CHAPTER I
TIME AND THE TRUTH OF BUDDHISM

If one wishes to study the truth of Buddhism, one must first know the time.

In the past, Mahabhijnajnanabhibhu Buddha of the Past appeared in the world and did not preach even one text for ten minor worlds. In the Lotus Sutra it is said, "At one sitting ten minor worlds have passed." Again, it is said, "The Buddha knew that the time had not yet arrived; he received a request but silently sat." Sakyamuni Buddha did not preach the Lotus Sutra for more than forty years. The Lotus Sutra refers to the Buddha's "knowing that the time had not yet come." Lao-tzu waited for eighty years in his mother's womb. Bodhisattva Maitreya is confined to the inner court of the Tusita Heaven, where he is to wait for 5,670,000,000 years. The cuckoo knows the time of coming when spring is passing and the rooster waits until morning before it crows. Even beasts are like this. How can a person who wish to know the truth of Buddhism should fail to recognize the proper time?

At the time of the preaching of the Hua-yen Scripture at Buddhagaya, the Buddhas of the Ten Directions appeared. All of the Great Bodhisattvas gathered and Brahma, Sakra, and the Four Heavenly Kings all let their clothes flow. The nagas and the others of the eight kind of heavenly protectors of the Buddha's teaching brought their palms together. Those of greater Capacity among ordinary people strained their ears. The bodhisattvas who attained Great Enlightenment in human bodies , and Mukticandra, requested the Buddha to teach. But the World Honored One did not reveal the teaching of "Attainment of Buddhahood through two inferior vehicles" and "One faith contains three thousand thoughts" . He did not preach because even though the Capacity was there the time had not yet arrived. In the Lotus Sutra it is said, "Because the time to preach had not yet come."

On the occasion of the preaching of the Lotus Sutra scripture at the Vulture Peak, the great King Ajatasatru, who was the most unfilial person in the world, sat with the others. The Buddha conferred the name Devaraja-Tathagata upon Devadatta, who slandered the teaching throughout his entire life. The Naga girl of five hindrances became a Buddha without changing her body. The enlightenment of those with a fixed nature is like a roasted seed which brings forth flowers. When it was taught that "the Buddha has been the Buddha from the remote past," people wondered whether an old man of one hundred can be the son of a young man of twenty-five. The Buddha taught that "one faith contains three thousand thoughts" , that the nine realms are none other than the Buddha realm, and that the Buddha realm is none other than the nine realms. Consequently, one character of the Lotus Sutra is like a rare, small jewel which produces treasures according to one's wishes. A phrase of the scripture becomes the seed of the Buddhas. When this scripture was preached the question of the maturity or immaturity of the Capacity was set aside. This is because the time to preach had arrived. In the scripture it is said, "Now is the time to preach the Great Vehicle."

Question (1): If those who do not have the Capacity are given a great teaching, the foolish man among them would definitely slander the teaching and fall into the evil path. Is this not the fault of the one who preaches?

Answer (1): If a man makes a road and there are beings who get lost on the road is it the fault of the one who makes the road? If a good doctor gives a patient medicine and if the patient hates it and dies failing to take it, is the good doctor at fault?

Question (2): It is said in Chapter Two of the Lotus Sutra, "do not preach the scripture among undiscerning persons." Again in Chapter Four it is said, "Do not proclaim this scripture indiscriminately and confer it upon people." Again it is said in Chapter Five, "This Lotus Sutra is the mysterious treasure of the Buddhas Tathagatas which is supreme above all scriptures, for long it has been guarded and not prematurely declared." These passages in the scripture say that if there is not the Capacity, do not preach. What is your response?

Answer (2): In Chapter Twenty, "Bodhisattva Never-Despise," it is said, "He addresses them as follows: I revere you from the depths of my heart. Among the four groups, there are those who were irritated, angry, and impure in heart. They reviled and abused Bodhisattva Never-Despise saying, "Where did this ignorant monk come from?" Again it is said, in the same Chapter, "People beat him with clubs, sticks, potsherds, or stones." Chapter XIII, "Exhortation to Hold Firm" says, "That many in their ignorance will curse and abuse us and beat us with swords and staves." Do these passages about being abused, slandered, and beaten imply it is the fault of the teacher?

Question (3): These two teachings are like water and fire. How can they be understood?

Answer (3): T'ien-t'ai says, "Only when it is appropriate to the time." Chang-an says, "One should make the appropriate choice between peaceful preaching and forcible propagation. Do not follow one or the other blindly." The meaning of these comments is as follows: sometimes if people revile one should not preach; sometimes even though they revile one should preach in spite of it; sometimes even if some people with the Capacity would believe, but there are many people of all Capacities who would slander, one should not preach; sometimes even if the people of all Capacities revile one should preach in spite of it.

At the time when the Buddha first attained enlightenment, Great Bodhisattvas such as Fa-hui, Gunaratnasa, Vajraketu, Vajragarbha, Manjusri, Samantabhadra, Maitreya, and Mukticandra, and ordinary beings of great nature , such as Brahma, Sakra, and the Four Heavenly Gods, were there in countless numbers. At Deer Park when the Buddha taught the Agamas the five monks including Kulika, two hundred and fifty people such as Sariputra and all eighty thousand gods were present. When the Buddha taught the Great Vaipulya teaching he entered the Palace and preached the Kuanfo-san-mei-ching because the Great King Suddhodana, the affectionate father of the World Honored One, wished him to do so. For the sake of the Compassionate Mother the Buddha secluded himself for ninety days in Tragastrimsa and preached the Naga Sutra. To an affectionate father and compassionate mother what kind of miraculous law could one withhold? However, the Buddha did not preach the Lotus Sutra. The point is, it was not due to the consideration of one's Capacity but because the time had not arrived that the Buddha did not preach the Lotus Sutra.

CHAPTER II
THE PERIODS OF THE TIME

Question (4): At which time should one preach the Hinayana and Provisional scriptures and at what time should one preach the Lotus Sutra?

Answer (4): It is difficult for the Bodhisattvas of Ten Faiths or even the Mahasattva of Realization of Equality ( next to the last state of attainment) to gain knowledge of the time and the Capacity. How can it be, that we ordinary beings should know the time and the Capacity?

Question (5): Is there anything, at all, which one knows?

Answer (5): Consider the time and Capacity by means of the Buddha eye and illuminate the country using the Buddha sun.

Question (6): What do you mean by that?

Answer (6): In the Ta-chi-ching, the Great Wise World Honored One established the future time in answer to Bodhisattva Candragarbha. Five hundred years after my extinction, salvation is firm and sure; in the next five hundred years meditation is firm and sure; in the next five hundred years reciting, reading of scriptures and frequent listening to teachings is firm and sure; in the next five hundred years the building of stupas is firm and sure; in the next five hundred years there will be fighting, quarreling and accusing among the followers of my teaching and the pure teaching will disappear.

People have different thoughts as to how one should apply these divisions of two thousand five hundred years. Meditation Master Tao-ch'o of China said, "In the four periods of five hundred years, during the two thousand years of the Age of the First and Middle Periods, the pure teaching of Hinayana and Mahayana will prosper. Entering into the Age of the Last Law those pure teachings will all disappear and only those people who train in the teachings of Pure Land will go beyond life and death."

Honen of Japan examining the matter said, "As for the Lotus Sutra, Avatamsaka Sutra, Mahavairocana Sutra, and various small vehicle scriptures and the schools such as Tendai, Shingon, and the Ritsu that are prevalent in the present Japan, they are the pure teaching of the two thousand years of the Age of the First and Middle Periods referred to in the text of the Ta-chi-ching. After entering the Age of the Last Law these pure teachings will be completely destroyed. Even if there are people who practice these, not even one person could escape from living and dying. This is what is referred to as the 'Difficult Path' in the Dasabhumi-vibhasa-sastra, and quoted by the Dharma Master T'an-luan, the Dharma Master Tao-ch'o's statement, "There is not even one person who has attained," and Shan-tao's reference to, "Not even one in one thousand." After the disappearing of these pure teachings there should appear only the Three Pure Land Scriptures and the single practice of the calling of the name of Amida Buddha as the Great Pure Teaching. Of the people practicing this, even if they are evil or stupid, "ten in ten and one hundred in one hundred will attain rebirth in the Pure Land." "There is only one gate to the Pure Land which is the path that one should enter into." These passages refer to the above Great Pure Teaching. Thus, according to this teaching, if the people who desire rebirth in the Pure Land cease to take refuge in the mountains and temples in Japan such as Mt. Hiei, Toji, Onjoji, and the Seven Great Temples, and if they cease making donations of fields, villages and communities to those mountain temples and instead make donations to Pure Land Temples, then their rebirth in the Pure Land is certain. Honen having urged in this manner, all of us for more than fifty years have been followers of the Pure Land teaching. It was a long time ago that Nichiren attacked and refuted this evil teaching.

There is no doubt that the time of the disappearing of the Pure Law of the Ta-chi-ching is the fifth five hundred year period, which is the present time. However, after the disappearance of the pure teaching, the eight hundred rulers in the eight hundred countries, together with their ministers and people, will propagate and spread the Great Pure Teaching of "Believe in the Lotus Sutra of the Miraculous Law," which is the essence of the Lotus Sutra, in the same manner in which the name of Amida Buddha is chanted by all the people in Japan today.

Question (7): What is the proof in the scripture?

Answer (7): The Seventh Fascicle of the Lotus Sutra says, "In the last five hundred years after my extinction proclaim and spread it in Jambudvipa, lest it be lost." This text says, "Spread it widely" in reference to the time period following the disappearance of the pure teaching of the Tachi-ching. In the Sixth Fascicle of the Lotus Sutra the Buddha speaks of, "Those who can hold on to this scripture in the time of the Evil Age of the Last Law." Again in the Fifth Fascicle the Buddha speaks of, "the Last Age that is coming later, when the teaching will be about to perish." Again in the Fourth Fascicle the Buddha says, "And this scripture has aroused much enmity and envy while the Tathagata is still here. How much more so after my extinction.'' Again in the Fifth Fascicle the Buddha says, "There are many who resent and it is difficult to believe." In the Seventh Fascicle, explaining the time of fighting and quarreling, which is the fifth of the five hundred year periods, the Buddha says, "Mara, mara people, gods, dragons, Yaksas, dumbhardas, devas, etc. . . will be informed of it." The Ta-chi-ching says, "Concerning my teaching, there will be quarreling, fighting and accusation." In the Fifth Fascicle of the Lotus Sutra the Buddha speaks of, "monks in that evil age," and of, "others in aranya," and also says, "Evil demons will enter the body." The meaning of these verses is that in the fifth of the five hundred year periods the eminent monks in whose body the demons enter will fill the country.

At that time a wise person will appear. When the eminent monks in whom those demons have entered persuade the kings, ministers, and all the people of the time to revile him, beat him with clubs and small stones, and punish him with exile and death, Sakyamuni, Prabhutaratna, and all the Buddhas of the Ten Directions will speak to the great bodhisattvas coming out of the opening in the earth. These great bodhisattvas will command Brahma, Sakra, the Sun, the Moon, the Four Heavenly Gods and there will be cosmic calamities at that time. If the kings and others do not heed the warning, the gods will order neighboring countries to attack, and a great struggle unheard of in previous ages will arise in the world. At that time all sentient beings in the four realms on which the sun and moon shine, either because they treasure the country or because they treasure their own bodies, will pray to all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas; yet there will be no response. And so they will believe the teachings of that one small monk whom they had hated before, and numberless eminent monks, the eighty thousand great kings, and all the people will put their heads on the ground and holding their hands together recite, "Believe in the Lotus Sutra of the Miraculous Law." This is like the following incident in the Divine Powers of the Tathagata Chapter in the Lotus Sutra when the Buddha manifested the Ten Divine Powers, and all of the sentient beings in the worlds in the Ten Directions without exception raised a great voice towards this saha world and shouted together, "Believe in Sakyamuni Buddha," "Believe in the Lotus Sutra of the Miraculous Law," "Believe in the Lotus Sutra of the Miraculous Law."

Question (8): The meaning of the scripture is clear. Are there words of predictions by T'ien-t'ai (538-597), Miao-lo (711-782), Dengyo (767-822), and others?

Answer (8): Your question is upside down! When someone quotes a treatise one might raise a question about the scripture. But if there is clear understanding in the scripture, you need not ask for a treatise. Now, if the sentence in the treatise contradicts the scripture, would one throw away the scripture and follow the treatise? What do you think?

Question (9): What you say is very reasonable. However, for ordinary people the scripture is remote and the treatise is near. If the treatise which is near is clear, they will be able to increase faith a little more.

Answer (9): Because you are sincere and earnest in your questioning, I will quote a few treatises. The Great Master T'ien-t'ai says, "In the last five hundred years, beings will benefit in the wonderful path in the future." The Great Master Miao-lo says, "At the beginning of the Age of the Last Law we will not be without divine benefits." And Dengyo says, "The First Age and the Middle Age have almost passed away, the Age of the Last Law is very near. Now is precisely the time of the Capacity for the One Vehicle Lotus Sutra. How are we able to know this? In the Lotus Sutra, Chapter XIV, it says, "The Last Law is the time of the destruction of the teaching." Dengyo also says, "If we are to talk about the age, it is the end of the Age of the Middle Law and the beginning of the Age of the Last Law. If we are looking for the place, it is East of T'ang and West of the Chieh tribe; if we are looking for the people it is those who live with the five impurities at the time of struggle and conflict. In the Lotus Sutra it says, "Even now there is much hatred and jealousy. How much more after my Nirvana?" There are good reasons for these statements.

Now the birth of Sakyamuni took place in the decrease phase of the ninth period of the small world during the existence world at the time when people's lifetime was one hundred years. The period between the time when human life lasts ten years and the time when it lasts one hundred years consists of fifty years when the Buddha lived on earth, two thousand years of the Age of the First and Middle Law after the extinction of the Buddha and ten thousand years of the Age of the Last Law. During all these periods there will be two times when the Lotus Sutra spreads: the so-called last eight years of the Buddha's lifetime and the first five hundred years of the Age of the Last Law.

T'ien-t'ai, Miao-lo, and Dengyo missed the Age of the Last Law after the Buddha's death. They lamented the fact they were born in the interim, and wrote the above passages longing for the Age of the Last Law. This was like the case of the hermit Asita who, seeing the birth of Prince Siddhartha, said sadly, "In this life I have already lived past ninety, so I shall not see the enlightenment of the prince. In my next life I will be reborn in the formless realm, so I shall not be able to be a disciple of the Buddha; nor shall I be born even in the Age of the First Law, the Age of the Middle Law, or the Age of the Last Law."

Those who seek after the way of the truth should rejoice upon seeing and hearing this. Those who wish to attain Buddhahood in a future life, should be born now during the Age of the Last Law as common people, rather than being born as great kings during the two thousand years of the Age of the First and Middle Law. Why would one not believe this? One should desire to be a leper who chants, "Believe in the Lotus Sutra of the Miraculous Law," rather than be a Tendai head priest. Emperor Wu of Liang said in an oath, "I would sink in the bottomless hell becoming Devadatta rather than become Udraka Ramaputra."

