Discussion of the “Expedient Means” Chapter (Chapter 2).
Ikeda: President Toda’s deepest wish, his constant concern, was to elevate the inner state of life of all humanity. He once declared: “We, the members of the Soka Gakkai, are the Bodhisattvas of the Earth; we are envoys of the Thus Come One, of Nichiren Daishonin. With that conviction, we must carry out the work of the Thus Come One. What does that mean? It means to bring all people to the state of Buddhahood — in other words, to elevate the character of all humanity to the very highest level.”
Mr. Toda’s goal was to lead all humanity to Buddhahood. On another occasion, he said that the single Buddha vehicle revealed in the principle of “the replacement of the three vehicles with the one vehicle” represents the supreme state of life to which all humanity should aspire. Let us now examine the replacement of the three vehicles with the one vehicle, using Mr. Toda’s insights as our guide.
THE UNIFICATION OF THE TEACHINGS AND PRACTITIONERS OF THE THREE VEHICLES
“Shariputra, the Thus Come Ones have only the single Buddha vehicle that they employ in order to preach the Law to living beings. They do not have any other vehicle, a second one or a third one….” (LSOC, 64)
Saito: Yes, let’s begin. The concept of the replacement of the three vehicles with the one vehicle summarizes the core substance of Shakyamuni’s preaching — which begins to be revealed in “Expedient Means” — in the theoretical teaching (first half) of the Lotus Sutra. Here, Shakyamuni explains the real function of the three vehicles and reveals that there is only one true vehicle.
The “three vehicles” refers to the vehicles of voice-hearers (learning), cause-awakened ones (realization) and bodhisattva — in other words, the respective teachings for becoming a voice-hearer, pratyekabuddha (or cause-awakened one) and bodhisattva. The teachings of the Buddha are likened to ” vehicle because they convey people to a higher state of being.
The “one vehicle” means “the one and only teaching.” Since the Buddha expounds his teaching solely so that all people may attain Buddhahood, it is also called the Buddha vehicle or the one Buddha vehicle. It can also be interpreted to mean the conveyance by which the Buddha himself attained enlightenment. The one vehicle teaches the path the Buddha himself followed and furnishes us with that very same means to follow that path.
Endo: In “Expedient Means,” the one vehicle is expounded in terms of the four aspects of the Buddha wisdom: opening, showing, awakening and causing to enter. In short, the Buddha has only one teaching and it is to open, show, awaken and cause all living beings to enter the path of the Buddha wisdom. These four aspects together represent the “one great reason” — the sole reason — why Buddhas appear in the world.
The Buddha wisdom refers to the Buddha’s enlightenment. In “Expedient Means,” it is called the “wisdom embracing all species” (LSOC, 65), since it is the supreme wisdom that comprehends the ultimate truth of all things. The enlightenment achieved through gaining entry to this wisdom is called “supreme perfect enlightenment,” or anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. The one vehicle teaches this Buddha wisdom.
Suda: Because it transcends words and thoughts, however, the true meaning of this Buddha wisdom is difficult to grasp. Moreover, human beings are hindered by various attachments and delusions. Were the Buddha to simply preach the one vehicle according to his own mind — that is, according to his understanding as a Buddha — without any introduction or preparation, his audience would most likely fail to comprehend his true intent [that of opening. showing, revealing and causing all beings to enter the path of the Buddha wisdom. Many may refuse to accept the teaching or may be filled with doubt and fall into evil paths as a result. Hence the necessity for the Buddha to preach his teaching in a way that matched the capacity of his audience — that is, in accord with others’ minds.
The three vehicles is the teaching the Buddha expounded in response to the different life states of his audience via the power of expedient means. The principle of the three vehicles does not teach the Buddha wisdom. Nor is it the Buddha’s true intent or purpose. It is, however, an indispensable means for preparing people for the ultimate teaching of the one supreme vehicle, which is the Buddha’s true purpose.
Ikeda: “Expedient Means” makes it absolutely clear that the true intent of the Buddha in teaching the three vehicles was to teach the one vehicle. This clarification is called “the replacement of the three vehicles with the one vehicle.” It stresses that the Buddha teaches only one vehicle, and that there are not two vehicles or three vehicles.
Shakyamuni gives explicit expression to the fact that there is only one vehicle, in the passage: “The Thus Come Ones have only the single Buddha vehicle that they employ in order to preach the Law to living beings. They do not have any other vehicle, a second one or a third one” (LSOC, 64).
The three vehicles are meanwhile put into their proper perspective in the passage: “The Buddhas, utilizing the power of expedient means, apply distinctions to the one Buddha vehicle and preach it as though it were three” (LSOC, 66).
In other words, the three vehicles is a way in which the buddha divided up the teachings of the single Buddha vehicle as an expedient means to lead people to the truth.
