho. Other disciples followed. Some were priests, others belonged to the families of samurai. Among these first disciples were Toki Jonin, Shijo Kingo, Kudo Yoshitaka and Ikegami Munenaka On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the peace of the LandDuring this period, famine and epidemics were ravaging the country. After the great Kamakura earthquake of May 1257, tremors shook the region, culminating in another huge earthquake in August, and again in November. In August 1258 violent winds ravaged Kamakura and a tempest hit Kyoto. In October 1258 torrential rain beat down on Kamakura, causing a flood that killed many people. In March 1259 and in April 1260, in accordance with custom, the government proclaimed new eras in order to try to surmount these calamities, to no avail: the extraordinary phenomena continued unabated.
In 1258, Nichiren Daishonin went to Jisso-ji, a temple in Iwamoto that contained in its library all of Shakyamuni’s sutras. There he met a twelve-year-old novice, Hoki-bo, who soon expressed the desire to become his disciple. In time, as Nikko Shonin, he would become Nichiren Daishonin’s immediate successor.
The Daishonin consulted all the sutras in Jisso-ji’s library, seeking to determine the fundamental cause of, and remedy to, human suffering, in particular the suffering then being experienced by the Japanese people. He concluded that the nation’s misfortunes sprang from its disregard and slander of the Lotus Sutra. In several places, Shakyamuni makes it clear that his fundamental teachings are only found in the Lotus Sutra. All the Buddhist schools in Japan at this period, however, with the exception of the Tendai school, were founded on Shakyamuni’s provisional teachings, expounded prior to the Lotus Sutra. Even the Tendai school, which was originally based on the Lotus Sutra, had become sullied by the teachings of the True Word and Pure Land schools.
The First Remonstration with the Government
Nichiren Daishonin formulated the conclusion of his research in a treatise entitled ‘On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land’. On 16 July 1260, he presented this treatise to Hojo Tokiyori, the retired regent but still Japan’s most influential political figure. The treatise is known as Nichiren Daishonin’s first remonstration with the government, and begins with a description of the misery of the era:
Once there was a traveller who spoke these words in sorrow to his host: ‘In recent years, there have been unusual disturbances in the heavens, strange occurrences on earth, famine and pestilence, all affecting every corner of the empire and spreading throughout the land. Oxen and horses lie dead in the streets and the bones of the stricken crowd the highways. Over half the population has already been carried off by death, and there is hardly a single person who does not grieve.’ (WND, p. 6)
Nichiren Daishonin expressed his conviction that the fundamental cause of the disasters that had struck the country lay in the fact that everyone, ‘from the sovereign to the most humble’, was opposed to or ignorant of the teaching of the Lotus Sutra. He particularly criticised Honen, the founder of the Pure Land school. Quoting the Great Collection sutra and the Medicine Master sutras, which elaborate the three calamities and the seven disasters [8], Nichiren Daishonin predicted that civil war and foreign invasion, the only disasters that had not yet occurred, would surely happen if the country continued to reject correct teaching, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
Nichiren Daishonin knew perfectly well that he would encounter violent persecution if he addressed his treatise to Hojo Tokiyori, but did so nonetheless from profound compassion, considering the sufferings of others as though they were his own. Sure enough, priests and believers of the Pure Land school soon took action against Nichiren Daishonin and his disciples.
Persecution at Matsubagayatsu and Exile to Izu
During the night of 27 August 1260, several hundred Pure Land followers attacked Nichiren Daishonin’s dwelling at Matsubagayatsu. The action was instigated by Hojo Shigetoki, father of the current regent Hojo Nagatoki and a Pure Land school follower. Fortunately, Nichiren Daishonin managed to escape and took refuge at the house of one of his disciples, Toki Jonin. In spite of the danger, Nichiren Daishonin returned to Kamakura the following spring and once again began to propagate his teachings. His overwhelming desire was to awaken the Japanese people to the truth of Buddhism.
The Pure Land school priests continued to slander Nichiren Daishonin to the authorities. This time the regent himself, Hojo Nakatoki, supported their accusations and on 12 May 1261, without even a court case, the government sent Nichiren Daishonin into exile to Ito, a Pure Land school stronghold on the Izu peninsula.
He was abandoned on a beach by his guards as they reached Ito and left to his fate. Despite the hostility felt towards exiles, Nichiren Daishonin was taken in and cared for by a fisherman called Funamaori Yasuburo and his wife. Later, they became his disciples. This clearly shows the affinity Nichiren Daishonin had with ordinary people, a feeling that was increasingly reciprocated during his lifetime. Shortly thereafter, hearing that the local steward was ill, Nichiren Daishonin successfully prayed for his recovery: the lord also became a follower.