CHAPTER III
HISTORY OF THE LOTUS SUTRA

Question (10): Is this teaching found in the writings of Discourse Master Nagarjuna or Vashubandhu?

Answer (10): Although Nagarjuna and Vashubandhu knew it in their minds they did not teach it in words.

Question (11): Why did they not teach it?

Answer (11): There are many reasons. One is that at that time there was not the Capacity; the second, the Time was not proper; the third, because they received the Trace Teaching of the historical Buddha.

Question (12): I would like to hear this in greater detail.

Answer (12): The day after the parinirvana of the Buddha, the twenty-sixth day of the second month, is the beginning of the Age of First Law. The Arhat Kasyapa received the commission from the Buddha for twenty years; next, the Arhat Ananda received the commission for twenty years; next, Sanavasa received the commission for twenty years; next Upagupta received the commission for twenty years; next Dhrtaka received the commission for twenty years. During the above period of one hundred years, only the teaching of the Hinayana scriptures was spread. Not even the names of the Mahayana scriptures were there. How could the Lotus Sutra be circulated and spread? Next, in the first five hundred year period the four or five figures such as Miccaka, Buddhanandi, Buddhamitra, Monk Parsva, Punyayasas preached only a small amount of the teachings of Mahayana scriptures. However they did not spread them widely and ended up with putting the Hinayana scriptures first. The above is the first five hundred years of the time of the firmness of salvation, of the Ta-chi-ching.

After the first six hundred years of the Age of the First Law and before one thousand years was the period during which appeared Bodhisattva Asvaghosa, Arhat Kapimala, Bodhisattva Nagarjuna, Bodhisattva Aryadeva, Arhat Rahulata, Sanghanadi, Gayosata, Kumarata, Jayata, Vashubandhu, Manrhita, Haklenayasas, Simha Bhikshu, altogether over ten people who first entered non-Buddhist schools, then mastered all the Hinayana scriptures, and finally refuted the Hinayana scriptures with Mahayana scriptures. Although these great masters refuted the Hinayana scriptures using Mahayana scriptures they did not write clearly about the relative superiority and inferiority of the Mahayana scriptures and the Lotus Sutra. Even where they appear to write a little about the superiority and inferiority they did not clarify the essential teachings such as the "ten subtleties of the original and trace teaching," "attainment of Buddhahood through two inferior vehicles," "Buddha has been the Buddha from the remote past," "subtlety of past, present, and future," "one hundred realms, one thousand suchnesses," or "one faith contains three thousand thoughts." It is as if they are pointing to the moon with their finger. Or, as if they wrote only fragments in the text, but did not say anything concerning the "consistency of the Buddha's teaching from the beginning to the end," "the distance or nearness of the teachers and disciples," or "the presence and absence of the attainments." These belong to the period of the last five hundred years of the Age of the First Law, referred to in the Ta-chi-ching as the time of the firmness of meditation. After one thousand years of the Age of the First Law, although the teachings of the Buddha filled Jambubvipa (the entire world), they either destroyed Mahayana with Hinayana or covered the teaching of the "real" scriptures with the teaching of the "provisional" scriptures. The teaching was in confusion and so the number of people who attained the Way was very small, and innumerable people fell into evil ways through misunderstanding the Buddha's teaching.

After one thousand years of the Age of the First Law, in the fifteenth year after entering the Age of the Middle Law, the teachings of the Buddha spread eastward and entered China. During the first one hundred years in the first five hundred years of the Age of the Middle Law the Masters of the Way in China debated inconclusively with the Buddhists. Even where the matters were conclusive, the devotion of those who believed in the teachings of the Buddha was not deep. Furthermore if one divides the teachings of the Buddha into the Mahayana and Hinayana, the Provisional, and the Real, and the Exoteric and Esoteric, these holy teachings will not always agree and doubts will arise, and there will be people who will go to non-Buddhist scriptures (i.e., Confucian and Taoist scriptures). Because of these fears Kasyapa Matanga and Dharmaraksa did not distinguish between Hinayana and Mahayana and they stopped short of talking about the Provisional or the Real although they knew the distinctions themselves. After this, during the five dynasties of Wei, Chin, Sung, Ch'i, and Liang, there were conflicts within the Buddhist teaching concerning the question of the Mahayana versus the Hinayana, the Provisional versus the Real, and the Exoteric versus the Esoteric. Since none of them sounded like the truth, there were many doubts in everyone's mind from the one person on top to the ten thousand people at the bottom. One talks of the so-called Three Schools in the South and the Seven Schools in the North: the teachings of the Buddha differentiated into ten streams in China. This refers to the ten theories of the so-called "three times," "four times," and "five times" in the South, and the "five times," "half and full letters," "four schools," "five schools," "six schools," "two schools of Mahayana," and "one sound teaching" in the North. Each school established its own teaching and fought with the other schools as fire and water. However, the basic principles are the same.

Among the holy teachings of one Buddha's lifetime, the Avatamsaka-Sutra is the first, the Nirvana Sutra the second, and the Lotus Sutra the third. When compared with the

Agamas, Prajna-paramita-Sutra, Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra, the Ssu-i-ching, the Lotus Sutra represents the true reality; it is the scripture containing the whole truth , and it is the correct view. However, when compared with the Nirvana Sutra, it is the impermanent teaching, a scripture representing truth incompletely, and the scripture of the heterodox teaching.

From well over four hundred and going beyond the five hundredth year after the Han, during the two dynasties of the Ch'en and Sui, there appeared a small monk called Chih-i. He was later given the name Great Master, the Wise One of T'ien-t'ai. This Master exposed the incorrect teachings of the South and North, and said that among the holy teachings of the lifetime of the Buddha, the Lotus Sutra is number one, the Nirvana Sutra is number two, and the Avatamsaka Sutra is number three. These belong to the first five hundred years of the Age of the Middle Law, the time when reciting and hearing was well established according to the Ta-chi-ching.

During the latter five hundred years of the Age of the Middle Law, during the reign of T'ai-tsung (627-650) at the beginning of the T'ang, Tripitaka Hsuan-tsang (596-664) entered India. For nineteen years he visited temples and stupas in one hundred and thirty kingdoms, met many teachers, and studied exhaustively the foundation of eighty thousand holy teachings and the twelve divisions of scriptures. Among them were two schools; namely the so-called Fa-hsiang and San-lun. Of these two schools the great vehicle of Fa-hsiang reaches back to Maitreya and Asanga in the distant beginning and was more recently transmitted by Silabhadra. After returning to China, Hsuan-tsang submitted it to Emperor T'ai-tsung. The essence of this school is as follows. The Buddhist teaching should adjust to the Capacity. For those with the Capacity of the One Vehicle, the Three Vehicle is upaya, and the One Vehicle is the truth. The Lotus Sutra belongs here. For those with the Capacity of the Three Vehicles, the Three Vehicles are truth and the One Vehicle is upaya. The Samdhinirmocana Sutra and Srimala-devi-Simbanada Sutra belong here. This school insisted that Chih-i and others did not understand this point. Yet, T'ai-tsung was a wise king. Not only did his name resound in the Empire at that time, but it was reported throughout the four oceans that he surpassed the Three Sage Kings and the Five Emperors. Not only did he hold China in his hand, he made over one thousand eight hundred kingdoms such as Kao-ch'ang and Kao-chuli obey him. He was known both inside and outside of China as the king who has attained the ultimate. Hsuan-tsang was the first monk whom this wise ruler T'ai-tsung followed. Even among the scholars of T'ien-t'ai, there was no one who would criticize Hsuan-tsang. Thus the real meaning of the Lotus Sutra was already buried in China.

During the reign of Kao-tsung (623-683), Empress Tset'ien (623-705) who was the stepmother of the Crown Prince of the Emperor T'ai-tsung (684-705), there was a man called Dharma Master Fa-tsang, who seeing the T'ien-t'ai School was being attacked by the Fa-hsiang School, took out the Avatamsaka Sutra which was attacked during the time of T'ien-t'ai. He argued that among the teachings of the lifetime of the Buddha, the Avatamsaka Sutra was the first, the Lotus Sutra was the second, the nirvana Sutra was the third.

During the reign of the fourth Emperor following T'aitsung, namely Hsuan-tsung (712-756), in the fourth and eighth year of K'ai Yuan, Tripitaka Subhakarasimha, Tripitaka Vajrabodhi, and Tripitaka Amoghavajra brought the Mahavairocana Sutra, the Vajrasekhara Sutra, and the Susiddhikara Sutra from India to China and established the Shingon School. The basic tenet of this School was that there are two kinds of teachings: the first is the exoteric teaching of Sakyamuni, such as the Avatamsaka. Sutra and the Lotus Sutra, the second, the esoteric teaching of Vairocana, such as the Mahavairocana Sutra. According to this Teaching the Lotus Sutra is the highest of the exoteric teachings. If one compared it with the esoteric teaching of Mahavairocana, its ultimate meaning is roughly the sane, but there is no reference to the practical teaching of the Mandara and mantra. Since the Correspondence of the Three Mysteries is missing, it is a scripture which does not exhaust the entire teachings of the Buddha.

The above three schools, Fa-hsiang, Hua-yen, and Shingon, similarly attacked the T'ien-t'ai Lotus School; yet, since there was no great man of wisdom of the stature of Chih-i in the Lotus School, although they knew privately that these were unfounded arguments, they did not debate in public as Chih-i did; therefore everyone, from the King and Ministers above to all the people below, had lost direction in the teaching of the Buddha, and the attainment of the Way by sentient beings was stopped. This happened in the first two hundred years of the last five hundred years of the Age of the Middle Law.

Over four hundred years after entering the Age of the Middle Law, the Tripitaka, the wooden image of the founder Sakyamuni, and monks and nuns came to Japan from the kingdom of Paekche. This was towards the end of the Liang Dynasty and the beginning of the Ch'in Dynasty in China. In Japan this was during the reign of Emperor Kimmei (539-571), the thirtieth human ruler after Emperor Jimmu. Prince Shotoku (573-621), the Prince of the Emperor Yomei, the child of the Emperor Kimmei, was not only learned in Buddhism but also established the Lotus Sutra, the Vimalakirti Sutra, and the Srimala-devi-Sutra as the teaching for the Protection of the State. Following that reign of the thirty-seventh generation of the human ruler, the Emperor Kotoku (645-654), Sojo Kanroku brought the San-lun and the Ch'eng-shih Schools from the Kingdom of Paekche. During the same reign the Dharma Master Dosho (629-700) brought the Fa-hsiang and Chu-she Schools from China.

Under the reign of the Emperor Gensho (715-724), the forty-fourth generation of the human rulers, the Mahavairocana Sutra was brought from India to Japan, but it was not spread widely and returned to China. The name of the monk who brought it was Subhakarasimha. Under the reign of the Divine Emperor Shomu (724-749) who was the forty-fifth generation of human rulers, the Eminent monk Shenhsiang brought Hua-yen from Silla and conferred it to Shojo Ryoben. The latter submitted it to the Divine Emperor Shomu, and the ruler built the Great Buddha of Todaiji. During the same reign, the monk Chien-chen (Ganjin) of the great T'ang Dynasty brought the T'ien-t'ai (Tendai) and Lu (Ritsu) Schools to Japan. He spread the Ritsu and established the Hinayana Ordination Centre at Todaiji, but he died without even mentioning the name of the Lotus Sutra.

After that, during the fifth generation of human rulers, at the time of the 800th years of the Age of the Middle Law, under the reign of the Emperor Kammu (781-806), there appeared a small monk called Saicho who later was called the Great Master Dengyo. In the beginning Saicho studied the six schools of Sanron, Hosso, Kegon, Kusha, Jojitsu, and Ritsu, as well as the Zen School from Sojo Gyohyo and others. The Kokushoji Temple which he established as his own was later called Mt. Hiei. Here he compared the original scriptures and treatises of the Six Schools with the commentaries of the human masters and found that these commentaries often differed from the scriptures and treatises on which they depended, and furthermore, there were many biased views. Thus he was concerned that those people who accept and believe them would fall into an inferior path. Moreover, as for the true meaning of the Lotus Sutra, although each of the people of those schools praised themselves saying that they had attained it, its meaning was absent. If Saicho had mentioned this, there would have been a big uproar, yet, by remaining silent he would disobey the Buddha oath. Saicho worried about this, and finally, fearing the reprimand of the Buddha, he expressed his fear to the Emperor Kammu. The Emperor, surprised by this, called together the learned scholars of the six schools. Those scholars, although in the beginning their pride was as high as a mountain and their hearts as evil as a poison snake, in the end succumbed in front of the Emperor, and the six schools and seven temples all became Dengyo's disciples. This is like the incident in which the various masters of the South and North in China were made to submit by the Great Master T'ien-t'ai at Chen Palace and become his disciples. This only involved the First Meditation and First Wisdom (i.e., moral conduct was not included). Going further, Dengyo destroyed the Separate Precepts of Hinayana, which the Great Master Chih-i had not attacked. He gave the Separate Precepts of Mahayana of the Brahmajala Sutra to the eight great monks of the six schools. Moreover, he established the Separate Precepts of the First, Sudden Enlightenment of the Lotus Sutra at Mt. Hiei. Thus the Separate Precepts of the First and Sudden Enlightenment of Enryakuji is not simply established for the first time in Japan but is also the first establishment of the Great Precepts of the Vulture Peak, which had not been realized for over 1800 years after the death of the Buddha in India, China, or the entire world, and now came to exist in Japan. Thus if one discusses his merit the Great Master Dengyo is beyond Nagarjuna and Vashubandhu. He is a sage superior to T'ien-t'ai and Miao-lo. Thus, who among the monks of Todaiji, Onjoji, the Seven Great Temples of Japan, the Eight Schools, Pure Land, Zen, or Ritsu, should disobey the First Precepts of the Great Master Dengyo? Those monks of the Nine Kingdoms of China are like the disciples of T'ien-t'ai with regard to the First Meditation and First Wisdom. But since there was no Precept Centre of the First Sudden Enlightenment in China there must have been people there who did not become disciples with regard to the Precepts. In Japan those who are not disciples of the Great Master Dengyo, having less excuse, are heretics; they are evil people. However, as for the superiority and inferiority between Tendai and the Shingon School in China and Japan, the Great Master did know the victor and loser in his heart, but did not publicly debate as he had in the case of the six schools and the Tendai School. Perhaps for that reason, after the Great Master Dengyo Temples such as Toji, the Seven Temples, Onjoji, and the whole of Japan, from the one person at the top to the tens of thousands of people below, all thought the Shingon School superior to the Tendai School. Therefore the Tendai Lotus School lasted only during the lifetime of the Great Master Dengyo. This time of Dengyo was the end of the Age of the Middle Law and "the time of the firm establishment of building temples and stupas " according to the Ta-chi-ching. It was not yet the time of which the Buddha said, "in my teaching there will be many struggles and the true teaching will disappear."

