Discussion of the “Encouraging Devotion” Chapter (Chapter 13).
Ikeda: How to live the very best life; how to be truly human— these thoughts are constantly on my mind. In this connection, let’s talk a bit about the great renaissance artist Michelangelo.
Michelangelo’s works from his later years include the huge fresco The Last Judgment (which measures 48 feet high by 43 feet wide). The painting includes a self-portrait. The manner in which he depicts himself is quite horrid; the flayed skin of St.
Bartholomew, which hangs limply in another’s grasp, carries the tragic mask of Michelangelo. As the vehicle for his self-portrait, he chose the raw flesh of a saint who in his martyrdom had been skinned alive.
Why does he depict himself-and only himself—in this fash-ion? There are many possible interpretations, but it seems to me that this is the image of someone who has truly lived his life for all it was worth. All the other figures in the fresco are drawn to perfection, their lifelike appearances given to them by Michel-angelo. He gave and gave, giving everything of himself to others, until at death he was reduced to a shapeless mass of discarded
This is the way of life of a bodhisattva. Seeing this painting, – sensed the ardent spirit of someone who, to paraphrase the Lotus Sutra, does not begrudge his own life (cf. LSI3, 194-95).
Endo: As a matter of fact, biographical accounts describe Michelangelo as very muscular,and as having a powerful and large frame.
In contrast, in this painting he reduces himself to nothing more
than a mass of skin.
Ikeda: Michelangelo was truly human, and he achieved excellence as an ordinary human being. Therein lay his greatness.
On another level, the essence of Buddhism is to live one’s life as a great ordinary person. To completely dedicate one’s life to others; to thoroughly exert oneself for the Law and for society; and to die having fully expended oneself-that is the way of life of a bodhisattva and a Buddha. It’s a matter of laying down one’s life; of fearlessly speaking out on behalf of justice; of exhausting one’s energy to bring people true happiness. Where this spirit is lacking, Buddhism does not exist.
The Lotus Sutra describes this selfless dedication with the words, “We care nothing for our bodies or lives / but are anxious only for the unsurpassed way” (LS13, 194-95). This is the spirit of the “Encouraging Devotion” chapter, which we are discussing in this chapter. This is also the essence of the spirit of the Soka movement. Fundamentally, the Soka movement exists only where people dedicate their lives to spreading the Law.
Saito: The purpose of Buddhist study, too, lies in thoroughly internalizing this essential spirit. In “The Emergence of the Treasure Tower,” which we discussed before, Shakyamuni indicates just how difficult it will be to expound the Lotus Sutra after his death, admonishing his listeners (in the “three pronouncements) to determine firmly to spread the sutra. In the subsequent “Deva-datta chapter, the great power of the Lotus Sutra is revealed through the enlightenment of evil people and women (i.e., the
‘two admonitions’).
The bodhisattvas, having heard these teachings, vow to expound the Lotus Sutra steadfastly, no matter how they are persecuted and attacked. It is here, in the “Encouraging Devotion” chapter, that they make this vow.
Suda: We could say that the vows of disciples constitute the theme of this chapter.
Saito: Their vows clarify the specific pattern that persecution fol-lows.
Suda: Namely, they describe the ‘three powerful enemies, a theme we have often discussed.
Ikeda: Because the concept of the three powerful enemies is such a familiar motif, let’s try to get to the heart of what they repre-sent. Why don’t we make the three powerful enemies our focus in discussing the “Encouraging Devotion” chapter?
STRUGGLE FOR THE LAW WHERE YOU ARE NOW
In a muddied kalpa, in an evil age there will be many things to fear.
Evil demons will take possession of others
and through them curse, revile and heap shame on us.
But we, reverently trusting in the Buddha, will put on the armor of perseverance.
In order to preach this sutra we will bear these difficult things.
We care nothing for our bodies or lives but are anxious only for the unsurpassed way.
(LSI3, 194-95)
Endo: T’d like to begin by looking at the outline of the “Encour-aging Devotion” chapter.
Two chapters earlier, in “Treasure Tower, Shakyamuni turns to his disciples and asks who among them will expound the Lotus Sutra in the strife-ridden saha world after his death. He tells them, in other words, that he is not long for this world and that he wishes to pass the baton by entrusting someone with the Lotus Sutra. He explains that after he has entered extinction it will be very difficult for people to uphold this sutra, but those who do will “win the admiration of the Buddhas” and “quickly attain the unsurpassed Buddha way?” If anyone can uphold this sutra after the Buddha’s death, he says:
Now in the presence of the Buddha let him come forward and speak his vow!
(ISTI, 180-8I)
In response to the Buddha’s entreaty, Bodhisattva Medicine King, Bodhisattva Great Joy of Preaching and others make this
voW:
We beg the World-Honored One to have no further worry. After the Buddha has entered extinction we will honor, embrace, read, recite and preach this sutra. Living beings in the evil age to come will have fewer and fewer good roots. Many will be overbearingly arrogant and greedy for offerings and other forms of gain, increasing the roots that are not good and moving farther away than ever from emancipation. But although it will be difficult to teach and convert them, we will summon up the power of great patience and will read and recite this sutra, embrace, preach and copy it, offering it many kinds of alms and never begrudging our bodies or lives. (LS13, I90-9I)
Ikeda: “Never begrudging our bodies or lives,” they say, vowing to propagate the Lotus Sutra in the saha world despite the many difficulties this will entail.
Endo: Next, vows are recited by a succession of other disciples who had earlier received assurance that in the future they would become Buddhas.
Ikeda: Their vows, however, are decidedly different trom the vows of Bodhisattva Medicine King and the disciples in the first group.
Endo: Yes. The first group of bodhisattvas determines to spread the sutra in this world. But the next group of disciples says that,
“Because in this saha world the people are given to corruption and evil,” they will broadly preach the sutra “in other lands?”The reason they give is that the people of the saha world are ridden with faults; they are described as beset by overbearing arrogance, shallow in blessings, irascible…and their hearts are not sincere” (LS13, I9I).
