Nichiren Daishonin—His Lifelong Vow and Great Compassion

Refuting Jikaku and Chisho

After this, Nichiren dives into refuting the True Word teachings (esoteric teachings), a task that takes up more than half of this treatise. While pointing out the errors of the founder of the True Word tradition in Japan, Kobo, he also refutes the Tendai school, which in the years following the death of its founder, Dengyo, had itself incorporated esoteric teachings. Nichiren talks about how Jikaku (794–864), who was Dengyo’s direct disciple and the third chief priest of the Tendai school, and Chisho (814–891), the fifth chief priest, both went against their founder. 

Dengyo deemed the Mahavairochana Sutra to be inferior to the Lotus Sutra and did not recognize the True Word as an independent school. But Kobo, in establishing the True Word school, erroneously ranked the sutras as follows: “First is the Mahavairochana Sutra of the True Word school, second is the Flower Garland Sutra, and third are the Lotus and Nirvana sutras” (WND-1, 706). 

To counter this claim, successive Tendai chief priests asserted that the Lotus Sutra and the esoteric teachings were equal. Nichiren points out Jikaku’s and Chisho’s contradictory statements and deviation from Dengyo’s teachings: 

Sometimes they declared that the True Word is superior, sometimes that the Lotus is superior, and sometimes they said that the two are equal in terms of principle, but that the True Word is superior in terms of practice.^[1] Meanwhile, an edict warned that anyone attempting to argue the relative merit of the two schools would be judged guilty of violating the imperial decree. 

These pronouncements of Jikaku and Chisho were clearly inconsistent. (WND-1, 708)

As Tendai chief priests, Jikaku and Chisho had great influence in the world of Japanese Buddhism. Nichiren denounces them because their claims and actions caused many people throughout Japan to value esoteric Buddhism more highly than the Lotus Sutra, and consequently fall into slander themselves.

In this way, Nichiren says that slander of the Law causes people’s unhappiness and the calamities seen in society. “If you understand this,” he writes, “you as well as anyone else will realize that there is no one in Japan other than myself who is a true votary of the Lotus Sutra” (WND-1, 737). As mentioned earlier, Nichiren says that he has learned and mastered Buddhism, “becoming a person of wisdom” (WND-1, 690). 

Revealing the Three Great Secret Laws

Next, Nichiren recounts his feelings when he began to propagate the Lotus Sutra. Aware that spreading the sutra in the Latter Day of the Law would subject him to persecution by government authorities, he nevertheless resolved to do so even at risk to his life. He recounts the hardships he endured leading up to the Izu Exile, the Tatsunokuchi Persecution and the Sado Exile and says, “All these things I have done solely to repay the debt I owe to my parents, the debt I owe to my teacher, the debt I owe to the three treasures of Buddhism, and the debt I owe to my country” (WND-1, 728). 

He goes on to explain that Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, the title of the Lotus Sutra, is its essence and is the essence of all sutras the Buddha taught. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo contains all the benefits and powers of these teachings and stands far above them all. 

After discussing T’ien-t’ai’s and Dengyo’s important roles in teaching the Lotus Sutra, Nichiren then poses the question, “Is there a correct teaching that was not propagated even by T’ien-t’ai and Dengyo?” To which he answers, “Yes, there is” (WND-1, 735) and explains what he has called Three Great Secret Laws, an unprecedented teaching to be propagated for the sake of all living beings in the Latter Day. 

He describes the Three Great Secret Laws, the correct teaching that neither T’ien-t’ai nor Dengyo propagated, in the following way: 

First, Japan and all the other countries throughout Jambudvipa [the entire world] should all make the Shakyamuni Buddha of the essential teaching their object of devotion.^[2] In other words, the Shakyamuni and Many Treasures who appear in the treasure tower, all the other Buddhas, and the four bodhisattvas, including Superior Practices, will act as attendants to this Buddha. Second, there is the sanctuary of the essential teaching. Third, in Japan, China, India, and all the other countries of Jambudvipa, every person, regardless of whether wise or ignorant, will set aside other practices and join in the chanting of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. (WND-1, 735–36)

He then says, “This teaching has never been taught before,” and adds, “Here in the entire land of Jambudvipa, in all the 2,225 years since the passing of the Buddha, not a single person chanted it” (WND-1, 736). Nor, he points out, did anybody propagate it. That is why he says, “Nichiren alone, without sparing his voice, now chants Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” (WND-1, 736). He made it clear that he was ready to take on any difficulties or opposition for the sake of spreading the Law.  

Then he proclaims, “If Nichiren’s compassion is truly great and encompassing, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo will spread for ten thousand years and more, for all eternity, for it has the beneficial power to open the blind eyes of every living being in the country of Japan, and it blocks off the road that leads to the hell of incessant suffering” (WND-1, 736). In this way he reveals that he himself is the teacher who will lead to happiness all people of the Latter Day.  

And the time will inevitably arrive, he goes on, when his teaching will spread throughout Japan and all its people will chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. 