It is the present time, over two hundred years after entering the Age of the Last Law, which the Buddha referred to in the Ta-chi-ching as the time when, "in my teaching there will be fighting, quarreling, abusive language, the true teaching becomes extinct." If the word of the Buddha is true, this is the time when the struggles will necessarily take place in the world. I hear that the Mongols have already defeated 360 countries, and 260 provinces in China. The glorious capital has already been conquered. Both the rulers Hui-tsang and Ch'in-tsung were captured by the Northern Barbarians and finally died in the Tartar Kingdom. The grandson of Hui-tsung, Emperor Kao-tsung, lost Ch'ang-an and fled to the countryside in the temporary residence at Lin-an (Hang-chou) and has not seen the capital for several years. Over 600 provinces of Korea and countries such as Silla and Paekche were attacked by the Emperor of the Great Mongol Kingdom. In the same way, the Mongols now attacked Iki and Tsushima Islands and Kyushu of Japan. The Buddha's word concerning the "firm establishment of fighting and reviling" has not fallen to the ground. It is just as the great ocean which does not make a mistake concerning the timing of its tides. To consider the matter according to all these, should one also not doubt that following the time of the disappearance of the pure teaching of the Ta-chi-ching, the great pure teaching of the Lotus Sutra will spread widely in Japan and throughout the entire world? Certainly not. That Ta-chi-ching is a provisional Mahayana Sutra within the Buddha's teaching. It does not reveal the path which takes us beyond life and death. It does not reveal truth for those who have not become followers of the Lotus Sutra, but with respect to matters concerning the six paths, the four lives, and the three times, it is never different from the Lotus Sutra by even a small bit.

Moreover the Buddha said in the Lotus Sutra, "He must now proclaim the perfect truth." He promised that Prabhutaratna Buddha is truthful. All of the Buddhas of the Ten Directions indicated truthfulness by extending their long, wide tongues to the God Brahma. Sakyamuni spoke with the tongue extended to Akanistha Heaven and said that in the last five hundred years at the time of the extinction of the teachings of the Buddha he would have the Bodhisattva Visistacaritra uphold the four words of "miraculous," "law," "Lotus," and "sutra," and make it the good medicine for the people of white leprosy, i.e., the hypocrites who revile the teaching, and he thus informed Brahma, the Imperial Gods, the Sun, the Moon, the Four Heavenly Beings, and the Devas. How can this golden word be a falsehood? Even if the earth turns over, the highest mountains fall, summer does not follow spring, the sun returns to the east, and the moon falls to earth, this fact will be firmly true. If this is firmly true, then how can the rulers, the ministers, and the ten thousand people of Japan, who at the time of quarreling and strife rebuked, reviled, banished, and struck the messenger of the Buddha who tried to spread the teaching by saying, "Believe in the Lotus Sutra of the Miraculous Law," and who caused various calamities for his disciples and relatives, be in peace? Those who are ignorant and stupid will say this is a curse. Those who propagate the Lotus Sutra are the parents of all the people of Japan. The Great Master Chang-an said, "The one who renounces evil for the good of the person's sake is nothing other than his parent." Therefore Nichiren is the parent of the present Emperor, the teacher of the Pure Land, Zen, and the Shingon Masters, and also their ruler. Yet everyone from the one person above to the ten thousand below persecutes him. How should the Sun and Moon shine on their heads? How could the Earth Deity carry their feet? When Devadatta hit the Buddha, the earth shook and fire broke out. When Tan-mi-lo cut off the holy one's head, the right hand in which the King was holding the sword dropped off. When Emperor Hui-tsung branded Fa-tao on the face and exiled him to Chiang-nan region in the South, Hui-tsung fell to the hands of the barbarians within half a year. The attack of the Mongols will also be like this. Even if they collect the soldiers from all of India and use cakravada as a citadel, they will not be able to repel this invasion and all of the people of Japan will suffer the calamities of war. Whether or not Nichiren is the true prophet of the Lotus Sutra should be seen in this.

Sakyamuni, the founder of the teaching, said, "As for those who with an evil mouth revile those who spread the Lotus Sutra in the Age of the Last Law, their sins will be one hundred thousand billion times worse than that of those who persecute me for even one world." Yet the present ruler and ten thousand people of Japan, following their own wills, hate Nichiren more than they hate the enemies of their parents and those from prior lives. They persecute Nichiren more strongly than they persecute those who have rebelled or murdered. It is surprising that the ground does not open up to let their mortal bodies fall into it, or that the heavenly thunder does not split their bodies in two. Does this mean Nichiren is not the prophet of the Lotus sutra? If this is the case, it is to be greatly deplored. Nichiren is being persecuted by ten thousand people in the present life and there is no rest for a moment. And they will fall into the evil path in a later life. One can only say, how pitiful!

Again, if Nichiren were not the prophet of the Lotus Sutra, who would be the upholder of the One Vehicle? Could Honen, who said, "One should throw away the Lotus Sutra?" Or Shan-tao who said, "Not one in a thousand," or Tao-ch'o who said, "There is not even one person who has been able to attain," be the prophets of the Lotus Sutra ? The Great Master Kobo said practicing the Lotus Sutra is meaningless talk. In the sutra text it is said, "to be able to uphold this sutra well" and "to be able to preach well." "Well" means that one who is called the prophet of the Lotus Sutra in the scripture is the one who says, "it is the highest among sutras," and teaches that the Lotus Sutra is superior to the Mahavairocana Sutra, Avatamsaka Sutra, Nirvana Sutra, and the Prajna Sutra.

If it were just as the scripture text says then during the more than 700 years since the teaching of the Buddha was transmitted to Japan there has not been even one prophet of the Lotus Sutra except for Dengyo and Nichiren. How can this be? It is according to reason that there has been no such thing as "may his head be split in seven," or, "The mouth will be closed." These are light punishments, only a matter of one or two people. Nichiren is the greatest prophet of the Lotus Sutra in the entire world. Those who say evil things to Nichiren and treat him as an enemy will meet the greatest calamities of the entire world. In the Bun'ei period (1264) there was the great comet that punished the entire heaven. Look at these. After the parinirvana of the Buddha, people persecuted the prophets of the teachings of the Buddha, yet the great calamities such as those of the present time have not taken place even once. This is because there has not been one man among men who recommended that all sentient beings should recite "Believe in the Lotus Sutra of the Miraculous Law." As for this virtue of chanting "Believe in the Lotus Sutra of the Miraculous Law," who in the world will match it and who in the world (four oceans) can stand at the great height?

CHAPTER IV
THE AGES OF THE FIRST AND THE MIDDLE LAW

Question (13): If one compared the Capacity during the time of the Age of the First Law to that of the age when the Buddha lived, the Capacity of the Age of the First Law would be inferior. But if one compared the Capacity of the Age of the First Law to that of the Age of the Middle Law or the Age of the Last Law it is superior. Why should it be that during the beginning of the Age of the First Law one should not use the Lotus Sutra? Asvaghosa, Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, and Asanga all appeared within one thousand years of the Age of the First Law. Bodhisattva Vashubandhu is the master of one thousand treatises. He wrote A Treaties on the Lotus Sutra and preserved the first meaning of all the scriptures. According to Tripitaka Master Paramartha, there are over fifty schools which are familiar with the Lotus Sutra in India and Vashubandhu is one of them. All of these belong to the Age of the First Law.

After entering the Age of the Middle Law the Great Master Chih-i appeared in the middle of the Age of the Middle Law in the land of China and exhausted the deepest meaning of the Lotus Sutra by writing thirty volumes of the "Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra," "The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra," and "Cessation and Contemplation." Toward the end of the Age of the Middle Law, the Great Master Dengyo appeared in Japan. He not only spread the two teachings of First Wisdom and First Samadhi of the Great monk T'ien-t'ai but also established the Great Vinaya Centre of the First Sudden Teaching on Mt. Hiei, turning the entire country of Japan equally into the Land of the First Vinaya, and making everyone from the one person on top to the ten thousand people at the bottom look up to Enryakuji Temple as the teacher. How can all of this not refer to the spread of the Lotus Sutra during the Age of the Middle Law?

Answer (13): The fact that the teaching of the Tathagata always takes account of the Capacity is known by scholars of the world. However, the Buddha's teaching is not like that. If he taught the great teaching to those people of superior Capacity and superior wisdom, then why did he not preach the Lotus Sutra when he first attained the Great Enlightenment? He should have widely spread Mahayana scriptures in the first five hundred years of the Age of the First Law. If the Buddha was to preach the great teaching to the people of favourable conditions, he would not have taught the Kuan-fo-san-mei-ching and Naya Sutra to King Suddhodana and Queen Maya. If the Buddha were not to give the secret teaching to evil people and those who would revile the teaching with unfavourable conditions, then the Monk Bodhiguga would not have given the Nirvana Sutra to innumerable people who broke the vinaya rules; How would the Bodhisattva Sadaparibhuta spread the Lotus Sutra to the four classes of beings who revile the teaching? Therefore, to say that the Buddha taught according to the Capacities is a great mistake!

Question (14): Did not Nagarjuna and Vashubandhu teach the true meaning of the Lotus Sutra?

Answer (14): No they did not.

Question (15): What teaching did they preach?

Answer (15): They taught the scriptures of Provisional Mahayana, both Exoteric and Esoteric, such as the Avatamsaka, Prajna, and Mahavairocana Sutras, and they did not teach the teachings of the Lotus Sutra.

Question (16): How do we know this?

Answer (16): Bodhisattva Nagarjuna wrote 300,000 verses. Since not all of them came to China or Japan, it is difficult to know the intention, yet through the Dasabhumi-vibhasa sastra, Mula-Madbyamika-sastra, and the Mahaprajnaparamitapadesa which were brought to China we know the Indian treatises by inference.

Question (17): Among the treatises left in India would there not be treatises which are superior to those which were transmitted to China?

Answer (17): One cannot speak about Bodhisattva Nagarjuna merely according to subjective opinion. The Buddha wrote, "After my parinirvana a man called Bodhisattva Nagarjuna will appear in South India." What that man says will be seen in a treatise called Mula-Madbyamika-sastra. As to the followers of Bodhisattva Nagarjuna in India there are seventy schools. All seventy are led by great philosophical teachers. Members of these seventy schools all use the karika as the foundation. The essence of the karika in the four volumes twenty-seven chapters is found in the gatha in four verses concerning "the Dharma which are produced by conditioning." These four lines of verse contain the four teachings and the three truths of the Avatamsaka and Prajna Sutras. They do not yet preach the Three Truths of the Lotus Sutra.

Question (18): Are there people who think as you do?

Answer (18): T'ien-t'ai says, "Do not compare the karika with the Lotus Sutra." He also says, "As for Vashubandhu and Nagarjuna, internally the mirror wisdom was quiet but externally they adjusted to the age." Miao-lo says, "If one were to debate the overcoming of heresies and entering into the truth, nothing is as good as the Lotus sutra." Tsung-i says, "Nagarjuna and Vashubandhu are inferior T'ien-t'ai."

Question (19): Towards the end of the T'ang Dynasty Amoghavajra transmitted a treatise of one volume; its name is Bodhicitta Sastra. It is said to be produced by Bodhisattva Nagarjuna. The Great Master Kobo said, "This treatise is a treatise which is most essential among one thousand volumes of Nagarjuna,"

Answer (19): This treatise is in seven sheets. There are many places where the text is not the word of Nagarjuna's. Therefore, in a catalog it is sometimes said to be Nagarjuna's and sometimes Amoghavajra's. The matter is not yet resolved. Moreover, this treatise is not a treatise which summarizes the lifetime of the teaching of the Buddha, either. There is much in it which is incorrect. First of all the central sentence, "only in the Shingon teaching" is wrong. The reason is that it disregards the "Attaining Enlightenment in One's Own Body" in the Lotus Sutra for which there is both textual and empirical evidence and posits the "Attainment of Enlightenment in One's Own Body" of Shingon scriptures for which neither evidence exists. The word "only" is the first mistake. To look at the matter objectively, it appears that what Tripitaka Amoghavajra produced privately is attributed to Nagarjuna in order to make the people of the time treat it more seriously. Moreover, Tripitaka Amoghavajra makes many mistakes. In the so-called Ritual Rules of the contemplation of the Lotus Sutra he writes of the Buddha in the Chapter of the "Revelation of the Eternal Life of the Tathagata" as Amida Buddha. This is a glaring mistake. As for the fact that dharani is placed next to the chapter on "The Divine Powers of the Tathagata," and that the Chapter on the "Final Commission" is placed at the end of the scripture: these are not even worth mentioning. Then, he stole the Mahayana Vinaya of T'ien-t'ai, and getting the proclamation of Emperor T'ai-tsung established it in five temples of Godai Mountain. He also says that one should use T'ien-t'ai for the teaching aspects of Shingon. These are all delusions. One might use the treatises of others but one cannot believe scriptures and treatises translated by this man. All together, the people who have transmitted scriptures and treatises from India to China, including both old and new translations, are one hundred and eight-six. With the exception of only one person, Tripitaka Kumarajiva there are none who did not make mistakes. Among them, Tripitaka Amoghavajra not only makes mistakes, but his intention to misguide people is obvious.

Question (20): How do we know that people other than Tripitaka Kumarajiva are mistaken? You not only refute the seven schools including Zen, Pure Land, and Shingon, but also you do not adopt any of the translations transmitted to China and Japan. Why is this?

Answer (20): This is my most important secret. One should ask the details in the future. But I will only speak a little about it. Tripitaka Master Kumarajiva said, "When I see all the scriptures in China, they all are not the same as in Sanskrit. How can I make this manifest? I have only one great wish. I will be impure in body and have a wife. Only my tongue will be pure and not speak deludedly in regard to the teachings of the Buddha. When I die, make sure you cremate me. When you cremate me if my tongue also burns throw my scriptures away." He always said this while sitting in the high seat. From the one person on top to the ten thousand people on the bottom they all expressed their wish to die after Tripitaka Kumarajiva. After he finally died they cremated him and the impure body became ashes. Only the tongue gave birth in the fire to a blue lotus on top of itself. It threw off five colors of light and made the night like the day and during the day it stole the brightness from the sun. It was only thus the scriptures of all translators became less important and the scriptures translated by Kumarajiva, especially the Lotus Sutra, spread easily in the Land of China.

Question (21): It may be thus as to the scriptures translated before Kumarajiva. How about the scriptures translated by Subhakarasimha and Amoghavajra, who came later?

Answer (21): Even with reference to those who came after, you should know that if the tongue of the translator burned there were mistakes. Thus, although the Hosso School was popular in Japan, the way the Great Master Dengyo attacked the Hosso School, was by saying, as for the Tripitaka Kumarajiva, his tongue did not burn, but as for Hsuan-tsang and T'zu-yen their tongues burned. The Emperor Kammu thought Dengyo's argument was true and changed to the Tendai School. If one looks at the third and ninth fascicle of the Nirvana Sutra, it says, "When my teaching is spread from India to other countries many mistakes will appear and the chance for sentient beings to attain the Way will be slight." Therefore the Great Master Miao-lo says, "Progress and retrogression are in the people, how could it concern the holy intention?" He writes further that however strongly people of today wish to attain the afterlife in accordance with the teaching of scriptures, if they wish according to wrong scriptures, there will be no attainment of the Way. Thus, it is not the fault of the Buddha. Put aside the fact that in the method of learning the teaching of the Buddha there are distinctions between great and small, between provisional and real, exoteric and esoteric teachings. This point about the translation is the most important thing.

