‘Opening of the Eyes’—A Call to Open Our Eyes to Nichiren, To Open Our Eyes to the People

It goes without saying that President Toda’s lectures also played a pivotal and decisive role in my own life. In fact, my first fateful encounter with my mentor (on August 14, 1947) took place during one of his lectures on Nichiren Daishonin’s treatise “On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land.” After joining the Soka Gakkai, I attended his lectures on the Lotus Sutra, and later I was able to have early-morning study sessions with him, during which he discussed the profound philosophy and principles of Nichiren Buddhism. President Toda was truly a master in giving lectures. I was so impressed that I remember thinking, There are three kinds of lectures: unskilled, skilled and artistic—Mr. Toda’s belonged to the last category. As President Toda’s disciple, I also exerted myself on the front lines by giving lectures and striving to convey the greatness of Nichiren Buddhism to as many people as possible.

Like a lion’s roar, the truth and justice of Nichiren Daishonin is a powerful force for defeating the devilish nature inherent in human life. The reverberations of his invincible life force that surmounted successive major persecutions impart courage, hope, confidence and joy to those challenging painful obstacles and hardships. His words of profound contemplation and introspection teach us the correct path of kosen-rufu and life. For that reason, making his writings our foundation is also the correct path leading to victory both in life and in our struggle for kosen-rufu.

We of the SGI aspire to make the 21st century an age of the victory of the people, the victory of youth and the victory of humanity. Now, more than ever before, people around the world are searching for a humanistic religion. Out of the hope that it may serve as a key for ushering in such an age and become a source of inspiration and growth for my fellow SGI members everywhere, I have decided to embark on a new series of lectures on “The Opening of the Eyes,” an important writing embodying the great lion’s roar of the Daishonin. Toward realizing a century of life and a century of humanity, I would like to discuss the essence of Nichiren Buddhism and the steadfast commitment of the SGI, an organization that has inherited the true spirit of Nichiren Daishonin. I would also like to leave behind a solid spiritual foundation for the SGI of the future.

Philosophy is what empowers our struggle to be victorious in life. All of you who are earnestly studying and internalizing Nichiren Buddhism, an extremely lofty and profound practical philosophy, are certain to become eternal “doctors of philosophy.” I began this series of lectures with the ardent prayer that each of you will illuminate the deepening darkness of modern society with the brilliant light of the Daishonin’s writings—the eternally treasured teachings of hope—and develop into courageous people of philosophy who will build a century of humanity.

Introduction

The central theme of Nichiren Daishonin’s lengthy two-part treatise, “The Opening of the Eyes,” can indeed be summed up in the short phrase opening the eyes. 

While the Daishonin’s original text of this writing is not extant, there is a record indicating that it consisted of a total of 66 pages: 65 sheets of paper for the body of the work and one sheet of paper on which Nichiren Daishonin himself had written “The Opening of the Eyes” as the title page.^[1]

“Opening the eyes” means exactly that: “to open the eyes.” It can also be read as the Daishonin’s call: “Open your eyes!” 

How can we open the closed eyes of people’s hearts? With what light can we illuminate the darkness of ignorance?^[2] It is Nichiren Daishonin, the Buddha of the Latter Day of the Law, who opened a path to answer these questions. 

The flame of Nichiren’s struggle as the votary of the Lotus Sutra—a struggle aimed at leading humanity to enlightenment and actualizing the principle of “establishing the correct teaching for the peace of the land” while battling against all manner of devilish functions—only burned even more brightly when he was exiled to snowbound Sado Island. We can discern his unyielding resolve from the following well-known passage of “The Opening of the Eyes”: “This I will state. Let the gods forsake me. Let all persecutions assail me. Still I will give my life for the sake of the Law. … Here I will make a great vow. … I will be the pillar of Japan. I will be the eyes of Japan. I will be the great ship of Japan. This is my vow, and I will never forsake it!” (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, pp. 280–81). 