Nichiren concludes by saying that all of the benefits he has accumulated from propagating the Lotus Sutra despite the hardships he has faced and from realizing kosen-rufu and bringing happiness to the people now and in the future will return to his teacher, Dozen-bo: “The flower will return to the root and the essence of the plant will remain in the earth. The benefit that I have been speaking of will surely accumulate in the life of the late Dozen-bo” (WND-1, 737).  

The Workings of Those Who Had Given Up Their Faith

Meanwhile, as Nichiren was writing such letters to clarify right and wrong in Buddhism, Ryokan of Gokuraku-ji temple—who was always hostile to Nichiren and had orchestrated major persecutions of him—turned his attention to destroying the faith of his disciples.

After Nichiren had resided in Mount Minobu for some time, Shijo Kingo, who lived in Kamakura, apparently reported to him about a disciple there. Nichiren replies that he had “heard a great deal about the lay nun of Nagoe here, too” (“The Royal Palace,” WND-1, 489). It seems that the lay nun gave up her faith in 1271 during the Tatsunokuchi Persecution and Sado Exile. “When persecutions befell me,” Nichiren writes elsewhere, “[she and others] took advantage of these to convince many of my followers to drop out” (“The Workings of Brahma and Shakra,” WND-1, 800). Not only did she stray from the path of faith but she also convinced many others to do so as well.

That he had heard about the lay nun of Nagoe suggests that Nichiren may have known of some kind of collusion among those who had quit practicing. 

There were other moves against Nichiren’s disciples as well, and he suspected Ryokan was one of the instigators (see “A Warning Against Begrudging One’s Fief,” WND-1, 824).

Now that Nichiren had safely returned from Sado Island and the foreign invasion he had warned of had come true, he and his disciples had been attracting attention. Ryokan and other religious leaders viewed their activities as troublesome.

Then, in 1275, Ryokan’s Gokuraku-ji temple caught fire and burned down. That same year a fire also broke out in the palace of the Shogun, who supported Ryokan.^[3]

Upon hearing the report, Nichiren asserted Ryokan was the cause for both fires. In a play on words, Nichiren changed the name Ryokan-bo (Priest Ryokan) to Ryoka-bo, which means “Priest Two Fires” (see “The Royal Palace,” WND-1, 488). 

Meanwhile, Nichiren’s disciples resolutely waged a battle of words. They believed that by engaging in their mentor’s struggle to establish the correct teaching for the peace of the land they were preventing another war. In the seventh month of 1275, for instance, Shijo Kingo debated the doctrine of “the true aspect of all phenomena” with a priest most likely of the Tendai school (see “Letter of Instruction on Debating the Doctrine,” WND-2, 591).   

Kingo had fallen into disfavor with his lord Ema a year prior, sometime after Nichiren’s return from Sado. Ema, who had close ties to Ryokan, didn’t approve when Kingo encouraged him to practice Nichiren’s teachings. Ever since, Kingo’s difficulties had continued as fellow retainers made unfounded accusations against him. Despite all of this, as a layperson, he challenged himself to debate with priests of other schools to prove Nichiren’s righteousness. 

In 1276, another of Nichiren’s disciples, Ikegami Munenaka, the older of the two Ikegami brothers,^[4] was disowned by his father, Saemon no Tayu, who also supported Ryokan. The reason for the father’s action is unclear, but it may have been another one of Ryokan’s schemes. 

Further, even in Suruga Province,^[5] where Nikko Shonin played a central role in propagation, persecution had spread, mainly to Atsuhara Village.^[6]

The year 1277 arrived with Nichiren receiving reports of his disciples being oppressed. In response, he sent many letters from Minobu offering encouragement. It was a year when prominent disciples, such as Shijo Kingo and the Ikegami brothers, would call forth even greater hardships on account of their efforts to spread the correct teaching.

(To be continued in an upcoming issue.)

The Profound Bond Between Mentor and Disciple

Ikeda Sensei: Dozen-bo was [Nichiren Daishonin’s] childhood teacher at Seicho-ji temple. He was a fainthearted person who never completely relinquished his attachment to the Pure Land (Nembutsu) teachings and didn’t stand up for the Daishonin when he was persecuted.

Even so, Nichiren felt gratitude for and treasured his former teacher. When he learned of Dozen-bo’s death, he immediately set about composing “On Repaying Debts of Gratitude” as an expression of gratitude for his teacher and to honor his memory.

The Daishonin personally set an example of repaying the debt of gratitude to one’s teacher. And he declared that the true way for him to show gratitude was to establish the correct teaching of Buddhism in the Latter Day of the Law to enable all people to attain enlightenment, the boundless benefit of which would flow to his teacher. This indicates just how profound and solemn the mentor-disciple relationship is in Nichiren Buddhism.

Nichiren also teaches that individuals who repay with ingratitude the kindness of those who have helped and supported them will be subjected to the strict workings of the law of cause and effect. Understanding and repaying debts of gratitude is the essence of what makes us human.^[7]

From the January 2025 Living Buddhism