Question (22): You say that the treatise masters of 1000 years of the Age of the First Law knew in their hearts that the True Way of the Lotus Sutra was superior to the other esoteric and exoteric scriptures, but that they did not proclaim this externally, and spoke only about Mahayana as being superior. It does not appear to be the case, yet I understand the reasoning a little. In the middle of the 1000 years of the Age of the Middle Law the Great Master T'ien-t'ai Chih-i appeared about and wrote exhaustively about the four words of "miraculous," "law," "Lotus," and "sutra," in that ten volumes, i.e., 1000 sheets, of the "Profound Meaning of The Lotus Sutra" , "Textual Commentary on the Lotus Sutra" , and the "Great Concentration and Insight" . He gave the four commentaries of Yinyuan , Yueh-chiao , Pen-chi , and Kuan-hsin to each letter and each phrase beginning from "Thus I have heard" and ending with "making a bow and left" and again he exhausted the 1000 sheets. In the "Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra" and the "Textual Commentary on the Lotus Sutra" in volumes, the heart of the Tripitaka is compared to a great river and the Lotus Sutra is compared to a great ocean; thus without exception, every drop of dew of the teaching of the Buddhas in the realm of the Ten Directions is included in the great ocean of the Lotus Sutra of the miraculous teaching. Moreover, not even one item of the various meanings of the great treatises of India is overlooked, and as for the teachings of the Ten Masters in the South and North of China, those that should be rejected are rejected, and those that should be adopted are adopted. In addition, there is the commentary in the form of the Great Concentration and Insight in ten volumes in which the meditation gate of one lifetime of the Buddha is systematized in one thought and in which the main and secondary karmic rewards (i.e., all teachings) of ten realms are abbreviated in three thousand. The style of this book goes beyond the remote treatise teachers of a thousand years in India and is superior to the closer commentaries of the masters in five hundred years in China.

Therefore, the Great Master Chi-tsang of the San-lun School says in a letter in which he recommends to over one hundred leaders and seniors that they listen to the Great Master T'ien-t'ai's lectures on the scripture, "The sage that appears once in a thousand or the wise one who appears once in five hundred years is present now. The sage of Nan-yueh (i.e., Hui-szu) and the wise one of T'ien-t'ai (i.e., Chih-i) are both superior. The three works of body, mouth, and intention upheld the Lotus Sutra in the past, and now the two Holy Ones (who are later rebirths of Kuan-yin and Medicine King at the time of the preaching of the Lotus Sutra) succeed and transmit it. How could it be limited to the sprinkling of immortality in China. The drum of the teaching makes the ground of India shake. They were enlightened at the time of their birth, and their preaching and lecturing on scriptures is unparalleled in the Wei-Chin periods. And I with over one hundred monks humbly make the request to the Great Master Chih-i. Vinaya Master Tao-hsuan of Chung-nan Mountain says praising the Great Master T'ien-t'ai preaches the Lotus Sutra. He preaches on the Mahayana as freely as the wind which moves in great voidness. Even though there are innumerable teachers of emptiness of the literature and they study his skillful lectures there will be none who is able to exhaust the truth. The meaning is comparable to the finger pointing to the moon in the sky, and the teaching reaches the Ultimate Truth. Dharma Master Fa-tsang of the Hua-yen School says praising, "Those such as the Dhyana Master Hui-szu and the Wise One Chih-i compare with the mystery and truth of Heaven and Earth and are teaching sentient beings like bodhisattvas who ascended to the rank of the tenth stage. What they heard as the truth at Vulture Peak is recalled at present in their commentaries." In the story in which the Tripitaka Amoghavajra and Dharma Master Han-kuang, both the Master and disciple, leave Shingon School and subject themselves to T'ien-t'ai it is said, according to the Biography of Eminent Monks that when one was in India in the intimate presence of the Tripitaka Amoghavajra, there was a monk there who said in a question, "In the Great T'ang there are the writings of Chih-i and his followers. Those writings are most capable of distinguishing the correct and wrong views and clarifying the distinction between biased and perfect teaching. Could one translate them well and bring them to this land of India?"

This is the story which Han-kuang told to Miao-lo. The Great Master Miao-lo said, hearing this story, "The teaching was lost in India and one is looking for it in other countries in the four directions. And here there are few who know it, just as the people of Lu did not know about Confucius." If in India there were such a great treatise as the thirty volumes of T'ien-t'ai why would the monks of India wish for the commentaries of T'ien-t'ai in China? Would this not mean that during the Age of the Middle Period the true meaning of the Lotus Sutra became manifest and widely spread in the world?

Answer (22): As for the fact that (Chih-i) spread throughout China the First Meditation and the First Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra which is the most superior among the teachings of the lifetime of Sakyamuni Buddha but which the masters did not spread during the one thousand years of the Age of the First Law and the first four hundred years of the Age of the Middle Law, that is one thousand four hundred years after the death of the Buddha, and not only did he spread it in China but his name was heard in India. This seems to mean that the Lotus Sutra had thus been "widely spread." But the Vinaya Platform of the First Sudden Enlightenment had not yet been established. To take the Vinaya rules of the Hinayana and put it with the First Wisdom and Meditation seems to be a little unreliable. It is like the eclipse of the sun or the waning of the moon. The time of the Great Master T'ien-t'ai falls into the time of the Firm Establishment of Reading, Reciting and Hearing, according to the Ta-chi-ching. This is not yet the time of the spreading widely of my teaching.

Question (23): As for the Great Master Dengyo, he is a man of Japan. Being born in the reigning period of Kammu (767-822), he not only attacked and destroyed the wrong views that had prevailed for over two hundred years since the time of Kimmei (539-571), but also wrote on the writings of the First Wisdom and First Meditation of the Great Master T'ien-t'ai and also attacked and destroyed the Vinaya Platform in the three places of the Japanese Hinayana which was widely spread by the monk Chien-chen (Ganjin), and established the Mahayana Vinaya Centre of the First Sudden Enlightenment at Mt. Hiei. This great event is the first extraordinary event in India, China, Japan and the whole world in one thousand eight hundred years since the death of the Buddha.

As for matters of mind Dengyo may have been either inferior or equal to Nagarjuna, T'ien-t'ai and others. But as for the fact that he brought all the teachings of the Buddha together in one teaching, he is superior to Nagarjuna and Vashubandhu and appears to be superior even to Hui-tsu and T'ien-t'ai. Generally spreading during the one thousand eight hundred years after the Mahaparinirvana of the Tathagata, these two (i.e., Chih-i and Dengyo) have been the very prophets of the Lotus Sutra.

Therefore the Myoho Shu-ku- says, "The scripture says, "if one took up Mt. Sumeru and hurled it to another region of numberless Buddhalands, this would not be hard. But if, after the Buddha's extinction, one is able to preach this scripture in the middle of an evil world, this is indeed hard." He says, commenting on this scripture, "Sakyamuni's judgment is that the shallow is easy and the deep is difficult (i.e., the scriptures teaching superficial doctrines are easy to have faith in and those teaching deep doctrines are difficult to have faith in). It is the nature of a superior man to leave the shallow and go to the deep. The Great Master T'ien-t'ai had faith in Sakyamuni and taking the Lotus teaching spread it in China. The school of Mt. Hiei transmitted T'ien-t'ai and assisting the Lotus teaching spread it in Japan."

The essence of the commentary is that during the age starting with the period in the good world of the ninth decline, when the age of people is one hundred years, through fifty years when the Tathagata was in the world and the over one thousand eight hundred years after the Parinirvana, suppose someone takes the gold mountain of the height of 168,000 yojanas and 6,620,000 ri from the bottom of the sea and with the hand of the small human body of five feet, throws it just as one throws a stone of an inch or two in diameter one or two cho; even if there is one who can throw it outside of Cakravada faster than a sparrow flies, the one who will preach the Lotus Sutra as the Buddha taught will be rarer than that, in the Age of the Last Law. The Great Master T'ien-t'ai and the Great Master Dengyo are precisely those who taught it in a manner similar to the Buddha.

The Sastra Masters of India have not reached the Lotus Sutra. The Masters of China prior to T'ien-t'ai either went too far or not far enough. Tzu-yen, Fa-ts'ang, and Subhakarasinha were people who made mistakes comparable to calling East West and Heaven Earth.

These are not examples of the Great Master Dengyo praising himself. On the 19th day, first month, twenty-first years of Enryaku (802), Emperor Kammu went to Mt. Takao and brought more than ten of the learned and virtuous monks of the six schools and seven great temples such as Zengi, Shoyu, Hoki, Chonin, Kengyoku, Anpuku, Gonso, Shuen, Jiko, Genyo, Saiko, Dosho Kosho, and Kanbin together with Dharma Master Saicho, and there was a debate; they were impressed at the first word of Saicho and before he reached the second or third word, all bent their heads and crossed their arms. Thus Saicho refuted the basic principles of these schools such as the two Pitakas, the Three Times, Three Turns of the Teaching Wheel of Sanron, the Three Times and the Five Natures of Hosso, the Four Teachings, Five Teachings, the Fundamental and the Derivative, the Six Marks, and Ten Profound Principles of Kegon. This was like the beam of a great house breaking. The proud flag of the ten great monks fell down.

At that time the Emperor was greatly surprised. On the 29th day of the second month of the same year, he sent two officials, Wakeno Hiroyo and Otomono Kunimichi, as special envoys again to the Six Schools and Seven Temples. Then each said in a letter acknowledging defeat, "As we secretly examined the profound commentaries of T'ien-t'ai, we found that they summarize all of the teachings of the lifetime of Sakyamuni and make the meaning exhaustively clear and there is nothing that the commentaries do not penetrate. They alone go beyond various schools and especially reveal the one path (i.e., the One Vehicle of The Lotus Sutra). They teach very deep subtle principles, which the students of the Seven Great Temples and Six Schools have not yet heard of and have not yet seen. The controversy of many years between Sanron and Hosso melts down like ice, and all is already illuminated and clear as if the cloud and fog are opened up and one sees three lights (of the sun, the moon and the stars). The number of scriptures and treatises that have been lectured upon during more than two hundred years since the comprehensive teaching of Prince Shotoku is large.

They debated over the principles with each other, and yet doubts have not yet been resolved. This most subtle perfect school is not yet widely spread and elevated in importance. Could it be that sentient beings during this period have not yet been up to appreciating the First Truth? As we bow down and think, The Holy Dynasty has long ago received the transmission of the Tathagata and is deeply favored with the Capacities for the Pure and First Teaching. Now for the first time the meaning and principle of truth of One Subtlety is raised and manifested, and the scholars of the Six Schools realize the ultimate truth for the first time. One may say that from now on, it will be possible to save all the sentient beings of this realm, carrying them on the ship of Miraculous Perfections over to the other shore. Those such as Zengi were led into and encountered the fortunate age, and saw the extraordinary words. If it were not for a long period of preparation with good karmic conditions how could one be born in the Holy Age?"

Chi-tsang and others of China gathered together over one hundred people and established the Great Master T'ien-t'ai as a sage. Now over two hundred people of the Seven Temples of Japan call the Great Master Dengyo the Holy Man. More than two thousand years after the Nirvana of the Buddha two holy men emerged in these two countries. Moreover Dengyo established the Great Vinaya Centre of the First and Sudden Enlightenment at Mt. Hiei which the Great Master T'ien-t'ai did not spread widely. Does not this refer to the wide spreading and circulation of the Lotus Sutra toward the end of the Age of the Middle Period?

Answer (23): The fact that the Great Teaching was widely circulated by Asvaghosa, Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Vashubandhu but not by Kasyapa and Ananda was mentioned in a prior questioning. Also the fact that the Great Teaching was widely circulated by the Great Master T'ien-t'ai but not circulated fully by Nagarjuna and Vashubandhu was mentioned in a prior question.

It is clear that the Great Master Dengyo established the Great Vinaya of First and Sudden Enlightenment, which the Great Master T'ien-t'ai did not establish. However, what is most difficult to understand is that, although the Buddha taught the Great Mysterious True Teaching exhaustively, Kasyapa, Ananda, Asvaghosa, Nagarjuna,

Asanga, Vashubandhu did not teach it, and even up to T'ien-t'ai and Dengyo has not yet widely spread it. But that this deep teaching is to be widely taught at the beginning of the Age of the Last Law, in the fifth of the five hundred year periods; that this is the case is what is most difficult to fathom.

Question (24): What is the miraculous teaching? Let us hear first its name and then its meaning. If this teaching is true, does this mean that Sakyamuni comes into the world twice? Does Bodhisattva Visistacaritra appear from the ground twice? Quickly confer upon us your compassion.

Tripitaka Hsuan-tsang entered India after perfecting the six paramitas and spent nineteen years there. He learned that the One Vehicle Lotus Sutra is a upaya teaching and that the Hinayana Agamas are the true teaching. Tripitaka Amoghavajra returned to India and wrote that the Buddha of the "Revelation of the Eternal Life of the Tathagata" (Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sutra) was the Amida Buddha. As for these mistakes, they are comparable to calling the East the West and the moon the sun. What can we do by tormenting the body, there is no point in defiling the mind. Fortunately we are born in the Age of the Last Law, and will surpass those who taught the teaching for three great asamkhyas without walking one step and attain usnisa without offering our head to a tiger.

Answer (24): To speak about this teaching should be easy because it is in the text of a scripture. However, in this teaching there are three important things. Although the Great Ocean is wide, it does not retain the dead. Although the Great Earth is thick, it does not hold those who do not practice filial piety. In the teachings of the Buddha there is help for those who have committed five evil deeds and for those who do not practice filial piety. However it does not forgive the hypocrites who are revilers and those who proudly insist that they are first in upholding the vinaya rules. The "three calamities" refer to the Pure Land School, Zen School, and the Shingon School.

CHAPTER V
THE PURE LAND, ZEN, AND SHINGON SECTS

Firstly, the Pure Land School fills the entire country of Japan, and is on the mouth of the four categories of people who constitute Buddhist society. Secondly, as for the Zen School the arrogant monks with three robes and one bowl fill the four oceans, and the people think they are the great teachers of the entire realm under heaven. Thirdly, the Shingon School is worse than these two other schools. They become the Kanzu, or Omuro, or Chori, or Kengyo of Mt. Hiei, Toji Temple, the Seven Temples, and Onjoji Temple. Although the Divine Mirror at Naishidokoro was burned to ashes, yet they rely on the Treasure Seal of Mahavairocana as the mirror of the Buddha. Although the Treasure Swords entered the Western Ocean they intend to cut the national enemies with the Five Great Divine Kings. As for these examples of the incorrect firm faith, even if the world stone became flattened, this firm faith will not decline. Even if the great earth turns over, the mind of suspicion is hard to come by. When the Great Master T'ien-t'ai attacked the Three Schools in the South and the Seven Schools in the North, this school had not yet reached China. When the Great Master Dengyo overcame the Six Schools, it was not included. It escaped many strong enemies and it is about to steal and destroy the Great Teaching. In addition, the disciples of the Great Master Dengyo, that is, the Great Master Jikaku, supported this School and stole and robbed the Tendai School of Mt. Hiei and made it all into the Shingon School. Who would oppose this person? Supported by such perversion, there was not even one person who criticized the wrong teaching of the Great Master Kobo. The monk Annen tried to attack Kobo a little, but would only attack him concerning Kegon, and ended up, paradoxically, only by subjugating the Lotus Sutra to the Mahavairocana Sutra. This was like those who perform worldly meditation.

