95, Resuscitation of Tokimitsu

Japanese

‘The Proof of the Lotus Sutra.’ Autographs: scattered among three temples including Honmonji in Nishiyama. Period manuscript: By Nikko Shonin (in the collection of Fuji Taiseki-ji Temple)

Tokimitsu's faith remained unwavering despite the sudden death of his younger brother.

He worked hard to support Nichiren. He also supported Nichiren in the persecution in Atsuhara. No one in Kamakura does not know of this.

For this reason, the Shogunate was no longer pleased with Tokimitsu. The people hated him as if he were an evil person. Tokimitsu was a follower of Nichiren who openly criticized the Shogunate, even though he was the head of the land. The Shogunate imposed many official matters on him.

Therefore, Tokimitsu had no horse to ride and his wife had no clothes. Even so, he sent a consistent amount of money to Nichiren. What a young man of faith!

　Nichiren encourages the impoverished Tokimitsu.

　“I have received your offering of one thousand coppers. Because you have demonstrated such sincerity, I would state. You must not think I am a greedy monk.

　I will teach you how to become a Buddha easily. Teaching another something is the same as oiling the wheels of a cart so that they turn even though it is heavy, or as floating a boat on water so that it moves ahead easily. The way to become a Buddha easily is nothing special. It is the same as giving water to a thirsty person in a time of drought, or as providing fire for a person freezing in the cold. Or again, it is the same as giving things which are only one, or making offerings to others when one's own life is about to end without it.

　There was once a ruler called King Konziki. For twelve years his country was besieged by a severe drought, and countless numbers of people died of starvation. In the rivers, corpses were treated as bridges, and on land, skeletons were regarded as burial mounds. At that time, King Konziki aroused a great aspiration to save others and distributed a vast quantity of alms. He gave away everything he could, until a mere five measures of rice remained in his storehouse. When his ministers informed him that this would provide him with food for a single day, the great king took up the five measures of rice and let each of his starving subjects have, for example, one or two grains, or three or four grains. Then the king looked up to the heavens and raised his voice, crying out that "I feel the pain of all the people’s hunger and thirst on himself and decide to die of starvation!" The heavenly gods heard him and instantly sent down the sweet rain of immortality. All those people whose bodies this rain touched or whose faces it fell upon became satiated with food, and in the space of a moment, the inhabitants of the entire country revived.

　In India there was a wealthy man called Sudatta. Seven times he became poor, and seven times he became a wealthy man. During his last period of poverty, when all the people had fled or perished and only he and his wife remained, they had five liters of rice that would nourish them for five days. At that time, five people—Makasho, Shariputra, Ananda, Rafura, and Shakyamuni Buddha—came one after another to beg for the five measures of rice, which Sudatta had. From that day on, Sudatta was the wealthiest man in all India, and he built the Temple Gion. From this, you should understand all things.

　Just as a monkey resembles a man and a rice cake resembles the moon, you already resemble the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra. Though you so earnestly protected my congregations in Atsuhara, the people of this country consider you to be like Masakado of the Shōhei era or Sadato of the Tengi era. This is solely because you have devoted your life to the Lotus Sutra. The heavenly gods do not in the least regard you as a man who has betrayed his lord. In addition, having had numerous public works forcibly assigned to your little village, you yourself lack the horse you should be riding, and your wife and children lack the clothing they should be wearing. Nonetheless, your feeling anxious that the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra was probably being assailed by snow amidst the mountains and in want of food, and sending me one thousand pieces coins even in such circumstances, is exactly like the poor woman giving a begging monk the single garment that she and her husband wore, or like Rida giving the millet in his jar to a pratyekabuddha. How precious. How high-minded. I will speak to you in more detail later.

Respectfully yours,

Nichiren

　The twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month in the third year of Kōan (1280)

　Reply to lord Ueno”

　Just as it seemed that peace had been restored, tragedy struck again.

Tokimitsu himself became seriously ill.

News of his illness had reached Nichiren in September of the previous year.

“I have received your message. I have heard that you are having difficulties with your illness. I have heard that you are having difficulty with your work, and I hope that you will hurry to make a cure and visit here." 'Reply to lord Nanjo': September 11, Kouan 4 (1281), 60 years old.

