Discussion of the “Belief and Understanding” Chapter (Chapter 4).
Saito: The subtheme of our discussion on the Lotus Sutra is “Reli-gion in the Twenty-first Century.” President Ikeda, you participated in a discussion on this theme. It was in your meeting with Professor Lawrence E. Sullivan of Harvard University in March 1993.
I was particularly impressed by your ideas concerning religion in the twenty-first century. You emphasized that there should be a kind of open competition among religions to determine which one best serves people’s needs. And you noted that Buddhism offers three proofs upon which that peaceful competition may be based: documentary proof, theoretical proof and actual proof.
You also stated that a religion has a natural life span, and that people ought not to cling to dead religions, a conclusion that was particularly startling to me. The people, you said, are the ones who decide what the truth is. I remember thinking, “This is the correct Buddhist view of the role of the people and the nature of religion.”
Endo: I’m afraid I would have simply declared that, when it comes right down to it, Nichiren Buddhism is the only religion.
Saito: It’s true that we may tend to leap to that conclusion. What really moved me was the point that the people themselves should be the ones to decide the particulars of religion in the twenty-first century. And at the same time, no religion can be called a true religion of the people unless people choose it on their own ini-tiative, thinking for themselves and exercising wisdom.
Suda: Yes, that’s true. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that there is a highly capable political leader who decides that a particular religion is correct. And because he feels it is “the truth,” for the people’s sake, he makes his choice the state religion and decrees that all citizens must take faith. This might be extreme, but such a religion is not likely to take root among the people.
Even if a religion is correct, if it is forced on people and given a privileged place in society by the powers that be, this will spell its death. Such a state of affairs will in turn spell an end to people’s spiritual freedom.
Ikeda: That’s right. The idea of forcing people to accept a particular religion is entirely foreign to Buddhism. King Ashoka (RC 268-32 BCE) of India, for example, was a fervent Buddhist, but he adopted a policy of tolerance toward all faiths.
When Nichiren Daishonin returned from exile in Sado, he refused to accept the government’s offer to build a temple for him. He had no wish whatsoever to be supported by the s vernment.
Endo: The Daishonin believed that the balance of power ought to lie with the people, not the authorities. And this is more true now than it was then.
‘Saito: I wonder how Japan today measures up to that ideal. Are the people becoming wise? Are they thinking for themselves? No.
There are those who take advantage of that ignorance to fan their mistrust and anxiety. In the end the people are blind to the government’s attempts to regulate and control religion. In the calls for stricter government control of “bad” religions, we see a lack of awareness of the government’s potential to abuse power and, hence, the immaturity of Japan’s democracy.
Suda: The journalist Karel Van Wolferen warns that the true intention of Japan’s leaders is to keep the people ignorant.
Unless the Japanese people wake up, they will play right into the hands of the authorities who want nothing more than to keep them ignorant so that these authorities can continue doing as they please.
Ikeda: The SGI is a gathering of ordinary people. We struggle to ensure that the people are not despised and exploited by the pow-erful. To help all people become strong and wise, we are developing a network of peace and culture and putting great effort into education. By nature, the people are strong, wise, cheerful and warm. Religious faith has the power to draw out those qualities.
The purpose of faith is not to turn people into sheep; it is to make them wise. Wisdom isn’t knowledge that causes suffering for others; it is enlightened insight for improving one’s own life as well as the lives of others.
I think that today’s societal distortions derive from a confusion of wisdom, which is holistic, and knowledge, which is frag-mentary, as well as an inability to distinguish genuine from blind belief. Nichiren Daishonin says, “The character myo means to open” (WND-I, I45). Life naturally tends toward the opening of full potential, toward limitless advancement. The function of the Mystic Law, of a true religion, is to enable people to manifest that tendency to the highest degree. And faith is the key that enables us to open the full potential of our lives, our inherent wisdom. The Daishonin says, “Opening’ … is another name for the mind of faith” (OTT, 28).
Kumarajiva’ renders the inborn spirit of continually seeking self-improvement as “belief and understanding,” the title of the Lotus Sutra’s fourth chapter. Simply put, “belief and understand-ing” means to fully accept and understand. People must be able to accept and understand the teachings. That is the kind of faith that the Lotus Sutra teaches; it is by no means blind. In this chapter, let’s discuss what faith is and what it means to believe in light of the “Belief and Understanding” chapter.
THE PARABLE OF
THE WEALTHY MAN AND HIS POOR SON AND THE AWAKENING OF THE FOUR GREAT MEN OF LEARNING
We today have heard the Buddha’s voice teaching and we dance for joy,
having gained what we never had before.
The Buddha declares that the voice-hearers will be able to attain Buddhahood This cluster of unsurpassed jewels has come to us unsought….
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. (ISOC, 124-32)
Saito: “Belief and Understanding” begins with men of learning (voice-hearers) rejoicing at Shakyamuni’s teaching that the people of the two vehicles (learning and realization) will attain Buddha-hood. In “Simile and Parable,” the third chapter, Shakyamuni assures Shariputra that in a future age called Great Treasure Adorn-ment, he will be born in the land Free From Stain as a Buddha named Flower Glow Thus Come One (see ISOC, 86-87). In the Mahayana sutras that Shakyamuni had previously expounded, the voice-hearers and cause-awakened ones were disdained and the possibility of their enlightenment denied. But here in the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni for the first time explains that they, too, can attain Buddhahood.