Question (25): What are the mistakes of these three schools?

Answer (25): As for the Pure Land School, there was a man at the time of the Ch'i Dynasty (479-501) who was called Dharma Master Tan-luan. Originally he was a man of the San-lun School who, having seen the Dasabhumivibhasasastra of Nagarjuna, established the distinction of the Difficult and Easy Paths. There was a Dhyana Master Tao-ch'o, a man of the period of T'ang, who originally taught the Nirvana Sutra. However, having seen in the Dharma Master Tan-luan's writings that he moved to the Pure Land, Tao-ch'o also left the Nirvana Sutra and moved to the Pure Land School, and established the two teachings of the Holy Path and the Pure Land. Again there was Shan-tao, who was a disciple of Tao-ch'o. He established the two paths of the Miscellaneous Path and the True Path.

Two hundred years after Age of the Last Law began in Japan, during the age of Gotobain (1184-1198), there was a man called Honen (1133-1212). He advised all the monks and lay people that what is essential to the teachings of the Buddha is the Time and Capacity. As for the Lotus Sutra and the Mahavairocana Sutra, the eight schools or nine schools, such as the Tendai and Shingon Schools, and all the scriptures and schools whether the Hinayana or Mahayana, esoteric or exoteric, provisional or real, Mahayana or Hinayana which were taught during the lifetime of the Buddha, these are for those who are of a higher potential and higher wisdom, i.e., for those who have the Capacity that belongs to the 2000 years of the Age of the First Law and the Age of the Middle Law. After entering the Age of the Last Law, however hard one practiced (in regard to these), there would be no benefit. Furthermore, if these practices are mixed with the recitation of the name of Amida Buddha, the Pure Land will not lead to rebirth in the Pure Land. Honen says, "I am not saying this on my own authority. Bodhisattva Nagarjuna and Dharma Master T'an-luan called those 'the difficult paths.' Tao-ch'o disliked them and said, 'Not even one person has attained.' Shan-tao said of them, 'Not even one in a thousand.'"

As for these, one may have questions because they belong to different schools. But would there be in the later age a wise man in Tendai or Shingon who would supersede the example of Eshin (Genshin). Eshin wrote in the Ojo-yoshu that "the exoteric and esoteric method is not the method through which it is possible for a man such as myself to transcend life and death." Again, take a look at the "Ten Causes of Yokan" of the Sanron School. He urged, "thus if one casts aside the Lotus Sutra and Shingon and practices only the Pure Land, ten out of ten, one hundred out of one hundred will be reborn in the Pure Land."

Consequently, Mt. Hiei, Toji Temple, Seven Temples, Onjoji Temple, and others first appeared to debate this, but since the words in the preface of the Ojo-yoshu seemed to fit the principle, the head monk Kenshin fell and bowed and became Honen's disciple. Moreover, even those people who did not become disciples of Honen repeated this Amida Pure Land in a very different manner than that with which they called upon the other Buddha names and felt very affectionate. Thus it began to seem that everyone in Japan was a disciple of Honen's. During these past fifty years, everyone without exception became disciples of Honen.

Since they became disciples of Honen, in the entire country of Japan each of them, without exception, became revilers of the teaching. For example, if 1000 children all together kill their parents, all 1000 are those who commit the five evil deeds. If one falls into the hell, should not the others also fall? Ultimately, Honen, in avenging this exile became an evil spirit and entered the bodies of the ruler of the Nation (i.e., Gotabain) and monks of the Mountain Temples who had found fault with him and his disciples. Some rebelled and others committed evil deeds, and all were conquered by the Shogunate in Kanto. Those few monks who were left at Mt. Hiei, Toji Temple, were made fun of by laymen and laywomen. They are laughed at as monkeys are laughed at by people and are despised as the Ainus are despised by children.

Hearing about this, the Zen School began deceiving the eye of the people by pretending to follow the monastic rules such as not taking a meal after noon. Because they appear to be noble, people do not think that they are wrong, however crazily they preach the mistaken teachings.

This School called Zen speaks of a "special transmission outside of the teaching," which Sakyamuni allegedly spoke in secret to the worthy Kasyapa in addition to the generally known Tripitaka. Thus they say that those who do not know Zen and study the scriptures are like a dog biting thunder, or a monkey trying to catch the shadow of the moon. Therefore, those in Japan who do not practice filial piety and are cast aside by their parents, those who because of rudeness are dismissed by the Master, young monks who are not inclined to study, prostitutes of the gay quarter--because Zen is the incorrect teaching it fits the true nature of these people. This is the reason they all pretend to keep the rules but in fact become outcasts who eat the peasants of the land. Thus the Heavenly Deity glares with his heavenly eye, and the Earth Deity shakes his body at them.

What is called the Shingon School is a great error which is incomparably worse than the above two evil things. I will talk about it in a broad outline. During the era of Emperor Hsuang-tsang (713-756) of the Great T'ang, Tripitaka Subhakarasimha, Tripitaka Vajramati, and Tripitaka Amoghavajra brought the Mahavairocana Sutra, and the Susiddhikara Sutra from India. The view contained in these three scriptures is clear: if one inquires into the highest principle it is that there is only one vehicle which either harmonizes the two with the one, or refutes the two in order to manifest the one ; if one wished to discuss its concrete practice there is only mudras and mantras ( Shingon). These scriptures do not even reach the level of the one vehicle that is established in addition to the three vehicles in the Avatamsaka and Prajna Sutras. They are not even equivalent to the Separate and First Teaching prior to the Lotus Sutra as discussed in the T'ien-t'ai School.

It only places the two teachings of pitaka common teaching. However, Tripitaka Subhakarasimha thought that if one speaks out explicitly on the texts of these scriptures he will be despised by Hua-yen and Fa-hsiang and will be laughed at by the T'ien-t'ai School. Perhaps he also thought that he brought these from India believing them to be important, so if he kept quiet it would conflict with the original intention. There was an evil person called Meditation Master I-hsing in the T'ien-t'ai School. He brought this man into his confidence and made him talk about Buddhist Schools in China. Acarya I-hsing was completely deceived and not only talked freely about the outline of San-lun, Fa-hsiang, Hua-yen, but he also talked about the manner in which the teaching of T'ien-t'ai School is organized. Consequently, Subhakarasimha thought that the T'ien-t'ai School was even superior to what he heard in India and that there was nothing to add to it. He said, "You are a wise one in the land of China. The T'ien-t'ai School is a school of spiritual subtlety. There is nothing that the Shingon School can add to the T'ien-t'ai School except the mudra and mantra." And I-hsing thought that could well be the case. And Subhakarasimha said to I-hsing, "Just as the Great Master T'ien-t'ai made a commentary on the Lotus Sutra I would like to make a commentary on the Mahavirokana Sutra. Would you write it down?" I-hsing said, "It is quite easy, I shall do it, but how shall I write it?" The T'ien-t'ai School is hated by other schools. Even if other schools try to compete with it, there is one thing that they cannot do anything about. In the so-called introduction to the Lotus Sutra, a scripture called Wu-liang-i-ehing, the teachings of all the scriptures of the forty some years before the Lotus Sutra is closed off. It also closes off all the scriptures after the Lotus Sutra with the "A Teacher of the Law" chapter (Chapter Ten) and "The Divine Power of the Tathagata" chapter (Chapter One) of the Lotus Sutra. The phrase "Just preached" attacked other scriptures which stand shoulder to shoulder to the Lotus Sutra. Where among these three types to teachings shall we place the Mahavirokana sutra?

He asked thus, and at that time Tripitaka Subhakarasimha said, intending to deceive, "There is a chapter called 'Jushin Chapter' in the Mahavirokana Sutra. It is like the Wu-liang-i-ehing in removing all the scriptures of over forty years. The chapters following the 'Entering the Mandala' of the Mahavirokana Sutra appear in China as two scriptures, i.e., the Lotus Sutra and the Mahavirokana Sutra, but in India they are one scripture. Buddha Sakyamuni named the Mahavirokana Sutra the Lotus Sutra in the presence of ;Sariputra and Maitreya, and dropped the mudra and the mantra, and taught only the principle. This is what Kumarajiva transmitted. The Great Master T'ien-t'ai saw this version. Mahavairocana Tathagata (Dainichinyorai) called the Lotus Sutra the Mahavairocana Sutra and taught it to Vajrasata. This is called the Mahavairocana Sutra. I saw this myself in India. Therefore, you should write in such a manner that you make the Mahavairocana Sutra and the Lotus Sutra into one taste like water and milk. If you do that, then the Mahavairocana Sutra will refute all three teachings of the prior, present, and the future periods just as the Lotus Sutra does. Now, as for the mudra and the mantra, if they adorn the 'one faith in three thousand thoughts' of the mind teaching then it will become the miraculous teaching of the Correspondence of the Three Mysteries . In terms of the Correspondence of the Three Mysteries, the T'ien-t'ai School is confined to the Mystery of Intention. The Shingon School is like a very superior general wearing armor, having a bow and arrow on his side and bearing a great sword at his hip. The T'ien-t'ai School being only the Mystery of Intention is like a superior general being naked." He said this and Acarya I-hsing wrote accordingly. In three hundred and sixty kingdoms in the land of China, there is no one who knew about this matter, so at the beginning they debated its merits but such a one as Subhakarasimha and others were weighty in their personality, while the people of the T'ien-t'ai School were light. There was no one who had the wisdom comparable to the Great Master T'ien-t'ai. Therefore, day by day all became the Shingon School and the conflict stopped. Many years passed and the root of delusion of Shingon became deep and hidden.

The Great Master Dengyo of Japan went to China and when he transmitted the Tendai School, he also studied and transmitted the Shingon School. He conferred the Tendai School upon the Emperor of Japan and made the great monks of the Six Schools study the Shingon School. However, he had established the relative superiority and inferiority of the Six Schools and the Tendai School before he went to China. After he travelled to China, while the debate as to establishing the Vinaya Centre of First Enlightenment was not settled, he may have thought that if there were too many enemies this one thing of the Vinaya Centre could not be achieved. Or he may have thought he would let the Shingon School be attacked by the prophet during the Age of the Last Law. He did not debate the Shingon School in front of the Emperor, and he did not explain clearly to his disciples. However, there is a secret book of one chuan called Ebyoshu. It is a book which describes the way in which the people of the Seven Schools fell before the Tendai School. In the preface to that book there is a brief account of the deception and delusion of the Shingon School.

The Great Master Kobo entered China in the same period of the Enryaku (804) and met Hui-kuo of Ching-lung Temple and learned the Shingon teaching. After he returned from China he discussed the relative superiority and inferiority of the teachings of the lifetime of the Buddha and wrote: first, Shingon; second, Kegon; third, Lotus. This Great Master is a man whom the worldly people especially respect. However, as for matters concerning the teachings of the Buddha, although it is impious to say this, there were often things surprisingly unclear in what he said. To consider this matter in general terms, he went to China and studied only the particular aspects of Shingon School, and mudra and mantra. He did not inquire into the meaning of the doctrine in detail, and when he came back to Japan, he looked at the situation broadly and found the Tendai School had especially increased. Because it was difficult to spread the Shingon School which he treasured, he brought out the Kegon School which he had studied in Japan and spoke of its superiority to the Lotus Sutra. Moreover, perhaps he thought that if he spoke as it is taught ordinarily in the Kegon School no one would believe him. So he added colors and said this is the true meaning of the Mahavairocana Sutra, the Aspirations to Enlightenment of the Bodhisattva Nagarjuna, and Subhakarasimha. He thus added greatly to the deluded words, yet the people of the Tendai School did not criticize him sharply for that.

Question (26): It says in the Juju-Shin-Ron, Hizo-Hoyaku and the Nikyo-Ron of the Great Master Kobo, "As for these vehicles, i.e., teachings other than the esoteric school, though they call themselves a Buddha vehicle, when compared to the later teachings of Shingon they turn out to be meaningless speculation." In another place it is said, "They are in the sphere of ignorance and not in the realm of authentic enlightenment." Again it is said, "The Lotus Sutra is the fourth." Again it is said, "Chinese Masters fought each other to steal the taste of the five excellent tastes , i.e., the highest truth of Shingon and all called it his own teaching." What is the meaning of these commentaries?

Answer (26): I was surprised by this interpretation and opened the Tripitaka and the Three Divisions of the Mahavairocana Sutra but found not even a letter or phrase which says that the Lotus Sutra is a region of illusion, when compared to the Avatamsaka Sutra or the Mahavairocana Sutra, or a thief when compared to the Six Paramita Sutra, or an area of ignorance when compared to the Shou-hu-ching. Although this is a very flimsy thing, since it was used for over 300 to 400 years in the past by some scholars in Japan, one would think it has some foundation. Briefly I will tell you about things which are very easy to understand in order to expose other things that are also not worthy of belief.

The Lotus Sutra was first called the excellent taste in the Ch'en and Sui Dynasties. The six Paramita Sutra was transmitted by Tripitaka Prajna in the middle of the T'ang Dynasty. If the excellent taste of the Six Paramita Sutra was transmitted during the reign of the Ch'en and Sui Dynasties, the Great Master T'ien-t'ai may possibly have stolen the excellent taste of Shingon. (But this is not possible.) There is a parallel example. When Tokuichi of Japan abusively said, "The Great Master T'ien-t'ai said that the three time teachings of the Chieh-shen-mi-ching was wrong, he was ruining his body of five feet with a tongue of three inches." And the Great Master Dengyo said, in correcting this, "The Chieh-shenmi-ching was transmitted by Hsuan-tsang at the beginning of T'ang. As for T'ien-t'ai, he is a man of the Ch'en and Sui Dynasties; it was several years after the death of Chih-i before the Chieh-shen-mi-ching was transmitted. How could he have destroyed a scripture which was transmitted after he had died?" Then, Tokuichi was unable to answer and died as his tongue was split into eight pieces. The words of Kobo mentioned above are incomparably worse than those of Tokuichi. Fa-tsang of Hua-yen, of San-lun, Hsuan-tsang of Fa-hiang, T'ien-t'ai, up to the various masters of the North and South, the Tripitakas, and Masters after the Later Han were all put down and called thieves. Moreover, it was not just the arbitrary words of T'ien-t'ai to call the Lotus Sutra the excellent taste . The Buddha taught in the Nirvana Sutra that the Lotus Sutra is the excellent taste . Bodhisattva Vashubandhu wrote of the Lotus Sutra and the Nirvana Sutra as the excellent taste . Bodhisattva Nagarjuna called the Lotus Sutra "miraculous medicine." So, if those who call the Lotus Sutra the excellent taste are thieves, then are Sakyamuni, Prabhutaratna, all the Buddhas of the Ten Directions, Nagarjuna, Vashubandhu thieves? The disciples of Kobo and the Shingon Masters of Toji Temple of Japan, even if they cannot distinguish the black and white of their own eyes, should know their own calamity through the mirrors of the words of others. Furthermore, as for the point that it is written that the Lotus Sutra is idle speculation, give me the specific passage in the Mahavairocana Sutra and the Vjarasekhara Sutra. Even if it is written in those scriptures that the Lotus Sutra is idle speculation, there is the possibility that the translator may have made a mistake. There should be careful thought on this matter. Confucius thought nine times before speaking. The Duke of Chou held his hair three times in the course of bathing and took food out of this mouth three times in the course of a meal. Even among those people who study worldly things are like this. How could it be that Kobo spoke such deplorable things?