In February 1263, after almost two years in Izu, the Daishonin was pardoned. As he explains in ‘On Persecutions Befalling the Sage’, ‘the lay priest of Saimyo-ji [Hojo-Tokiyori 1227-1263], now deceased, and the priest ruler [Hojo Tokimune 1251-1284] permitted my return from my exile when they found I was innocent of the accusations against me’. (WND, p. 997) It is also likely that Hojo Tokiyori understood Nichiren Daishonin’s true intention in sending him ‘On Establishing the Correct Teaching’ in July 1260, and shared his desire to protect the Japanese people from further catastrophes. Once pardoned, the Daishonin returned to Kamakura.
The Komatsubara Persecution
In autumn 1264, learning about the serious illness of his mother, Nichiren Daishonin decided to visit Awa for the first time in ten years. His father had died in 1258. On 11 November 1264, on his way to visit his disciple Kudo Yoshitaka, his old enemy Tojo Kagenobu, steward of the region, ambushed the Daishonin and his disciples at a place called Komatsubara. Hearing of the attack, Yoshitaka rushed to the scene with some other followers. But they were outnumbered and Yoshitaka and another follower, Kyonin-bo, were killed. Although he escaped safely, Nichiren Daishonin himself was injured on the forehead by a sword and had his left arm broken. This incident is known as the Komatsubara Persecution.
Nichiren Daishonin returned to Kamakura in early 1268. In January of that year an envoy from the Mongol Empire had arrived in Kamakura with a message demanding that Japan acknowledge fealty to their empire, or face invasion. The envoy was sent back empty-handed and the Japanese government began to prepare for war. This confirmed Nichiren Daishonin’s prediction of foreign invasion, made in ‘On Establishing the Correct Teaching’. In April 1268, Nichiren Daishonin sent ‘The Rationale for writing “On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land”’ to an active member of the government. In it he explained the circumstances leading to his writing the treatise, and reminded the shogunate of its conclusions:
Now, nine years after I presented my memorial [to the lay priest of Saimyo-ji], in the intercalary first month of this year [1268], the official letter arrived from the great kingdom of the Mongols. The events that have occurred match the predictions made in my memorial as exactly as do the two halves of a tally. (WND, p. 163)
In October, he sent letters to eleven high-ranking political and religious leaders pointing out that his predictions were now being fulfilled, and calling for a public religious debate to demonstrate the validity of his teachings. His appeal was ignored. Nichiren Daishonin was a man of great learning, reason enough for the religious leaders of Kamakura to refuse to debate with him. But he knew that there was another reason for their refusal, which had been clearly stated in the thirteenth chapter of the Lotus Sutra:
These men with evil in their hearts, constantly thinking of worldly affairs, will borrow the name of forest-dwelling monks… [9]
In short, he knew them to be hypocrites who preached doctrines they themselves could or would not put into action.
The second warning to the government
In 1271, Japan suffered a severe drought and the government asked Ryokan, chief priest of the True Word-Precepts school, and considered the foremost Buddhist scholar of the city, to pray for rain. When Nichiren Daishonin heard this, he issued a public challenge, vowing to become Ryokan’s disciple if he managed to make it rain within seven days. If Ryokan failed, however, he should become the Daishonin’s disciple. Ryokan accepted the challenge, but was humiliated when his prayers failed. Rather than discarding his beliefs, however, he plotted to get rid of his rival. Conspiring with his followers, he began to spread false rumours about the Daishonin among the wives of leading government officials.