Endo: Hearing that, the four great men of learning express their joy. They are Subhuti, foremost in the understanding of the doctrine of non-substantiality; Mahakatyayana, foremost in debate; Mahakashyapa, foremost in the practice to eliminate desires; and Mahamaudgalyayana, foremost in supernatural powers. When they “heard the world-honored one prophesy that Shariputra would attain supreme perfect enlightenment, their minds were moved as seldom before and [they] danced for joy” (ISOC, I17). The “Belief and Understanding” chapter records their joy at hearing “a Law that they had never known before” (ISOC, II7).
Suda: These four were central figures in the Buddhist community — senior leaders, as it were. But they were “old and decrepit” and, as they admit, “believed that we had already attained nirvana and that we were incapable of doing more, and so we never sought to attain supreme perfect enlightenment” (ISOC, II7).
Ikeda: They had positions to maintain. They had seniority and experience. And so they had become complacent. They had practiced for many years and grown old. They had attained a certain degree of enlightenment and were satisfied with it. While acknowledging that the enlightenment of their mentor, Shakya-muni, was indeed wondrous, they had reconciled themselves to the notion that they could never achieve anything comparable.
Therefore, they were happy to remain as they were. But then the prediction of Shariputra’s enlightenment broke through the complacency of these leaders. In the mirror of the Lotus Sutra, we find an image of continuous and impassioned lifelong pursuit of the Way.
Saito: Some sources suggest that Shariputra was actually older than Shakyamuni. That would mean that when Shakyamuni preached the Lotus Sutra, Shariputra must have been around eighty years old. A Sanskrit version of the Lotus Sutra says that the four great men of learning “sat near the World-Honored One for so many years that their bodies ached, their joints were brittle…. and they
were old and weak.”?
Suda: Then their teacher, Shakyamuni, turns to them and tells them they still have much to achieve and urges them to keep trying.
Ikeda: He teaches them the practice of eternal self-improvement and calls on them to determine never to retreat. “Not to advance is to retreat.” Buddhist practice means continually working to improve oneself and one’s surroundings, advancing ever forward It means eternal growth and, therefore, eternal youth. Life is eter-nal, continuing throughout past, present and future.
Endo: The disciples of the two vehicles also confess that they have cast a cold eye on the efforts of the bodhisattvas to transform society and guide the people based on the Buddha’s teaching.
Ikeda: The practitioners of the two vehicles had succumbed to a kind of inner death. Not only did they not desire to become Buddhas themselves, but they looked askance on those striving to attain Buddhahood. They divorced themselves from such aspirants and ridiculed them. That’s why some Mahayana sutras describe them as “having scorched the seeds for attaining Buddhahood.” But, at the most basic level, the Buddha does not abandon the practitioners of the two vehicles. He admonishes and encourages them, saying: “See here, this won’t do. This is not who you really are. You can attain a higher and more blissful state of being.” Saito: The Sanskrit version of the Lotus Sutra says, “The practitioners of the two vehicles, though they did not themselves seek the supreme enlightenment of the Buddha, taught and admonished the bodhisattvas to attain the Buddha’s supreme enlightenment.”
Ikeda: Urging others to accomplish what we do not attempt to achieve ourselves is outrageous. It’s incredibly arrogant. The tendency to make others do something while personally neglecting to make the same effort is a pitfall of “organizationism.” With such cowards for leaders, any organization will become calcified.
Most important, such people stop growing themselves. And when life stagnates, it sickens.
In the Lotus Sutra, the practitioners of the two vehicles accept Shakyamuni’s rebuke and his encouragement heart and soul. Only then are they “reborn” as “voice-hearers in truth” (ISOC, 132) who can share the voice of the True Law with others. They regain youthful vigor and once again begin to lead energetic lives of self-improvement. When they realize that they, too, can become Bud-dhas, they cry out,
“This cluster of unsurpassed jewels has come to us unsought.” (ISOC, I24)
The “cluster of unsurpassed jewels” can be variously interpreted as indicating the teaching of the Lotus Sutra; the state of Buddhahood; or life itself, which contains within it the world of Buddhahood.
Everyone alike possesses this unsurpassed jewel of life. This most precious of all things “has come to us unsought.” It comes down to whether we can recognize it as such. And the Lotus Sutra enables us to most profoundly perceive and recognize the treasure of our lives. The “unsurpassed jewel” definitely is not any material asset or “treasure of the storehouse.” Someone who experienced the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake reportedly said: “I realized that the most important things in life are things that money can’t buy: life, air and human kindness.” These are words to savor.
Endo: The practitioners of the two vehicles, in their rapturous state, employ a parable to describe the teaching they have just grasped.
This is the famous parable of the wealthy man and his poor son.
The tale goes that the son leaves his father’s house at a young age and wanders from country to country for some fifty years, growing old and poor as he does.
Saito: The wealthy father represents Shakyamuni, of course, and the poor son stands for the people of the two vehicles. The parable has traditionally been understood as referring to Shakyamunis lifetime work of teaching and guiding others. The fifty years that the son wanders suggests the fifty years of Shakyamuni’s preaching from the time he attained enlightenment at thirty to his preaching of the Lotus Sutra before his death at eighty.
Endo: When the son disappears from his father’s home, the father searches but cannot find him. The father eventually takes up residence in a certain city and becomes very wealthy. His storehouses overflow with treasure, and he has countless servants and domestic animals. But the father is uneasy. He is old and knows he will die soon. He regrets that he has no heir to whom to leave his fortune and wishes to find his son and establish him as the inheritor of his wealth.