“Expedient Means” repeatedly and strongly emphasizes that the Buddha’s true intent les solely in teaching the one Buddha vehicle. The revelation that the three vehicles are merely expedient means and that only the one Buddha vehicle is true is also called “the unification of the three vehicles within the one vehicle.” There are two aspects of this unification — the unification of the practitioners” and “the unification of the teachings.”
Saito: The unification of the teachings, as you have just explained, is the unification of the three vehicles within the one vehicle. After they are thus unified, the teachings of the three vehicles are put in their proper place within the one vehicle, and each has its own significance. Each is still valid as a partial truth or view.
The unification of the practitioners, meanwhile, is the revelation that all who are taught and converted by the teaching of the one vehicle are bodhisattvas without exception. “Expedient Means” states, “The Buddhas, the Thus Come Ones, simply teach and convert the bodhisattvas…” (LSOC, 64); and “I employ only the single vehicle way / to teach and convert the bodhisattvas, / I have no voice-hearer disciples” (LSOC, 80). In such passages, the Buddha reveals the single Buddha vehicle and calls out to all living beings — specifically the followers of the two vehicles [the voice-hearers and pratyekabuddhas] — to embrace this single vehicle. By doing so, these practitioners of the two vehicles are united with the bodhisattvas; that is, they become bodhisattvas, too.
A bodhisattva is a person who aspires for enlightenment or, from a deeper perspective, a person whose attainment of Buddha — from a deeper perspective, a person whose attainment of Buddhahood is assured. Such a person is also referred to as a mahasativa, or “great being.”
Ikeda: In short, by declaring unequivocally that the Buddha teaches only the one Buddha vehicle, the sutra is also saying that all people are bodhisattvas. The practitioners of the two vehicles are thus also bodhisattvas and as such can attain enlightenment. The unification of the practitioners emphasizes that the teachings of the one vehicle enable all people to achieve Buddhahood. Key to this is the doctrine of “the enlightenment of the two vehicles” expounded in the Lotus Sutra.
I think the concept of the replacement of the three vehicles with the one vehicle” is easier to grasp when considered from these two aspects of the “unification of the teachings” and the “unification of the practitioners.” Why don’t we concentrate our discussions in this chapter on the “unification of the practitioners,” in other words, “the enlightenment of the two vehicles”?
Saito: I think that’s a good idea. After all, the concept that persons of the two vehicles can attain Buddhahood is found only in the Lotus Sutra.
THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE TWO VEHICLES AND THE MUTUAL POSSESSION OF THE TEN WORLDS
Shariputra, you should know
that at the start I took a vow,
hoping to make all persons
equal to me, without any distinction between us,
and what I long ago hoped for
has now been fulfilled.
I have converted all living beings
and caused them all to enter the Buddha way. (LSOC, 70)
Endo: I learned about the enlightenment of the two vehicles each time I studied for a Soka Gakkai study examination. My seniors were always warning me not to develop tendencies like people of the two vehicles! We generally have a fairly negative image of such people as highly intelligent but conceited about their knowledge or self-centered and caring only for their own salvation, lacking the compassion to save others.
Ikeda: That doesn’t really do them justice, I think. Certainly those aspects of the two vehicles cannot be denied, but for the most part, people with those characteristics are not really of the two vehicles at all, regardless of their pretensions. In reality, they lack the fierce seeking spirit and thirst for truth that are hallmarks of persons of the two vehicles.
President Toda offered a somewhat broader interpretation to facilitate understanding, saying that in contemporary times people of the two vehicles correspond to outstanding intellectuals, people who should by rights be treasures of their society. We might imagine them to be great scholars or philosophers who have received several Nobel prizes. Moreover, they are people who have abandoned all concern for fame and fortune and who strive to eliminate selfishness and greed. They are individuals of superior character. In this respect, it is no easy thing to become a person of the two vehicles!
Suda: Why were such superior disciples of the Buddha as the voice-hearers and cause-awakened ones or pratyekabuddhas [people of learning and realization] deemed to be eternally incapable of attaining Buddhahood? This is very strange indeed, when we come to think of it.
Endo: Yes, and until the Lotus Sutra was preached, people of the two vehicles were bitterly scorned. They were said to be like scorched seeds from which the sprout of the Buddha nature would never appear. It was considered preferable to fall into hell than to be counted among those of the two vehicles.
Saito: The ideal for which people of the two vehicles strove and practiced was that of “annihilating the consciousness and reducing the body to ashes,” the extinction of body and mind.
They aimed for a state in which their physical body, the source of all earthly desires, and their mind, which allowed them to feel pain and suffering, were utterly extinguished. Nichiren Daishonin states, “They are merely taught that there is not any further cause for their rebirth and, as the teaching goes, ‘The body reduced to ashes and consciousness annihilated; both their bodies and their minds have been destroyed and become like empty space. Such are the persons of the two vehicles” (WND-2, 48). The paradox is that if they achieve their goal, no self would remain to attain Buddhahood.