Ikeda: That’s quite a laundry list! Sadly, however, this is indeed the true state of people’s lives.
Endo: This second group of disciples, the voice-hearers,’ had received prophecies of future enlightenment from Shakyamuni. By this point they had already entered the path of the bodhisattva. But since they are still “novice bodhisattvas,” they think they cannot endure the difficulty of spreading the teaching in the saha world, so replete with corruption and evil. This is the interpretation of the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai of China.?
Ikeda: Their saying that they will go to “other lands” might express a universal tendency among people to want to shy away from difcult circumstances and go instead somewhere peaceful. But the spirit of the Lotus Sutra is to live with blazing vigor and joy right where we are, basking in the brilliance of the world of Bud-dhahood inherently possessed and eternally existing in our lives.
As Nichiren Daishonin says, “It is not the case that he [a practi-toner of the Lotus Sutra leaves his present place and goes to some other place” (GZ, 78I).
Satto: In his preaching, Shakyamunı had urged them to spread the Lotus Sutra in the saha world. While all the disciples were overjoyed to know that they would attain enlightenment, only those in the first group replied to the Buddha’s true intent.
Suda: No doubt Shakyamuni was disappointed with those who didn’t.
Ikeda: Nichiren Daishonin says: “How exasperated he must have been! That is why the Buddha turned aside and looked earnestly at the eight hundred thousand million nayutas of bodhisattvas” (WND, IIOS-06). He is referring to the scene where women who had received prophecies of enlightenment vow that they, too, will spread this sutra in “lands in other regions” (LS13, 192).
Suda: Shakyamuni had just given prophecies of enlightenment to the nuns Maharajapati, his aunt, and Yashodhara, his wife before leaving secular life, and their followers.
Saito: It appears that, even after the dragon girl attained enlight-enment, these women still worried about whether they, too, could become Buddhas. Immediately sensing their anxiety, Shakyamuni announces to them that if they practice the bodhisattva way they can definitely attain enlightenment.
Ikeda: Nichiren Daishonin says, “When she [the dragon gir) attained Buddhahood, this does not mean simply that one person did so. It reveals the fact that all women will attain Buddhahood” (WND, 269). In other words, the dragon girl’s enlightenment in
“Devadatta” indicates the enlightenment of all women —not just the dragon girl. The dragon girl symbolizes all women.
But while some, upon hearing such a general pronouncement, ers will not make this connection. That’s why it is important to Will immediately understand that the same applies to them, oth-offer specific encouragement to each person.
If only large meetings were held, it would be difficult for all members to gain heartfelt understanding and make a deep determination in taith. The importance of giving detailed consideration to the situation of each person through one-to-one dialogue cannot be emphasized too strongly; encouraging individuals should be our primary concern. The SGI has developed to the extent it has because we have steadtastly adhered to this principle.
Saito: Mahaprajapati and Yashodhara were related to Shakyamuni.
It seems to me significant that the Buddha makes prophecies of enlightenment for the members of his family only after he has already predicted Buddhahood for many others. Similarly, among his ten major disciples, Shakyamuni’s son, Rahula, and Shakya-muni’s cousin, Ananda, are the last to receive predictions of enlightenment (in the “Prophecies Conferred on Learners and Adepts” chapter).
Ikeda: Perhaps this is a sign of just how difficult it is to teach the members of one’s own family about Buddhism. From Shakya-munis perspective, of course, all people were equal. He would never give people special or deferential treatment because they were his relatives. Consequently, the existence of this bond, rather than facilitating their receptivity to Shakyamuni’s teaching, may have actually made it that much more difficult for them to accept it. All the same, in the end, they each successfully entered the path of Buddhahood.
We can interpret the fact that they were the last to receive prophecies as indicative of this principle. There is no need to be impatient, therefore, it your spouse or your parents are reluctant to begin practicing, or if your children hesitate to embrace faith.
Nichiren Daishonin says, “Be firmly convinced that the benefits from this will extend to your parents, your grandparents, nay, even to countless living beings…” (WND, 533).
The important thing is that we ourselves are strong in faith, for we thereby open a path for everyone around us. Therefore, you can put your worries to rest. Once the sun rises in our lives, we can illuminate everything. That is why we should strive to become the sun of our homes and our families.
Saito: After this prophecy of enlightenment for women, countless other bodhisattvas approach Shakyamuni and, pressing their palms together, think, “If the World-Honored One should order us to embrace and preach this sutra, we would do as the Buddha instructed and broadly propagate this Law” (LS13, 192-93). But the Buddha says nothing. “The Buddha now is silent and gives us no such order,” they think. “What shall we do?” (LS13, 193).
Suda: At this point the bodhisattvas harden their resolve. “We will reply to the Buddha’s spirit!” “We will devote our lives to our own true wish!” And then they make a vow: “After the Thus Come One has entered extinction we will travel here and there, back and forth through the worlds in the ten directions to spread this sutra]” (IS13, 193).
Ikeda: In this passage, propagating the Lotus Sutra is termed
“travel[ing] here and there, back and forth through the worlds in the ten directions” (IS13, 193). The bodhisattvas are filled with the determination to travel anywhere to spread the Law.
Global kosen-rufu can only advance in reality if people take action traveling around the world time and again. It is with just this kind of determination that I have resolutely worked to open a path of worldwide kosen-rufu where none existed before. What remains is the question of how those who follow will further expand and develop that path.
Suda: I have had the opportunity to travel abroad a number of times. Whenever I see how the SGI is developing in different parts of the world, I deeply sense the rising tide of world kosen-rufu.
And I am overwhelmed by the thought of how difficult it must have been to develop things to this point.
