Nichiren Daishonin—His Lifelong Vow and Great Compassion

While in Sado, he also wrote many letters to disciples living in various regions, including to Toki Jonin in Shimosa Province^[1] and Shijo Kingo in Kamakura. The government and religious authorities, however much they conspired to oppress them, were ultimately unable to sever the bonds shared by Nichiren and his disciples, who were dedicated to enabling all people to become happy.

Unending Persecution

A growing number of Sado residents were taking faith in Nichiren’s teachings. Pure Land priests, alarmed and worried that lay people who had until then believed in the Pure Land teachings would stop giving them alms, gathered to discuss the situation. 

“If things go on this way,” Nichiren quotes them as saying, “we will die of starvation. By all means, let’s rid ourselves of this priest [Nichiren]!” (“The Actions of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 773).

The Pure Land leaders and priests of the other schools in Sado traveled to Kamakura. There, they lodged baseless accusations against Nichiren with the constable of Sado, Hojo Nobutoki, who occupied important posts in the Kamakura shogunate. 

They reported to him:

If this priest [Nichiren] remains on the island of Sado, there will soon be not a single Buddhist hall left standing or a single priest remaining. He takes the statues of Amida Buddha and throws them in the fire or casts them into the river. Day and night he climbs the high mountains, bellows to the sun and moon, and curses the regent. The sound of his voice can be heard throughout the entire province. (WND-1, 773)

When Nobutoki heard this, Nichiren writes, “[He] sent private orders that any followers of Nichiren in the province of Sado should be driven out of the province or imprisoned. He also sent official letters containing similar instructions. He did so three times” (WND-1, 773).

Nichiren referred to these orders as a “falsified official document” (“False Official Documents,” WND-2, 877) or as Hojo Nobutoki’s “own letters of instruction” (“The Sutra of True Requital,” WND-1, 932).

Because Nobutoki issued this arbitrarily, when it normally should have been based on a letter of instruction from the Kamakura shogunate,^[2] Nichiren also called it a “falsified letter of instruction.”

In “Letter from Sado,” which Nichiren composed during his first winter in Sado, he writes about the difficulties he had to endure there, and states, “When an evil ruler in consort with priests of erroneous teachings tries to destroy the correct teaching and do away with a man of wisdom, those with the heart of a lion king are sure to attain Buddhahood” (WND-1, 302). His spirit remained unchanged throughout his exile. 

Whether in Kamakura or Sado, the pattern of political authorities colluding with powerful clerics to persecute practitioners of the Lotus Sutra was the same. Because they feared Nichiren’s influence, they regarded him as “the criminal” in exile, and he and his followers were subjected to further persecution, this time in Sado. He urged his disciples to prevail over the abuse just as he was doing. 

That extremely harsh “winter” in the lives of Nichiren and his disciples finally ended. On the fourteenth day of the second month, 1274, the shogunate decided to pardon him from exile. 

The military government’s sense of crisis was now heightening over the possibility of an invasion by the Mongols. It appears that the shogunate now regarded Nichiren as a person of exceptional knowledge who had correctly predicted Japan’s internal strife and its invasion by a foreign power, and for that reason they sought to interview him. 

On the thirteenth day of the third month, Nichiren departed Maura on Sado for Kamakura. Though believers in Buddhist schools hostile to Nichiren had planned to attack him en route, they were unable to do so owing to the many soldiers accompanying him for his protection. Then, on the twenty-sixth day of the third month, he made a dignified and triumphant return to the city (see “The Actions of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra,” WND-1, 774).

Meeting With Hei no Saemon-no-jo Yoritsuna

On the eighth day of the fourth month, Nichiren met with Hei no Saemon-no-jo Yoritsuna and other representatives of the shogunate. This was his third remonstration with the government that had sentenced him earlier to exile on Sado.

He later recorded his thoughts about that meeting: 

Being so fiercely hated merely for trying to give advice that would save the country, I suppose that, when I was pardoned from exile, I should have left Sado and hidden myself somewhere far off amidst the mountains or by the seashore. But instead I went to Kamakura, because I hoped to explain the situation one last time to Hei no Saemon, and thereby save those people who might manage to survive an attack on Japan. (“Reply to the Lay Priest Takahashi,” WND-1, 608)

The situation he sought to explain concerned the government enlisting the incantations and prayers of the esoteric True Word school to ensure its victory over the Mongols. These prayers, he warned, would instead invite Japan’s defeat and destruction, and he called on the rulers to withdraw their support for erroneous Buddhist schools.

His spirit of compassion to help the people compelled Nichiren to meet with Yoritsuna. 

Yoritsuna’s demeanor this time was strikingly different from that of their two previous encounters. His manner was mild and respectful.

Nichiren said to him, “Even if it seems that, because I was born in the ruler’s domain, I follow him in my actions, I will never follow him in my heart” (“The Selection of the Time,” WND-1, 579). 