Saito: Shakyamuni has attained enlightenment, and he is looking for someone to whom he can leave all that he has attained.
Endo: One day, the son happens to pass by his father’s mansion.
The son is overwhelmed by the splendid mansion and the grand appearance of the man who is his father. He is afraid and begins to flee. Just then, the father recognizes his son. Though they have been separated for fifty years, the father knows his beloved son at a glance. The father sends a retainer to welcome the son home, but the son fears he is about to be apprehended for some reason and rushes away. When the retainer finally catches him, he faints in fear and exhaustion. Now the father understands that his son has fallen to such a low state that there is no use in revealing who he is just yet. So he lets the son go free.
Saito: After his enlightenment, Shakyamuni attempted to directly communicate the full content of his awakening, but his listeners were not yet ready to understand it.
Endo: The father devises a plan. He sends two poorly dressed servants to the son and offers him a job, at twice the usual wages, cleaning the father’s toilets. The son works very hard. Next the father, himself dressed in poor clothes, approaches his son, speaks to and becomes acquainted with him. He says to the son:”You are a hard worker, so ask whatever you wish of me. You may think of me as your father. And I will call you ‘son.” Gradually a bond of understanding and trust grows between them, and the son comes and goes freely in the father’s mansion, though he continues to live in a humble hut on its periphery.
Saito: Shakyamuni, in accordance with people’s minds and their capacities, first teaches a very rudimentary teaching, leading them gradually to more and more advanced teachings. The fact that the son still lives outside his father’s mansion indicates a state of mind to still regard enlightenment as something that happens to others.
Ikeda: The fact that the father tells his son to think of him as his real father is noteworthy here. In “Simile and Parable,” the Buddha and living beings are said to be in a relationship of father and children. No matter what state living beings may be in, the Buddha always wishes to save them, as if they were his children. This profound relationship is key in Buddhism. Children may not understand their parents’ spirit, but parents love their children, no matter how rebellious they may be. There is no parent who does not pray for his or her child’s happiness.
The Buddha prays for the happiness of all beings. He fights to bring happiness to all beings. He is the parent of all beings. When we place our faith in the Buddha’s intent, our own wisdom opens and blossoms. That is the meaning of “belief and understanding” in the Lotus Sutra. Voice-hearers learned of the great compassion of the Buddha, who, as their father, took great pains over many years to save his lost sons. They were greatly moved and believed and understood the Buddha’s intent. That emotion is condensed into the words “belief and understanding.”
Endo: Finally, the father falls sick and realizes that his end is near.
He speaks to his son:
I now have great quantities of gold, silver, and rare treasures that fill and overflow from my storehouses. You are to take complete charge of the amounts I have and of what is to be handed out and gathered in. This is what I have in mind, and I want you to carry out my wish-es. Why is this? Because from now on, you and I will not behave as two different persons. So you must keep your wits about you and see that there are no mistakes or losses. (ISOC, I22)
The father’s entire fortune is placed in the hands of the son, who manages it carefully, and who takes none of it for himself.
Saito: This corresponds to the part, “he put him in charge of household affairs” (ISOC, 128). Though the father gives his son free reign in managing his wealth, the wealth remains the father’s pos-session. The treasure of the Buddha’s wisdom was still not the son’s to possess as his own.
Suda: 1 am reminded of the passage in “On Attaining Buddha-hood in this Lifetime”:”If you seek enlightenment outside your-self, then your performing even ten thousand practices and ten thousand good deeds will be in vain. It is like the case of a poor man who spends night and day counting his neighbor’s wealth but gains not even half a coin” (WND-I, 3).
Endo: Time passes, and the father realizes that his son is becoming more self-assured and magnanimous, to the point where he despises his former low opinion of himself and comes to hold high ideals. Finally, the moment of the father’s death is at hand, and he calls together his relatives, the king and his ministers and says to them:
“Gentlemen, you should know that this is my son, who was born to me. In such-and-such a city he abandoned me and ran away, and for over fifty years he wandered about suffering hardship. His original name is such-and such, and my name is such-and-such. In the past, when I was still living in my native city, I worried about him and so I set out in search of him. Sometime after, I suddenly chanced to meet up with him. This is in truth my son, and I in truth am his father. Now everything that belongs to me, all my wealth and possessions, shall belong entirely to this son of mine.” (ISOC, 122)
When the son learns of his true origins, he is overjoyed. “I originally had no mind to covet or seek such things,” he thinks. “Yet now these stores of treasures have come of their own accord!” (ISOC, 123).
Saito: When at last the son has attained a self-assured and magnanimous outlook, the father announces his true name and transfers to him all his wealth. Likewise, because the capacities of living beings had reached a high degree of development, the Buddha could expound to them the Lotus Sutra, his true teaching, bestowing upon them the supreme treasure of Buddhahood.