Endo: The earnestness and vigor of the disciples vow is expressed by the famous line “to roar the lion’s roar” (LSI3, 193). Nichiren Daishonin explains the original meaning of the two Chinese characters for “lion”: “The first represents the Mystic Law as it 1s passed on by the mentor. The second indicates the Mystic Law as it is received by the disciples. The ‘roar’s the sound of mentor and disciples chanting in unison” (GZ, 748).
Tkeda: This is the united action of mentor and disciple.
Endo: The Daishonin says, “‘To roar the lion’s roar’ means to invoke Nam-myoho-renge-kyo in the Latter Day of the Law” (cf.
GZ, 748).
Ikeda: Here, “invoke” also carries the meaning of”to take the ini-tiative,” to take positive action. This is entirely different from doing something because someone has told you to; such a passive practice has nothing to do with the lion’s roar. That’s why Shakya-muni quietly watched to see what his disciples would do. The mentor roars; but then it is up to the disciples to roar in response.
Shakyamuni patiently waited and observed them.
Saito: In the Sanskrit text of the sutra, the “Encouraging Devo-tion” chapter is titled “Inexhaustible Effort,” expressing the vow of the disciples.
Suda: The entire chapter truly is a recitation of vows.
THE THREE POWERFUL ENEMIES
Suda: Next, l’d like to look closely at the so-called twenty-line verse that describes the three powerful enemies. This extended verse passage also expresses in its entirety the vow spoken by the
bodhisattvas.
Saito: It could be said that the twenty-line verse explains the concrete form that the six difficult acts, of the ‘six difficult and nine easy acts’ expounded in the earlier “Treasure Tower” chapter, will take.
Suda: Though known as the twenty-line verse, the section in fact consists of twenty four-line passages.
Endo: Toward the beginning of this section, we come upon the following description of the first of the three powerful enemies:
There will be many ignorant people who will curse and speak ill of us and will attack us with swords and staves, but we will endure all these things. (LS13, 193)
As the Great Teacher Miao-lo of China indicates, this passage reveals the powerful enemy identified as ignorant lay people.
Suda: It explains that laymen and laywomen who are ignorant of Buddhism will verbally harass and commit physical violence against the votaries of the Lotus Sutra.
Ikeda: One or two instances of verbal harassment or of people cursing and speaking ill of you is easy to endure. But to be ceaselessly cursed and vilified by many people is a hardship defying description.
The French philosopher Alain’ says, “Without a doubt there is not even one person who could stand fast against a universal and constant barrage of curses and insults. The person being cursed races toward his ruin.”
I think he’s entirely correct. Unless you have directly experienced such abuse, you cannot understand it. But a true bodhisattva is someone who, despite this mistreatment, continues calmly advancing and shielding others.
Endo: Ignorant lay people are those who do not understand the important distinctions between superior and inferior and profound and shallow when it comes to Buddhist teachings. That they nonetheless persist in persecuting the Lotus Sutra’s votaries indicates that they are in part spurred to action by the second and third powerful enemies— arrogant and cunning priests who slander the votaries, and priests revered by the general public who, fearful of losing fame or profit, induce the authorities to persecute the votaries.
Saito: Probably the most distinguishing characteristic of ignorant lay people is that by relying on authorities, they turn hostile to the true teaching. Such people never bother to try to discover the truth for themselves.
Ikeda: They blindly follow authority because they lack the ability to judge true and false on their own; they place their trust in authorities and do their bidding. This underlines how important it is that the people become wise.
Endo: The next lines (the third passage) concern arrogant and cunning priests, the second powerful enemy:
In that evil age there will be monks with perverse wisdom and hearts that are fawning and crooked
who will suppose they have attained what they have not attained,
being proud and boastful in heart. (LSI3, 193)
Suda: These are people who have renounced secular life. They are characterized by “perverse wisdom” and “hearts that are fawning and crooked””
Saito: Although these people have studied Buddhism, the wisdom they have succeeded in acquiring can only be called “perverse.”
That their hearts are “fawning and crooked” means that they grovel before and seek to ingratiate themselves with the power-ful. Their tendency, on the other hand, is to behave arrogantly toward those whom they perceive as weak.
Suda: They have a minuscule understanding of Buddhism. But their scant knowledge, rather than inspiring them to improve themselves, only makes them ill-natured and vicious. Not only do they conceal the truth from others, but they think nothing of twisting and distorting the teachings of the Buddha to suit themselves and their circumstances.
Ikeda: Consequently, if they are told there is a teaching superior to the one to which they ascribe —a discovery which, by rights, ought to be a cause for joy —they react with anger. They cannot honestly respect any teaching as superior or any person as having achieved insight and wisdom superior to their own. They are, in a word, conceited.
SAINTLY FIGURES WHO “DESPISE AND LOOK DOWN ON ALL HUMANKIND”
Saito: Next, we come (in the fourth passage) to the lines describing false saints, the third powerful enemy:
Or there will be forest-dwelling monks wearing clothing of patched rags and living in retirement,
who will claim they are practicing the true way, despising and looking down on all humankind.
(LS13, 193)
Ikeda: It says that they despise and look down on all humankind.
This is the main characteristic of false saints- their condescending attitude toward others. Such an attitude goes directly against the spirit of the Lotus Sutra, which teaches that all living beings are infinitely respectworthy. Therefore, such people will inevitably become enemies of the practitioners of the Lotus Sutra.
Suda: The traitorous Devadatta was one such person. This is how a modern novel describes him: “Devadatta despised and detested people. Because his life was steeped in everything that is ugly and hateful in human nature, even people appeared to him to be foul and contemptible.”
Saito: The description of such people as despising and looking down on all humankind is right on the mark.
Endo: The next passage (the fifth) further exposes that side of false saints:
Greedy for profit and support,
they will preach the Law to white-robed laymen and will be respected and revered by the world as though they were arhats who possess the six transcendental powers.
