The Fourteen Slanders
(Matsuno-dono go-henji)
Oko / Urabon-e Sermon for July 2005
Reverend Shogu Kimura
Introduction
Bodhisattva Fukyo of old said that all people have the Buddha nature and that if they embrace the Lotus Sutra, they will never fail to attain Buddhahood. He further stated that to slight a person is to slight the Buddha himself. Thus, his practice was to revere all people. He revered even those who did not embrace the Lotus Sutra because they too had the Buddha nature and might someday believe in the sutra. Therefore, it is all the more natural to revere those priests and lay people who do embrace the sutra. The fourth volume of the Lotus Sutra states, “The offense of uttering even a single derogatory word against the priests or laity who believe in and preach the Lotus Sutra is even graver than that of abusing Shakyamuni Buddha to his face for an entire kalpa.” (Shimpen gosho, p. 1045; MWND-3 p. 205)
Today, on this occasion of the July Oko sermon – in our expression of gratitude to our master Nichiren Daishonin – and the Urabon-e ceremony, I have sincerely recited the sutras and chanted Daimoku together with you. Moreover, I have sincerely prayed for you to eliminate your sins and negative karma from this and infinite past lifetimes; for you to redouble your faith; for you to enjoy a safe and long life; for peace and harmony to reign in your home; for all matters to proceed forth smoothly; and for the successful achievement of all your great objectives in this and future existences. I am certain that the Daishonin would be truly pleased to see so many of you in attendance today. I have also offered my heartfelt prayers for the peaceful repose of all your deceased relatives and the individuals for whom you have requested a memorial. I am truly pleased to see that you have put forth great efforts to travel long distances to attend this ceremony on a weekend day such as this.
In past years, we usually held the oko sermon and the urabon-e ceremony on different days, and I planned to do so this year as well. However, because of my business travel schedule, I have no choice but to hold both ceremonies on the same day. At the urabon-e ceremony, I usually talk about the toba memorial offerings, but today, in an effort to save time, I will focus my sermon on the gosho passage for this month.
The gosho passage for this month is taken from “The Fourteen Slanders” (Matsuno-dono go-henji). This gosho was written on the 9th day of the 12th month of the 2nd year of Kenji (1276), when Nichiren Daishonin was 55 years of age. He addressed it to Matsuno rokuro-zaemon nyudo, the leader of Matsuno Village, in Ihara, located in the province of Suruga. The letter was written in response to Matsuno’s questions, and it contained various instructions.
Matsuno asked:
“(H)ow great is the difference between the blessings received when [you, the Daishonin] chant the daimoku and the blessings received when we [the disciples and followers] chant it?" (Gosho, p. 1046; MWND-3, p. 207)
The Daishonin responded in the following way:
To reply, one is in no way superior to the other. … However, there is a difference if one chants the Daimoku while acting against the intent of this sutra [Lotus Sutra].
“Acting against the intent of this sutra [Lotus Sutra]” basically meant that we must not slander the votaries of the Lotus Sutra. It also signified that, regardless of whether or not it is the truth, even a single arrogant word spoken in slandering a person is tantamount to acting against the intent of the Lotus Sutra.
As concrete examples of such action, the Daishonin expounded the fourteen slanders in the section of this gosho that immediately precedes the part that we are focusing on today. An explanation of the fourteen slanders would take a great amount of time, and that would take up my entire sermon, so I will present you with an explanation of these slanders on another occasion.
Towards the middle of this gosho, the story of Sessen-doji is told in detail, to explain how he willingly gave up his life in search of the Law. This story is used to present the conclusion that those who are priests must never begrudge their lives for the sake of the Law and must propagate the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, by manifesting in their lives the Buddha’s instructions to disregard physical matters and to revere the Law. Furthermore, it instructed the lay believers to chant Daimoku, to present offerings to the priests, and to propagate the True Law to the best of their ability.
Let us now focus on today’s passage:
Bodhisattva Fukyo of old said that all people have the Buddha nature and that if they embrace the Lotus Sutra, they will never fail to attain Buddhahood. He further stated that to slight a person is to slight the Buddha himself. Thus, his practice was to revere all people. He revered even those who did not embrace the Lotus Sutra because they too had the Buddha nature and might someday believe in the sutra. Therefore, it is all the more natural to revere those priests and lay people who do embrace the sutra.
This meant that all people who come into this world inherently possess the Buddha nature. By upholding faith and chanting Daimoku, they can manifest this Buddha nature in their lives. Thus, whether they are priests or lay believers, if these people belittle each other, they would, in fact, be belittling the Buddha. We can apply this to our lives today.
You are all disciples of the Daishonin, and you are members of the Hokkeko. The positive or negative human relationships within the Hokkeko frequently have a direct influence on your Buddhist activities. There have been more than a few cases in which people made a strong determination to put forth their efforts in their Buddhist activities but stopped their practice before long, because of various problems that they encountered in their dealings with fellow believers.
When we take a long-range perspective on the Hokkeko, we find that there are two types of believers. One group is characterized by people who absolutely and constantly carry through their activities based on their practice for themselves and for others. Another group is populated by individuals who are currently practicing, but who had not been practicing in the past. The turnover rate in this group is great.
Fundamentally, we must constantly strengthen our faith, practice, and study, as individuals, and we must advance forth for the sake of achieving kosenrufu. However, there are times when some of us lose sight of our objectives and cause others to discontinue their faith and practice and push them into slackening in their practice or renouncing their faith – thus achieving the totally opposite of the desired effect.