Suda: Comparisons are often made between those of the two vehicles and the bodhisattvas, who together as a group form the three vehicles. Bodhisattvas seek to benefit others, while people of the two vehicles seek only to benefit themselves. This was why it was regarded as impossible for people of the two vehicles to attain Buddhahood.
Ikeda: People of the two vehicles are said to despise the world of the six paths [the first six of the Ten Worlds from hell to heaven], and so once they have achieved release from them and reached a state “like empty space,” they do not return to the mundane world of suffering and strife. They do not return to try and save those remaining in the six paths. Indeed, they completely forget that they owe a debt to all living beings.
Nichiren Daishonin wrote: “They have no thought of ever being reborn again in the six paths, and therefore they pay no mind to the converting and guiding of others” (WND-2, 202); and “They fall into the pit of emancipation and can benefit neither themselves nor others” (WND-I, 228). To abandon those whom you are meant to save is not Buddhism. If you do that, you cannot save yourself, either. That is why the Daishonin says, “Therefore to turn one’s mind to the two vehicles even for one instant is worse than committing the ten evil acts or the five cardinal sins», (WND-2, 204).
Suda: It’s only natural, I guess, that people might take the attitude “Let’s forget about these ungrateful people of the two vehicles and concentrate instead on becoming bodhisattvas!”
Ikeda: Here, of course, you’re referring to the bodhisattvas of the three vehicles. There is a serious contradiction, however, in the belief that those of the two vehicles cannot attain Buddhahood while bodhisattvas can. If we probe this issue more deeply, we will come to understand why it was necessary to preach the Lotus Sutra.
Suppose we were to forget about the people of two vehicles and go ahead and become bodhisattvas. By doing so, however, we would be just as lacking in compassion as those of the two vehicles when they turned their backs on people of the six paths.
The bodhisattva makes four universal vows in the pursuit of Buddhahood. One is the vow to save innumerable living beings. If bodhisattvas desert those of the two vehicles, leaving them in a state where they are eternally incapable of attaining Buddhahood, then they abandon this vow to save others and block off the path for their own enlightenment as well. The Daishonin writes: “If it is not possible for the persons in the realms represented by the two vehicles to attain Buddhahood, then in effect it means that those in the realm of bodhisattvas cannot attain Buddhahood either. This is because. then the bodhisattvas cannot fulfill the first of their four universal vows, namely the vow to save innumerable living beings” (WND-2, 1012).
In the pre-Lotus sutra teachings, we find assertions that bodhisattvas can attain enlightenment but people of the two vehicles cannot; bodhisattvas rejoice at this and those of the two vehicles lament, while those in the human and heavenly realms give up all hope (see WND-2, 58-59).
But the bodhisattvas are deluding themselves here; they actually have no reason to rejoice in the idea that they alone will attain Buddhahood.
Endo: Yes, you’re right.
Ikeda: Why did people fall victim to this misguided, contradictory view? Ultimately, it’s because no sutra other than the Lotus Sutra expounds the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds. This doctrine is found only in the Lotus Sutra.
Suda: The Ten Worlds are the ten states of being ranging from the world of hell to the world of Buddhahood. The mutual possession of the Ten Worlds means that each is endowed with the other nine worlds. As the Daishonin says, “The doctrine of the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds means that each of the worlds that make up the Ten Worlds possesses within itself all the other nine worlds” (WND-2, 58).
Saito: The main point of the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds is that the nine worlds are endowed with Buddhahood and that Buddhahood is endowed with the nine worlds. The theoretical teaching of the Lotus Sutra emphasizes the first aspect — the nine worlds are endowed with Buddhahood. It reveals that the nine worlds, including the two vehicles, contain the world of Buddhahood.
Ikeda: Exactly. Where is the world of Buddhahood found? It is found within the worlds of the two vehicles. And where are the worlds of the two vehicles found? Just as certainly they, too, are found within the worlds of bodhisattva and Buddhahood.
Saito: Based on the perspective of life embodied in the doctrine of the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds, the bodhisattva is in no position to criticize or revile the people of the two vehicles, because those two worlds or states of being exist within the life of the bodhisattva as well
Endo: If people of the two vehicles cannot attain Buddhahood, it means the life states of the two vehicles existing within the bodhisattva do not attain Buddhahood. Since these elements are an indivisible part of life and cannot be cut out and discarded, it means that bodhisattvas themselves cannot attain enlightenment.
Suda: That is what the Daishonin means when he says: “But since the world of the bodhisattva contains the worlds of the persons of the two vehicles, if persons of the two vehicles cannot attain Buddhahood, then bodhisattvas cannot attain Buddhahood either’ (WND-2, 165).