Since he is a descendent of such a biased view, it is said in the ritual text of Shariko by that Shogakubo, who calls himself the hongan of the Denboin, "As for that which is honored and high, it is the Buddha of the non-dual Mahayana Mahavairocana. The three bodies of the Sakyamuni Buddha is like three donkeys and an ox which cannot pull a carriage. As for that which is profound and secret it is the teaching of the two part mandala. The four teachings of the manifest vehicle are not worthy of picking up its shoes." What is called here the four teachings of the manifest vehicle refer to the four schools of the Hosso, Sanron, Kegon, and Hokke. The three bodies of the donkey and cow refers to the four Buddhas who are the teachers of the Lotus Sutra, Avatamsaka Sutra, Prajna Sutra, and the Chieh-shen-mi-ching. It is written here that these Buddhas and monks are not even good enough to be cattle herdsmen or the men who pick up the shoes for Shogaku or Kobo.

The Brahamin of Great Pride of India was greatly learned by birth. He could call to mind the two teachings of the manifest and esoteric, and grabbed in his hands both the Buddhist and non-Buddhist literature. Therefore, the king and ministers lowered their heads and all the people looked up to him as the teacher. Out of excessive self-pride he thought that the four sages revered in the world are Siva, Vasudeva, Buddha, and Narayana-deva, and that he would make them the four legs of his chair. So he made them into the legs of the chair and set on the chair and taught. It is like the Shingon Masters of the present time who gather together all the Buddhas such as Sakyamuni and place them underfoot when they perform kanjo ceremony. This is just as the teachers of the Zen School who say, "This School is a great teaching that steps on the head of the Buddha." There was a little monk named Sastra Master Bhadraruci. He proposed that he should correct the Brahamin of Great Pride, but the king, the ministers, and the 10,000 people did not adopt him. Finally the Brahamin of Great Pride let the disciples and patrons tell many lies and speak with evil mouths and hit Bhadraruci but he continued to speak of the Brahamin of Great Pride's faults without caring for his own life. So, the Emperor hated Bhadraruci and tried to defeat him through a debate, but the Brahamin of Great Pride was defeated. The Emperor, looking up to Heaven and throwing himself on the ground, cried in sorrow, holding the feet of Sastra Master Bhadraruci. Following Bhadraruci's suggestion, they carried the Brahamin of Great Pride on a donkey exposing him throughout India. Then the evil mind of the Brahamin of Great Pride flared up even more and he fell in the hell alive. Is the Shingon and Zen School of today any different from him?

Meditation Master San-chieh of China has said that the Lotus Sutra of Sakyamuni, who was the founder of the teaching, is the best teaching for the Age of the First Law and the Age of the Middle Law but for the purposes of the Later Age there is the universal scripture which he produced. Those who practice the Lotus Sutra in this age will fall into the hell of the Ten Directions. This is because it does not fit the Capacity of the Age of the Last Law. He said this and performed the worship (and confessing) of the six times of the day and the mediation at the four times of the day, and became like the Buddha in his own body. Therefore, many people treasured him and there were more than 10,000 disciples. Nevertheless he was questioned by a young woman who had the Lotus Sutra, and he lost his voice at that time. Later he became a great snake who ate lay supporters, disciples, young women, and virgins. The evil teaching "not even one in a thousand" of Shan-tao and Honen of the present time is like this. These three major teachings have been well established. So, although one should not show contempt for these teachings, if one speaks out there may even be people who would believe. There is one evil thing which is millions and millions of times more difficult to believe than this.

The Great Master Jikaku was the third disciple of the Great Master Dengyo. However, from the one person above to the 10,000 below they all thought he was a man superior to the Great Master Dengyo. This man fathomed the depths of the Shingon School and the Lotus Sutra School and wrote that Shingon is superior to the Lotus Sutra. Yet the three thousand people at Mt. Hiei and all the scholars in Japan were persuaded to follow his teaching. The disciples of Kobo seeing the Great Master's statement that the Lotus Sutra was superior to the Avatamsaka Sutra, thought it excessive even though it was in their favor but judging from the interpretation of the Great Master Jikaku, they took it as certain that the Shingon School is superior to the Lotus Sutra School. If one insists that the Shingon School is superior to the Lotus Sutra School in Japan, Mt. Hiei is precisely what should have become the strong opponent. Yet, since Jikaku had closed the mouths of three thousand people of Mt. Hiei the Shingon School could control the situation as they wished. Consequently, there is no one above Jikaku Daishi as the first ally of the Toji Temple. To illustrate the point, Pure Land and Zen Schools may spread in other countries but if Enryakuji did not permit it, it could not have spread in Japan even after an infinite period of time. But Annen, the most virtuous man of Mt. Hiei, said in the Kyojijoran, establishing the merits of the nine schools, that Shingon was first, Zen second, Tendai third, and Kegon fourth. Because of this big mistake Zen is already filling and ruining the country. As for the cause and conditions of the country falling to ruin it goes back to Enshin's Ojo-yoshu and to the popularity of Honen's Pure Land School. The Buddha's prediction that worms in the body of a lion will eat the lion has come true!

For a period of fifteen years Dengyo Daishi studied Tendai and Shingon doctrines in Japan without a teacher. He was intelligent by birth and attained enlightenment without a teacher. But in order to dispel the doubts of the worldly people, he went to China and tried to transmit the traditions of Tendai and Shingon. In his mind it appeared that the Tendai Lotus School was superior to the Shingon, so he erased the title "Shingon" and wrote the meditation and the Shingon of the Tendai School title. Dengyo established at Mt. Hiei that two people may enter the order yearly for the study of a period of twelve years. He also established the Lotus Sutra, the Golden Light Sutra, and the Jen-wang-ching, at the meditation hall as the three scriptures for the protection of the state, and through an Imperial edict it was established that they should be worshipped in a manner similar to the most important treasures of Japan, i.e., the Sacred Jewel, the Sacred Sword, and the place where the Sacred Mirror is kept. This view remained unchanged during the time of the first head priest of Mt. Hiei, Gishin Osho, and the second head priest, the Great Master Encho.

The third head priest the Great Master Jikaku went to T'ang China and studied the superiority and inferiority of the two paths of the esoteric and exoteric schools from eight great monks for a period of ten years. He also learned from his people of the T'ien-t'ai School such as Kuang-hsiu (772-843) and Wei-chuan, but he thought in his heart that the Shingon School was superior to the Tendai School. He thought also that his master, the Great Master Dengyo, had not yet studied this in detail and that because he was not in China for a long time he only took a rough look at this teaching.

So he returned to Japan and established the Great Lecture Hall called Sojiin to the west of Mt. Hiei's eastern tower Shikan-in. The main Buddha in this lecture hall was Mahavairocana of the Diamond Realm. Working before Mahavairocana and using the commentary of Subhakarasimha of the Mahavairocana Sutra as a basis, he prepared seven volumes of commentary on the Vajrasekhara Sutra and seven volumes on the Susiddhikara Sutra, fourteen volumes in all. In the essential part of the commentary it says, "There are two kinds of teaching. The first is the revealed teaching. This refers to the three vehicle teachings. The reason for this is that in these teachings, the worldly and superior meanings are not in perfect harmony in one body. The second is the esoteric teaching. This is the one vehicle teaching. The reason for this is that here the worldly and superior meanings are in perfect harmony and in one body. Furthermore there are two kinds of esoteric teachings. The first is the fundamental esoteric teaching of principle. It refers to the scriptures such as the Avatamsaka, Prajna, Vimalakirti, Lotus Sutra, and the Nirvana Sutra. These teach only the non-duality of worldly and superior teachings, but do not teach the particulars of true mantra and secret mudra matters. The second is the teaching in which both the mysteries of the particular ( ji) and principle are present. It refers to the Mahavairocana Sutra, Vajrasekhara Sutra, and the Susiddhikara Sutra. They preach both that worldly truth and the supreme truth are not two! because they explain the particulars ( ji) of Shingon and mitsuin."

The point of the commentary is that he established the superiority and inferiority of the three scriptures of Shingon and the Lotus Sutra on the basis of the following consideration: both Shingon and the Lotus Sutra teach the same principle of the teaching of "one faith contains three thousand thoughts"; however, the particulars of the teaching of the mitsuin and Shingon are absent in the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra is the miraculous teaching of principle, the three scriptures of Shingon are the teachings in which both the mystery of principle and particulars are present. Thus, there is a huge difference between the two. And, furthermore, this writing is not just his own private interpretation. He thought that this was the point of the commentary on the Mahavairocana Sutra by Tripitaka Subhakarasimha. Yet he perhaps thought this still does not make clear the superiority and inferiority of the two schools, or maybe he thought it would remove other people's doubts. In the biography of the Great Master Jikaku it is said, "The Great Master wrote commentaries on two scriptures; when he finished the work, thinking alone in his heart he asked, are these commentaries consistent with the teachings of the Buddha or not? If it is not consistent with the intentions of the Buddha I will not spread this teaching in the world. Therefore, he placed it before the Buddha for seven days and seven nights, ardently wishing for the proof of this truth and devotedly prayed. During the fifth ko (between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.) on the fifth day he had a dream in which he saw the rings of the sun; he shot the ring with a bow and arrow, the arrow hit the sun, and sun rolled around. After waking from the dream he realized that he had penetrated the meaning of the Buddha deeply. So, he thought that he should transmit it in the later age."

The Great Master Jikaku made an exhaustive study of both Schools of Dengyo and Kobo in Japan and China. He studied the most important secret teachings from eight great monks and the Tripitaka Pao-yueh of South India for ten years. After he finished writing the commentary on the two scriptures, he prayed repeatedly to the Buddha. Surprised by seeing the arrow of wisdom striking the sun of the Middle Way, in his joy he made it public by having the Emperor Nimmyo issue an imperial statement. He made the head of Tendai into the head of the Shingon Temple. The Three Scriptures of Shingon became the scriptures for the protection of the state, and for four hundred years up to now, the number of scholars who study these are as many as rice hemp plants, and those who look up to them in thirst are as many as bamboos and reeds. Therefore, the temples established in Japan by Emperor Kammu and Dengyo all became Shingon Temples without exception. Both the aristocrats and warriors equally turned to the Shingon Masters looked up to them as their teachers, appointing them as officials and giving them temples. As for the ceremonial opening of the eyes of the wooden images and paintings of the Buddha, all eight schools use the mudra and mantra of Mahavairocana's eyes.

Question (27): What should the man who says the Lotus Sutra is superior to Shingon do with the interpretation? Should he adopt it or reject it?

Answer (27): The Buddha says determining the future, "Rely on the Law, not on the person." Bodhisattva Nagarjuna says, "If one depends upon the scripture it is a correct argument; if one does not depend upon the scripture it is an incorrect argument." T'ien-t'ai says, "Again, if it conforms to the scripture, quote and use it. If there is no corresponding sentence or corresponding meaning, then one should not believe and accept." Dengyo says, "Rely on what the Buddha taught, not on the oral tradition." If one follows these scriptures, treatises, and commentaries, then one should not base oneself on dreams. One should only treasure the passages in the scriptures and treatises which explain clearly the superiority of the Lotus Sutra and the inferiority of the Mahavairocana Sutra.

As for the point that one cannot open the eye of the wooden images and paintings, this again is a stupid thing. Before Shingon was there no opening the eye of the wooden images and paintings? In India, China, and Japan there had been such things as walking, preaching, and speaking of wooden images and paintings that go beyond the time of the Shingon School. Ever since we performed the ritual to the Buddha with mudras and mantes, the merits which save sentient beings were mostly lost. This is commonly pointed out in discussions. On this matter, however, Nichiren need not draw clear evidence from other places. My evidence is drawn from the commentary of the Great Master Jikaku, and my belief comes from that.

Question (28): What do you believe?

Answer (28): The origin of this dream is that one had the fixed notion in the mind that the Shingon is superior to the Lotus Sutra. If this dream is an auspicious dream, then as the Great Master Jikaku interpreted it, the Shingon must be superior. But should one call a dream of the shooting of the sun an auspicious dream? Let us hear if there is proof that dreaming of shooting of the sun is an auspicious dream in over 5000 and 7000 volumes of Buddhist scriptures and over 3000 volumes of non-Buddhist scriptures.

When King Ajatasatru dreamt the moon fell from heaven and let the minister interpret it, the minister said, "This is the parinirvana of the Buddha." Subhadra, seeing the sun fall from heaven said, "This is the parinirvana of the Buddha. When the Asura fought with Sakra, he first shot at the sun and moon. The evil kings called Chieh of the Hsia Dynasty and Chou of the Shang Dynasty always shot at the sun and destroyed themselves and ruined the country. The Lady Maya dreamed of being pregnant with the sun and gave birth to Prince Siddhartha. Therefore the childhood name of the Buddha is called Suryavamsa. As for using the name of the country of Japan , this is because the Great God Amaterasu is the Sun God. Therefore the two part dream means that the commentary is the arrow that was shot at the Great God Amaterasu, the Great Master Dengyo, Sakyamuni Buddha, and the Lotus Sutra. Now I, Nichiren, am a stupid man and therefore I do not know the scriptures and treatises. But I know that those who say because of this dream that Shingon is superior to the Lotus Sutra will destroy the country and lose their family in this life, and will enter the hell in the next life. Now there will be the "actual proof" of this.

During the war between Japan and Mongolia (1274) all of the Shingon Masters prayed for victory. Because Japan won one might think that Shingon is superior. However, during the war of Shokyu (1221) considerable Shingon Masters prayed for the Imperial forces, but the Shogunate (Hojo Yoshitoki) won and the Emperor was banished to the Island of Oki, and his son was banished to the Island of Sado because of this prayer. Ultimately it is just like the wild fox who in his howling brings disaster to himself. It conforms completely to the phrase of the scripture which says, "It returns to the original person." At the war, the three thousand priests of Mount Hiei were also attacked by the Kamakura troops and forced to submit.