Why do situations such as these occur? Although every Hokkeko member may seem to be upholding his faith and practice, he and all the others, in fact, are still mere humans who are, as yet, in Buddhist training.
We are all humans who actively possess the earthly desires characterized by the three poisons of greed, anger, and stupidity. When an incident occurs in the Hokkeko, there are times when people create an inflexibly deceptive impression, based on their individual perspectives and distorted views. In last month’s gosho on the “Conversation between a Sage and an Unenlightened Man” (Shogu mondo sho), I referred to an excerpt that read as follows:
But the many are not necessarily worthy of honor, nor the few, deserving of contempt. People of wisdom and goodness are rare indeed, while fools and evil persons are numerous.
It is only human nature for people to immediately and unhesitatingly believe the words of those they like or those who appeal to them. By contrast, they will turn a deaf ear on the words spoken by those they dislike, regardless of how true and superior they may be. Moreover, even if one person speaks the truth, if there is a majority of people who tries to convince others that a mistaken perspective is actually the true and correct, the power of the majority can escalate and eventually present the mistaken perspective as the hard and fast truth. Unbeknownst to people, this, then, would promote belittling others and ultimately work against the true intent of the Daishonin. You may have experienced occasions when, in spite of the fact that you uphold faith and chant Daimoku, you have misunderstood people and incidents, which in turn, caused them to bear grudges and promote emotional and heated exchanges.
Next, the Daishonin wrote:
The fourth volume of the Lotus Sutra states, “The offense of uttering even a single derogatory word against the priests or laity who believe in and preach the Lotus Sutra is even graver than that of abusing Shakyamuni Buddha to his face for an entire kalpa.”
Since the Daishonin’s Buddhism is the singularly supreme True Law, needless to say, the benefits that we can receive from practicing sincerely are truly immeasurable. By contrast, the effects of the tremendous sin of slandering the Daishonin’s True Buddhism or the fellow believers of this True Law are also immeasurable.
Within our lives is the life condition of anger. It is a condition that can be easily manifested. Once anger is manifested in our lives, it functions to cloud our judgment and it causes us to lose control in our words and actions. A person’s anger is a manifestation of his attempt to get another individual to follow his will. Ironically, however, he would ultimately cause that other individual to move farther away from the compliance that he desires. To make matters worse, the anger directed at the individual would cause him to resist and harbor animosity against the angry man. Accordingly, if we want people to listen to us and comply with our wishes, we must never deal with them in anger; we must control our emotions with patience and perseverance. It is essential to convince people and have them understand us through kind and thorough dialogue. Therefore, when you find that anger is manifesting in your life, you must first chant Daimoku and thereafter deal with people.
Then, what is essential in cultivating these numerous Hokkeko members into tremendous individuals of talent who perform shakubuku? In society as a whole, people rely on reports, communication, and consulting one another. Indeed, if these actions were not thoroughly performed, the Hokkeko would not be well-organized. These actions are a matter of course in society. We are the disciples of the Daishonin, and we base our lives on our faith and practice. As described in the gosho, the element that is most important for us is “to respect and cherish the Buddha nature in every Hokkeko believer.” This, then, will lead to absolute respect and trust towards others.
We, as individuals, all possess the truly precious life condition of the Buddha. Moreover, since we are the precious entities who will propagate the Mystic Law (Myoho), the Daishonin instructed us “to honor and revere one another as fellow Buddhas.” We must profoundly understand these instructions from the Daishonin, and we must perform our gongyo, Daimoku, and shakubuku, based on the three categories of action, consisting of physical, verbal, and mental action. Otherwise, it would be totally meaningless for us to have been born into this world as humans and for us to have encountered True Buddhism.
If we can sincerely revere our fellow believers as Buddhas, then we would be able to cultivate kindness and thoughtfulness towards them. The words that we utter and our actions would manifest respect towards them. As a result, each of us would be able to grow as true disciples of the Daishonin and we would be able to achieve enlightenment in our present form (sokushin jobutsu). The following passages appear immediately after the gosho excerpts that we are focusing on today:
You must revere one another as Buddhas.
and
Always remember that believers in the Lotus Sutra should absolutely be the last to abuse each other.
Imagine what a wonderful Hokkeko organization we could establish, if we are able to revere one another as Buddhas! Furthermore, if we never abuse each other as believers, no one would ever harbor any grudges.
You may think that you would absolutely never engage in such abuse, but we all possess the ten worlds in our lives. Based on some karmic association, we could inevitably find ourselves failing to revere another individual.
We must visit and worship at the temple and pray to the Daishonin. We must chant Daimoku and purify our lives. Based on the benefits of such action, we must pray for true happiness that encompasses the present and all future existences and advance forth in our shakubuku efforts. There may be times when anger manifests itself. When we realize this, we must immediately sit before the Gohonzon and we must visit the temple. We should not repeat negative behavior, but it is only human to repeat such behavior, and it is also human to be able to regret and repent it.
We must sense and understand our good fortune to be able to come into this world as such humans. Let us advance forth together in great determination towards our objective of the 750th anniversary of the revelation of the truth through the writing of the Rissho ankoku ron.
I would like to conclude my sermon for today by sincerely praying for your continued good health and tremendous achievements.
I sincerely appreciate the efforts that you have made to attend this ceremony today.