Suda: The Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai of China interprets this parable of the wealthy man and his poor son as explaining the titty years of Shakyamuni’s preaching. He formulates the classification of teachings known as the “five flavors,” based on the process of refining ghee from milk. This schema is well known as the tive peri-ods. A particular significance (a), teaching period (b), and flavor
(c) correspond to each of the five major events of the parable as
follows:
1) Finding the son and pursuing him:
(a) testing the people’s capacities
(b) Flower Garland period
(c) milk
2) Inviting the son to work in his mansion:
(a) leading in the right direction
(b) Agana period
(c) cream
3) Forging bonds of trust between father and son:
(a) refuting adherence to the Theravada teaching
(b) Correct and Equal period
(c) curdled milk
4) Turning management of the estate over to the son:
(a) eliminating nonessentials
(b) Wisdom period
(c) butter
5) Officially leaving the wealth to the son:
(a) opening and unifying
(b) Lotus period
(c) ghee
Endo: The Lotus Sutra is the ghee, the most refined, of all the Buddha’s teachings. One cannot know how truly “delicious” Buddhism is without savoring the Lotus Sutra. Shakyamuni first revealed a kind of rough sketch of the world of his enlightenment (in the Flower Garland Sutra), but it was completely beyond the comprehension of the practitioners of the two vehicles. So Shakyamuni taught the Agon Sutras, in accord with the low aspirations of his listeners; he set up the lowly goals of the Theravada teachings. Next he taught the Mahayana sutras for those with higher aims. But the practitioners of the two vehicles clung to the Theravada teachings and showed no interest in the Mahayana teachings.
Saito: The practitioners of the two vehicles later reflect on their behavior at that time and describe it as “being satisfied with a day’s wages and not seeking to earn more.”
Ikeda: While in general it is important “to desire little and be content with what one has,” it is good to be greedy for the True Law. The goal is not to eliminate desires; it is what one desires that is important. Earthly desires are enlightenment. The desire for supreme enlightenment, the search for enlightenment, is enlight-enment. Satisfaction with one’s accomplishments might seem like humility, but to underestimate life’s potential is actually great arrogance.
Endo: The practitioners of the two vehicles cling to the minor teachings of the Theravada and have no interest in the Mahayana teachings, so Shakyamuni firmly reprimands them. In “Belief and Understanding,” the four great men of learning reflect: “In the past, when in the presence of the bodhisattvas he disparaged the voice-hearers as those who delight in a lesser doctrine, the Buddha was in fact employing the great vehicle to teach and convert us” (LSOC, 124). Here “great vehicle” refers to the one and only true Mahayana teaching, namely, the Lotus Sutra. This is the true wealth of the Buddha.
THE MEANING OF
“BELIEF AND UNDERSTANDING”
Suda: “Belief and Understanding” describes how the voice-hearers believe and understand the Buddha’s teaching and rejoice at being able to do so. That is why the chapter is titled “Belief and Understanding.” The Sanskrit for “belief and understanding” is adhimukti, which literally means inclination or intent, that is, to direct one’s mind or will toward something. Since it involves direction of the mind, I think we could also call it an aim or a purpose.
Mukti is thought to be related to the Sanskrit word for liberation, moksha. Given that context, I think Kumarajiva’s translation of the chapter title in the Myoho-renge-kyo as “belief and understand-ing” is a deeper interpretation than the Dharmaraksha’s translation of the title in his Lotus Sutra of the Correct Law as “belief and wish”
Ikeda: In The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings, Nichiren Daishonin quotes Miao-lo’s Annotations on the “Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra”: “In the Lotus Sutra of the Correct Law, this chapter [‘Belief and Understanding] is entitled ‘Belief and Wish’ Though the meaning is similar, the word ‘wish’ is less appropriate than ‘under-standing. The chapter describes [how the four disciples, Subhuti, Katyayana, Mahakashyapa, and Maudgalyayana, gained] an understanding of the teachings, but what justification is there for the use of the word ‘wish’?” (OTT, 54).
The important point is that the fundamental issues for Buddhism of faith and wisdom, and faith and liberation (enlightenment) are distilled in “belief and understanding.” In a broader sense, this relates to the fundamental issues of civilization and philosophy, which are faith and reason, believing and knowing. This is an extremely delicate problem, with relevance to many disciplines, including the cognitive sciences and psychology. Buddhism has traditionally considered these issues in meticulous detail Of course, we can hardly do this matter justice in a single meeting, but neither can we avoid it entirely. The philosopher Blaise Pascal writes, “We must declare that religion is not irrational.” These words, directed toward people without religious faith, remain alive today. Many today regard any kind of belief— and religious faith, in particular —as somehow in opposition to reason or at the very least as a sort of paralysis of the faculty of reason. There are, indeed, fanatical religions in which faith opposes reason. But it is an erroneous leap of logic to assume on this basis, and without any evi-dence, that all religions are so. That itself is irrational and can be characterized as a kind of blind faith in its own right.
A higher religion does not negate rationality. No religion that suppresses human reason can earn the trust of humankind. Bud-dhism, the “religion of wisdom,” is an extremely rational religion.
In fact, it is so rational that many Westerners even question whether it can be classified as a religion, since it does not teach the existence of a supreme being in the image of humankind.
Suda: A tendency toward rationalism seems especially strong in early Buddhism. In Mahayana Buddhism, however, there is strong emphasis on faith.
Ikeda: Yes, that’s true, but even in early Buddhism, practice is based on faith in Shakyamuni, and faith in the Buddha’s teachings is also encour-aged. Faith was the starting point for the intellectual quest. Moreover, the basis in faith made possible a kind of intellectual quest involving one’s entire being, including intuitive powers of perception and the deepest levels of awareness, rather than merely analytical intelligence.
Saito: It is certainly true that faith in one’s teacher is necessary for success in any kind of discipline or training, not only religion. Mr.
Makiguchi said: “We learn how to live by imitating others. We observe what others do and copy what we see, trusting in their example. The same is true of flower arrangement, dance, kendo, judo or any other art or skill. We trust our teachers and do what they say. After mastering imitation, we move on to creativity. That is how one learns to live.”
