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The Demise of Nichiren
Daishonin Nichiren Daishonin passed away at the residence of Munenaka Ikegami in the Province of Musashi (presently Ota Ward in Tokyo) on the thirteenth of October in the fifth year of Koan (1282). Earlier, at the beginning of September in the same year, the Daishonin bequeathed the entire teachings of the Three Great Secret Laws that he had established to Nikko Shonin at Mt. Minobu, where he had lived during the previous nine years. This was set forth in the transfer document entitled “The Law that Nichiren Propagated throughout His Life” (Nichiren ichigo guho fuzoku-sho). On September 8th the Daishonin left Mount Minobu. He arrived at the Ikegami residence in Musashi Province on the eighteenth day of the same month. There, the Daishonin gave his last lecture on the Rissho ankoku-ron to his disciples and lay believers. Early in the morning on October 13th he wrote down a short testament titled “The Document Entrusting the Transfer of the Temple at Mount Minobu” (Minobusan fuzoku-sho) and clearly delineated the new position of Nikko Shonin as the leader of the denomination. Having completed his mission, the Daishonin peacefully passed away at the hour of the dragon, which corresponds to our present day 8:00 AM, on October 13, 1282, while his disciples and lay believers chanted Daimoku. The life of the Daishonin as a human being came to a close when he was sixty-one years old. Tradition says that at the time of his death, there was an earthquake and the cherry trees in the garden bloomed out of season. We can interpret this as the entire universe, including the earth and its vegetation, showing its unwillingness to part with the Daishonin, but at the same time, celebrating the appearance of the eternity of the life of Nichiren Daishonin, the True Buddha, whose life itself is the entire universe. In Buddhism, the death of the Buddha is called “nyumetsu” (entry into nirvana). There are cases when we use this term for the deaths of high-ranking priests, but nirvana here means reaching enlightenment. However, in the teaching of our denomination, we revere Nichiren Daishonin as the True Buddha of the Latter Day of the Law; therefore, “entry into nirvana” (nyumetsu) does not only refer to Nichiren Daishonin physically passing away. We must understand the significance of the demise of the Daishonin from the perspective of the doctrines preached in the Lotus Sutra. There is a familiar passage in the Jigage section of the Life Span of the Tathagata (Juryo; sixteenth) chapter of the Lotus Sutra that states, “because of the power of an expedient means, at times I appear to be extinct, at other times not….” (Lotus Sutra, p. 440). Here, it is revealed that the physical death of the Buddha is actually one of his expedient means, but in reality, the life of the Buddha is fundamentally eternal and immortal. The eternity of the Buddha’s life is the most important teaching in the entire Lotus Sutra. This was neither expounded in the pre-Lotus Sutra Teachings nor in the Theoretical Teaching of the Lotus Sutra (shakumon). This should be no surprise, since the Buddhas who appear in the pre-Lotus Sutra Teachings or in the Theoretical Teaching are referred to as Theoretical Buddhas or Provisional Buddhas. They are transient Buddhas who appeared through the power of the Buddha in accordance with the capacity of the people. Thus, these are Buddhas who made a temporary appearance. The True Buddha, however, is essentially eternal and thus, he teaches the everlasting truth. “Extinction but non-extinction” describes the life condition of the Buddha who is immortal throughout the Three Existences of past, present, and future. The death of Nichiren Daishonin on the thirteenth of October in the 5th year of Koan (1282) demonstrated the Buddha’s eternal life, which is revealed in the Life Span (Juryo; sixteen) chapter of the Lotus Sutra. The principles of “extinction but non-extinction,” “extinction and emergence,” and the doctrine of the Buddha’s eternity throughout the Three Existences of past, present, and future are explained in more detail in the parable of the skilled physician and his sick children. Suppose that there was a skilled physician who was intelligent and had a thorough knowledge of medicine. One day, he traveled far away, leaving his many children at home. While he was away, the children opened the father’s medicine box and mistakenly drank some poison. The poison soon took effect, and the children fell to the ground, writhing in pain. Just then, their father came home. He found some of his children had lost their minds, while others had not. The children were very pleased to see their father, even though they were in agony, and they begged their father to take away their pain. The father checked the poison that the children had taken