From the standpoint of society, he was an exile. Though he was the victim of persecution by the powerful and was innocent of the charges brought against him, he found himself sentenced to exile, a penalty second in severity only to execution,^[3] and placed in a veritable prison of nature. As was to be expected, however, no chains of any form could ever shackle his spirit. 

Throughout the pages of human history, there are many wise people and sages who bravely endured attack and oppression. The Daishonin stands out among them for having declared his intent to save all humankind and secured the path to do so while exiled under the harshest of conditions. “I will be the pillar of Japan,” he cried invincibly. No persecution or devilish force could hinder the Daishonin, who had stood up to fulfill his vow to lead all people to enlightenment. 

A person awakened to the inherent Law of life can truly become a colossus of the noblest human spirit. 

Nichiren Buddhism is a “religion for all human beings.” It was Nichiren who firmly established the great path of the “human religion” elucidated in the Lotus Sutra, the essence of Mahayana Buddhism, and who left behind the means for all people to realize genuine happiness and lasting peace. 

The Daishonin is truly the “pillar,” the “eyes” and the “great ship” of all humankind. However, the befuddled rulers of Japan of his day, as well as perverse and fawning priests dwelling in the world of animals,^[4] tried to topple this pillar.

Writing in the Midst of Extreme Conditions

In another writing, “The Actions of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra,” Nichiren Daishonin gives a detailed account of how he came to compose “The Opening of the Eyes”: “After everyone had gone [following the Tsukahara Debate,^[5] held in January 1272, on Sado], I began to put into shape a work in two volumes called The Opening of the Eyes, which I had been working on since the eleventh month of the previous year.^[6] I wanted to record the wonder of Nichiren, in case I should be beheaded. The essential message in this work is that the destiny of Japan depends solely upon Nichiren. A house without pillars collapses, and a person without a soul is dead. Nichiren is the soul of the people of this country. Hei no Saemon has already toppled the pillar of Japan, and the country grows turbulent as unfounded rumors and speculation rise up like phantoms to cause dissention in the ruling clan. Further, Japan is about to be attacked by a foreign country, as I described in my On Establishing the Correct Teaching. Having written to this effect [in The Opening of the Eyes], I entrusted the manuscript to Nakatsukasa Saburo Saemon-no-jo’s [Shijo Kingo’s] messenger” (WND-1, 772). 

In this passage, the Daishonin recalls his sentiments in writing “The Opening of the Eyes,” which he completed in February 1272. He begins by saying that he started planning the treatise in November 1271, immediately after arriving on Sado on October 28.

Nichiren reached Tsukahara on Sado on November 1, amid extremely frigid temperatures. The place where he initially stayed was a dilapidated shrine called the Sammai-do, in the middle of a graveyard. He writes that “it stood on some land where corpses were abandoned” (“The Actions of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra,” WND-1, 769). It was a tiny structure consisting of a single room with four posts. No statues of the Buddha were enshrined there; the boards of the roof did not meet, and the walls were full of holes. It was little more than a deserted shack.

In an extreme environment where icy winds blew mercilessly and snow piled high, he placed fur skins on the floor to lie or sit on and spent his days and nights wrapped in a straw coat. In addition to the freezing northern winter to which he was unaccustomed, he also faced a shortage of food provisions. As a result, during November, he sent back some of the young disciples who had accompanied him.

“It is impossible to describe these matters in writing” (“Aspiration for the Buddha Land,” WND-1, 214), the Daishonin says, referring to the deplorable conditions that confronted him on Sado. He admits to feeling as though he had passed through the realm of hungry spirits and fallen alive into one of the eight cold hells^[7] (see “Letter to Horen,” WND-1, 519). He also observes: “Exiles to this island seldom manage to survive. Even if they do, they never return home. So no one is going to be punished for killing an exile” (“The Actions of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra,” WND-1, 771). 

In such a perilous environment, Nichiren immersed himself deep in thought and composed an important work for the enlightenment of humankind. Over the course of approximately three months, he planned out and wrote this treatise, which, in terms of current Japanese standard, 400-character manuscript pages, comes to more than one hundred pages in length. After arriving on Sado, he set to work right away on this task to lead all people to Buddhahood. 