Ikeda: Yes. And this principle applies to each of the Ten Worlds. As the Daishonin says: “If beings in the worlds of the two vehicles cannot attain Buddhahood, then that would mean that the two vehicle worlds that are inherent in the beings of the other worlds would likewise be unable to manifest Buddhahood. And if the two vehicle worlds that are inherent in the other worlds could not manifest Buddhahood, then that would mean that no beings of the other eight worlds could attain Buddhahood either” (WND-2, 471).
If people of the two vehicles cannot attain Buddhahood, then it would be impossible even for a Buddha to be a Buddha, given that the worlds of the two vehicles within the world of Buddhahood could not attain Buddhahood.
In the pre-Lotus Sutra teachings, the causes and effects of each of the Ten Worlds are taught separately. The attainment of Buddhahood expounded in those earlier sutras is not of real substance but only a “shadow” of the real thing. The Lotus Sutra teaches that each of the Ten Worlds mutually possesses the causes and effects of all other worlds. Therefore, the attainment of Buddhahood for all living beings in all of the Ten Worlds is made possible for the first time by the Lotus Sutra. This is the criterion by which we can determine whether a sutra preaches the ultimate truth: Does it teach the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds?
Endo: Yes, i’s precisely as the Daishonin declares: “This is nothing other than what is taught in the Lotus Sutra. The cause and effect of the Ten Worlds were clarified in the sutras preached prior to the Lotus Sutra. But now [with the Lotus Sutra] the fact that the cause and effect of the Ten Worlds are mutually possessed is set forth” (WND-2, 58).
Saito: So, as mentioned earlier, the bodhisattvas really couldn’t afford to be indifferent to the grief of those of the two vehicles when the latter were told they could never attain enlightenment.
Ikeda: Yes, and that’s a crucial point. Nichiren Daishonin writes: “The doctrine that those of the two vehicles could never attain Buddhahood was not a source of lamentation for those of the two vehicles alone. We understand now that it was a sorrow to ourselves as well!” (WND-2, 472).
And he expresses his own sentiments: “Practitioners of these pre-Lotus Sutra teachings failed to understand that if others could not attain Buddhahood, then they themselves could not do so, that if others could attain Buddhahood, then they themselves could do so, that the salvation of ordinary people meant the salvation of oneself” (WND-2, 59)
Before the doctrine of the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds was expounded, the problems and concerns of others were regarded as something divorced and separate from oneself. But with the teaching of the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds, people came to realize that the attainment of Buddhahood by others was their own attainment of Buddhahood, while if others could not attain Buddhahood, then neither could they themselves. This dramatically transformed people’s view of life and the world.
The misfortune of others is our misfortune. Our happiness is the happiness of others. To see ourselves in others and feel an inner oneness and sense of unity with them represents a fundamental revolution in the way we view and live our lives. Therefore, discriminating against another person is the same as discriminating against oneself. When we hurt another, we are hurting ourselves. And when we respect others, we respect and elevate our own lives, as well.
Saito: In other words, by embracing the philosophy of life embodied in the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds, we can transcend discrimination and achieve true equality.
Ikeda: That’s correct. As Nichiren Daishonin says, “The provisional sutras teach inequality, but the Lotus Sutra teaches equality” (GZ, 816). The Lotus Sutra doesn’t preach equality as just a slogan; it teaches a way to happiness for oneself and others alike, addressing the conditions of our lives on a fundamental level and how those life conditions are expressed through the way we live our lives.
The Daishonin also tells us that the Latter Day of the Law is “the time for the widespread propagation of the Great Vehicle, the Law in which all things are equal, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” (GZ, 816).
Endo: Bodhisattva Never Disparaging, one of the characters of the Lotus Sutra, through his behavior and actions expresses the life view implicit in the doctrine of the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds. Though he is scorned and persecuted, he continues to show reverence to the arrogant members of the four kinds of believers [monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen].
Ikeda: Yes, we will be discussing Bodhisattva Never Disparaging in greater detail later on. In The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, the Daishonin describes the actions of Bodhisattva Never Disparaging as “a bow of obeisance acknowledging the fact that ‘self’ and ‘others’ are in fact not two different things” (OTT, 165). When Bodhisattva Never Disparaging pays reverence to others, the Buddha nature in others pays reverence to him. This is a very profound teaching.
The English poet John Donne writes:
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Both you and I are part of the continent of humanity, says Donne. Let’s develop a life state as vast as a great continent, regarding the fortune or misfortune of others as our own. In fact, Mr. Toda asserted that striving to develop an even greater life state, one as vast as the universe, is the aim of the single Buddha vehicle and the heart of the replacement of the three vehicles with the one vehicle. Mr. Toda’s wish was to elevate the spiritual state of all humanity to that level.