The tactic worked. On 10 September 1271, Nichiren Daishonin was summoned and questioned by Hei no Saemon, Deputy Chief of the Office of Military and Police Affairs (the chief being the regent himself). Nichiren Daishonin repeated his prediction that the nation would fall into ruin if the true Law continued to be slandered. This encounter is known as the second remonstration with the government. Writing of this meeting in the Gosho, ‘The Actions of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra’, Nichiren Daishonin warns Hei no Saemon:
If you wish to maintain this land in peace and security, it is imperative that you summon the priests of the other schools for a debate in your presence. If you ignore this advice and punish me unreasonably on their behalf, the entire country will regret your decision. If you condemn me, you will be rejecting the Buddha’s envoy… (WND, p.765)
The meeting ended without agreement. The Tatsunokuchi PersecutionOn the night of 12 September 1271, Hei no Saemon and a troop of armed soldiers arrested Nichiren Daishonin. Treating him like a traitor, they took him to Tatsunokuchi beach, an execution site near Kamakura: on his own initiative, Hei no Saemon had decided to have Nichiren Daishonin beheaded. On the way to Tatsunokuchi the arresting party passed the shrine to Hachiman, one of Japan’s protective deities. The Daishonin asked to stop and at once he reprimanded Hachiman:
Great Bodhisattva Hachiman, are you truly a god? … I, Nichiren, am the foremost votary of the Lotus Sutra in all of Japan, and an entirely without guilt… When Shakyamuni Buddha expounded the Lotus Sutra, Many Treasures Buddha and the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions gathered, shining like so many suns and moons, stars and mirrors. In the presence of the countless heavenly gods as well as the benevolent deities and sages of India, China, and Japan, Shakyamuni Buddha urged each one to submit a written pledge to protect the votary of the Lotus Sutra at all times. Each and every one of you gods made this pledge. I should not have to remind you. Why do you not appear at once to fulfil your solemn oath?’ …If I am executed tonight and go to the pure land of Eagle Peak, I will dare to report to Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings, that the Sun Goddess and Great Bodhisattva Hachiman are the deities who have broken their oath to him. If you feel this will go hard with you, you had better do something about it right away! (WND, p. 767)
So saying, Nichiren Daishonin remounted his horse and the party continued on to Tatsunokuchi. Sent for by his master, Shijo Kingo [10] rushed barefoot to join him, with his three brothers. He held the reins of Nichiren Daishonin’s horse until they reached the execution site, ready to give his own life. At the moment when Nichiren Daishonin was about to be beheaded, however, a bright object crossed the sky. Panicking, the executioner threw away his sword and the petrified soldiers were unable to proceed with the execution.
This event is of the utmost significance. Not only did the Buddhist gods [11] protect Nichiren Daishonin, saving him from death, but at this crucial moment he revealed his true identity as the original Buddha by discarding his provisional or transient identity as ‘the votary of the Lotus Sutra’:
On the twelfth day of the ninth month of last year, between the hours of the Rat and the Ox (11 pm to 3 am), this person named Nichiren was beheaded. It is his soul that has come to the island of Sado.’ (WND, p. 269)
Exile to Sado Island
The authorities detained Nichiren Daishonin, at Echi, Sagami prefecture, as they tried to decide what to do. The verdict was exile once more, and so, on 10 October 1271, he was taken north from Echi, to Sado Island in the Sea of Japan. Here, on 1 November, he was forced to settle in a small, ruined temple in an old cemetery at Tsukahara. He had no warm clothes or enough food to sustain him against the terrible, cold weather. Moreover, the inhabitants of the island were very hostile; not only were they mainly Pure Land school believers, but exiles to Sado were, for the most part, common criminals.
The authorities did not expect the Daishonin to survive the winter, but far from dying, Nichiren Daishonin increasingly won support from the local population and converted many individuals to his teachings, including Abutsu-bo and his wife, Ko Nyudo and his wife, Nakaoki Nyudo and Sairen-bo Nichijyo.
The leaders of the other Buddhist schools were not satisfied, even with their foe in exile. Early in 1272 scores of priests converged on the island from their home provinces. But the deputy constable, Homma Shigetsura, dashed their hopes for a quick end to their enemy by telling them:
An official letter from the regent directs that the priest shall not be executed. This is no ordinary, contemptible criminal, and if anything happens to him, I, Shigetsura, will be guilty of grave dereliction. Instead of killing him, why don’t you confront him in religious debate? (WND, p. 771)
The ‘Tsukahara Debate’ – as it became known – duly took place on 16-17 January 1272, pitting Nichiren Daishonin against several hundred priests of the other schools. He describes the event in the Gosho ‘The Actions of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra’:
I responded to each, establishing the exact meaning of what had been said, then coming back with questions. However, I needed to ask only one or two at most before they were completely silenced… I overturned them as easily as a sharp sword cutting through a melon or a gale bending the grass. They not only were poorly versed in the Buddhist teachings but contradicted themselves. They confused sutras with treatises or commentaries with treatises. (WND, pp.771-772)
After the debate, many of those attending abandoned their beliefs, or even converted to the Nichiren Daishonin’s teachings. In February, the predictions of a civil war made by the Daishonin twelve years earlier, in ‘On Establishing the Correct Teaching’, became reality when conflicts arose within the ruling Hojo clan, which culminated in violent clashes at both Kamakura and Kyoto. The government began to take Nichiren Daishonin more seriously and he was transferred in April from his hut at Tsukahara to an ordinary residence at Ichinosawa on Sado Island.