Discussing the Daishonin’s spiritual state while on Sado, President Toda once remarked: “Buddhahood is a state of absolute happiness. A state of being that at each moment is like a translucent ocean or a cloudless sky, utterly invincible and fearless—this is how I perceive the Daishonin’s state of life during his exile on Sado.

“When the Daishonin says, ‘Sacrificing your life for the Lotus Sutra is like exchanging rocks for gold or dung for rice’ (“The Actions of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra,” WND-1, 764), and ‘For what I have done, I have been condemned to exile, but it is a small suffering to undergo in this present life and not one worth lamenting. In future lives I will enjoy immense happiness, a thought that gives me great joy’ (“The Opening of the Eyes,” WND-1, 287), I keenly feel that this portrays the state of life of the Buddha of the Latter Day.”^[8]

In fact, while living under conditions of indescribable hardship, Nichiren earnestly pondered the question of how he could enable all people to attain Buddhahood; and he clearly constructed the means for achieving this goal by writing “The Opening of the Eyes” and “The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind.” As I have said, what sets the Daishonin apart in greatness from countless other historic figures who have endured persecution is that he, amid extreme difficulties, laid a solid foundation to thoroughly secure the path for the enlightenment of all humanity. 

‘The Opening of the Eyes’ Was Written After Nichiren Revealed His True Identity 

In the passage from “The Actions of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra” that I cited earlier, Nichiren says that his purpose in writing “The Opening of the Eyes” was to leave a record for posterity of the “wonder of Nichiren.” We can surmise that the greatest “wonder of Nichiren” that he seeks to record here is his casting off his transient status and revealing his true identity at the time of the Tatsunokuchi Persecution.

On the occasion of his near-execution at Tatsunokuchi, the Daishonin discarded his transient aspect as “an ordinary person at the stage of hearing the name and words of the truth” (that is, someone who has taken faith in the Lotus Sutra) and revealed his true state of life as “the Buddha of limitless joy enlightened from time without beginning,” a state of complete freedom that is at one with the eternal Mystic Law. 

As a result of the Daishonin casting off the transient and revealing the true, the path to attaining enlightenment in one’s present form—whereby we can manifest Buddhahood in our ordinary mortal lives, just as we are—was opened to all people. 

As he describes in detail in “The Opening of the Eyes,” he won this fundamental victory of life—the victory of casting off the transient and revealing the true—in the course of his relentless struggle to surmount persecution after persecution and triumph over all obstacles. In the same way, when we maintain courageous faith, unafraid of any obstacles, then, no matter what happens, we, too, can defeat the darkness of ignorance and establish a self that manifests our enlightened Dharma nature.^[9] This is how we cast off our own transient aspect and reveal our true selves. Casting off the transient and revealing the true is essential to our attainment of Buddhahood in this lifetime.

As Nichiren indicates when he says, “Here a single individual has been used as an example, but the same thing applies equally to all living beings” (“The Unanimous Declaration by the Buddhas,” WND-2, 844), his casting off the transient and revealing the true elucidates the basic principle for attaining Buddhahood that applies to all people of the Latter Day of the Law; it is also proof of this principle and an example for others.

All people, if they possess unwavering faith in the Mystic Law, can develop a state of being as vast as the universe in their flesh-and-blood lives as ordinary people. You could say that Nichiren Daishonin was the very first person to demonstrate the truth that all people of the Latter Day could cast off the transient and reveal the true. To verify his casting off the transient and revealing the true and to provide a “clear mirror” or means so that others could do the same, Nichiren manifested the Gohonzon in a concrete graphic form.

The Daishonin is truly the pillar of all humankind, because his example of discarding the transient and revealing the true makes it possible for all people to bring forth their own inherent Buddha nature. Herein lies the most profound significance of his assertions that “the destiny of Japan depends solely upon Nichiren,” and “Nichiren is the soul of the people of this country” (“The Actions of the Votary of the Lotus Sutra,” WND-1, 772). 