and compounded a new medicine. Among the children, those who showed comparatively mild symptoms and had not lost their minds drank the medicine as instructed by their father. They were cured of their sickness. However, those who had lost their minds would not believe their father’s words and refused to take it. So, the father decided to use an expedient means and said to his children, “Listen, children. I have become old now and the time of my death is near. I will leave this good medicine here. You should take it, since this medicine can cure any kind of sicknesses.” He then left for another country and sent a messenger home. The messenger announced, “Your father is dead.” Hearing this, the children were filled with grief and anguish and thought to themselves, “Our compassionate father is dead. We are now orphaned and have no one to depend upon.” Finally, they came to their senses and realized that the medicine their father had left them surpassed all others in color, fragrance and flavor. Finally, on their own initiative, they took it, and were cured of all the effects of the poison. Hearing this, the father returned home and joyously reunited with his children. This is the parable of the skilled physician. In this story it is revealed that the Buddha will save all living beings throughout the Three Existences of life: past, present, and future. In the parable, the father, a skilled physician, being far away from home, means that the Buddha’s teachings for living beings existed in the past. The children drinking poison while their father is away, and after returning home, the father compounding a good medicine for the children who are in pain and then leaving home again means that the Buddha teaches in the present. The children being filled with grief upon hearing about their father’s death, taking the good medicine and being cured, and then the father returning home again indicates that the Buddha teaches in the future. Essentially the Buddha’s life is eternal throughout the Three Existences, so the Buddha exists together with all living beings from the very beginning. However, because of our selfish human nature, when the Buddha is incarnate right here in our midst, we tend not to listen to his teachings. And, if the Buddha made his appearance all the time, our appreciation for him would, in time, fade away. Since the Buddha understands such characteristics of living beings, he sometimes makes his appearance and on other occasions he hides himself. This is referred to as “non-existence and manifest existence” and “non-extinction and manifest extinction.” In other words, using the parable of the skilled physician, the Buddha shows the appearance of his birth and death so that the people never forget the spirit of yearning and thirsting for the Buddha. What I have just explained covers the surface meaning of the Life Span (Juryo; sixteenth) chapter of the Lotus Sutra. Shakyamuni Buddha, the Buddha described in the surface meaning of the Life Span (Juryo; sixteenth) chapter of the Lotus Sutra, is the Buddha of the Harvest who had attained enlightenment in the inconceivably remote past of kuon. This remote past is called Five Hundred [myriad] Dust-particle Kalpas (gohyaku-jindengo). Even though this Buddha has such an extreme longevity, he still has the limit of Five Hundred [myriad] Dust-particle Kalpas. For this reason, such a Buddha’s teaching is not the perfect teaching that reveals the truth. In comparison, Nichiren Daishonin, who made his advent in the Latter Day of the Law, established the True Buddhism of the Three Great Secret Laws through his behavior of not begrudging his life, as he faced the three powerful enemies and as he fulfilled the prophecies of the Lotus Sutra. At the Tatsunokuchi persecution, through the propagation of Myoho-Renge-Kyo of the True Cause from infinite past of kuon-ganjo, Nichiren Daishonin, who was a common mortal, discarded his provisional identity and revealed his true identity as the True Buddha (hosshaku kempon). He revealed his inner realization as the Dai-Gohonzon of the High Sanctuary of the Essential Teaching (honmon). The behavior of Nichiren Daishonin throughout his entire life was exactly the same as that of the True Buddha of the True Cause from the infinite past of kuon-ganjo. And the death of the Daishonin on the thirteenth of October in the 5th year of Koan (1282) revealed the life condition of the “extinction and emergence” of the True Buddha expounded in the Life Span (Juryo; sixteen) chapter of the Lotus Sutra. In Nichiren Shoshu, we believe that the passing of Nichiren Daishonin is one physical aspect of his life condition as the True Buddha, whose life is eternal throughout the Three Existences. We celebrate the Daishonin’s eternal form of the True Buddha by conducting the Oeshiki ceremony on the anniversary of the day he passed away. |