　Contrary to the expectations of those around him, his illness became more serious. The name of the disease was unknown. But it was an illness that would surely lead to death. No medicine could cure it. After his father, Shichiro Hyôe, and his younger brother, Goro, it was Tokimitsu's turn. Tokimitsu was only a young man of twenty-three. The Nanjo family was clearly destined to have a short life.

In February of the following year, Tokimitsu finally became critically ill.

Nichiren knew the seriousness of the situation, raised himself from his sickbed, had Nichiro dictate to him, and instructed Hoki-bo Nikko to have Tokimitsu drink a cup of a medicine, the protective agent.”

The protective agent was a medicine made by mixing ashes of sutra texts with water.

Nichiren was desperate to prolong Tokimitsu's life at all costs, even if his illness was due to a destiny.

“The twenty-eight characters of this sutra are from the seventh volume of the Lotus Sutra, 'Medicine King.' One year, when the Buddha's nanny became very ill and was about to die, he wrote this sutra and gave it to her to drink with purified water, and she soon came back to life. Although Nanjo Tokimitsu is from a humble background, he is a man deeply committed to Nichiren. Even if this is his destiny, for once I am praying, "King Enma, save him. Tomorrow, at the time of the tiger, the rabbit, and the dragon [A.M.3:00-A.M.9:00], fetch water from the Shojin River, burn this sutra into ashes, put it in 0.1 liter of water, and make him drink.

Respectfully yours,

Nichiro

February 25” ‘Letter to the priest lord Hoki-bo.’

The origin of the "protective agent" is the story of how the Lord Shakyamuni Buddha saved his nanny and foster mother, Mahaprajapati, from serious illness.

This is not the first time that Nichiren used the protective agent. Ten years ago, when Kingo Shijo's wife, Nichigan-nyo, conceived a child, he sent her the protective agent to ensure a safe delivery.

　“I understand the circumstances of your pregnancy. In response to your request, I have prepared the protective agent, choosing from among the lore that has been transmitted to me. You must be careful to have firm faith. For example, even the most excellent medicine will have little effect if poison is added to it. Even a sword will be of no use to a coward.

Above all, both you and your husband are upholders of the Lotus Sutra. You will surely bear a jewel of a child who is going to inherit the seed for the propagation of the Lotus Sutra. I wholeheartedly congratulate you. The child is the one who will inherit both your physical and spiritual aspects. It will possibly not suffer prolonged labor. I expect that the child will be born quickly. If you take this medicine, there can be no doubt.

Even the darkness becomes bright when a lantern is lit, and even muddy water becomes clear when the moon shines on it. Can anything exceed the sun and moon in brightness? Can anything surpass the lotus flower in purity? The Lotus Sutra is the sun and moon and the lotus flower. Therefore it is called the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law. Nichiren, too, is like the sun and moon and the lotus flower.

If the water of your faith is clear, the moon of blessings will surely cast its reflection on it and protect you. You are assured of an easy delivery. A passage from the Lotus Sutra says, “A wonderful Law such as this . . . ,” and another says, “She will be delivered safely of a healthy child.” I have carefully explained in detail to monk Ben about the orally transmitted instructions. Therefore, Ben is “an envoy of the Tathagata.” You must be earnest in your faith.” ‘Reply to the Wife of Shijo Kingo. In 1271’

　The day after he gave the protective agent, a baby girl was born in the Shijo family, and Nichiren named her Girl Tsukimaro with joy.

Nichiren burnt the text of “King Medicine” in the Lotus Sutra, which he had written himself, and instructed Tokimitsu to mix the ashes with a cup of water from the Shojin River between the hours of 3:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. and give it to Tokimitsu. The name of the Shojingawa River still exists today as "Shojin River, Fujinomiya City, Shizuoka Prefecture.

The twenty-eight-character of the Medicine King Chapter is probably this sentence.

“This sutra is a good medicine for all human diseases in the whole world. If a person has a disease and he listens to this sutra, the disease will disappear and he will be immortal.”　

What exactly is the utility of the protective agent? Nichiren wrote in his journal that in his later years, he was cured of his "emaciation illness" by taking a medicine prepared by Kingo Shijo, who was also a physician. He also wrote about the cause of his illness as follows.

　“The first is illness due to lack of harmony with the environment, the second is illness due to lack of eating and drinking, the third is illness due to lack of zazen (meditation), the fourth is illness caused by demons (contagious diseases), the fifth is illness caused by demons (mental illness), and the sixth is illness caused by karma (fate).” ‘Reply to lord Ota Nyudo.’