Opening the eyes is thus also a call “to open your eyes to Nichiren.” 

Opening Our Eyes to the Spirit of ‘Not Begrudging One’s Life’

Opening our eyes to Nichiren means opening our eyes to the votary of the Lotus Sutra and, therefore, also opening our eyes to the Lotus Sutra. In this way, multiple meanings apply to the phrase opening the eyes, as is evident in various passages in “The Opening of the Eyes.” I would now like to cite a number of specific passages where the Daishonin in effect urges us: “Open your eyes to Nichiren.” 

First of all, there is the well-known passage I quoted earlier that alerts us to open our eyes to the Daishonin’s casting off the transient and revealing the true: “On the twelfth day of the ninth month of last year [1271], between the hours of the rat and the ox (11:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m.), this person named Nichiren was beheaded. It is his soul that has come to this island of Sado and, in the second month of the following year, snowbound, is writing this to send to his close disciples. [The description of the evil age in the “Encouraging Devotion” chapter seems] terrible, but [one who cares nothing about oneself for the sake of the Law has] nothing to be frightened about” (WND-1, 269). 

Indeed, in this passage he is saying, “Open your eyes to the ‘soul’ of Nichiren.” He essentially declares: “The ordinary person Nichiren was beheaded at Tatsunokuchi. It is the ‘soul’ of Nichiren that is now writing ‘The Opening of the Eyes’ on Sado.” “Soul,” here, refers of course to the “Buddha of limitless joy enlightened since time without beginning” that is the true identity revealed by Nichiren when he cast off his transient status. 

Here, I would like to focus on the fact that, in terms of the overall structure of “The Opening of the Eyes,” this passage comes right at the start of the section where the Daishonin explains how he read the Lotus Sutra with his life, especially “Encouraging Devotion,” the 13th chapter. In this passage, he declares that no matter how fearful the descriptions in the “Encouraging Devotion” chapter of the ways that the three powerful enemies will persecute the practitioners of the correct teaching, these things are not in the least frightening to the soul of Nichiren. In this way, he shows us a glimpse of the vast and fearless state of the Buddha of limitless joy enlightened since time without beginning. 

The “Encouraging Devotion” chapter details the terrible persecutions that will befall the votaries of the Lotus Sutra in the evil age after the Buddha’s passing, describing, for example, how the three powerful enemies will incite the secular authorities to repress the votaries. There is also a scene where a multitude of bodhisattvas numbering “eight hundred thousand million nayutas^[10]” make a vow to struggle with the spirit of not begrudging their lives when encountering such life-threatening persecutions. The “Encouraging Devotion” chapter contains the lines, “We care nothing for our bodies or lives but are anxious only for the unsurpassed way” (The Lotus Sutra and Its Opening and Closing Sutras, p. 233). It expounds that the intrepid spirit of not begrudging one’s life and seeking solely to enable all people to enter the unsurpassed way to Buddhahood is a fundamental requisite of bodhisattvas. 

In “Letter from Sado,” which was written around the same time as “The Opening of the Eyes,” Nichiren asserts that when evil priests seeking fame or profit conspire with ignorant officials to unjustly attack the votary of the Lotus Sutra, those with the selfless “heart of a lion king” can attain Buddhahood (see WND-1, 302).

Accordingly, we can read the phrase opening the eyes as including the meaning: “Open your eyes to Nichiren’s spirit of not begrudging his life.” 

The Teacher of the Latter Day Is a Person Who Thoroughly Battles All Obstacles and Devilish Forces

Next, I would like to read the passage in which Nichiren states his conclusion after discussing in detail how the persecutions he has encountered mirror the persecutions by the three powerful enemies described in the “Encouraging Devotion” chapter. In this passage, too, we can discern the meaning, “Open your eyes to Nichiren”: “The Buddha and Devadatta^[11] are like a form and its shadow—in lifetime after lifetime, they are never separated. Prince Shotoku and his archenemy Moriya^[12] appeared at the same time, like the blossom and the calyx of the lotus.^[13] If there exists a votary of the Lotus Sutra, then the three types of enemies are bound to exist as well. The three types of enemies have already appeared. Who, then, is the votary of the Lotus Sutra? Let us seek him out and make him our teacher. [As the Lotus Sutra says, to find such a person is as rare as for] a one eyed-turtle to chance upon a piece of driftwood [with a hole just the right size to hold him]”^[14] (WND-1, 278). 