Endo: If a newborn infant were not to believe what its parents taught it—if it thought milk was poison, if it refused to drink water —it would not survive. The first step in life is belief; everything develops from that. No society can exist without bonds of mutual trust among its members.
Tkeda: That’s true. This belief on the level of daily life is, of course, different from religious faith, but neither are they utterly divorced from each other. They are part of a shared continuum. The Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset writes, “We have ideas, but we live based on our beliefs.” Even when we have an idea, that is, when we think, we still base our thoughts on beliefs we hold.
Beliefs are the “vessel” of life.
Ortega continues: “Our beliefs are already operating in the depths of our lives when we begin to think about something.”8
“Our beliefs constitute the basis of our lives, the ground on which human life unfolds… All our behavior, including our intellectual activities, depends on our system of authentic beliefs. We live, act and exist within our beliefs. For precisely that reason, we do not have a very clear perception of our beliefs, and we usually do not think about them. Yet those beliefs, operating in a latent fashion, are a part of all our conscious acts and thoughts.” Ortega describes belief as “the foundation of knowledge.” If we accept Ortega’s position, we can see that the conflict between knowledge and belief now commonly thought to exist is by no means self-evident. Belief is the foundation of life, and as such we don’t really have a choice to believe or not. We can choose, how-ever, what we will believe in. Religions are systematic presentations of things that should and should not be believed. In that respect, religion is an indispensable part of the life of every indi-vidual, and it plays a crucial part in each day of our lives.
which they base their lives.
Suda: Most people are simply not well aware of the beliefs upon which they base their lives.
Saito: As Ortega might say, the more completely we are living within our beliefs, the less we are conscious of them. As long as that is the case, there is little chance that we can consider the correctness of our beliefs rationally. In that sense, those who think themselves most completely without beliefs — who “believe that they have no beliefs” — are in fact the most irrational about the beliefs on which their lives are based.
Ikeda: We can liken this “ground” of belief to the earth. We are usually unaware of the earth upon which we walk; but we are keenly aware of it when an earthquake occurs. Likewise, we are never more aware of our beliefs than when they crumble. On the individual level, this occurs when we find ourselves in a desperate situation that forces us to reevaluate how we have lived up to then.
Most of those who gathered around Shakyamuni came to him seeking a new realm of belief after they had experienced such frustration and suffering. On a cultural level, this occurs when a civilization reaches a dead end and its basic underlying values are called into question. We are without a doubt living in such an age today. In particular, in connection with the issue of “belief and understanding,” the presumption of a sharp division and opposition between belief on the one hand, and understanding or knowledge on the other, which has been a hallmark of contemporary thought, is being reexamined. In its place, a new fusion of belief and knowledge is being sought.
Endo: I am reminded of a speech you gave at Soka University titled “Scholastic Philosophy and Modern Civilization” (in July
1973). You presented Scholasticism, which has been widely regarded as the “official philosophy” of the Middle Ages, in a new light. You suggested that it could contribute greatly to the issues of unifying belief and reason and developing a holistic knowledge.
Suda: The view of reason as a function independent of all else seems to be losing ground. In the history of science, for example, there is much talk of a paradigm shift. Until recently, scientific knowledge has been regarded as universal, objective and unchanging trom age to age. But now it is recognized that such know-edge is inseparable from the intellectual paradigms— the ways of thinking and value systems — that dominated the ages in which the scientists lived.
Endo: There is increasing recognition that reason is ultimately founded on belief. Many thinkers now accept the view that reason is always based on the paradigms that people, including sci-entists, believe and accept and upon which they base their lives.
Saito: Modern scientists have discussed this point from a variety of angles. Ludwig Wittgenstein, the Austrian philosopher who has exerted great influence on contemporary thought, insisted that all knowledge rests on the thinker’s worldview. In other words, our lives are rooted in an undemonstrable system of belief, apart from which reason cannot operate. Thus, even the skeptic, who claims to believe in nothing and who questions all, in fact believes in skepticism.
Suda: The German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer holds that human experience is ultimately defined by history. We cannot create an identity separate from the society in which we were born and raised. Every individual starts out from the beliefs that his or her society sanctions.
Ikeda: Each person’s life is based on belief of some kind, and therefore such beliefs should be duly respected. But unless that belief is subjected to the tests of reason and reality, it remains individual and subjective and lacks the universality to be communicated to others. The fact that the belief taught in the Lotus Sutra is one with understanding indicates that it is not simply subjective or arbitrary. Of course, the fundamental law to which the Buddha is enlightened is beyond description, meaning that it cannot be grasped in its entirety with language or reason. Even so, Buddhism teaches that reason and language should be highly valued albeit with recognition of their limitations. While the Buddha’s enlightenment may be beyond the realm of reason, it is not irrational, nor does it resist rational examination. Understanding, as in “belief and understanding,” means wisdom. This wisdom is not reason itself but works in conjunction with reason, and reason is a part of it.
It is reasonable to the highest degree, and at the same time it is holistic wisdom that transcends reason. Practicing “belief and understanding” means acquiring that highest wisdom through faith.
Endo: Nichiren Daishonin also practiced this highest teaching of Buddhism, which is supremely rational. For example, he frequently confirms his own position by first presenting various doubts and then refuting them. So it was that before proclaiming the establishment of his teaching, he visited temples all over Japan. He writes that he had doubts about the Buddhism of his day, which was divided into various schools: “Yet the ten schools and seven schools I have mentioned all argue with one another over which of the sutras it is [that is supreme] and can reach no consensus. It is as though seven men or ten men were all trying to be the monarch of a single nation, thus keeping the populace in constant turmoil. Wondering how to resolve this dilemma, I made a vow.
