Oko Lecture in Praise of Nichiren Daishonin
Reverend Shogu Kimura
June, 2010
Positive Relationship and Reverse Relationship (jun’en, gyaku’en)
On July 26, 2009, on the occasion of the General Meeting of the Great Assembly of 75,000 Believers, we received two new objectives from our High Priest Nichinyo Shonin. The first objective is to increase the membership of Hokkeko believers by 50 percent by the year 2015, which marks the 770th anniversary of the birth of Second High Priest Nikko Shonin. The second is to achieve a membership of 800,000 Hokkeko believers by the year 2021, the 800th anniversary of the birth of Nichiren Daishonin.
Among those we shakubuku, there are some who straightforwardly listen to us and immediately embrace true Buddhism. There are others who oppose us and vehemently reject it. The people who straightforwardly embrace true Buddhism are those who possess a positive relationship (jun’en), and the people who reject it are those who have a reverse relationship (gyaku’en).
Many people in this world await the propagation of true Buddhism. Currently there are Nichiren Shoshu believers in approximately fifty countries around the world, and they are striving in their daily practice. This demonstrates that there are many people who uphold true Buddhism. Furthermore, around the globe, there are numerous individuals who are suffering from hunger, illnesses, warfare, and other conditions. The following passage from the Sutra of the Great Assembly (Daishik-kyō) explains the cause for these sufferings:
If you witness the decline of my Law but ignore it and fail to protect it, the innumerable positive causes will be entirely eliminated by such behavior, and the three calamities will occur in the land. The first will be high grain prices causing famine. The second will be warfare, and the third will be epidemics. (Taishō Tripitaka, Vol. 13, p. 173)
In the Risshō ankoku-ron (On Securing the Peace of the Land through the Propagation of True Buddhism), Nichiren Daishonin describes how to overcome this condition:
You must immediately renounce your erroneous belief and take faith in the supreme teaching of the one vehicle of the Lotus Sutra. Then, this entire threefold world will become the Buddha land. How could the Buddha land ever decline? All the lands in the ten directions will transform into treasure realms. How could a treasure realm ever fall to ruin? (Gosho, p. 250; The Gosho of Nichiren Daishonin vol.2, p. 42)
In other words, by protecting and propagating true Buddhism, we can actually eliminate hunger and warfare and bring about peace and tranquility in the land. The relationship between true Buddhism and the nation can be likened to a body and its shadow. Nichiren Daishonin states the following in his Gosho, “A Comparison of the Difficult and Simple in the Lotus Sutra and Other Sutras” (“Shokyō to hokekyō to nan’i no koto”):
Buddhism is like the body, and society is comparable to its shadow. When the body is crooked, so is its shadow. (Gosho, p. 1469)
Thus, when true Buddhism, which is likened here to a body, is propagated, society, which is comparable to the body’s shadow, will manifest happiness. All people desire happiness. However, they are unaware that they must uphold the true doctrines of Nichiren Shoshu to achieve true happiness. The process of teaching and propagating this is shakubuku. Let us do shakubuku and bring salvation to all people who await the widespread propagation of the true Law.
A karmic bond (en—a relationship, an opportunity) is necessary for people in society to learn about true Buddhism. All of you encountered Nichiren Shoshu because someone with whom you share a karmic bond taught you about it. That someone may have been a parent or a friend—or you may actually have been introduced by a book that you happened to pick up and read. Our individual motivations for embracing true Buddhism may have been different, but we all became believers of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism based on a significant karmic bond.
When we do shakubuku, we must recognize this karmic bond and make the best use of it. We share karmic bonds with a variety of people—with our colleagues at work, our friends, and our acquaintances. There are occasions when individuals have been introduced to true Buddhism through shakubuku by a fellow commuter on a bus. Needless to say, the relationship between a parent and a child constitutes a karmic bond. The Daishonin writes the following in “Letter to Jakunichibō” (“Jakunichibō-gosho”):
Without fail, it is karma that determines who will be the father and mother and who will be their child. (Gosho, p. 1393)
Karma, or destiny, refers to the causal bonds accumulated from our past existences. Our encounters with people, such as our relationships with our parents and children, are all based on our karmic bonds from past lifetimes. At the same time, we are creating a new karmic bond with them through our current behavior.
The same is true for our karmic bond with true Buddhism. By performing shakubuku, we enable many people to develop a karmic bond with true Buddhism. Moreover, when a parent gives birth to a child, and when that child becomes a parent and gives birth to her child, one karmic bond is continuously connected with another karmic bond. Accordingly, when we do shakubuku, our efforts don’t stop when the new believer embraces true Buddhism. We must further help and nurture the new member so that he will be able to shakubuku others. Let’s introduce as many people as possible to Nichiren Shoshu and enable them to embrace true Buddhism. Through our practice for ourselves and for others, we are able to achieve happiness based on the true Law.
Nichiren Daishonin writes the following in his Gosho, “On Attaining Enlightenment at the Initial Stage of Faith through the Lotus Sutra” (“Hokke shoshin jōbutsu-shō”):
Thus, we should strongly teach and make them listen to the teachings of the Lotus Sutra. Those who follow and take faith in it will be able to attain enlightenment, and even those who slander it will likewise attain Buddhahood in the end through a poison-drum (reverse) relationship. (Gosho, p. 1316)
This is identical to the principle of “forcefulness to elicit poison” (Nigō dokushi), which appears in the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra (Hokke mongu). This principle describes the process of assertively expounding the Lotus Sutra to those who are reluctant to listen, so that they develop a poisonous feeling of wrath toward it. Even though the bond is negative, in the long run, it will eventually lead them to uphold true Buddhism.