“Let us seek him out and make him our teacher,” Nichiren says. His conclusion is that the votary of the Lotus Sutra who struggles dauntlessly against the three powerful enemies is the correct teacher who will lead the people of the Latter Day to enlightenment. Only someone able to battle all obstacles and devilish forces can be regarded as the teacher of the Latter Day of the Law.

As the Daishonin indicates when he says, “If they [devils] did not [arise], there would be no way of knowing that this is the correct teaching” (“Letter to the Brothers,” WND-1, 501), those who rigorously uphold and practice the correct teaching in this evil latter age will be assailed by storms of obstacles and devilish functions without fail. 

The only way to liberate the people of the Latter Day of the Law from fundamental suffering is to firmly establish the means by which the Buddha nature inherent in all human beings can be manifested in each individual’s life and in society. This great path can be opened only by those who are able to establish the deep, strong faith necessary to defeat the fundamental ignorance^[15] inherent in human life. That is because all obstacles and devilish functions are in essence manifestations of fundamental ignorance. A teaching that does not indicate the importance of battling fundamental ignorance cannot be called the correct teaching for the Latter Day of the Law, nor can a person espousing such a teaching be regarded as the teacher of the Latter Day of the Law. 

Fundamental ignorance originally referred to the fundamental delusion or doubt toward the Mystic Law that assails bodhisattvas who have advanced to the final stage of practice. Even bodhisattvas at the stage of near-perfect enlightenment could stray from the correct path on account of this illusion or doubt. 

The Latter Day, during which the Buddha predicts “the pure Law will become obscured and lost,”^[16] is indeed a time when the correct teaching is obscured and evil intensifies. Battling fundamental ignorance is an indispensable part of practicing the correct teaching in this latter age. Hence in “The Opening of the Eyes,” Nichiren emphasizes two points. 

First of all, through the fivefold comparison,^[17] he clarifies what is the correct teaching of the Latter Day of the Law. The correct teaching is the doctrine of “three thousand realms in a single moment of life” hidden in the depths of the Lotus Sutra and the doctrine of “the original cause and original effect” expounded in the “Life Span” chapter of the Lotus Sutra’s essential teaching. Expressed more simply, it is the principle of the “true mutual possession of the Ten Worlds” (WND-1, 235), whereby in defeating our fundamental darkness through pure and strong faith, we can bring the eternal state of the world of Buddhahood to manifest in the other nine worlds within our lives. This is the teaching that enables us to reveal the world of Buddhahood within our other nine worlds and realize the “attainment of Buddhahood in our present form” and the “attainment of Buddhahood in this lifetime.” This alone is the correct teaching of the Latter Day. 

Secondly, he emphasizes the importance of making and maintaining a vow. The correct teaching of the Latter Day hidden in the depths of the “Life Span” chapter of the essential teaching of the Lotus Sutra is “difficult to believe and difficult to understand” (“The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind,” WND-1, 356). However, by making the Buddha’s great wish for the enlightenment of all people our own and vowing to undertake the struggle for kosen-rufu with a steadfast, unremitting spirit, we can forge and strengthen our faith. And it is none other than Nichiren, who cast off his transient status and established the great teaching for the enlightenment of all people in this defiled age, who is the teacher of the Latter Day of the Law and the Buddha of the Latter Day of the Law. 

While I already quoted the passage indicating the Daishonin’s vow at the start of my lecture, I would like to cite it here again more fully: “This I will state. Let the gods forsake me. Let all persecutions assail me. Still I will give my life for the sake of the Law … Whatever obstacles I might encounter, so long as persons of wisdom do not prove my teachings to be false, I will never yield! All other troubles are no more to me than dust before the wind. 

