The Entity of the Mystic Law (2) 当体義抄 二

　Japanese

　Question: Since the beginning of the kalpa of continuance, has anyone become enlightened to the lotus that is the entity of the Mystic Law?

　Answer: Shakyamuni Buddha became enlightened to this lotus that is the entity of the Mystic Law numberless major world system dust particle kalpas in the past, and in age after age and lifetime after lifetime, declared that he had attained the way and revealed the fundamental principle he had realized with his enlightened wisdom.

　In our present world as well, he appeared in the kingdom of Magadha in central India, intending to reveal this lotus of the Mystic Law. But the people lacked the proper capacity, and the time was not right. Therefore, he drew distinctions regarding this lotus of the single Law and expounded it as three kinds of flowers, delivering to the people the provisional teachings of the three vehicles. For over forty years he guided and led them with these temporary teachings according to their capacities. During this period, because the capacities of the people he addressed were so varied, he bestowed upon them the various flowers and plants of the provisional teachings, but he never spoke of Myoho-renge. That is why, in the Immeasurable Meanings Sutra, the Buddha said: “In the past I sat upright in the place of meditation for six years under the bodhi tree and was able to gain supreme perfect enlightenment . . . But in these more than forty years, I have not yet revealed the truth.”

But when he preached the Lotus Sutra, he cast aside the various plants and flowers of the Hinayana doctrines and the provisional teachings, which correspond to the expedient means of the four flavors and three teachings, and explained the unique doctrine of Myoho-renge. When he opened the three figurative lotuses to reveal the single lotus of Myoho-renge, the people of the provisional teachings with their four flavors and three teachings were able to gain the lotus of the first of the ten stages of security. Not until he revealed the lotus of “opening the near and revealing the distant” were they able to obtain the lotus of the highest result, advancing to the second stage of security, the third stage of security, the tenth stage, the stage of near-perfect enlightenment, and finally, the highest stage of perfect enlightenment.

Question: Exactly which passages in which chapters of the Lotus Sutra expound the lotus that is the entity of the Mystic Law, and which ones expound the lotus that is a metaphor?

Answer: If we speak in terms of the three groups of voice-hearers, then we would say that the whole of the “Expedient Means” chapter expounds the lotus that is the entity, while the “Simile and Parable” and “Parable of the Phantom City” chapters expound the lotus that is a metaphor. However, it cannot be said that explanations of the lotus as a metaphor are entirely lacking in the “Expedient Means” chapter, nor can it be said that the other chapters are without explanation of the lotus as the entity.

Question: If so, then what passage contains a full elucidation of the entity?

Answer: The passage in the “Expedient Means” chapter that deals with the true aspect of all phenomena.

Question: How do we know that this passage deals with the lotus that is the entity?

Answer: Because Tendai and Myoraku quote this passage when they explain the essence of the Lotus Sutra. And the Great Teacher Dengyō in his commentary also writes, “Question: What is the essence of the Lotus Sutra? Answer: Its essence is the true aspect of all phenomena.” This passage of commentary clarifies the matter. (Scholars of the time kept this commentary secret and did not reveal the name of the entity, but the passage is clearly referring to Myoho-renge.)

Furthermore, actual evidence of the entity is to be found in the examples of the three kinds of Buddhas described in the “Treasure Tower” chapter, the bodhisattvas who appeared from the earth, and the dragon king’s daughter who attained Buddhahood in her present form. The Bodhisattvas of the Earth offer actual evidence because, as a passage of the Lotus Sutra says, “They are unsoiled by worldly things like the lotus flower in the water.” Thus we learn of the true entity of these bodhisattvas. And the dragon king’s daughter offers actual evidence because she made her appearance at the gathering at Spirit Eagle Mountain, “seated on a thousand-petaled lotus blossom big as a carriage wheel.”

Moreover, the thirty-four manifestations of Bodhisattva Wonderful Sound and the thirty-three manifestations of Bodhisattva Kannon constitute further evidence. For, as the commentary says, “If he had not gained the mysterious power of perfect freedom of action through the meditation based on the Lotus Sutra, then how could he manifest these thirty-three different forms?”