(LSI3, 193-94)
Ikeda: False saints use Buddhism to realize personal profit. Even so, they are revered by the world as sages. They haven’t the spirit to help suffering people or to dedicate their lives to kosen-rufu.
They are hypocrites who use religion.
Nichiren Daishonin calls people who preach Buddhism in order to gain fame and wealth “Law-devouring hungry spirits”
(WND, I9I). Spiritually depraved, they devise cunning schemes to gain popularity and win adulation and applause in the world of
Buddhism.
Suda: “Law-devouring hungry spirits” is certainly a fitting descrip-ton of Nichiren Shoshu and those of their ilk who, using the Daishonin’s Buddhism as a means, wallow in decadence and prey upon lay practitioners.
Saito: The sixth passage reads:
These men [false saints] with evil in their hearts, constantly thinking of worldly affairs, will borrow the name of forest-dwelling monks and take delight in proclaiming our faults,…
(LSI3, 194)
In other words, when a votary of the Lotus Sutra opposes them, they fabricate charges of wrongdoing and denounce the person.
Ikeda: What hypocrites most fear is that the truth about them will be revealed. Therefore, a votary of the Lotus Sutra who proclaims the truth represents a definite threat.
Endo: That’s why they use lies to try to do away with such people.
Suda: Lies are the tools of their trade.
USING FABRICATIONS TO PERSECUTE THE LOTUS SUTRA’S VOTARIES
Ikeda: The Lotus Sutra clarifies their modus operandi in detai.
Saito: Yes. The seventh and eighth passages explain that false saints criticize the votaries of the Lotus Sutra saying:
These monks are greedy for profit and support
and therefore they preach non-Buddhist doctrines and fabricate their own scriptures to delude the people of the world.
Because they hope to gain fame and renown thereby they make distinctions when preaching this sutra.
(LSI3, 194)
Endo: I am reminded of how the priesthood labeled us as non-Buddhist, among other things.
Saito: They certainly are quick to resort to malicious lies and fab-rication.
Suda: Moreover, the contents of their charges are nothing more than a description of themselves. The members of the priesthood have indeed shown themselves to be “greedy for profit and sup-port” and to “
‘preach non-Buddhist doctrines.”
Ikeda: That’s right. Using sleight of hand, false saints accuse the votaries of the Lotus Sutra of the very things of which they themselves are guilty. It’s as though they’re vilifying and denouncing the ugliness of their own reflection.
Endo: I think that in characterizing the third powerful enemy as false saints, Miao-lo really put his finger on their true nature. These are people who pass themselves off as sages. While others regard them as sages, they are not the genuine article. Their true nature is just the opposite.
Somewhere in their hearts they realize that, when all is said and done, they are not sages; they are merely living out a charade. But because of the depth of their arrogance, they cannot directly face and recognize the ugliness that is the reality of their lives. So they constantly suppress their true nature.
When a votary of the Lotus Sutra, a genuine Buddhist, appears before them, however, they are compelled to gaze upon their own mean and petty nature; it is as though their lives are suddenly illuminated in the bright light of the sun. For a person of towering arrogance, this is unbearable. So they make up their minds that everything will be all right if they can just get rid of the
votary.
Saito: It’s a matter of jealousy.
Suda: They behave like people who are so miserable that they have contorted their faces into the most horrible expressions, but rather than accepting their ugliness, they get angry at the clear mirror that reflects them.
CONNIVING WITH POWERFUL PEOPLE
BEHIND THE SCENES
Endo: In the ninth and tenth passages, we get a clarification of the ties that develop between false saints and secular authorities:
Because in the midst of the great assembly they constantly try to defame us [the votaries of the Lotus Sutra,
they will address the rulers, high ministers, Brahmans and householders, as well as the other monks, slandering and speaking evil of us, saying, “These are men of perverted views who preach non-Buddhist doctrines!” (LS13, 194)
Ikeda: They don’t confront the votaries of the Lotus Sutra directly; rather they always try to manipulate things behind the scenes. This is the tendency of false saints— so deeply ingrained in their lives is the habit of living behind a facade. They are in fact cowards.
And so they turn instead to society. Addressing themselves to people in positions of power and authority, they repeatedly slander and impugn the integrity of the votaries of the Lotus Sutra.
Suda: They use lay people who are ignorant of Buddhism as their minions. From this alone it is clear just how unscrupulous and base they are.
Saito: Similarly, it appears that during the Inquisition that plagued Europe, members of the clergy did not become directly involved in the executions. Using information provided by secret informants and gained through torture, they arbitrarily condemned people to death. But instead of carrying out the sentences themselves, they merely handed their hapless victims over to the secular authorities.
Endo: They didn’t want to dirty their hands. Hypocrites are hypocrites through and through.
Ikeda: Moreover, when they handed a victim over to the author-ities, it is said that they would give the person a written pro-nouncement, stating something to the effect that, “We mercifully hope that your life may be saved. Nevertheless, we have no choice but to hand you over to the secular courts.” Yet they turned people over on the precondition that they be executed. This is the height of hypocrisy.
It is the nature of evil people to collude with one another, to form a united front. They unite to get their share of the spoils. In the meantime, good people, because they are unconcerned with profit, tend to become isolated. This tragic state of affairs has to be changed. Those on the side of good have to stand together.
Suda: Next, the eleventh passage says that the three powerful enemies will ridicule the votaries of the Lotus Sutra:
Though they treat us with contempt, saying,
“You are all no doubt Buddhas!”
(LSI3, 194)
“They think they’re all Buddhas,” they sneer. These are words
that arise from contempt.
Ikeda: To tell people, as did Bodhisattva Never Disparaging, “You are all no doubt Buddhas!” (LS13, 194) is an expression of the highest respect. The three powerful enemies employ even these words to express derision and contempt. This vividly expresses the depravity of those who only look down on others.