CHAPTER VI
VI. THE TIME OF THE LAST LAW AND NICHIREN

Now the Kamakura government is at the height of power. Therefore, the Shingon priests of Toji, Mount Hiei, Onjoji, and the seven major temples of Nara, along with those priests of the Hokke sect who have abandoned the teachings of their own sect and instead slandered the Law, have all made their way east to the Kanto region, where they bowed their heads, bent their knees, and begged in various ways to win over the favor of the warriors. They were in turn assigned positions as superintendents or chief officials of various temples and mountain monasteries, where they proceed to follow the same evil doctrines that earlier brought about the downfall of the Imperial forces, using them to pray for the peace and safety of the nation. The Shogun and his family, along with the samurai who are in their service, very likely believe that as a result of such prayers, the nation will actually become peaceful and secure. But so long as they employ the services of priests who invite grave disaster by ignoring the Lotus Sutra, the nation will in fact face destruction.

How sorrowful if the nation were destroyed, and how lamentable if the life of the people were lost! So I determined to take risk of my life in order to make the truth manifest. If the ruler desires the peace of the nation, he should question the manner in which things are proceeding and try to discern the truth. But instead, all he does is listen to the slanders of the Law and persecute me in different ways.

In past ages, when there were those who slandered the Law, Bonten, Taishaku, the gods of the sun and moon, the Four Heavenly Kings, and the deities of the earth, all of whom have sworn to defend the Lotus Sutra, would look on with disapproval. But because there was no one to proclaim the truth aloud, they would be forgiving, as one would be with an only child who misbehaves, at times pretending not to notice such slander, at times administering a mild reproof. Now I have presented the matter of the truth clear, however, I am only surprised that the ruler continues to listen to the slanders of the Law. Moreover he even goes so far as to persecute me, the rare individual, who attempts to enlighten him and save him from error. Not for just one or two days, one or two months, or even one or two years, but for a number of years on end now, I have met with greater suffering than the sticks and staves that Bodhisattva Sadaparibhuta faced, and have encountered more fearful opposition than the murderous attacks inflicted on the monk Bodhiguga.

Meanwhile the two kings Brahma and Sakra, the Sun, Moon, Four Heavenly Deities, Stars, and Earth Deities gradually became angry and admonished them repeatedly, yet the ruler and revilers committed further persecution. Thus the Heavenly Deities made the arrangements and gave an order to the sage of the neighboring country in order to warn them, and let the great demon into the country in order to blind the people's minds and cause them to rebel within the realm. In accordance with the principle that, if the sign is great, whether auspicious or inauspicious there will be many calamities, there were great comets as never appeared and great earthquakes that have not taken place during the 2500 years after the Buddha's Parinirvana. There were many sages in China and Japan who were superior in wisdom and extraordinary in their talents, yet there has never been one who was as much a spokesman of the Lotus Sutra and had as many enemies in the land as Nichiren. Above everything else one should know that Nichiren is the first man in the entire world.

It has been over 700 years since the teaching of the Buddha came to Japan. Now there is the Tripitaka of 5000 to 7000 volumes. As for schools, there are eight or ten schools. The number of wise people is like that of rice plants and hemp plants, and Buddhism spreads like bamboo and reeds. Yet as for the Buddha there is none that is more widely spread than Amida Buddha, and as for titles of many Buddhas to be recited, none is more widely recited than the title of Amida. As for those who spread the title, Eshin produced the Ojo-yoshu and one-third of Japan became Pure Land people prophets of Amida, Yokwan produced the "Ten Causes of Ojo-ko" and two thirds of Japan became Pure Land people, Honen wrote the Senchaku and all in the country became Pure Land people. Therefore those who recite the title of Amida today are not the disciples of one person. This thing called Pure Land is the title of Kuan-wu-liang-shou-ching, Wu-liang-i-ching, and the O-mi-t'o-ching.

Is it not the case that the widespread knowledge of the title of the Provisional Mahayana constitutes the beginning of the knowledge of the title of the Real Mahayana Scriptures? Those who have good judgment should infer from this that if the Provisional Scripture is widespread, then the Real Scriptures should be widespread. If the title of the Provisional Scripture is widespread, the title of the Real Scripture is also to be widespread. In over 700 years from the Emperor Kimmei to the present Emperor Go-uda one has not heard nor seen a wise man who has recommended to others that they should recite "Believe in the Lotus Sutra of the Miraculous Law" which he himself recited. If the sun comes out, the stars disappear. If a wise king comes, a stupid king is destroyed. If the Real Scripture is widespread, the Provisional Scripture stops. If a wise man recites "Believe in the Lotus Sutra of the Miraculous Law" then the ignorant person will follow just like the shadow and the body or the echo and the voice. Nichiren is undoubtedly the first prophet of the Lotus Sutra in Japan. Infer from this that neither in China nor in India, nor anywhere in the entire world, is there one of the same stature.

Question (29): What caused the great earthquake of Shoki and the great comet of Bummei?

Answer (29): T'ien-t'ai says, "A wise man knows the cause of events. The snake naturally recognizes snakes."

Question (30): What does this mean?

Answer (30): Concerning the appearance from the great earth of Bodhisattva Visistacaritra, Bodhisattva Maitreya, Bodhisattva Manjusri, Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, Bodhisattva Bhaisajyaraja, who have terminated the ignorance of the forty-first state, they are called ignorant since they have not terminated the fundamental ignorance and did not know that Bodhisattva Visistacaritra was called first in order to spread the "Believe in the Lotus Sutra of the Miraculous Law" which is the essence of the Chapter in the Lotus Sutra on the "Revelation of the Tathagata" in the Age of the Last Law.

Question (31): Are there people in Japan, China, and India who know this matter?

Answer (31): Even those great Bodhisattvas who have terminated the two delusions of sight and thought and have exhausted the ignorance of the forty-one stages do not know about this matter. How can one say that those who have not terminated even one bit of illusion should know this matter?

Question (32): If there were no wise men how could one specifically deal with this? To illustrate this with an analogy, if a man who does not know the cause of a disease treats a sick man, the sick man will necessarily die. If those who do not know the origin of these calamities perform the prayer, there is no doubt that the country will be destroyed. How deplorable! How deplorable!

Answer (32): The snake knows the time of the great rain within seven days, the crow knows the auspicious and inauspicious seasons during the year. This is because the snake is a follower of the great dragon and the crow has developed this habit over a long period of time. Nichiren is an ordinary man and unable to know these matters. But I can teach you this in a broad outline. During the time of King P'ing of the Chou Dynasty (770-719 B.C.) one who was bald and naked appeared and a man called Hsin-yu interpreted its meaning through divination and said the age will come to an end within 100 years. During the time of King Yu (781-771 B.C.) of the same Dynasty there was an erupting of the mountains and rivers and the great earth shook. A man called Pai-yang said in interpreting this event, "The great king will see the disaster within twelve years." As for the great earthquake and great comet of the present time they are calamities which the Heaven sent out in anger because the ruler of the Country hated Nichiren and sided with the Zen School, Pure Land people, and Shingon Masters which preach the teaching of the destruction of the Country.

Question (33): With what shall we believe this?

Answer (33): In the Suvarnaprabhasa Sutra it is said, "Because one loved the evil man and punished the good man, constellations, wind, and rain do not follow the proper time." If it were like this scripture text, then there is no doubt that there are evil people in this Country and the Ruler and Ministers follow them, and there is also no doubt that there is a wise man in this Country, but the ruler hates him and persecutes him. The same scripture also says, "The populations of thirty-three heavens all give rise to a heart of anger and strange stars fall, two suns come out at the same time, vengeful bandits from other countries come and people of the nation are subjected to loss and disturbances." Already in the Country there are heavenly disorder and earthly calamity. Japan is attacked by other countries. There is no doubt that the thirty-three gods are angry. The Jen-wang-ching says, "Evil monks will seek fame and profit, and themselves preach the causes and conditions which destroy the teachings of the Buddha and the causes and conditions which destroy the country in front of the King, Crown Prince and Princes. That ruler, failing to distinguish, will listen to and believe these words." Again the scripture says, "The sun and moon will deviate from their regular course, the time and season will rebel, the red sun will appear, the black sun will appear, two, three, four, five suns will appear, or the sun will be eclipsed, and there will be no light; or a single sun ring, two rings, four or five sun rings will appear."

The meaning of the text is as follows. If evil monks fill the country, deceiving the ruler, crown prince, and princes and teaching the causes and conditions that destroy the teachings of Buddha and the country, then the ruler and others of this country will think, being deceived, that this teaching is the cause and condition of upholding the teachings of the Buddha and the cause and condition of upholding the Country. And if they practice these words, then there will be disorder with the sun and the moon; the great wind, the great rain, and the great fire will appear; and then a great rebellion by relatives, called internal uprisings, will occur, destroying and losing all those whom they should side with. After this the ruler will be attacked by foreign countries and will either kill himself, be captured, or become a man who surrenders before the enemy. All this, simply because the evil monks destroy the truth of Buddhism and destroy the nation. In the Shou-hu-ching it says, "As for all the teachings of Sakyamuni Tathagata, all the devas, heretics, evil people or spirits who possess the five supernatural powers cannot destroy them even partially. But the evil monks, who are monks in name and appearance only, will ruin them completely. Even if one were to burn Mt. Sumeru for a long time using grass and trees of the three thousand worlds as fuel, it would not decrease one bit. But the fires at the end of the world period, which began burning from the inside of Mt. Sumeru, will burn and will destroy in one instant Mt. Sumeru and not even leave ashes." The Lien-hua-mien-ching says, "The Buddha tells Ananda, for example, when a lion dies, all of the sentient beings which live in the sky, on earth, in water, or on the land will not eat its body. But the lion's body will issue forth insects which will eat the lion's flesh. Ananda, others will not destroy my teaching. Evil monks will destroy the teaching which I collected through accumulating practice and working hard for three great numberless worlds.

As for the meaning of the scripture, the Buddha Kasyapa spoke to the King Krtya concerning the matter of the disappearance of the teaching of Sakyamuni Tathagata, and spoke about the kind of person who would destroy the teaching of Sakyamuni Tathagata. Those evil men like the great King Mihirakula who burnt down the building of Five Heavens, killing the monks and nuns of sixteen countries, or the Emperor Wu-tsung (842-845) of China who destroyed the temples and stupas at over 4600 places in nine provinces and returned 260,500 monks and nuns to lay life, will not lose the teachings of Sakyamuni Buddha. Those monks who wear the three robes, carry one bowl around their neck, and think of 80,000 Law Store Houses in their minds and recite twelve sections of the scriptures will lose the teaching. This is like the following: Mt. Sumeru is a mountain of gold; even if one fills up the four heavens and six realms of desire with grass and trees of three thousand great chiliocosm, and burn it for one year, two years, or a billion years, not even a small part would be lost, yet, when the world fire occurs there will be a small fire of the size of a pea that begins at the root of Sumeru, and will burn not only Mt. Sumeru but also the three thousand great chiliocosm.

If it were as it is written in the record of the Buddha, would it not be the monks who study the Buddhist Scriptures in the ten schools or eight schools that burn up Mt. Sumeru of the Buddha's teaching? The anger in the heart of the Hinayana monks of Kusha, Jojitsu, and Ritsu who envy the Mahayana is the flame. The Great Masters of Shingon, San-chieh of the Zen School, Shan-tao of the Pure Land School are the monks who are the worm which comes out of the flesh of the lion of the teaching. The Great Master Dengyo called the Japanese great learned monks of Sanron, Hosso, and Kegon the six worms in his writings. Nichiren names the founders of Shingon, the Zen School, and Pure Land School the three worms. Jikaku, Annen and Eshin of the Tendai School are the three worms in the body of the lion of the Lotus Sutra and the Great Master Dengyo. If one persecutes Nichiren, who corrects the source of these great revilers of the teaching, the Heavenly Deity will take away the light, the Earth God will become angry, and great calamities will occur. So, one should keep this in mind. Because I speak of the most important matter of the world; the greatest signs are taking place here. How sad, how pitiful is that all the people of Japan should fall into the hell! But, how joyous, how blessed, with this unworthy body, I have planted the seeds of Buddhahood into the heart of the people in the present time. Wait and see. If the Great Mongol Country attacks Japan with several tens of thousands of boats of soldiers, everyone from the one ruler at the top to the 10000 people at the bottom will throw away all Buddhist Temples and Shinto Shrines and everyone will unite their voices in reciting "Believe in the Lotus Sutra of the Miraculous Law" and holding their palms together will shout, "please help us, Prophet Nichiren!"

To give parallel examples, it is just like the King Mihirakula of India who held his palms together towards the King Baladitya, or Moritoki Munimori of Japan who revered Kajiwara Kagetoki. The saying that those of great arrogance surrender to their enemies refers to this. The great arrogant destructive monks, who first took sticks and beat Bodhisattva Sadaparibhuta, later folded their palms and repented their fault. Devadatta drew blood from the body of the Buddha, but at the time of his death he recited "I Believe." If he had said "Buddha" after that he would not have fallen into hell, but because his evil karma was deep, he said only "I Believe" and did not say "Buddha." Even if the high monks of present day Japan try to recite "I believe in Nichiren," they would only be able to say "I Believe." How pitiful! How pitiful!

In non-Buddhist (i.e., Confucian) Scriptures it is said, those who know the events before they take place are called sages. In the Buddhist Scriptures it is said those who know the three ages are called sages. I have fame for three prophecies. First, on the 16th day of the 7th month of the 1st year of Bun'ei (1260), I presented the Rissho Ankoku Ron to Saimyoji (Hojo Tokiyori) and told the monk of Yadoya, "You should advocate that we get rid of the Zen School and the Pure Land School. If you do not accept this, for this one reason, we will be attacked by a foreign country." Second, on the 20th day of the 9th month of the 8th year of Bun'ei (1272), at the time of the Monkey (4:00-6:00 P.M.), I said to Tairano Yoritsuna Saemon, "Nichiren is the chief pillar of Japan. If you take my life, then you let the pillar of Japan fall. Soon, in the calamity of the 'internal rebellion,' many on the same side, i.e., Japan, will kill each other, and in the calamity of a foreign invasion, not only will many die but many will be captured alive. If one does not burn the temples of all the Pure Land and Zen monks at Kenchoji Temple, Jufukuji Temple, Gokurakuji Temple, Daibutsuji Temple, and Chorakuji Temple, and cut their heads off at the beach at Yuhi, the country of Japan will inevitably be destroyed."

Third, last year (1274) on the 8th day of the 4th month, I spoke to Saemon saying, "Since one is born in the ruler's land, one's body is subject to him. But one's heart is not subject to him. There is no doubt the Pure Land is the hell, Zen is the work of the devil, and Shingon School especially is the great calamity of this land. One should not let the Shingon Masters perform the prayer for overcoming the Great Mongols. If the Shingon Masters pray this great matter, this country will be destroyed even more quickly." When I said this, Yoritsuna asked, "When will this come?" Nichiren said, "In the scripture the time is not shown, but the mood of heaven is angry enough for it to be soon. I do not think we will pass this year before it happens."