In the Bodhisattva Never Disparaging (Fukyō; twentieth) chapter of the Lotus Sutra, Bodhisattva Never Disparaging believed that all people possess the Buddha nature and continued to bow in reverence as he recited the following words to them:
I have profound reverence for you, I would never dare treat you with disparagement or arrogance. Why? Because you are all practicing the bodhisattva way and are certain to attain Buddhahood. (The Lotus Sutra, Watson, pp. 266-267)
However, those who received such reverent treatment from him were repulsed by his strange behavior and struck him with sticks and pelted him with rocks. Even then, Bodhisattva Never Disparaging would escape from their assault and, from a distance, he would continue to recite the same words and bow in reverence to them. According to this story, those who mistreated Bodhisattva Never Disparaging descended into hell as a result of their behavior toward him. However, because they formed a karmic bond with Bodhisattva Never Disparaging, they were able to encounter the Lotus Sutra again in a future life. As a result, they eventually embraced the Lotus Sutra and attained enlightenment.
Nichiren Daishonin states the following in, “A Sage Knows the Three Existences of Life” (“Shōnin chisanze ji”):
Because I follow in the footsteps of Bodhisattva Never Disparaging, those who despise and slander me shall have their heads broken into seven pieces. (Gosho, p. 748; The Gosho of Nichiren Daishonin vol.1, p. 3)
By this, the Daishonin meant that, even though people slandered him, he would endure the abuse just as Bodhisattva Never Disparaging did and continue his practice. He would enable those people to form a karmic bond with him so that they eventually could achieve salvation.
Furthermore, in the Nirvana Sutra (Nehan-gyō), there is a story about the “Karmic Bond of the Poison Drum.” According to the parable, all those who hear the beat of the poison-soaked drum die, even if they do not intentionally listen to it. In the same way, in the propagation of true Buddhism, those who hear about the true Law—whether they believe in it or slander it—will all develop a karmic bond with it. Thus, even those who slander it will eventually embrace it without fail. They will be able to develop a life condition in which they can transform the three paths of earthly desires, karma, and suffering into the three virtues of the property of the Law, wisdom, and emancipation.
In the Gosho, “On the Meaning of the True Entity of Myoho-Renge-Kyo” (“Tōtaigi-shō”), Nichiren Daishonin writes:
Those who honestly discard the expedient teachings, put faith only in the Lotus Sutra, and chant Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo, will transform the three paths of earthly desires, karma, and suffering into the three virtues of the property of the Law, wisdom, and emancipation. The threefold contemplation and the three truths will be singularly manifested in their minds, and the place where they reside will become the Land of Eternally Tranquil Light. (Gosho, p. 694)
This year, our activities in faith are based on doing shakubuku and going on a tozan pilgrimage to Head Temple Taisekiji. We must shakubuku as many people as possible and enable them to embrace the Law. We must introduce those who straightforwardly embrace Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism. We also must shakubuku people who are reluctant to uphold the Law and form a reverse relationship with it. Eventually, they will embrace true Buddhism.
The only means to bring salvation to all people in the world today is through the Three Great Secret Laws of Nichiren Daishonin. In “The Essentials of the Lotus Sutra” (“Hokke shuyō-shō”), the Daishonin states:
My disciples and followers possess a positive relationship and the nation of Japan has a reverse relationship. (Gosho, p. 736)
Nichiren Daishonin explained that those in Japan who took faith in true Buddhism through shakubuku possessed a positive relationship. The people who refused to do so were individuals who had a reverse relationship. However, even those who formed a reverse relationship still developed a karmic bond. Therefore, they will embrace true Buddhism and uphold faith without fail sometime in the future.
The Daishonin stated the following in, “Teaching, Practice, and Proof” (“Kyō gyō shō gosho”):
Now, in this age of delusion and evil, the seed of Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo of the Juryō chapter, the fundamental core of the essential teaching, must be sown for the first time into the lives of those who foster reverse relationships and those who slander the Law. (Gosho, p. 1104)
Thus, the only seed of salvation for all mankind in the Latter Day of the Law is Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo, hidden in the depths of the essential teaching. The grasses and trees develop from seeds. In the same way, without Myoho-Renge-Kyo, which can be likened to the seed, there can be no enlightenment for all mankind. It is essential to cultivate and develop the seed through activities in faith and practice. Let us work to eliminate hunger, epidemics, and warfare from our world by exerting our efforts in shakubuku, cultivating the faith of our new believers, and helping them develop. Let us make our society a realm where every individual feels happy and fortunate to have been born.
This year in Japan, the believers are encouraged to assist those they shakubuku to develop their faith and to go on a tozan pilgrimage within three months of the day they receive the Gohonzon. It is certainly more difficult for overseas believers to go on a tozan pilgrimage, but let us encourage those whom we shakubuku to go on tozan to Head Temple Taisekiji as soon as possible.
I ask all of you to visit your temple frequently and to amass many benefits. Moreover, let us put forth our utmost efforts in doing shakubuku, so that we can bring salvation to all people—those with positive relationships as well as those with reverse relationships.