Endo: The twelfth and thirteenth passages say:
In a muddied kalpa, in an evil age there will be many things to fear.
Evil demons will take possession of others and through them curse, revile and heap shame on us.
(LS13, 194)
It further explains that the votaries put on the “armor of per-severance” (LS13, I94, thirteenth passage) and teach people the Lotus Sutra. Their spirit in doing so is described by the lines (in passage fourteen):
We care nothing for our bodies or lives but are anxious only for the unsurpassed way.
(ISI3, 194-95)
Ikeda: Nichiren Daishonin says, “The ‘unsurpassed way’ is Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Now Nichiren and his followers are even more anxious with regard to Nam-myoho-renge-kyo than they are with regard to their own lives” (cz, 749). The ultimate meaning of faith is to treasure Nam-myoho-renge-kyo even more highly than our own lives. It is to devote ourselves entirely to achieving the widespread propagation of the Mystic Law.
Concretely speaking, this means advancing together with the SGI, thoroughly protecting the SGI, and practicing together with the SGI, in both times of hardship and times of joy. Apart from the SGI, there is no kosen-rufu of the Mystic Law. This is the meaning of the statement by Josei Toda, the second Soka Gakkai pres-ident, “The Soka Gakkai organization is more precious than my life.”
Saito: The sixteenth and seventeenth passages explain:
The evil monks of that muddied age, failing to understand the Buddha’s expedient means, how he preaches the Law in accordance with what is appropriate,
will confront us with foul language and angry frowns; again and again we will be banished
to a place far removed from towers and temples.
(LS13, I9S)
Ikeda: “Again and again we will be banished.” Regarding this passage, Nichiren Daishonin declares: “But if Nichiren had not been banished time and again for the sake of the Lotus Sutra, what would these words ‘again and again’ have meant? Even T’ien-t’ai and Dengyo were not able to fulfill this prediction represented by the words ‘again and again, much less was anyone else” (WND, 242).
Only Nichiren Daishonin read this passage with his life. The twenty-line verse is, therefore, documentary proof that Nichiren Daishonin is the true votary of the Lotus Sutra.
Saito: In recent times, no one has been as severely persecuted by the three powerful enemies as have the members of the SGI. This is actual proof that we are truly carrying out the practice of the Lotus Sutra.
THE STRUGGLE WITH THE THREE POWERFUL ENEMIES IS A GENUINE STRUGGLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Ikeda: When we look at things in this light, we find a clear contrast between the votaries of the Lotus Sutra and the three powerful enemies, particularly false saints. On one hand, there is an attitude of respect for human beings; on the other, an attitude of outright contempt. This translates into the difference between a religion that exists for the people and one that exists to perpetuate its own authority; between a religion that struggles against corrupt power and one that acts in league with corrupt figures of power and authority. It is also the difference between a true person of religion who is persecuted and attacked and a religious charlatan who persecutes others.
The Lotus Sutra, which explains that all people can attain Bud-dhahood and that all people are Buddhas, embodies a spirit of supreme respect for human beings. By contrast, those teachings and ideas that seek to turn people into objects to be exploited embody ultimate disrespect for human beings. Such disrespect is an expression of fundamental darkness.
On the level of the individual, practicing the Lotus Sutra means confronting the fundamental darkness in one’s own life. In terms of society, it means confronting corrupt power and authority. Practicing the Lotus Sutra, therefore, necessarily entails challenging great difficulties. Someone who does not confront great hardship is not a true votary of the Lotus Sutra.
Saito: Your mention of the human tendency to despise others reminds me of an episode from the life of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Kant says that reading Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Emile caused him to reflect on his own condescending attitude toward people.
Suda: That’s a well-known episode. Kant, who was in the habit of taking a walk at precisely the same time each day, became so absorbed in Emile that one day he even forgot to take his walk.
Saito: That’s right. Kant says: “I had disparaged those who were not learned. Rousseau has straightened me out. Eliminating this blinding sense of special privilege from my heart, 1 will learn to respect humanity?”
Endo: In a speech, President Ikeda, you once talked about Rousseau’s Emile and cited these words from the text: “Man is the same in all stations. If that is so, the stations having the most members merit the most respect.” You argued that the people must become the sovereigns of society.
Ikeda: “I will learn to respect humanity” —these are really wonderful words, aren’t they? The extent to which we can respect others determines the true value of our own lives. Respect for other people is the point of departure for human rights. We must not look down on anyone; this is Buddhist humanism.
Saito: The establishment of human rights is the most important issue. In that connection I cannot forget the words of Austregesilo de Athayde, president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. Mr.
Athayde, a true crusader for human rights, said to you: “Unless we see that the divine exists in all people, the idea of respect for human beings will remain empty and rootless.” In that sense, l am confident that the Lotus Sutra offers the most fundamental philosophy of human rights.
Endo: The struggle against the three powerful enemies is a struggle for human rights that is pervaded with respect for the dignity of all.
Ikeda: The problem is that false saints always try to pass themselves off as allies of human rights and champions of the people. As a result, it is no easy matter to discern their true nature.
Endo: The Great Teacher Miao-lo says: “Of these three, the first ignorant lay people can be endured. The second arrogant and cunning priest] exceeds the first, and the third [false saints] is the most formidable of all. This is because the second and third ones are increasingly harder to recognize for what they really are” (WND, 270).
Suda: A great many people in society today pose as fighters for human rights and peace. For precisely this reason, we need a discerning eye toward people’s true natures so as not to be deceived by their words or the images they project.
Saito: In “The Opening of the Eyes,” Nichiren Daishonin says,
“Those without eyes, those with only one eye, and those with distorted vision cannot see these three types of enemies of the Lotus Sutra who have appeared at the beginning of the Latter Day of the Law,” whereas the votaries of the Lotus Sutra “have attained a portion of the Buddha eye” to discern the three powerful enemies (WND, 277).