“I will be the pillar of Japan. I will be the eyes of Japan. I will be the great ship of Japan. This is my vow, and I will never forsake it!” (WND-1, 280–81).

The above two points—the clarification of the correct teaching and the importance of making a vow—comprise the backbone of “The Opening of the Eyes.” I will discuss them in more detail later during the course of these lectures. 

Opening Our Eyes to Nichiren’s Perseverance and Compassion

I would like to quote another related passage: “When it comes to understanding the Lotus Sutra, I have only a minute fraction of the vast ability that T’ien-t’ai and Dengyo^[18] possessed. But as regards my ability to endure persecution and the wealth of my compassion for others, I believe they would hold me in awe” (WND-1, 242). 

We can also interpret this passage, which so many of us have engraved in our hearts, as the call “to open your eyes to Nichiren.” 

Here, Nichiren humbly states that his understanding of the Lotus Sutra is inferior to that of  T’ien-t’ai and Dengyo, but in “The Opening of the Eyes,” as I noted earlier, he reveals the supreme wisdom to grasp the essential Law that enables all people of the Latter Day to attain enlightenment. This essential Law is the ultimate teaching for actualizing the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds and manifesting the world of Buddhahood in one’s own life. While explaining this teaching is itself difficult, sharing it with others and enabling them to demonstrate it in their own lives are even more so. 

What we have, then, is a struggle that no one had ever undertaken before: an evil age, the difficult-to-believe essential Law and an ordinary person who was determined to propagate that Law. It was inevitable therefore that persecution would follow. Nichiren, while enduring one intense persecution after another, revealed the world of Buddhahood in his own life as an ordinary human being. He offered his own life and practice as an example, and established the means by which to spread this essential Law to all people. 

The driving force that enabled him to carry through and complete this struggle was his vow and, on an even deeper level, his boundless compassion for all living beings. It is because of this immense compassion that we regard the Daishonin as the Buddha of the Latter Day. 

Nichiren himself indicates that compassion lies at the very heart of shakubuku, the struggle to propagate the correct teaching in order to liberate people from fundamental suffering. He thus declares, “I, Nichiren, am sovereign, teacher, and father and mother to all the people of Japan” (WND-1, 287). This is the conclusion of  “The Opening of the Eyes,” and also a call urging us “to open your eyes to Nichiren’s compassion.”

Quoting one of the passages I have just cited, President Toda maintained that striving to help people attain enlightenment and to realize a fundamental inner transformation in the lives of all humankind represents the Buddha’s work, and he called on his fellow members to devote themselves to this challenge: “Enabling all people to become Buddhas, elevating the character of all people to something of supreme value—this is what it means to carry out ‘the Thus Come One’s work’ (see LSOC, 202).

“In ‘The Opening of the Eyes,’ the Daishonin writes: ‘When it comes to understanding the Lotus Sutra, I have only a minute fraction of the vast ability that T’ien-t’ai and Dengyo possessed. But as regards my ability to endure persecution and the wealth of my compassion for others, I believe they would hold me in awe’ (WND-1, 242). The profound meaning behind this passage is the Daishonin’s commitment—to which he gave his entire life—to make it possible for all human beings to attain Buddhahood. This is a vivid example of ‘the Thus Come One’s work.’ My fellow members of the Soka Gakkai, we, too, must carry out this work. How, then, should we strive to enable all people to obtain the state of Buddhahood?”^[19]

With his vision of universal enlightenment and the inner transformation of all humankind, Nichiren brought forth the “power of endurance in the face of persecution” and the “power of compassion” in order to establish and propagate the entity of the Law. Inheriting Nichiren’s spirit, the Soka Gakkai has—since the time of first president Tsunesaburo Makiguchi—embraced Nichiren Buddhism as the teaching for transforming reality and energetically advanced the struggle to lead humankind toward genuine happiness. 