As for these three important prophecies, it is not that Nichiren said it. Only and simply, the spirit of the Buddha entered into my body and spoke them. Even though it is not of mine, the joy overflows out of my body. This is the important teaching of the Lotus Sutra called "one faith in three thousand thoughts." The scripture says, "All existence has such a form . . ." What does this mean? Because the "appearance of suchness," which is at the beginning of the list of Ten Suchnesses, is the most important matter, the Buddha appeared in the world. The sayings, "The wise men know the cause of events" and "The snake naturally recognizes a snake," refers to this. Many streams gather into a great ocean. Dust accumulates together into Mt. Sumeru. The beginning of Nichiren's believing in the Lotus Sutra is like one drop of one atom in the country of Japan. If two people, three people, ten people, and millions and billions of people recite the Lotus Sutra, then it would become Mt. Sumeru of Miraculous Enlightenment or a great ocean of Nirvana. One should not look for any other way for becoming a Buddha.

Question (34): At the time when you were persecuted by the Government, on the 12th day of the 9th month of the 8th year of Bun'ei (1271), how did you know that if they harm you there would be wars both inside and outside of the country?

Answer (34): The Ta-chi-ching says, "If again all the Ksatriyas and Kings make a false teaching and disrupt the disciples of the World Honored One, slandering, cutting down with sticks and swords, taking away necessary articles such as robes and bowls, if they make it difficult to give alms, then we beings in heaven will let enemies from outside spontaneously and suddenly rise up, and we will also cause uprising of soldiers, famine, epidemics, winds and rains out of season, quarreling, accusing words, and slandering in the King's own realm or national territory. Furthermore, we will let this King lose his own country before long."

Now, although there are many sentences in scriptures, I found this scripture passage to be appropriate to myself and to be particularly valuable at the critical time, so I especially chose it. "We" in the scripture passage refers to all the deities and nagas of the three realms such as the Brahma King, Sakra, and the Mara-deva of the Sixth Heaven, and the Sun, the Moon, and the four Heavenly Deities. These heavenly lords came in front of the Buddha and made a vow saying that "after the Parinirvana of the Buddha, during the periods of the Age of the First Law, the Age of the Middle Law, and the Age of the Last Law, monks of the wicked law report to the ruler of those who practice the true teaching, and if, because this is what is said by those who are close to the ruler, those whom the ruler himself reveres, he tries without reason and without distinguishing between right and wrong to shame that wise man of wisdom, then suddenly there will be a great military rebellion in that country and, later, the country will be attacked by another country. The ruler will die and that country will be destroyed." I, Nichiren, am delighted that my prophecies have fulfilled here. Yet it pains me deeply. I have not committed any fault in this life. I have only tried to save this nation from disaster, hoping to repay the gratitude of the nation of my birth. The fact that my warning was not heeded was a great sorrow to me. Moreover, I was summoned before the authorities, and the scroll of the fifth volume of the Lotus Sutra was snatched from the breast of my robe and I was beaten with it. In the end, I was arrested and paraded through the streets of the city. At that time, I called out, "You gods of the sun and moon up in the sky, here is Nichiren meeting with this great persecution. If you are not ready to take your lives to help me, does this mean, then, that I am not the true prophet of the Lotus Sutra? If so, I should correct my mistaken belief at one. If not so, on the other hand, I Nichiren is the true prophet of the Lotus Sutra, then you should send some sing of that fact to this nation right now! If you do not do so, you, the gods of the sun and moon and all the other deities, will be no more than great liars who have deceived Sakyamuni, Prabhutaratna, and all the other Buddhas of the ten realms. Devadatta was guilty of falsehood and deception and Kokalika was a great liar, but you deities are guilty of telling lies that are ten thousand billion times greater!" I had no sooner uttered these words than the nation was suddenly faced with internal revolt. Then the nation has fallen into grave disorder. Although I am an ordinary man not worth mentioning, yet in the mission of the scripture, I am the greatest man in Japan of the present age.

Question (35): As for the klesa of arrogance, there are lists such as those of seven arrogances, nine arrogances and eight arrogances. Your great arrogance is greater even by millions of times than the great arrogance that is elucidated in Buddhism. The Sastra Master Ta-kuan did not bow to Bodhisattva Maitreya and the srahamin of Great Pride used the Four Holy Ones as his seat. Mahadeva, while being an ordinary man, called himself arhat and Sastra Master Amala said that he was the greatest monk in five heavens. These all fell into the hell. They are the sinners of hell. How can you call yourself the greatest man of wisdom in the entire universe? Would you not fall into hell? How frightful! How frightful!

Answer (35): Do you really know the seven arrogances, nine arrogances and eight arrogances? The World Honored One of Great Enlightenment called himself the first of the three realms. All the heterodox followers said that he will be punished by the gods and that the great earth will split and he will fall into it. Yet the gods did not punish. Rather, they protected his left and right sides, and the earth did not split but became hard as a diamond. Over 300 people in the Seven Temples of Japan said, "Is the Dharma Master Saicho the reincarnation of Mahadeva or is he the rebirth of Tieh-fu." Yet, the Great Master Dengyo established Mt. Hiei and became the eye of all the sentient beings. In the end the seven great temples fell and became his disciples and the Country became his lay supporters. Thus to call what is really superior may appear to be ignorant, yet is in fact a great virtue. The Great Master Dengyo said, "The superiority of the Tendai Lotus Sutra School over the other schools depends upon its scripture. It is not the case of arbitrarily praising oneself and condemning others. In the Lotus Sutra, Chapter Seven it says, "Of all the mountains, Mt. Sumeru is first. This Lotus Sutra is also like this. Of all the scriptures it is superior." What this scripture passage means is the following: Avatamsaka, Prajna, Mahavairocana, and so on which were preached earlier, the Wu-liang-i-ching that is preached at the same time and 5000 or 7000 volumes of texts such as the Nirvana Sutra which was preached after the Lotus Sutra, the Tripitakas of India, Naga Palace, Four Heavenly Kings, Trayastrimsa, Sun, Moon, all of the scriptures in the worlds in all Ten Directions are like the Earth Mountain, the Black Mountain, the Small Iron Mountain, the Large Iron Mountain, and the Lotus Sutra which has been transmitted to Japan is like Mt. Sumeru.

The Lotus Sutra also says, "Those who are able to receive and keep this sutra among all the living beings are supreme." To consider the question in light of this passage of the scripture, the following may be said: compared with Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, Bodhisattva Mukticandra, Bodhisattva Nagarjuna, Bodhisattva Asvaghosa, Great Master Fa-tsang, National Master Chting-liang, Empress Tse-t'ien, Eminent Monk Shen-hsiang, National Master Ryoben, and Emperor Shomu, who hold the Avatamsaka Sutra; Bodhisattva Shen-i-shang, the Honorable Subhuti, Great Master Chi-tsang, Tripitaka Hsuan-tsang, Emperor T'ai-tsung, Emperor Kao-tsang, Kuan-lao, Dosho, Emperor Kotoku who uphold the Chieh-shen-ching and the Prajna Sutra and Mahasattva Vajrasattva, Bodhisattva Nagarjuna, Bodhisattva Vasabandbu, Emperor Yin-sheng, Tripitaka Subhakarasimha, Tripitaka Vajrabodhi, Tripitaka Amoghavajra, Emperor Hsuan-tsung, Emperor Tai-tsuag, Hui-kuo;, Great Master Kobo, and the Great Master Jikaku who uphold the Mahavairocana Sutra of the Shingon School and Bodhisattva Kasyapa, fifty-two groups of beings, Tripitaka Tan-wu-chan, Fa-yun of the Kuang-chai Temple, Ten Masters of the Three Schools of the South and the Seven Schools of the North who uphold the Nirvana Sutra, the ordinary man in the Evil Age of the Last Law, not upholding even one vinaya rule and being thought by others as if he were a hypocrite, who, as the scripture passage says, believes stubbornly that the Lotus Sutra is even better than the scriptures of the three periods , and that there is no other way than the Lotus Sutra for becoming the Buddha, is millions of times superior to those other great sages, even if he does not have a particle of understanding. This is what the scripture passage says. As for those people, some lead people into scriptures for the purpose of transferring them later into the Lotus Sutra. Some do not enter in the Lotus Sutra because of attachments to other scriptures. Some, not only stay with those other scriptures, but also because they are so deeply attached to those scriptures, say that the Lotus Sutra is inferior to this scripture. Thus the prophets of the Lotus Sutra today should keep this in mind. "Suppose, just as, amongst all brooks, streams, rivers, canals and all other waters, the sea is supreme, so it is also with this Lotus Sutra; among all the sutras preached by the Tathagatas it is the profoundest and greatest as amongst all the stars the princely Moon is supreme, so it is also with the Lotus Sutra. One should understand the situation according to these. The men of wisdom of present day Japan are like the stars, Nichiren is like the full moon.

Question (36): Are there people who spoke like this in ancient days?

Answer (36): In the treatise of the Great Master Dengyo it is said, "One should know the sutras that other schools base themselves upon are not the highest (or the first). Those who uphold those sutras are also not the first. The sutra which the Tendai Lotus School upholds is the first. Therefore, those who are capable of upholding the Lotus Sutra are first among all sentient beings. This is based on the teaching of the Buddha and not arbitrary self praise."

When one says that the insect which is attached to a kirin flies 10,000 miles in one day and the inferior beings who follow the cakravartin are able to circle under the Four Heavens in an instant, should this be criticized or questioned? As for the comment "How can it be arbitrary self praise" should be kept firmly in mind. If this is the case, those who uphold the Lotus Sutra as the sutra teaches are superior to the Brahma King and go beyond Sakra. If one is accompanied by asuras one would even bear Mt. Sumeru. If one sends a dragon for attack, he will drink up even the great ocean. The Great Master Dengyo says, "Those who praise will accumulate merit as high as Mt. Sumeru and those who revile will fall in the hell. " The Lotus Sutra says, "Those who, seeing those who recite, write and uphold this sutra, scorn and despise, hate and envy them, and bear them a tenacious grudge will enter into the hell at the end of their lifetime. If the golden words of the Buddha Sakyamuni are correct, the proof of Prabhutaratna Buddha is not wrong, and the manifestations of the tongues of various Buddhas of Ten Directions were fixed, should one doubt the fact that all sentient beings of the present country of Japan will fall into the hell? The Eighth Fascicle of the Lotus Sutra states, "If anyone in future ages receives and keeps, reads and recites this sutra, what they wish will not be in vain, in the present age they will obtain their blessed reward." It also says, "Anyone who takes offerings to and praises it will obtain visible rewards in the present world." In these two sentences there are eight characters saying, "also in the present age will attain its reward" and eight characters saying, "in the present age will attain visible reward." If these two sayings of sixteen characters were in vain, and if there is no great reward for Nichiren in this life, then the golden words of the Tathagata are the same as the empty words of Devadatta and the proof of Prabhutaratna is no different from the deluded words of Kugyari. Then, all the sentient beings would not fall into the hell, and the Buddhas of the three ages would not exist. Therefore, my disciples, live with what the Lotus Sutra teaches completely in your body and life, and test the truth or falsehood of the Lotus Sutra. "Believe in the Lotus Sutra of the Miraculous Law. Believe in the Lotus Sutra of the Miraculous Law."

Question (37): Now, in the text of the Lotus Sutra it is said, "I do not love my body and life but only the highest path." The Nirvana Sutra says, "This is like the emissary of the king who is able to speak well and discuss well, who is skillful in means, and who is able to transmit the order of the king to another country. He would lose his body and life but would never hide the words and teachings taught by the king. The wise man is like this. Among ordinary people he would not care for his body and life, but would always preach the Mahayana Scriptures, the miraculous treasury of the Tathagata and thesis that all sentient beings have the Buddha Nature. " What sort of things are these that one would go as far as to throw away one's body and life? I would like to hear in detail.

Answer (37): When I was young I thought that the words, "I do not love my body," referred to such things as the dangerous trips to China by Dengyo, Kobo, Jikaku, and Chisho under the Imperial order, I thought that the six years which Hsuan-tsang risked his life travelling from China to India illustrates these words, and that it must also refer to the boy in the Himalayas who offered his life for the second half of the Gatha , or, to the Bodhisattva Medicine King who burned his arms for 72000 years. But if one were to follow the text of the sutra, then it does not refer to these. The statement, "I do not love my body . . ." in the sutra follows the list of three kinds of enemies who are said to revile, accuse, and beat him with swords and sticks. Again, the expression, "rather lose my body and life" in the Nirvana Sutra is immediately followed by the passage which says, "There is a hypocrite who takes on the appearance of an arhat, stays in an empty discarded place, and reviles the vaipulya scriptures. Ordinary people seeing him all think that he is a true arhat or a great Bodhisattva. " The Lotus Sutra passage says that the third enemy, "Will wear patched garments in seclusion, pretending that they walk the true path and scorning other people, will greedily attach to gain, and will preach the law to laymen and be revered by the world, as arhats of the Six Transcendent Powers." The Parinirvana Sutra refers to, "One hypocrite who looks like an arhat but practices evil deeds." According to these scriptural passages what is called, "the strong enemy of the true law" is neither an evil king, evil minister, teacher of heretical views, mare king, or monk who has broken vinaya rules but rather a great reviler of the teaching who will be found among those great monks who uphold vinaya rules and possess wisdom. Therefore the Great Master Miao-lo wrote and said, "The third enemy is the most severe. This is because the later ones in the list are harder to detect." The Fifth Fascicle of the Lotus Sutra says, "The Lotus Sutra is the mysterious treasury of the Buddha-Tathagatas, which is supreme above all sutras. " In this quotation there are four characters which say, "The highest." Therefore, if it is as the passage says, should it not be that those who say that the Lotus Sutra is at the peak of the Tripitaka are the prophets of the Lotus sutra? Yet there are many who are respected in the nation and who say that there are many sutras which are superior to the Lotus Sutra. When confronted by the prophets of the Lotus Sutra they have the support of the king and ministers. As for the practioner of the Lotus Sutra, because he does not have influence, all in the country will look down upon him. When this happens, if he affirms strongly, as Bodhisattva Sadaparibhuta or as Sastra Master Bhadraruci, then the threat will reach his life.

This appears to be the most important matter. Now I, Nichiren, am confronting just such a situation. Though I am an ordinary and insignificant man, I proclaim that the Great Master Kobo and the Great Master Jikaku, Tripitaka Subhakarasimha, Tripitaka Vajrabodhi, and Tripitaka Amoghavajra are strong enemies of the Lotus Sutra, and if the text of the sutra is correct, there will be no doubt about their going to the hell. Compared to this, to enter a big fire naked would be easy; to take Mt. Sumeru in one's hand and throw it would be easy; to carry a large stone on one's back and cross the great ocean would be easy. To establish the true Law in Japan is the very important matter. Unless the teacher Sakyamuni of the Pure Land of Vulture Peak, Prabhutaratna Buddha of the Precious World, the Buddhas of the Ten Directions, Bodhisattvas emerging out of the ground of the 10000 worlds, the Four Heavenly Kings, Brahma, Sakra, the Sun, and the Moon helped invisibly and in manifested forms, could there be peace even for one moment, or one day?

[The text is based on "Nichiren's Senji-sho" (translated and copyrighted by Kenneth Dollarhide in 1982)]