　In addition, there is the sutra passage that states, “. . . the characteristics of the world are constantly abiding.” All these passages are documentary proofs cited by the scholars of our time. Personally, however, I, Nichiren, adopt to cite the passage in the “Expedient Means” chapter on the true aspect of all phenomena and the passage in the “Supernatural Powers” chapter that refers to “the Law that Tathagata possesses at all.” This last passage is also cited by the Great Teacher Tendai in his commentary explaining the five major principles of the Lotus Sutra. Therefore, this passage in particular can be cited as certain proof of the entity of the Mystic Law.

　Question: The documentary proofs and actual proofs that you have cited above are particularly compelling. But why do you place such emphasis upon this one passage from the “Supernatural Powers” chapter?

　Answer: This passage is profoundly significant, and that is why it is particularly pertinent.

　Question: What is that profound significance?

　Answer: In this passage, Shakyamuni Buddha explains that he is entrusting the five characters of Myoho-renge-kyo, which is the essence of the Lotus Sutra, to the Bodhisattvas Emerging from the Earth, his original disciples. The Tathagata Shakyamuni, who attained enlightenment countless kalpas in the past, says elsewhere, “What I long ago hoped for has now been fulfilled. I have converted all living beings and caused them all to enter the Buddha way.” Thus, he has already fulfilled his earlier vow. Then, intending to charge his disciples with the task of accomplishing widespread propagation in the last five-hundred-year period after his passing, he called forth the Bodhisattvas Emerging from the Earth and entrusted them with the heart of the sutra, the lotus of the entity of the essential teaching. This passage represents the ultimate purpose for which Shakyamuni Buddha appeared in the world, the secret Law that he attained in the place of meditation. It is this passage that gives proof of the lotus of the entity that, for those of us who live in the Latter Day of the Law, assures the attainment of Buddhahood in both the present and future.

　Accordingly, at the present time in the Latter Day of the Law, other than the envoy of the Tathagata, there can be no one who understands and produces this passage as proof of the lotus of the entity. Truly it is a passage of secret meaning. Truly it is a matter of great importance. Truly it is to be honored and admired. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

　(This is what is meant by the statement in the Lotus Sutra that the bodhisattvas of the perfect teaching preached before the sutra have assembled in a multitude of eighty thousand, wishing to hear the complete teaching.)

　Question: Concerning the doctrines of our school, when persons of other schools come and want to know what passages give proof of the lotus of the entity, what passages from the Lotus Sutra should be cited?

　Answer; You should point to the title Myoho-renge-kyo that appears at the very beginning of each of the twenty-eight chapters of the Lotus Sutra.

　Question: But how do we know that the title Myoho-renge-kyo appearing in each chapter is the lotus of the entity of the Mystic Law? I ask this because, when the Great Teacher Tendai explained the title of the Lotus Sutra, he interpreted the lotus as a metaphor, so that we would have to say that this is the lotus that is a metaphor, would we not?

　Answer; The renge, or lotus, in the title of the sutra is explained as both entity and metaphor. In the interpretation you have just referred to, Tendai is explaining the lotus as a metaphor. This is what he does in the first volume of Profound Meaning where he discusses the six metaphors of the theoretical and essential teachings. But in the seventh volume of the same work, he interprets the lotus as the entity of the Mystic Law. Thus Tendai’s doctrine is flawless in that it reveals both interpretations, explaining the lotus in the title of the sutra as both entity and metaphor.

　Question: How do we know that these two interpretations can be used and that the title can be taken as both entity and metaphor? When the Great Teacher Nangaku explained the five characters Myoho-renge-kyo, he said, “Myō indicates that all living beings are myō, or mystic. Hō indicates that all living beings are hō, or the Law. Renge, or lotus, is a metaphor that is employed here.” It would seem, then, would it not, that both Nangaku and Tendai interpreted the lotus as a metaphor?

