Chapter 1:

What Is Nichiren Buddhism?

Nichiren Buddhism is a religious organization professing faith in the teachings of Nichiren, the temple's founder who propagated the doctrines of the Lotus Sutra in the Kamakura period. Nichiren himself is widely known as "that heroic, preeminent monk" who stood un-flinching in the Pace of any hardship in order to remain true to his personal faith. The Nichiren temple, too, is renowned for its courageous religious activities such as its "fan-drum marches" which have become a distinguishing mark of the temple's method of introducing faith in the Lotus Sutra. In the Muromachi period, the monk Nisshin was punished for his persistent preaching by having a red-hot iron pot placed upside down over his head. For this he became known as "Nisshin, the pot-crowned." Later, in the Edo period, the supporters of the Accept not-Give not (Fuju-Fuse) group within Nichiren Buddhism were exiled to various islands and remote areas. Such episodes in the history of Nichiren Buddhism have given it an image of aggressiveness that is hard to erase. However, behind the "aggressiveness" lies underpinning of "gentleness," for in the hearts of those who hate wrong resides a love of truth that leads them to champion the weak. Accordingly it is our fervent wish to emulate the human appeal of Nichiren who could bestow his strength and gentleness to anyone he met. Nichiren's great personal appeal did not simply arise out of his humanity. It was, and is, due to the consistency of his lifelong role as "the devotee of the Lotus Sutra." He passed his life centered around the Lotus and created a world in which "Nichiren, the support of the Lotus" and the "Lotus embodied by Nichiren" became one. This world, however, is not something that can be achieved only by Nichiren. It is the same world in which we all question our own being, seek our own way and live by our personal vows and pledges. This book Introduction to Nichiren Buddhism has been compiled so that Nichiren's teachings can be made available to everyone and so that the experiences of those who have lived in accordance with these teachings can serve as guide-posts to us all.

The Doctrines of Nichiren Buddhism

Currently, the Nichiren Temple comprises over 5,000 temples and chapels among which are included the Kuon-ji on Mt. Minobu where Nichiren spent the last eight years of his life, thirteen temples on sites important in Nichiren's life and other major temples in various lineages totaling fortyone. In other words, almost all of the locations in which miraculous or significant events occurred during the Founder's lifetime remain today as Nichiren Buddhist temples. Moreover, it goes without saying that the more than 8,000 priests who maintain these temples embrace a much larger number of people as patrons and believers in their congregations. In a word, the Nichiren Temple takes pride in its standing as the orthodox school of Buddhism with this kind of tradition in its background. Consequently "Article 1" of the Charter of the Nichiren Sect states: "The Nichiren Sect is the orthodox Buddhist organization which disseminates the true Buddhism established and expounded by Nichiren Shonin, reincarnation of the Bodhisattva Jogyo whom the Eternal and True Teacher, Sakyamuni Buddha, entrusted to spread his long cherished Lotus Sutra in the Latter Age of the Declining Law." Nichiren appeared in the Kamakura period which was a major historical turning point in spite of the famines and epidemics that so robbed people of vitality that their hopes could not be realized. Into this difficult time carne Nichiren who, along with the rest of the populace, longed for a society living in hope and who pursued his study of Buddhism with single minded persistency. Three thousand years ago Sakyamuni expounded the Lotus Sutra in which he indicated the way to bring people living in an evil era to salvation. After the Buddha's extinction, Buddhism spread from India to China and from China to Japan. During this period all kinds of sutras were revered, along with the Lotus Sutra which was transmitted by many people. But, although widely known, the salvation inherent in the Lotus Sutra, the essence of the Buddha's teachings, remained insufficiently revealed. Among the Lotus' adherents only Zhi-yi (T'ien-t'ai Da-shi, 538-597) in China and Saicl5 (Dengy Daishi, 787-822) in Japan had tried to transmit the truth of the Lotus Sutra after Sakyamuni's extinction. Nichiren's accomplishment in this regard was to embody the prophecies of the Lotus Sutra as its devotee and to realize the prayers of his forerunners by revealing the true teaching of the Lotus Sutra for which they had longed.

But, this is not to say that he intentionally set out to begin a new school of Buddhism. Rather, as Nichiren stated in his letter "My- mitsu Shnin goshsoku," "I am neither the founder of any school nor am I the last in the lineage." In other words, Nichiren simply tried to spread the teaching of the Lotus Sutra in order to make explicit the Buddha's essential intention. He did not attempt to spread a new religious order, nor was he, moreover, the last descendent of an established order. In this respect, it is a mistake to speak of the "Nichiren Temple" or of "Nichiren Buddhism." But for us, who take pride in this organization, it is only natural to call it such and as the children of Sakyamuni Buddha, we are obliged to adhere to his essential doctrine. To speak of the Nichiren Temple, then, is simply to express pride in its being the religious school which follows the teachings of Nichiren who in turn revealed the essence of Sakyamuni's doctrines. "Nichiren Buddhism" is by and large taken by the general public in Japan in a physical sense. To be sure, the numerous sacred areas of the Temple, beginning with the scenery of the holy ground of Mt. Minobu, move our hearts, but "Nichiren Buddhism" is really a manifestation of the fundamental spirit that produced the physical structures and locations associated with the Temple. Herein lies the path that allows us to live bravely within an unstable society, the teachings that provide courage in times of sorrow and the teaching where by our ancestors can receive the merit of our prayers.

From: Watakushi-tachi no Nichiren-shu by Dr. Hoyo Watanabe Chairman of the Department of Buddhism in Rissho University.
(To be continued)

Gassh __/\__ Y k, Namu Myh Renge Ky.

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