I decided that I would not heed the claims of these eight or ten schools…” (WND-1, 691-92).
The Daishonin did not submit blindly to the authorities of his day. He thought for himself, based on the scriptures, and sought proof to substantiate his beliefs.
Saito: The same was true during his exile to Sado Island. Responding to the question, raised by his followers as well as by others, as to why the votary of the Lotus Sutra should be persecuted, he replies in “The Opening of the Eyes”: “This doubt lies at the heart of this piece I am writing. And because it is the most important concern of my entire life, I will raise it again and again here, and emphasize it more than ever, before I attempt to answer it’
(WND- I, 243).
The Daishonin addresses the question head on and through considering it rationally comes to the conclusion that he is the Buddha of the Latter Day of the Law. The Daishonin’s faith wel comes questions. Through questions, it arrives at answers on a higher level. In this, we see that the Daishonin’s faith was always open to intellectual criticism.
Ikeda: There is a famous passage in “The Opening of the Eyes”:
“Whatever obstacles I might encounter, so long as persons of wisdom do not prove my teachings to be false, I will never yield!
All other troubles are no more to me than dust before the wind”
(WND-I, 280). This expresses the Daishonin’s conviction that his teachings could not be destroyed by any kind of criticism and also shows us how much he valued the intellect. Finally, in “The True Aspect of All Phenomena,’ he emphasizes the importance of study, along with practice: “Exert yourself in the two ways of practice and study. Without practice and study, there can be no Buddhism” (WND-I, 386). The Daishonin declares that without the pursuit of knowledge, without the test of reason, there is no Buddhism.
SUBSTITUTING FAITH FOR WISDOM
Suda: To return to the Lotus Sutra, we find two Sanskrit words that are often translated as faith or belief. In addition to adhimukti, or
“belief and understanding,” the sutra also uses the term sraddha.
The root meaning of dha of sraddha is “to place,” so sraddha means
“to place one’s faith” or “to arouse faith.” This is defined as the first stage of Buddhist practice. In the ancient Hindu scriptures called the Vedas, which predate the Buddhist scriptures, sraddha is used to mean “to possess curiosity about” or “to yearn for.” It has been said that a feeling of astonishment is the source of religious sentiment. Sraddha includes the meanings of awe and yearning for the object of that astonishment. It is a feeling of reverent wonder, or piety, toward that which is beyond one’s ken. Whoever lacks such a sense of piety and is governed instead by passions and desires is called in Buddhist texts an icchantika, a person of incorrigible disbelief and neither has faith in Buddhism nor aspires for enlightenment.
Saito: Buddhist practice begins by arousing sraddha. Then, as our practice progresses, we acquire wisdom from experiencing that which was formerly inconceivable, and we proceed toward enlightenment and its benefit.
Endo: That’s why in the Flower Garland Sutra sraddha is described as the “basis of practice” and “mother of blessings.” “Faith,” in the Lotus Sutra’s principle of substituting faith for wisdom, is sraddha. Nichiren Daishonin writes, “To have faith is the basis of Buddhism” (WND-I, 832).
Ikeda: Faith in Buddhism is definitely not fanaticism or blind faith that rejects the criteria of reason. It is in fact a rational function, a process of cultivating wisdom that begins with a spirit of reverent searching.
Saito: There is yet another Buddhist term for faith: prasada. Prasada expresses the idea of purity and clarity, as in a clear voice or pure water. It is used to describe the pure state of mind of those whose confusion has been dispelled by hearing the teachings of Bud-dhism. It is translated into Chinese by two characters meaning pure faith.” The state of pure faith is one in which we are always at peace, never disturbed by any circumstance, and realize the dignity and equality of all living things.
Ikeda: The proper function of faith is to cleanse the mind and make it pure. Only when the mind is pure can our inherent wisdom shine forth. Some philosophers have considered reason the
“slave of the passions” and believed that reason needed to be freed from the “polution” of emotion. Others, such as Saint Augustine (an carly Christian philosopher), held that faith was needed to cure and strengthen “ailing reason.” What these many different positions have in common is the belief that reason must not be allowed to degenerate into a self-satisfied arrogance.
The impulse of true reason is to continuously and eternally transcend the confines of the present self. It aims to reach beyond its grasp, always improving, always surpassing itself. The source of energy and foundation for that constant search is faith in something larger than oneself. Faith purifies reason, strengthens it, and elevates it. “Pure faith” is at once thoroughly polished faith and rigorously tested reason.
Suda: In “Expedient Means,” Shariputra entreats Shakyamuni:
“Speak, we beg you, without reserve! / In this assembly of numberless beings / are those capable of reverent belief” (ISOC, 62).
The “reverent belief” to which Shariputra attests is faith that encompasses both sraddha and prasada.
Endo: I think we can summarize the three kinds of faith as fol-lows. When we first hear the Buddhist teachings, we feel a wonderful awe and, arousing “reverent faith” (sraddha), we commence our Buddhist practice. Through developing “belief and under-standing” (adhimukti), we cultivate and polish our lives toward perfecting the sublime state that is pure faith (prasada), by which one perceives that all living beings are equal and have dignity.
Ikeda: Buddhist faith is the engine for continuous self-improvement.
It is a force that motivates us to strive for the perfection of our potential to the fullest.
entire being, including the intellect, and to develop our hidden potential to the fullest.