Suda: I’m awed by Mr. Toda’s determination. The enlightenment of the two vehicles has surprising relevance and significance for contemporary society, doesn’t it? I hadn’t fully appreciated this before.
Ikeda: But we must remember that what we are discussing here is the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds expounded in the theoretical teaching of the Lotus Sutra. Here, as I mentioned earlier, the emphasis is only on the nine worlds being endowed with Buddhahood, rather than the aspect of Buddhahood being endowed with the nine worlds. The true mutual possession of the Ten Worlds is expressed in its full and perfect form only in the “Life Span” chapter in the essential teaching of the Lotus Sutra, when the eternal nature of the Buddha’s life is revealed. But let’s discuss this on another occasion.
Suda: Shakyamuni described the one Buddha vehicle as “the Great Vehicle, the Law in which all things are equal” (LSOC, 69). How overjoyed those of the two vehicles must have been when they learned of this supreme teaching, this supreme way of life!
Endo: The sutra describes Shariputra as being filled with irrepressible joy and leaping to his feet to make a gesture of reverence to Shakyamuni: “At that time Shariputra’s mind danced with joy. Then he immediately stood up, land| pressed his palms together’ (LSOC, 82).
Saito: I must have been no ordinary joy for this great scholar esteemed as “foremost in wisdom,” to leap to his feet. This scene represents the revitalization of the voice-hearers through the Lotus Sutra.
Ikeda: His mind was transformed at its very foundation. Shariputra then pronounces his acceptance of the single Buddha vehicle:
Now I have heard from the Buddha what I had never heard before, a Law never known in the past, and it has ended all my doubts and regrets. My body and mind are at ease and I have gained a wonderful feeling of peace and security. Today at last I understand that truly I am the Buddha’s son, born from the Buddha’s mouth, born through conversion to the Law, gaining my share of the Buddha’s Law! (LSOC, 83)
In Mahayana Buddhism, “Buddha’s son” — which may also be rendered variously as “Buddha’s child” or “child of the Buddha” — refers to the bodhisattva. Once Shariputra believed and understood the single Buddha vehicle, he was transformed from a voice-hearer into a bodhisattva.
Endo: The same thing happens later in the sutra when the four great voice-hearer disciples — Mahakashyapa, Maudgalyayana and the others — hear the parable of the three carts and the burning house and finally grasp the meaning of the replacement of the three vehicles with the one Buddha vehicle.
In this parable, related in the “Parables and Similes” chapter, the house of a wealthy man catches fire. His children are playing inside the burning house oblivious to the danger they are in. He resorts to an expedient device to lure them outside. He promises them three carts— one pulled by a sheep, one by a deer and one by an ox. But when his children rush outside, he actually gives them a much finer cart adorned with jewels — a single great
white ox cart.
In the parable, the burning house represents the threefold world, and the flames, the sufferings of birth and death. The rich man is the Buddha, who appears in the world to save people; the children represent all living beings; and the games in which they are absorbed are worldly pleasures. The three carts originally promised represent the three provisional vehicles of voice-hearers, cause-awakened ones and bodhisattvas, and the great white ox cart symbolizes the supreme vehicle of Buddhahood, that is, the Lotus Sutra.
In the “Belief and Understanding” chapter, the voice-hearers declare:
Now we have become
voice-hearers in truth,
for we will take the voice of the Buddha way
and cause it to be heard by all. (LSOC, 132)
In other words, they are transformed from voice-hearers who merely hear the teachings into genuine voice-hearers who seek to convey the teachings to others.
Ikeda: Yes. Once the three vehicles are unified into the one Buddha vehicle, the voice-hearers can carry out their original mission as envoys of the Buddha, just as they are.
Saito: The voice-hearers changed in other ways, as well. Whereas before they had been accused of ingratitude, they now praise the great mercy of the Buddha, saying:
The World-Honored One in his great mercy
made use of a rare thing,
in pity and compassion teaching and converting,
bringing benefit to us.
In numberless millions of kalpas
who could ever repay him? (LSOC, 132)
This represents a 180-degree change in the voice-hearers’ orientation.
Suda: Shakyamuni explains to the followers of the two vehicles:
What you are practicing
is the bodhisattva way,
and as you gradually advance in practice and learning
you are all certain to attain Buddhahood. (LSOC, 143)
He also informs them:
Therefore the bodhisattvas
pose as voice-hearers or cause-awakened ones,…
to convert the different kinds of living beings….
Inwardly, in secret, the sons [of the Buddha act as bodhisattvas,
but outwardly they show themselves as voice-hearers.
They seem to be lessening desires out of hatred for birth and death,
but in truth they are purifying the Buddha lands. (LSOC, 185)
Ikeda: Shakyamuni is telling them: “You may think you are voice-hearers, but in fact you are bodhisattvas. Playing the role of voice-hearers, you lead people to the Buddha way?