Others present asked Nichiren about the Nembutsu, True Word and Zen schools. After repeating his criticisms of those schools, he stressed that the True Word school was the most dangerous among them and would bring the nation to ruin. 

Yoritsuna then asked, “When do you think the Mongols will attack?” (WND-1, 579). “They will surely come within this year” (“The Actions of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra,” WND-1, 774), Nichiren replied, warning that if True Word priests were relied upon to conduct prayer rituals for victory, Japan would instead be defeated (see WND-1, 579).^[3]

It has been said that the regent, Hojo Tokimune, offered to build and donate to Nichiren a temple in Nishi-Mikado, a prime location in Kamakura.^[4] This was likely conveyed to Nichiren at the meeting and may have stemmed from the shogunate’s wish to have him join priests of other schools in praying to defeat the Mongols. 

It is presumed to have been an attempt to placate Nichiren, who had resolutely called on the government to stop requesting priests from slanderous Buddhist schools to offer prayers for the nation. However, he was not in the least seeking preferential treatment from the government. To accept such a proposal from the shogunate, which had failed to understand his intent, would have been out of the question. 

It so happened that the shogunate asked the True Word priest Josei to pray for rain just two days later, on the tenth day of the fourth month. Although it did rain the next day, a great gale blew on the twelfth, causing massive destruction in Kamakura (see “On Repaying Debts of Gratitude,” WND-1, 720; and “The Actions of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra,” WND-1, 776).

‘Three Times Now I Have Gained Distinction by Having Such Knowledge’  

In a later writing, Nichiren cites a passage from secular literature that states, “A sage is one who fully understands those things that have not yet made their appearance” and quotes a Buddhist text that reads, “A sage is one who knows the three existences of life—past, present and future.” He then declares, “Three times now I have gained distinction by having such knowledge” (“The Selection of Time,” WND-1, 579).

Of these three times, the first was on the sixteenth day of the seventh month of 1260, when he submitted his treatise “On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land” to Hojo Tokiyori through the lay priest Yadoya Mitsunori. He asked the lay priest to convey to Tokiyori that “devotion to the Zen school and the Nembutsu school should be abandoned. If this advice is not heeded, trouble will break out within the ruling clan, and the nation will be attacked by another country” (WND-1, 579).

The second time was on the twelfth day of the ninth month, 1271, when Nichiren made a lion-hearted declaration to Yoritsuna: “Nichiren is the pillar and beam of Japan. Doing away with me is toppling the pillar of Japan!” (WND-1, 579). He also warned of inviting “the calamity of revolt within one’s own domain” and also “the calamity of invasion from foreign lands” (WND-1, 579). 

The third instance was on the eighth day of the fourth month, 1274, the meeting with Yoritsuna described above. On that occasion, with the possibility of foreign invasion now a reality, Nichiren warned against entrusting True Word priests to pray for victory, lest the country be brought to ruin. 

Internal strife had already taken place within the ruling clan as Nichiren had foretold, and Nichiren’s prediction of invasion by foreign lands would be fulfilled before the end of 1274 with the Mongols’ attack. All three of Nichiren’s warnings to top government leaders were borne out. 

When it became clear that the shogunate had no intention of listening to Nichiren’s cautions, he followed an ancient Chinese text that says that a sage who warns his sovereign three times and still is not heeded should leave the country.^[5] On the twelfth day of the fifth month, 1274, Nichiren departed Kamakura for Mount Minobu in Hakiri Village in Kai Province.^[6]

There, he expounded important teachings and fostered disciples who would endeavor with the same vow and dedication as he to ensure that kosen-rufu continue throughout the ten thousand years or more of the Latter Day of the Law.

(To be continued in an upcoming issue)

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The Boundless Compassion of the Buddha

Ikeda Sensei: [Nichiren] Daishonin’s noble state of life enabled him to view even his greatest persecution with sublime detachment. He would not stand for his followers debasing themselves by begging or pleading with the government for him to be pardoned. He must have been confident that the government would eventually apologize for the injustice it had done him and, with the highest deference, entreat him to return to Kamakura.

Justice will prevail through just words and just actions. Ingratiating oneself with and accepting the patronage or protection of the powerful will only lead one to be used by them. That is probably the strict lesson the Daishonin wished to teach his disciples.^[7]

Although many learned priests must have been familiar with the texts of these sutras,^[8] they did not understand the true intent of the Buddha contained therein. But the Daishonin perceived from the same words the real nature of the people’s present sufferings and foresaw further crises that would eventually assail the country. 

The difference between the two was that the Daishonin had a profound sympathy for the people’s sufferings—the immense compassion of the Buddha who strives tirelessly for the sake of people’s happiness—while the learned priests didn’t. 

The power to discern major events before they unfold is certainly an expression of wisdom. Such wisdom could be described as the fruition of earnest and profound compassion. The wisdom to perceive in advance major events that will bring people misery derives from the original Buddha’s boundless compassion to lead all living beings to enlightenment.^[9]

From the August 2024 Living Buddhism