Ikeda: Only people of action, people who struggle, can recognize evil for what it is. A youth once asked President Makiguchi how one could develop the ability to judge good and evil. President Makiguchi replied: “If you have the tenacity and courage to practice the world’s foremost religion, you will come to understand.”
Suda: Even though false saints know better, they nonetheless clam that they “are practicing the true way” (LS13, 193). In that way, they flatter themselves that they are better than everyone else and look down on others. That is their nature. What psychology do you suppose is fundamentally at work here?
Saito: Generally speaking, a highly conceited person 1s someone who has extremely strong narcissistic tendencies.
Suda: Such people are intoxicated with themselves. If they could just be content with gazing raptly at themselves in the mirror, they wouldn’t cause anyone any trouble. But when they are in fact revered by society as though they were the greatest of beings, they conduct themselves in the belief that this is indeed the case.
Endo: The psychoanalyst Erich Fromm offers an analysis of the narcissism of powerful people who are, as he puts it, “on the borderline between sanity and insanity.” He says that such people think that their power is unlimited, and that they can have whoever and whatever they want. In other words, he says, they try to become gods.
Fromm writes: “The more he tries to be god, the more he isolates himself from the human race; this isolation makes him more frightened, everybody becomes his enemy, and in order to stand the resulting fright he has to increase his power, his ruthlessness and his narcissism.””1
Saito: To believe that one is a god —what an extreme form of self-love.
Suda: Such people are constantly smitten with anxiety at the thought that everyone else doubts and rejects their authority, and as a result they are reduced to a writhing mass of hostility and suspicion. And this only aggravates their “insanity,” It’s exhausting just to talk with this type of individual.
Ikeda: That’s one perspective on the psychology of evil. As the French philosopher Blaise Pascal put it, “Man is neither angel nor beast, and it is a misfortune that whoever tries to play the angel ends by playing the beast.?2 Human beings, finally, cannot be anything more than human beings. The correct path, theretore, is to live out one’s life as a human being-not as a big shot” but as an ordinary person.
Saito: To make themselves appear superior, false saints require a degree of distance to insulate themselves from others. The statement that they “dwell in forests” (cf. IS13, 193) is very interesting in that regard.
For precisely that reason, they cannot stand the egalitarian ideas of the Lotus Sutra, which teaches that all people are Buddhas. For their purposes, Buddhahood cannot be easily attained. The more the Buddha is seen as somehow beyond the reach of human beings, the more their own authority as intermediaries between the people and the Buddha increases. It could be said that false saints try to establish a monopoly on the Buddha.
Suda: Nichiren Shoshu is a case in point. It has tried to increase the distance between people and the Daishonin by telling them that they cannot attain enlightenment unless they have a special
“secret transmission.”
Endo: They are like an unscrupulous salesman who arbitrarily raises prices to maximize profits. Fundamentally, the Daishonin’s Buddhism teaches direct fusion between the self and the Gohonzon according to the principle that embracing the Gohonzon is observing one’s own mind and perceiving the ten worlds within it) and that of quickly attaining true perception (i.e., attaining Buddha-hood in one’s present form). But the priesthood has twisted this and tried to interpose itself between people and the Gohonzon.
Reda: The important thing is to have faith and a connection with someone who teaches the correct way of practice. In the world of the Daishonin’s Buddhism, there is no need —not now and not ever — for priests who neither have faith nor carry out Buddhist practice but who merely brandish authority.
Hypocrites use all kinds of means to try to make themselves appear superior and dignified. This was certainly the case with Devadatta. To make himself appear more noble-minded than Shakyamuni, he advocated extreme monastic rules.
Endo: Devadatta at one point pressed Shakyamuni to establish five severe precepts: (I) for as long as they live, monks should not take salt with their meals; (2) for as long as they live, monks should not drink curdled milk; (3) for as long as they live, monks should not eat the flesh of animals or fish; (4) for as long as they live, monks should carry out the practice of begging for alms and should not accept invitations to dine in people’s homes; and (s) monks should dwell outside during the eight months of spring and summer, and may dwell in thatched huts only during the four winter months; and they should not accept offerings of lodging.
He schemed to elevate his standing in the sangha by criticizing the teaching of his mentor as too mild. In this way, he aimed to make himself appear more spiritually accomplished than he actually was. Devadatta tried to establish himself as a new Buddha to replace his teacher Shakyamuni.
Ikeda: It is enough that we are simply true to ourselves —that we remain ordinary people, unadorned and unaffected. It is enough that we attain enlightenment by revealing our intrinsic nature, just as we are, as common mortals of time without beginning. Our enlightenment, in other words, is not something that could ever have been “improved upon, but exists [in our lives] just as it always has” (cZ, 759). A true Buddha dons no embellishment or orna-mentation. He or she does not manifest the thirty-two features and eighty characteristics.!3
To put on airs out of vanity is the action of a false saint. The Buddha revealed in the depths of the Lotus Sutra is a common mortal. While his true identity is that of the Buddha, in appearance and action, he is a bodhisattva. He is a “bodhisattva-Bud-dha.”The Buddha is not arrogant. He lives among the people and shares their sufferings and joys.
Suda: This is certainly the opposite of narcissistic false saints.
Endo: Fromm says: “It is the goal of man to overcome one’s narcissism. Perhaps this principle 1s nowhere expressed more radically than in Buddhism…. The ‘awakened’ person of whom Buddhist teaching speaks is the person who has overcome his narcissism and who is therefore capable of being fully awake!”4
Ikeda: That’s an astute point. It could be said that the human revolution is a great struggle with the self. Specifically it is the struggle to achieve the state of” carling| nothing for our bodies or lives.” By undergoing difficulties and struggling to overcome them, we can eradicate the fundamental darkness in our lives. Apart from this, there is no true attainment of Buddhahood.