Suda: There is yet another kind of faith, which is called bhakti in Sanskrit. This is a burning and absolute faith in a deity. The original meaning of bhakti is to “share” or “become a part of.” Bhakti is used, for example, to refer to becoming one with Brahma, which the Hindu religion holds to be the origin of, and to encompass, all beings. It is a faith that leads to unification with some mystical being that transcends the individual, and it leads to a practice in which one surrenders his or her identity to some greater being. Bhakti is used frequently in Indian texts to refer to absolute faith in a deity, but it is almost never used in Buddhist texts. Bhakti is an essentially different kind of faith from that espoused in Buddhism.
Ikeda: That’s true. Buddhism does not teach self-negation toward being subsumed in some larger entity. Our individual lives are each infinite treasure houses. Our lives are clusters of blessings.
Our lives are the Lotus Sutra. Lasting happiness never comes from the outside. Everything of value emanates from within our own being. Faith in Buddhism means establishing one’s true self. It is the recognition that the infinite horizon of the cosmos exists right here within the self. One’s life opens out toward the cosmos and is enfolded in it; at the same time, one’s life encompasses the entire cosmos. We are in constant exchange and communication with the cosmos, our lives reverberating with it as one living entity.
Faith is the “springboard” for attaining that awareness.
Endo: I think we have to take up the question of why the Lotus Sutra emphasizes faith so much more than do other Buddhist texts.
Saito: Faith is already strongly emphasized at the very start of Shakyamuni’s preaching in “Expedient Means.” After the true entity of all phenomena and the ten factors of life are presented, Shariputra asks Shakyamuni to preach the teaching that has never been taught before.
Shakyamuni replies that if he does so, people will be astonished and will doubt the teaching, and three times he refuses Shariputra’s request. But Shariputra vows, “The countless members of this assembly / are capable of according reverent belief to this Law” (ISOC, 63), and once again requests that Shakyamuni
teach it.
In response to Shariputra’s strong and reverent faith, Shakya-muni reveals that the reason the Buddha appears in the world is
“to open the door of buddha wisdom,””to show the buddha wis-dom,””to cause living beings to awaken to the buddha wisdom,” and
“to induce them] to enter the path of buddha wisdom” (ISOC, 64).
And he begins to expound the replacement of the three vehicles with the one supreme vehicle.
Ikeda: As we see from this, faith is a prerequisite for the very preaching of the Lotus Sutra.
Endo: Shariputra, the first of the men of learning to hear the Buddha’s teaching in the “Expedient Means” chapter and attain enlightenment, does so not by the power of his own wisdom but through faith — by substituting faith for wisdom.
As The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom’° explains, “It is faith through which one enters the sea of Buddhism, and wisdom by which one crosses it.” Buddhist practice starts from faith. That leads to the acquisition of wisdom, and the power of wisdom carries us across the great sea of Buddhism —that is, to supreme enlightenment. This is the general outlook of Buddhism.
But the Lotus Sutra emphasizes attaining enlightenment through faith rather than through wisdom. Indeed, faith is substituted for wisdom in the sutra.
Ireda: This is very significant. The Lotus Sutra is like all of the Buddhist teachings in that wisdom equals Buddhahood. But in the Lotus Sutra, wisdom is inherent in faith. That is the significance of “belief and understanding.” Nichiren Daishonin writes, “Understanding’ is another name for wisdom,” (orT, 54) and
“Outside of belief there can be no understanding, and outside of understanding there can be no belief” (oTT, 54755). “Under-standing” (ge) here is part of the word for “liberation” (gedatsu), in the sense of enlightenment. It is a state of liberation and total freedom from all suffering, and it is a state of wisdom that can only be attained through faith:
Endo: The Lotus Sutra emphasizes “a single moment of belief and understanding.” In “Distinctions in Benefits,’ the seventeenth chapter, we find: “If there are living beings who, on hearing that the life span of the Buddha is of such long duration, are able to believe and understand it even for a moment, the benefits they gain thereby will be without limit or measure” (ISOC, 278). The sutra con-tinues, “If after the thus come one has entered extinction there are those who hear this sutra and do not slander or speak ill of it but feel joy in their hearts, you should know that this is a sign that they have already shown deep faith and understanding” (ISOC, 281).
Those who rejoice when they hear the Mystic Law do so because they have already attained deep belief and understanding, according to the sutra. We can interpret this to mean that the essence of Buddhahood lies in belief and understanding.
Ikeda: I am sure we will discuss this in greater depth when we take up “Distinctions in Benefits,” but the essence of the Lotus Sutra is to be found in the first of both the four stages of faith and the five stages of practice. These are the stages of “producing even a single moment of belief and understanding in the sutra” and
“rejoicing on hearing the Lotus Sutra.”
Suda: Isn’t the key to the emphasis on faith in the Lotus Sutra the fact that it was taught according to the Buddha’s own mind?
Ikeda: Precisely. Sutras had been expounded to match the capacities of listeners, meaning that they were easier to grasp. They were easy to believe and easy to understand. But the world of Buddha-hood, transcending people’s powers of thought and imagination, is difficult to believe and difficult to understand. That is why faith is emphasized.
Discussing the differences between the Lotus Sutra and all other sutras of past, present and future, Nichiren Daishonin quotes a passage from the Great Teacher Dengyo’s The Outstanding Principles of the Lotus Sutra:” All the sutras of the first four (of the five) periods preached in the past, the Immeasurable Meanings Sutra now being preached, and the Nirvana Sutra to be preached in the future are easy to believe and easy to understand. This is because the Buddha taught these sutras in accordance with the capacity of his listeners. The Lotus Sutra is the most difficult to believe and to understand because in it the Buddha directly revealed what he had attained” (WND-I, 1037).