THE SINGLE BUDDHA VEHICLE REPRESENTS THE PATH OF THE ONENESS OF MENTOR AND DISCIPLE
Suda: “Expedient Means” also emphasizes that the single Buddha vehicle is a teaching solely for bodhisattvas. A frequent source of confusion here is the distinction between the bodhisattvas who have accepted the single Buddha vehicle and the bodhisattvas still of the three vehicles. Are they the same or not? And if they are different, how are they different?
Endo: This issue led to divided schools of opinion in Chinese Buddhism over whether there were three vehicles or four vehicles. The parable of the three carts and the burning house detailed in “Parables and Similes” supports the doctrine of “the replacement of the three vehicles with the one vehicle,” as we have already touched on. Without going into too much detail, the vehicle of the voice-hearers is represented by a sheep cart, the vehicle of the pratyekabuddhas by a deer cart and the vehicle of the bodhisattva by an ox cart. The single Buddha vehicle, meanwhile, is likened to a great white ox cart.
If the vehicle of the bodhisattva (the ox cart) and the one Buddha vehicle (the great white ox cart) are the same, then there are only three carts in all; but if they (the two ox carts) are different, then there are four vehicles. This is the nub of the controversy. The Great Teacher Tien-t’ai of China took the view that there were four carts.
Ikeda: This is no doubt a many-faceted issue, but in at least one respect, may I suggest the following interpretation? The disciples of the Buddha who practiced the three vehicles prior to the revelation of the single Buddha vehicle were following the way of mentor and disciple after a fashion. But the doctrine of the replacement of the three vehicles with the one vehicle teaches us to follow the way of the oneness of mentor and disciple.
Saito: What is the significance of this evolution from “the way of mentor and disciple” to “the way of the oneness of mentor and disciple”?
Ikeda: Before the revelation of the one Buddha vehicle, the bodhisattvas who were followers of the Bodhisattva vehicle maintained a separate identity from that of the followers of the other two vehicles of voice-hearers and cause-awakened ones, whom they believed could never attain enlightenment. Because they viewed each of the Ten Worlds as separate from one another, the bodhisattvas were not only unable to save other living beings, but they also could not attain Buddhahood themselves.
But the Buddha’s wish is to enable all living beings to attain enlightenment. Though there is always inevitably some degree of disparity in the state of life of the mentor and that of the disciple, in the case of the bodhisattvas of the three vehicles, the very spirit, aspiration and philosophy of mentor and disciple are fundamentally irreconcilable. On the other hand, the bodhisattvas who embrace the one Buddha vehicle after the three vehicles have been put in their proper perspective base themselves on the principle of the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds — that all living beings can equally attain enlightenment, including the now-transformed voice-hearers. Armed with this profound philosophy, they then embark on the great challenge to lead all living beings to enlightenment. Here, for the first time, they enter the same path as the Buddha. In this fundamental commitment, mentor and disciple become comrades who share the same goal and are bound in a relationship as a senior and junior in faith traveling a shared path. Advancing in such unity — with such oneness of heart and mind — is the true way of mentor and disciple.
Saito: I see. That explains it very clearly.
Ikeda: In this struggle to dive into the “ocean” of society and strive to bring everyone aboard the “great ship” bound for happiness, the Buddha, too, is a bodhisattva. Explaining the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds, the Daishonin says: “Buddhas too are encompassed in the bodhisattva world because they dwell in the stage of religious practice [even after having attained enlightenment]. Therefore, though they are in the stage of perfect enlightenment, they appear to be in the preceding stage, that of near-perfect enlightenment” (WND-2, 59).
In any event, the mentor’s intent, as expressed in Expedient Means,” is “to make all persons equal to me, without any distinction between us” (LSOC, 70). The Buddha’s compassion is such that his goal is to bring all living beings to a state of life identical to his own. Another passage in this chapter tells us:
The original vow of the Buddhas
was that the Buddha way, which they themselves practice,
should be shared universally among living beings
so that they too may likewise attain this way. (LSOC, 75)
The “original vow” of the Buddhas is to enable all people to walk their same path toward enlightenment.
Of course, the practitioners of the three vehicles of the sutras before the Lotus Sutra also believed in and followed the Buddha. And in their fashion, they followed the way of mentor and disciple. But these disciples always felt an unbridgeable gap between them and their mentor: the disciple was the disciple and the Buddha was the Buddha. The disciple did not know the mind of the mentor. The Lotus Sutra, however, broke through this deluded belief.
The replacement of the three vehicles with the one vehicle engendered a fundamental transformation in the mind and the way of life of the disciple — a transformation from the way of mentor and disciple to the way of the oneness of mentor and disciple.
Suda: That’s made things very clear. As mentioned earlier, when Shariputra heard the teaching of the single Buddha vehicle, he realized that he was a true child of the Buddha. “Child of the Buddha” also seems to me symbolic of the oneness of mentor and disciple.