A PRIEST WHO LINED HIS POCKETS
Suda: In Nichiren Daishonin’s day, the priest Ryokan of Goku-raku-ji temple was a typical example of such a false saint. He carried out a great many public projects, such as building bridges, and charitable works, such as helping victims of leprosy. He was widely venerated as a living Buddha and a bodhisattva.
Saito: But Nichiren Daishonin deftly perceived the true nature behind Ryokan’s facade. He writes:
If we examine the behavior of the priests of today who supposedly observe the precepts, we find that they hoard silks, wealth, and jewels, and concern themselves with lending money at interest….
And as for this matter of building roads and constructing bridges, it only causes people trouble. The charitable activities at the port of lijima and the collecting of rice at the Mutsura Barrier have brought unhappiness to a great many people, and the setting up of barriers along the seven highways of the various provinces has imposed a hardship upon travelers. These are things that are happening right in front of your eyes.
Can’t you see what is going on? (WND, 102)
Ryokan is credited with building 18g bridges, building or repairing 71 roads, and digging 33 wells in various parts of the country. His temple, Gokuraku-ji, was strategically located where the Tokaido road (a major transportation route linking Kyoto’s ancient capital and cultural center with Kamakura, the seat of the military government) enters Kamakura. At a barrier along this important thoroughfare, Ryokan levied a transit tax on each person passing through.
Endo: He also collected a rice tax at points strategically located along the sea route, such as the ports of lijima and Mutsura. It seems that he held enormous concessions.
Saito: Historical accounts back up the Daishonin’s point. Ryokan and others who carried out such charitable works were also avid consumers of luxury items. They accumulated a great deal of wealth and ran money-lending operations. Collecting transit tax and carrying out public works no doubt enabled them to realize handsome profits. As the Daishonin sternly points out, however, these taxes must have been a great hardship for ordinary people.
Endo: In fact, current research corroborates the point that the barrier stations did in fact greatly burden people’s lives. Later, during the fifteenth century, there were even popular uprisings against such oppressive taxation.
Ikeda: In any event, the true activities of people such as Ryokan were a far cry from the carefully cultivated behavior of priests who made upholding the precepts a top priority. There is a diary titled Towazugatari (Confession of Lady Nijo),15 in which the author, Lady Nijo, describes her journey through various provinces.
Among her recollections are her impressions of Kamakura shortly after the Daishonin’s passing. Ryokan was seventy-three and at the height of his power and influence in society.
Having traveled from Kyoto, the author finds the narrow and constrained condition of people’s lives in Kamakura most pitiful.
But when she goes to Gokuraku-ji, she records sensing in the conduct of the priests the charm of Kyoto and confesses to feeling homesick.
Saito: One can well imagine that the priests of Gokuraku-ji enjoyed a degree of elegance far removed from the impoverished conditions of the ordinary people of the day.
Ikeda: Yes. Nichiren Daishonin says of Ryokan, “He never was without three robes, as though they were his skin” (GZ, 349).
Ryokan made a show of simplicity, but this was nothing more than a pose. In actuality, he was in league with those in power and held concessions that gave him the right to collect tolls and taxes, causing the people a great deal of suffering. Truly, he was the very image of a monk “greedy for profit.” This is the true nature of a false saint.
Also, a priest’s robes were originally supposed to be work clothes for helping and serving others. To become robes of authority is a complete reversal.
Suda: I feel we sometimes see the same sort of inversion in the way the physicians’ white smock and the lapel badges sported by lawyers and politicians in Japan have become symbols of authority.
Endo: In 1271, Ryokan was defeated by the Daishonin in a contest to pray for rain. His ensuing desperate actions exposed his
true nature.
Saito: Ryokan had promised that, if defeated, he would become the Daishonin’s follower. But when he lost, rather than honor his agreement, he began working behind the scenes to have the Dai-shonin persecuted.
Endo: First, he schemed to get the priest Gyobin! of Jokomyo-ji temple to challenge the Daishonin in debate. When the Daisho-nin asserted in reply that rather than holding a private debate they should confront each other in a proper public forum, Ryokan and others submitted a letter of complaint to the Board of Inquiry at Kamakura in Gyobin’s name, slandering the Daishonin.
The Daishonin discerned that Ryokan was behind this. In his writing “Rebuttal to the Claims by Gyobin,” he pointed out that Ryokan had been slandering him to the constables and stewards of various provinces throughout the land, alleging that he and his followers had “set fire to and cast into the water images of Amida Buddha” and urging that they “should have their heads cut off or be banished” (Gz, 182). Ryokan, in other words, caused the Dai-shonin and his followers to be persecuted by spreading lies about them. That is how such people operate.
Saito: According to the Daishonin’s writing, “The Letter of Petition from Yorimoto,” Ryokan and his cohorts urged in their letter of complaint to the authorities that the Daishonin be executed.
It seems the Daishonin had solid proof of this (cf. WND, 807).
Ikeda: Ryokan preached against killing any living being and was revered as a priest who staunchly upheld the precepts. This person thought to be above killing even an insect instigated an appeal to have the Daishonin put to death. This was the truth about this so-called living Buddha.
Saito: At the time, very few people could see through the decep-tiveness and perceive the true nature of this talse saint. Even now, Ryokan is on the whole respected by the Japanese. The people of Kamakura probably thought, “It’s intolerable for that Nichiren to be maliciously vilifying such a wonderful priest as Ryokan.”
Endo: They were simply swayed by appearances and made no attempt to find out who was correct. Much of the media today, because it is devoid of guiding principles, treats information simply as a commodity. The attitude seems to be that anything that attracts people’s attention and boosts sales is printworthy.
Saito: Ultimately, the only way out of this kind of situation is for people to become wise; to create a world in which false saints are not at liberty to do as they please.