The sutra taught in accordance with the Buddha’s own intent far surpasses ordinary people’s powers of understanding; it is beyond our intellectual grasp. Only through belief and understanding can we gain access to it.
The secret of the Mystic Law, which enables us to enjoy a state of absolute freedom at one with the universe, is beyond our ordinary comprehension, just as a rocket would be beyond the ability of someone who has no experience of such technology to comprehend it. That is why the only way to enter the path of the Mystic Law is through the power of strong faith.
But I am not speaking of blind faith. It is faith based on docu-mentary, theoretical and actual proof. As Tsunesaburo Makiguchi said:
Though we may lack advanced medical knowledge ourselves, that does not stop us from trusting in a doctor and allowing him to treat our illness. When we do so, we look, consciously or not, for a doctor who meets the following three conditions:
(I) He or she must be a doctor with documentary proof of training and ability. We look for a dip-loma, a title and a record of work in a field of spe-cialization.
(2) Next we look for a doctor who has successfully treated a large number of people, that is, the actual proof of ability.
(3) Finally, if the doctor’s method of treatment is reasonable from a medical perspective, all our doubts are put to rest. This is what we call reason, or theoretical proof.”
Endo: So even on this level of daily life, the principle of substituting faith for wisdom applies, as do the three kinds of proof.
Buddhism indeed encompasses all phenomena.
Ikeda: The reason the Lotus Sutra emphasizes faith or belief so strongly is that the goal of the sutra is to eliminate the fundamental ignorance of life, what Buddhism calls “fundamental darkness,” and to cause all beings to awaken to their “fundamental enlight-enment,” the wisdom originally inherent in the lives of each. This
“fundamental enlightenment” can also be described as the Buddha nature or the world of Buddhahood.
But this fundamental enlightenment exists at a level so deep within our being that the intellect or reason, which operates more on life’s surface, is unable to reveal it in its entirety.
Only when we open our entire being, including our intellectual faculties, to the Mystic Law does the Buddha nature, the world of Buddhahood, manifest in our lives.
Nichiren Daishonin writes, “This word ‘belief” is a sharp sword that cuts off fundamental darkness or ignorance” (OTT, 54). Belief opens; doubt closes. When we open ourselves to the Mystic Law, the Mystic Law in turn opens to us. That is the meaning of Nichikan’s statement that “Strong belief in the Lotus Sutra is itself Buddhahood.”
The ultimate law of the universe is too vast to be grasped fully by the human mind, which is but a tiny part of that universe. But we can develop ourselves so that the Mystic Law becomes manifest in our lives. That is the purpose of faith in and devotion to the Mystic Law. The Daishonin writes, “Belief corresponds to the principle of eternal and unchanging truth … Understanding corresponds to [the wisdom] that functions in accordance with changing circumstances” (OTT, S5).
Through believing in and devoting ourselves to the Mystic Law, the Mystic Law becomes manifest in our lives, and our lives will accord with the Law. The “proof” of vibrant life force that we attain through faith in the Mystic Law represents the wisdom that
“functions in accordance with changing circumstances,” or the understanding of “belief and understanding.”
The Daishonin also says: “Belief represents the value or price we attach to a jewel or treasure, and understanding represents the jewel itself. It is through the one word ‘belief’ that we are able to purchase the wisdom of the Buddhas of the three existences” (OTT, 54).
In that regard, belief and understanding are far from opposites, nor is belief something static that is enlisted in support of under-standing. In fact, they are essentially one. If we try to separate them, we can only describe them as partners in a dynamic cycle in which belief leads to understanding and understanding further strengthens belief. Through this unending cycle, we can continuously cultivate and improve ourselves. This is the fundamental meaning of “belief and understanding.”
It is interesting that the Sanskrit adhimukti can also be translated as “will” or “intent.” Buddhahood is not a static state. The true state of the Buddha’s life is one of endlessly seeking self-improvement, in which wisdom deepens compassion and comPassion deepens wisdom. It is a process of boundlessly and continuously striving for perfection. The two wheels of that will to perfection, which carry it along on its eternal journey, are faith and understanding.
Saito: In contemporary society, faith is viewed as an intellectual crutch that paralyzes reason and causes one to dwell in a closed, subjective world. But now I see that this is not at all the meaning of belief and understanding in the Lotus Sutra.
Ikeda: That’s correct. The belief taught in the Lotus Sutra provides no easy answers, no escape route from the difficulties of human life. In fact, it rejects such easy answers; instead it implores us to take up the two tools for exploring life, belief and understanding, and use them to continually challenge and work to perfect our-selves. And it also provides us the energy to do just that.
The modern age maintains the illusion that intellect is an independent faculty, divorced from belief. Yet aren’t we now seeing that in fact many so-called modern notions, such as materialism, actually rest on beliefs, or premises, that are entirely unexamined?
And actions based thereon have been the source of much suffering and turmoil.
What is called for now is a new unification of belief and reason encompassing all aspects of the human being and society, including the perspective achieved by modern science. This is the great challenge that modern civilization faces. It is an attempt to restore the wholeness of human society, which has been rent asunder by reason without belief and irrational fanaticism.
It might be construed as the story of the wandering son — modern rationality — returning to his parental home — life itself.
This unification of belief and understanding will be the key to getting modern society back on course from its spiritual drift and helping humankind attain the summit of life’s true promise.