Ikeda: Yes. President Toda often said: “A blacksmith’s apprentice is a blacksmith; a fishmonger’s trainee is a fishmonger. In the same way, the Buddha’s disciple is a Buddha. It all works out very neatly… We are actively sharing the teachings with others just as the Daishonin instructed, so we are the disciples of the Daishonin.”
Mr. Toda also repeatedly emphasized that we are children of the Buddha. Whether aware of it or not, a lion’s cub is a lion and a child of the Buddha is a Buddha. This is an incontrovertible fact; a self-evident reality. When we are profoundly aware of this reality, we have entered the path of the oneness of mentor and disciple.
Endo: “Child of the Buddha” transcends all distinctions such as voice-hearer, pratyekabuddha or bodhisattva, though in terms of action, I would agree that it refers specifically to the bodhisattva. It seems to me that the mentor’s compassion to elevate his disciples to the same state of life as his own, and the disciples’ determination to move forward one in mind with their mentor, are both encompassed by the expression, “child of the Buddha.”
Ikeda: I think that is exactly right. To the Buddha, all beings of the Ten Worlds are his children. But among all those children, those who embrace and uphold the Mystic Law can be called his “true children.”
“The Emergence of the Treasure Tower” chapter of the Lotus Sutra states:
And if in future existences
one can read and uphold this sutra,
one will be a true son of the Buddha. (LSOC, 220)
Saito: When we consider that the Lotus Sutra is a scripture expounded for those living in the age after the Buddha’s passing, I think we can identify the true children of the Buddha as the Bodhisattvas of the Earth.
Ikeda: Yes. In The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, Nichiren Daishonin says: “The children are the Bodhisattvas of the Earth, the father is Shakyamuni Buddha” (OTT, 243). Those disciples who cherish the same vow, the same sense of responsibility, as their mentor — in other words, those disciples who stand up united as one with their mentor — are the Bodhisattvas of the Earth.
The Daishonin writes, “If you are of the same mind as Nichiren, you must be a Bodhisattva of the Earth” (WND-I, 385). There is special significance to the Daishonin’s phrase “of the same mind.”
The SGI, whose members have made the Daishonin’s vow their own, working tirelessly to promote kosen-rufu, is an organization of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth carrying out the mission they pledged themselves to in the infinite past. It is a gathering of disciples indivisibly united with the Daishonin.
Endo: But the priesthood refused to let us say the SGI members are Bodhisattvas of the Earth. Instead, they insist that lay people are merely the “followers” of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth.
Suda: If we are to be called followers, then we are the Daishonin’s proud true followers. We are certainly not the followers of a corrupt priesthood.
Saito: I wonder how the priesthood interprets the Daishonin’s declaration, “Were they not Bodhisattvas of the Earth, they could not chant the daimoku [Nam-myoho-renge-kyo]” (WND-I, 385).
Suda: The twenty-sixth high priest, Nichikan, also emphasized that striving to attain the same state of life as Nichiren Daishonin is the very essence of Nichiren Buddhism. He writes, “Through the power of the Mystic Law, we ourselves manifest the life of the founder, Nichiren Daishonin.” He also said, “When we chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with faith in the Gohonzon, our lives immediately become the Gohonzon of three thousand realms in a single moment of life, the entity of the founder, Nichiren Daishonin.”
Endo: The Nichiren Shoshu priesthood, in direct violation of that spirit, are determined to prevent people from becoming one with the Daishonin. They must think it very much to their disadvantage to have followers advancing as one with the Daishonin, along the same path.
Suda: Yes, it seems they will do anything to disrupt the perfectly natural unity of mentor and disciple, wishing to insinuate themselves into the resulting fissure, so that they can dominate and control people. This is in direct contradiction to the Daishonin’s teaching that ordinary people are endowed with the supremely noble state of Buddhahood, just as they are. It also runs counter to the teachings of Nichikan, who faithfully carried on the Daishonin’s teaching.
Saito: Even the term original Buddha has become a tool in the hands of the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood to establish their authority. Their scheme is to elevate the authority of the high priest and of the priesthood overall by attempting to make people regard the Daishonin as some sort of transcendent being utterly separated from mortal human beings.
Ikeda: They act as if they revere the Daishonin, but in fact they are betraying his most profound intent. They are transforming a teaching of supreme respect for human beings into a teaching of the most deplorable contempt for human beings. They want to destroy the path of the oneness of mentor and disciple as taught by the Daishonin because of their own arrogant disdain for the laity Dostoevsky comments astutely on this same impulse: “Many very proud people like to believe in God, especially those who despise other people…. The reason is obvious. They turn to God to avoid doing homage to men…; to do homage to God is not so humiliating.”
Here Dostoevsky reveals his keen understanding of the workings of the human psyche.