Ikeda: Every age has certain icons that are considered sacred and inviolable; any challenge to those is regarded as taboo. This sacredness and inviolability carry the weight of authority. False saints conceal their true nature behind this type of facade. This type of authoritarianism is not limited to religion, however. In different times and different places, different people and groups will don this mask.
But while the manner in which false saints appear changes, the principle is always the same. They will use the institutions and whatever else a society regards as sacred to persecute the votaries of the Lotus Sutra.
Endo: Regarding the false saints of the present age, President Toda said: “When scholars, writers and other opinion leaders who are trusted by the people, as well as major newspapers and other kinds of media that influence society, ally themselves with the authorities to persecute, out of personal interest and emotionalism, this Buddhism of sowing and our activities for kosen rufu… we can pronounce that the three powerful enemies have appeared!” Suda: That is indeed the situation today.
Sato: In the present age, what people regard as sacred is crainy not limited to religion. In his discussions with you, President Ikeda, the British historian Arnold J. Toynbee remarked that thevoid created in the West by the recession of Christianity in the seventeenth century had been filled by the rise of three new “reli-gions”: nationalism, communism and the belief in the inevitability of progress through the systematic application of science to tech-nology!”
Ikeda: That’s right. Dr. Toynbee’s conclusion was that these three beliefs were showing signs of having outlived their usefulness. Our joint conclusion was that a new religion, a religion for the future of humankind, was necessary.
Endo: I recall that at the beginning of this series we talked about how the present dearth of philosophy and spiritual void are prompting many people to seek new principles of synthesis and integration. This may partially account for the spread of nationalism and other kinds of religions and ideologies.
Suda: What is considered sacred is often what holds the fabric of human society together; without it, society cannot sustain itself.
Ikeda: To summarize Dr. Toynbee’s comments, it’s not that people in Western Europe have ceased to embrace religion but that they have placed their faith in different things. The sacred never ceases to exist; it merely changes form.
Suda: A French social psychologist writes: “(Thus in theory) societies have all they need at any time to give themselves the gods they require. And it seems certain that the time must never come when science will be able to let them do without them, or create afresh a substitute for religion.?
Said: In the carly decades of the twentieth century. Japan was a kind of religious state. It mioht he that in the nostwar period th economy has assumed the mantle of the sacred.
Ikeda: But the idea of economics for the people’s happiness was at some point supplanted by economic development for its own sake. Instead of economic development for human beings, we tend to see human beings as existing for the sake of the economy.
The same reversal can and has in fact occurred in all areas of human endeavor such as medicine, scholarship, politics, science and education. The Lotus Sutra can reorient all enterprises and institutions to function for the happiness and well-being of human beings and society.
Endo: We have to make human beings genuinely the prime con-cern. We have to establish true respect for human dignity. Other-wise, while people continue to place their belief in those ideas and institutions that their age defines as sacred, sooner or later society will become dominated by “false saints donning the mask of the sacred.”
Fascism would be an extreme example. In such cases, when people finally realize what is happening, it is already too late.
Suda: A Japanese philosopher has commented that if the Japanese had from the outset experienced the tragic circumstances that militarism finally brought upon them, then it is likely that many people would have stood up in opposition. But by the time they realized what was happening, it was too late.
Ikeda: It is important to expose the true nature of false saints to the people. Bringing about change in society will take more than just a few people with their eyes open. Therefore, we have to take bold action and smoke out the false saints.
Ultimately, people will either abandon the votaries of the Lotus Sutra or they will abandon the false saints. A society that abandons the votaries of the Lotus Sutra will be manipulated by false saints and follow a path to certain ruin. We are struggling to prevent this from happening. The struggle against the three powerful enemies is a struggle to actualize the principle of peace and prosperity based on the philosophy and principles of the Dai-shonin’s Buddhism.
SELFLESS DEDICATION
IS THE LIFE OF RELIGION
Ikeda: The Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, who struggled against the totalitarianism of the Nazi regime, once wrote that for any school of thought to have a lasting impact on the world, it would have to produce people of conviction, whom he called “witnesses” willing to give their lives for what they believed.”
Individuals of selfless dedication are the pride and honor of a religion. They are the foundation of any religious body. The death of religion begins when such a spirit is lost.
Endo: This spirit, it seems to me, is the vital essence of the
“Encouraging Devotion” chapter.
Ikeda: The three powerful enemies seek to persecute and kill people because of religion. By contrast, the votaries of the Lotus Sutra devote their lives to their beliefs.
Nichiren Daishonin was such a person. So were Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and Josei Toda. President Toda often said: “I shall rejoice when they [the three powerful enemies] appear. I would like you all to feel the same. When that time comes, let us fight with all our might.”
In the twenty-line verse section of the “Encouraging Devo-tion” chapter, the bodhisattvas vow, “We care nothing for our bodies or lives / but are anxious only for the unsurpassed way” (LSI3, 194-95) Those who practice with this spirit of caring nothing for their lives will attain enlightenment. Those who stand up and selflessly spread the Mystic Law will become Buddhas.
Saito: Gandhi said, “Even if I am all alone….”
In an address at the East-West Center in Hawaii, President Ikeda, you cited Gandhi• “You have to stand against the whole world although you may have to stand alone. You have to stare the world in the face although the world may look at you with bloodshot eyes. Do not fear. Trust that little thing that resides in your heart?
When he heard President Ikeda’s speech, Dr. Robert Thur-man, chairman of Columbia University’s Religion Department remarked:
For there to be world peace, more people have to be willing to die not to do violence than are already willing to die to do violence. And that’s actually the bottom line of what President Ikeda calls “human revolution,” or maybe it should be translated as “personal revolu-tion” — that there are more persons on this planet who are ready to die not to be violent than there are already persons who are ready to die in the process of being violent. And then there will be world peace.?
Now is the time when we, as disciples, should bravely roar the lion’s roar for justice and truth.