What Is Nichiren Buddhism?
What Is 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)
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