Shortly after the Tatsunokuchi Persecution, while still on the mainland, Nichiren Daishonin had begun to inscribe personal Gohonzon for his closest followers. On Sado, he produced many important writings including, ‘The Opening of the Eyes’, ‘The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind’, ‘The Entity of the Mystic Law’ and ‘Letter from Sado’. These are so important because they explain the significance of the Gohonzon and, in so doing, lay the foundations of the Daishonin’s teachings. For example, ‘The Opening of the Eyes’ explains why the Daishonin is the person qualified to establish the Gohonzon. ‘The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind’ explains why Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the Law to be established, why in the form of the Gohonzon, and why the present period is the correct time for the establishment of the supreme object of devotion.
The End of Exile
In February 1274, the then regent, Hojo Tokimune, granted Nichiren Daishonin permission to leave Sado Island. This was probably motivated by two events that took place in 1273: the attempted rebellion of Hojo Tokimune’s brother, and the arrival, once again, of a Mongol delegation to Japan. Both confirmed the Daishonin’s predictions.
The third remonstration with the government and departure for Mount Minobu
He left Ichinosawa on 13 March for Kamakura and on 8 April met Hei no Saemon at the latter’s request. For the third time, he remonstrated with the government, warning that the Mongol invasion was imminent, but still the government refused to listen. A few months later, in October, Kublai Khan’s forces attacked the southern part of Japan. According to ancient Chinese custom, if a sage gives three warnings to the authorities and these warnings go unheeded, he should retire to a mountain retreat. Therefore, Nichiren Daishonin retired to the remoteness of Mount Minobu, in present-day Yamanashi prefecture. At Minobu he would continue to write and to raise disciples capable of propagating the Law.
He devoted much of his time to writing, and nearly half of his extant works date from this period. He also spent much time lecturing and training his disciples, in particular Nikko Shonin. Nikko Shonin faithfully recorded these lectures in the The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings.
The Atsuhara Persecution and fulfilment of the Daishonin’s mission
In 1275, Nikko Shonin took the lead in propagating Nichiren Daishonin’s teachings in the Fuji area, centred on the village of Atsuhara, and succeeded in converting many lay people (mostly farmers) and priests. One strong lay supporter in the area was Nanjo Tokimitsu, who, though still only in his late teens, contributed wholeheartedly to the propagation movement.
The propagation caused intense opposition from the local temples. In particular, the assistant chief priest of a Tendai temple in Atsuhara village, Gyochi, grew increasingly jealous. Seeing his income threatened, he began to harass the Daishonin’s followers and falsely accused twenty disciples of stealing rice while harvesting the temple’s fields. He conspired to have them arrested and taken to Kamakura on 21 September 1279, where he tried to force them to renounce their faith in Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. They refused, even under torture and the threat of death. Meanwhile, Nanjo Tokimitsu fought at the risk of his life to protect the Law and his precious fellow believers, despite severe government reprisals – he was so heavily taxed, for example, that he even had to sell his horse, a vital necessity.
Nichiren Daishonin was deeply moved by the attitude of these disciples, who were ready to give their lives if need be to defend the Law. Realising that the time had come for him to fulfil his ultimate purpose in life, on 12 October 1279, he inscribed the Dai-Gohonzon. In the Gosho ‘On Persecutions Befalling the Sage’, he discusses the significance of this event:
Now, in the second year of Koan [1279], cyclical sign tsuchinoto-u, it has been twenty-seven years since I first proclaimed this teaching at Seicho-ji temple. It was at the hour of the horse [noon] on the twenty-eighth day of the fourth month in the fifth year of Kencho [1253], cyclical sign mizunoto-ushi, on the southern side of the image hall in the Shobutsu-bo of Seicho-ji temple in Tojo Village. Tojo is now a district, but was then a part of Nagasa District of Awa Province. Here is located what was once the second, but is now the country’s most important centre founded by Minamoto no Yoritomo, the general of the right, to the Sun Goddess. The Buddha fulfilled the purpose of his advent in a little over forty years, the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai took about thirty years, and the Great Teacher Dengyo, some twenty years. I have spoken repeatedly of the indescribable persecutions they suffered during those years. For me it took twenty-seven years, and the great persecutions I faced during this period are well known to you all. (WND, p. 996)
Three days later, on 15 October, three of the farmer-disciples held in Kamakura were beheaded. The seventeen others still refused to recant, and were banished from Atsuhara. The harassment of the Daishonin’s followers continued intermittently for a time. Collectively, the persecution of his followers in and around Atsuhara from 1275 to 1281 is known as the Atsuhara Persecution.