Compassion and Trust for the People Are the Foundation

We can thus identify a variety of meanings for the phrase opening the eyes of the writing’s title, but “open your eyes to Nichiren” seems to be the key message. This call is based on a spirit of compassion and trust for the people. It could also be expressed as “open your eyes to the people.”

Nichiren Buddhism is the “Buddhism of the oneness of mentor and disciple.” Through his own life, Nichiren established the path by which ordinary people of the Latter Day could attain Buddhahood in their present form, and he taught that path to his disciples. He says: “Although I and my disciples may encounter various difficulties, if we do not harbor doubts in our hearts, we will as a matter of course attain Buddhahood. Do not have doubts simply because heaven does not lend you protection. Do not be discouraged because you do not enjoy an easy and secure existence in this life. This is what I have taught my disciples morning and evening, and yet they begin to harbor doubts and abandon their faith. 

“Foolish men are likely to forget the promises they have made when the crucial moment comes” (WND-1, 283).

The implication here is that the path of the oneness of mentor and disciple of Nichiren and his followers comes into being when both have faith that is free of doubt^[20] and infused with the spirit of not begrudging one’s life. Faith as conceived by Nichiren precludes doubt [toward the power of the Mystic Law]. Therefore, it is only natural that our Buddhist practice includes actively battling the devilish nature inherent in life, as well as external obstacles and devilish functions that act as negative influences. 

And he assures us that if we join him in this struggle, we will realize the fruit, or effect, of attaining Buddhahood without fail. This is because anyone can become one with the Daishonin in terms of his “practices and the virtues he consequently attained” (“The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind,” WND-1, 365)—that is, the cause and effect of his enlightenment. This means that the call “to open your eyes to Nichiren,” which runs throughout this writing, is in fact based on a foundation of deep confidence in and respect for human beings. 

I would like to clearly state, therefore, that the significance of opening the eyes in this treatise, in addition to its call “to open your eyes to Nichiren,” lies in its fervent exhortations: “Open your eyes to the human being,” and “Open your eyes to the people.” 

A Movement That Seeks To Enable All To Reveal Their Buddha Nature

Essentially, then, to correctly read “The Opening of the Eyes” is to recognize Nichiren Daishonin as our model for attaining Buddhahood in the Latter Day and as the lord of the teaching of the Latter Day of the Law who established the path for attaining Buddhahood. Also, from the perspective of the “Buddhism of the people” hidden in the depths of the Lotus Sutra, it could be said that to read “The Opening of the Eyes” is to base oneself on a profound respect and trust for human beings.

When viewed in this way, where can we find a person who has truly read this treatise correctly? I feel sure that President Toda’s wisdom and perceptive insights will shine brightly once again in that regard. In concluding the first lecture in this series, I would like to introduce another quote by my mentor: “When reading the Daishonin’s writings, even more than trying to understand the meaning of his words, I seek to come into contact with the Buddha’s immense compassion, his towering conviction, his ardent spirit to protect and save the people, and his single-minded and solemn commitment to kosen-rufu. 

“Whenever I read the Daishonin’s writings, his brilliant spirit, like the midsummer sun at noon, floods my heart. My chest feels as if it is filled with a giant ball of molten steel. Sometimes I feel like a scalding hot spring is gushing forth inside me, or as if a great, earth-shaking waterfall is crashing over me.”^[21] 

I firmly believe that the spirit described here by President Toda represents the Soka Gakkai’s eternal guideline for reading the writings of Nichiren Daishonin. Reading his writings means coming into contact with the Daishonin’s immense compassion and his philosophy for liberating all people from fundamental suffering, and is comparable to being irradiated by Nichiren’s spirit for kosen-rufu. 

As courageous Bodhisattvas of the Earth, let us build a network dedicated to opening the eyes of the people in order to bring light to the darkness and delusion that shrouds people’s lives and enable all to reveal their Buddha nature. The world is yearning for the humanistic Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin. Today, more and more people around the globe are turning their eyes to our great movement of peace, culture and education.

From the March 2025 Living Buddhism