　Of these, one through five can be cured by medical treatment. Only the sixth, disease caused by karma, cannot be cured unless the sinful obstacles are extinguished through faith in the Lotus Sutra.”

Then, what is the benefit of the protective agent? What kind of benefit did Nichiren think it would have?　

　In fact, there are very few examples of Nichiren's actual use of the talisman. Considering the example of Nichigan-nyo's use when she conceived, it can be inferred that this was offered to her to relieve her mental anxiety. Conception is not a disease. However, the first birth can cause anxiety. Therefore, Nichigan-nyo asked Nichiren for a protective agent, and he seems to have agreed to the request.

　What about Tokimitsu's case?

　When Tokimitsu sent a messenger to Nichiren to tell him that he was seriously ill, Tokimitsu offered a horse as an offering. This is the only time that Tokimitsu wrote to Nichiren about offering a horse to Nichiren, and it is extremely unusual. It is assumed that Tokimitsu, feeling that he had little time left to live, gave his beloved horse, which had been with him, as a substitute for his own life. Nichiren could not help but say to Tokimitsu who had been driven to such an extreme level.

　 (You will not die. It is too early to give up. I am with you!)

Nichiren may have given the protective agent voluntarily, although Tokimitsu did not ask for it, in order to inspire him with the will to live.

The reason for the defective agent he gave to Nichigan-nyo is not specifically stated as being from any scripture. The talisman given to Tokimitsu, however, clearly states, "The twenty-eight characters of this sutra are from the seventh volume of the Lotus Sutra, ‘King Medicine.’”

　Match of environment and body is a fundamental principle of Buddhism. Hearing Nichiren's words from Nikko and receiving the protective agent from him, Tokimitsu no doubt felt the will to live once again, and his inherent power to heal naturally increased.

　Generally, when a new drug is tested, a group is divided into two groups: one group takes the investigational drug and the other group takes a placebo (fake drug) made from starch or other ingredients, and the results are compared to determine the exact effect of the drug. In other words, even if the drug is given to the patients without informing them that it is a fake drug, some people may feel relieved by the fact that they have taken the drug, and the natural healing power of the patients may be elicited and the drug may be effective.

Nichiren thinks.

After his death, his disciples will probably face various hardships. However, those who call themselves Nichiren's disciples must overcome all difficulties. If they do not, they will have no future.

The people who support the disciples are the lay believers and supporters. Nichiren believed that Nanjo Tokimitsu would be the key figure in the Lotus Sutra organization. Therefore, Nichiren believed that Tokimitsu must be revived at all costs.

On February 28, three days after Nichiren had Nichirō dictate to him, he woke up for the sake of Tokimitsu, even though he was bedridden. Then, exerting his last strength, he wrote a letter.

It is addressed not to anyone, but to the demons and devils that haunt Tokimitsu.

It is literally a book of life and death, live and let live. The entire writings are filled with the spirit of a demon.

　“By Nichiren, the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra.

How does the mirror of the Lotus Sutra reflect a person believing a Lotus Sutra as like a text of a sutra in the cruel world in the Latter day of the Law? Shakyamuni Buddha has left us words from his golden mouth revealing that such people have already made offerings to a hundred thousand million Buddhas in their past existences. But ordinary people in the Latter day of the Law might well doubt the words spoken by just one Buddha. With this in mind, Taho Buddha came expressly all the way from his World of Treasure Purity, many lands to the east. Facing Shakyamuni Buddha, he gave his words of testimony about the Lotus Sutra, saying, “All that you have expounded is the truth!” If this is so, then there can be no room for doubt about the matter. Nevertheless, Shakyamuni Buddha may have felt that ordinary people in the Latter-Day of the Law would still be skeptical. Hence, he summoned the Buddhas of the ten directions to come and join him in the magnificent act of extending their long, broad tongues, which had told nothing but the truth for as long as countless Kalpa, until they arranged into the sky as high as Mount Sumeru.