Saito: We only have to change the word God in this passage to the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood expression “the transcendent original Buddha” —which they use to portray the Daishonin as residing on a plane utterly divorced from the realm of common mortals —and we would have a perfect description of the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood.
Endo: What they pay homage to is not really the teachings of the Daishonin but their own ambition and pride.
Ikeda: Nothing is more foolish than to be taken in by such corrupt people. It is important that we see through them.
The oneness of mentor and disciple is the very heart of the Lotus Sutra and the essence of Nichiren Daishonin’s teachings, yet the priests try to destroy and cast aside this most crucial element. This is a characteristic of devilish functions, known as “robbers of life.”
To reject the oneness of mentor and disciple is to reject the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds; it constitutes an attack on the fundamental equality of all human beings. The true nature of the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood is revealed here for all to see.
The sixty-fifth high priest, Nichijun, clearly recognized the mentor-disciple relationship as the cornerstone of faith in the Soka Gakkai. In the original text of the speech he prepared for the Nineteenth Soka Gakkai General Meeting in November 1958, he Writes: “The Daishonin said, ‘Nichiren’s teaching represents the third doctrine’s (WND-1, 855). President Toda truly embraced this teaching with his life. The path of mentor and disciple originates from the Dai-Gohonzon and it is my belief that the water of that teaching has run down to the present, now flowing through the Soka Gakkai.”
Suda: This is a very important statement. Concerning the distinction between the path of mentor and disciple and the path of the oneness of mentor and disciple, I will never forget a section in your narrative history The Human Revolution where the unified struggle of President Toda and Shin’ichi Yamamoto is eloquently described.
It reads:
Toda dearly wanted to produce many capable leaders from under his wing, but the time was not yet ripe. His disciples understood the way of mentor and disciple, but almost none of them truly grasped how vital the oneness of mentor and disciple was in the struggle for kosen-rufu. Oneness meant a perfect unity or fusion.
When the 1956 election campaign approached, Toda’s disciples turned to him for guidance. But having already formulated a course of action in their minds based on conventional wisdom, they merely listened to Toda’s basic guidelines as a theoretical framework; they only comprehended them as a point of reference for their own strategies. Strictly speaking, their plans departed from Toda’s guidance. This tells us that it is easy to follow the path of mentor and disciple but extremely difficult to follow the path of the oneness of mentor and disciple….
There was, however, one exception — Shin’ichi Yamamoto…. His plans accorded exactly with Toda’s guidelines in every particular. They were one and the same. He no longer had to try to understand Toda’s guidance; it was automatic and effortless…. For Shin’ichi, everything started from his oneness with Toda — the oneness in the depths of their minds.
Saito: The path of the oneness of mentor and disciple means to stand up and fight with the same mind and the same prayer as the mentor.
Ikeda: The mutual possession of the Ten Worlds expounded in the Lotus Sutra is the fundamental principle that enables all people to transform their state of life. We must manifest this principle in our own lives and pass it on to posterity, on into the infinite future. This golden path is the way of the oneness of mentor and disciple.
In a broader sense, no important undertaking, no movement, nothing of truly great import can be completed in a single generation. Having successors to inherit and continue the task through future generations is vital. I said as much to President Nelson Mandela of South Africa at our first meeting in 1990: “Though your country has in you an unprecedented and great leader, unless there are many excellent people behind you, your job will never be accomplished. One tall tree does not make a jungle.” And at our 1995 meeting, when I asked him about his successors, President Mandela confidently assured me that there was no need to worry on that score.
Nichiren Daishonin writes on the importance of successors: “No one was found there who could embrace these sutras and teach them to others. It was as though there were only wooden or stone statues garbed in priests’ robes and carrying begging bowls” (WND-I, 401).
When the Bodhisattvas of the Earth make their appearance in the “Emerging from the Earth” chapter, Shakyamuni announces that these bodhisattvas have been together with their mentor from the beginningless past; they have been inseparable in age after age. Just before he makes this announcement, he declares: “The Thus Come One wishes now to summon forth and declare… the power of the Buddhas that has the lion’s ferocity,…” (LSOC, 258).
Nichiren Daishonin also describes the determination with which he inscribed the Gohonzon as “the power of the Buddhas] that has the lion’s ferocity” (WND-I, 412). And in reference to his actual inscription of the Gohonzon — the means by which all living beings in the ten thousand years and more of the Latter Day of the Law can attain enlightenment— he proclaims, “I, Nichiren, have inscribed my life in sumi ink”? (WND-I, 412).
The impassioned spirit to fight for the people, for humanity through all eternity — this is the power of an attacking lion; it is the unstinting efforts the mentor makes to educate and train the disciples.
The Lotus Sutra calls out for the mentor and the disciples to work together with the power of a lion’s ferocity, unified in heart, mind and purpose, to transform the inner state of life of all humanity.