Transmission of the Law and the death of Nichiren Daishonin
By 1280, Nichiren Daishonin had already decided upon Nikko Shonin as his successor, as he states in the document that he transferred to him, ‘The One Hundred and Six Comparisons’. Nikko was clearly foremost among his disciples in faith, practice and study. He accompanied and served Nichiren Daishonin twice in exile (in Izu and on Sado), and he was also the most active in propagation activities and in training other disciples. Nikko had a deep respect for Nichiren Daishonin as the Buddha for this age, and understood the profound meaning of his teachings from the viewpoint of faith. He was therefore the person to whom Nichiren Daishonin transferred all his teachings and the Dai-Gohonzon, inscribed for all humankind, in September 1282. He formally certified Nikko as his successor and the leader of the propagation of his Buddhism in the ‘Document for Entrusting the Law Which Nichiren Propagated throughout His Life’. Shortly after this, on 8 September 1282, his health deteriorating further, the Daishonin left Mount Minobu, where he had lived for nine years, and went to the Hitachi hot springs en route to the residence of one of his lifelong followers, Ikegami Munenaka. Here, in Musashi (present day Tokyo), he drew up his final testament for the future. On 8 October he designated six senior priests as his most important priest-disciples - Nissho, Nichiro, Nikko, Niko, Nitcho and Nichiji – and entrusted them with the mission to train and develop followers in the different regions of Japan.
On 13 October, just before his death, Nichiren Daishonin wrote a second transfer document, ‘Document for Entrusting Minobu-san’, again designating Nikko as his legitimate successor. In this he entrusts all of his teachings to Nikko and appoints him high priest of Kuon temple. [12]
At Ikegami Munenaka’s home that same day, aged 60, Nichiren Daishonin passed away. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This article is an adaptation of an article already on the SGI European Study website. It is also published in the November 2004 edition of SGI-UK’s study magazine Art of Living [pp. 14-21]. Footnotes: 1. A school founded by Dengyo in Japan. Its head temple is Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei. In 804 Dengyo made the journey to T’ang China, where he completed his study of the T’ien-t’ai (Jp. Tendai) teachings. He returned to Japan in 805 and officially founded the Tendai school in 806. Jikaku and Chisho, respectively the third and fifth chief priests of Enryaku-ji, incorporated esoteric teachings into the doctrine of the Tendai school. Hence the Tendai school in Japan rapidly assumed the character of esotericism, differing in this respect from the Chinese. 2. True Word school. A reference to the Chinese Chen-yen school and the Japanese Shingon school. (Shingon, or true word, is the Japanese pronunciation of chen-yen.) It follows the esoteric doctrines found in the Mahavairochana and the Diamond Crown sutras, which were later introduced to Japan by Kobo. 3. Pure Land school. A school that teaches the attainment of rebirth in the Pure Land of Amida Buddha by means of the chanting of Amida’s name. Honen is the founder of the Japanese Pure Land school. In Japan, the Pure Land school is also called the Nembutsu school. 4. The eight major schools of Buddhism in Japan before the Kamakura period (1185-1333). 5. The Chinese character ze is comprised of three radicals that signify ’the person’, ‘under’ and ‘the sun’; sho means ‘sage’ or ‘sacred’; Rencho means ‘lotus growth’.6. Monasteries of Mount Hiei and Mount Koya: head temples, respectively, of the Tendai and True Word schools.7. Daishonin – Literally, ‘Great Sage’; an honorific title later given to Nichiren by his disciples.8. A reference to two sets of three calamities – lesser and greater. The three lesser calamities are warfare, pestilence and famine. The calamity of famine is also called the calamity of high grain prices or inflation, because inflation was caused by a shortage of grain. The three greater calamities are those of fire, water and wind. These calamities occur at the end of a kalpa. The three lesser calamities are often referred to in conjunction with the seven disasters as the ‘three calamities and seven disasters’. 9. LS13, p. 19410. (1230-1300) Samurai and disciple of Nichiren Daishonin.11. (Jp. shoten zenjin): benevolent heavenly beings. Traditionally, gods who assembled to listen to Shakyamuni teach the Lotus Sutra and vowed to guard its devotees, but interpreted to mean the life-supporting and protecting power inherent in the universe, including one’s own life, which can be activated by one’s Buddhist practice.12. Kuon temple: built at Mount Minobu in November 1281. |