Since this is the case, ordinary people who believe even one or two words of the Lotus Sutra in the Latter Day of the Law are having the Buddhas' tongue of the ten directions. I wonder what relationship I created in the past to have been born as such a person, and I am filled with joy. The words of Shakyamuni that I referred to above indicate that the immense merits that come from having made offerings to a hundred thousand million Buddhas are so great that, even if one has believed in teachings other than the Lotus Sutra and as a result of this slander been born poor and lowly, one is still able to believe in this sutra in this life. Tendai states, “It is like the case of a person who falls to the ground, but who then pushes himself up from the ground and rises to his feet again.” One who has fallen to the ground recovers and rises up from the ground. Shakyamuni said that even if those who slander the Lotus Sutra will fall to the ground of the three evil paths, or of the human and heavenly realms, but in the end, through the help of the Lotus Sutra, they will attain Buddhahood.

Now since Nanjo Tokimitsu, is an ordinary person in the Latter Day of the Law and was born to a warrior family, he should by rights be called an evil man, and yet his heart is that of a good man. I say this reason. Everyone, from the ruler on down to the common people, refused to take faith in my teachings. They inflicted harm on the few who had a faith, heavily taxing or confiscating their estates and fields, or even in some cases putting them to death. So, it is a difficult thing to believe in my teachings, and yet both his mother and his deceased father dared to accept them. Now he had succeeded his father as his heir, and even without any prompting from others, he has wholeheartedly embraced these teachings. Many people, both high and low, have admonished or threatened him, but he has refused to give up his faith. Because he now appears certain to attain Buddhahood, perhaps the heavenly devil and evil spirits are sending illness to try to intimidate him.

One's life in this world is limited. Must not be even the least bit afraid. And you, demons, by making this man suffer, are you trying to swallow a sword point into your mouth, or embrace a raging fire, or become the archenemy of the Buddhas of the ten directions in the three existences? How terrible this will be for you! You must cure this person’s illness immediately, act rather as his protectors, and escape from the grievous sufferings that are the lot of demons. If you fail to do so, you probably should have your head broken into seven pieces in this life and fall into the great hell of incessant suffering in your next life! Must not prolong his disease! Should stop it forever! If you despise Nichiren's words, you will regret it later. You're gonna regret it. 　

　The twenty-eighth day of February in the fifth year of Kōan (1282)

　Down to Hoki-bo.” ‘The Proof of the Lotus Sutra.’

　Nichiren achieved the true meaning of his lifetime with the erection of the Dai-Gohonzon on October 12, Kouan 2. He also finished lecturing to his disciples on the Lotus Sutra as the true Buddha of the Latter Day of the Law on May 28, Kouan 3. On January 11, he completed his oral transmission of the "One Hundred and Six Articles" to Hoki-bo Nikko, to whom he entrusted his successor after his own death. He has no regrets even if he had completed his death at this point. Or, it would not be surprising if Nichiren prayed that Tokimitsu could prolong his life, and that he would be willing to give his remaining life to Tokimitsu. The three braves of Atsuhara gave Nichiren the opportunity to build the Dai-Gohonzon. It was his disciple Nikko who protected the peasant believers in Atsuhara, and among the believers, it was Nanjo Tokimitsu himself.

　On his way to Tatsunokuchi, Nichiren once dismounted from his horse and scolded the great Bodhisattva Hachiman. "When Nichiren visits the Pure Land of Spirit Eagle Mountain tonight with his neck cut off, I would say to lord Shakyamuni, ‘Sun Goddess and Justice Hachiman are the deities who do not follow Shakyamuni’s order," pointing to you. If you think that you are afraid, you should hasten to make your arrangement!’” Again, Nichiren scolded the demons in this letter.

After this, Nanjo Tokimitsu recovered. Tokimitsu was successfully revived. He received a life span of exactly 50 years from this day onward, and continued to live his entire life with faith in the Lotus Sutra. After Nichiren passed away, Tokimitsu offered his land to Hoki-bo Nikko and laid the foundation of today's Taiseki-ji Temple. At the age of seventy-four, Tokimitsu ended his life as a martyr to Nichiren, a life full of vicissitudes, but a life of integrity. Today, Ueno Township at the foot of Mt. Fuji, which was Tokimitsu's estate, is filled with believers from all over the world who adore Nichiren Daishonin and Nikko Shonin.

In the Life Span Chapter of the Lotus Sutra, there is the phrase, "To be given further life span.”

It is said that the Buddha gave 40 years of life to King Ajase, and that the Tendai Taishi gave 15 years of life to his elder brother. Nichiren extended his mother's life span by four years and gave Nanjo Tokimitsu a life of fifty years.

To be continued.