　Answer: Nangaku’s interpretation is like that of Tendai. While it is not entirely clear from the sutras that there can be two interpretations, that is, taking the lotus as both entity and metaphor, Nangaku and Tendai discerned these two meanings through the treatises of Vasubandhu and Nāgārjuna.

　That is to say, in The Treatise on the Lotus Sutra we read: “The words Myoho-renge have two meanings. First, they signify the lotus that appears on the surface of the water. . . . The way in which the lotus emerges from the muddy water is used as a metaphor to explain that, when the Tathagata joins the multitude of listeners, seats himself on a lotus in the same manner as the various bodhisattvas, and expounds on the unsurpassed wisdom of the Tathagata and on the enlightened state of purity, the various voice-hearers, hearing this, are able to obtain the secret storehouse of the Tathagata. Second, the words Myoho-renge signify the lotus opening up. This is a metaphor explaining that ordinary beings, though exposed to the Mahayana teachings, are timid and fearful in mind and incapable of taking faith in them. Therefore, the Tathagata ‘opens’ or reveals his Dharma body in its purity and wonder, awakening in them the mind of faith.”

　In this passage, the word “various” in the phrase “the various bodhisattvas” refers to the fact that the bodhisattvas of both the Mahayana and Hinayana teachings, upon arriving on the scene when the Lotus Sutra is preached, are able, for the first time, to understand the lotus of the Buddha. This is clear from the above passage in Treatise on the Lotus Sutra. Therefore, we know that the statement that the bodhisattvas had already gained entrance to enlightenment through the various sutras was no more than an expedient.

　Tendai explains this passage of Treatise on the Lotus Sutra as follows: “If we are to explain the meaning of the paper, we would say that, when the Tathagata causes ordinary beings to see the Dharma body in its purity and wonder, he is showing them the lotus that opens through a mystic cause. And when the Tathagata enters the multitude of listeners and seats himself on a lotus, he is indicating that the land produced as a mystic reward is itself the lotus.”

　Again, when Tendai wishes to give a detailed explanation of the dual interpretation of the lotus as both entity and metaphor, he quotes the passage in the Great Collection Sutra that reads, “I now bow in reverence before the lotus of the Buddha,” and the passage in Treatise on the Lotus Sutra that has just been quoted, to support his argument. As he explains: “According to the Great Collection Sutra, the renge is both the cause and the effect of religious practice. When the bodhisattvas sit themselves on the lotus, this is the lotus of the cause. But the lotus of the Buddha that one bows before in reverence is the lotus of the result. Or, according to the Treatise on the Lotus Sutra, the land surrounding one is the lotus. That is, the bodhisattvas, by practicing the Law of the lotus, are as a merit able to obtain the land of the lotus. Thus we should understand that the objective realm and the subjective being who depends upon it, the cause that is the bodhisattva and the effect that is the Buddha, are all the Law of the Renge, or lotus. Therefore, what need is there to employ metaphors? But because dull-witted people cannot understand the lotus of the essential nature of phenomena, an ordinary lotus is introduced as a metaphor to assist them. What harm is there in that?”

　And elsewhere he says, “If we do not use a lotus, then what are we to employ as a metaphor for all the various teachings that have been described above? It is because the Law and the metaphor are expounded side by side that we refer to them by the phrase Myoho-renge.”

　Next, we come to the Great Perfection of Wisdom by Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna, which states, “The lotus represents both the Law itself and a metaphor for it.” The Great Teacher Dengyō, explaining the above passages from the treatises of Vasubandhu and Nāgārjuna, writes as follows: “The passage in Treatise on the Lotus Sutra says that the lotus of what is called Myoho-renge-kyo has two meanings. It does not say that an ordinary lotus has two meanings. On the whole, what is admirable here is the fact that the Law and the metaphor that is used for it resemble each other. If they did not resemble each other, then how could the metaphor help people understand the meaning? That is why the Great Perfection of Wisdom says that the lotus is both the Law itself and a metaphor for it. A single mind, the entity of Myoho-renge, simultaneously brings to maturity both the blossom of cause and the fruit of effect. This concept is difficult to understand, but through the use of a metaphor, it can be made easy to understand. The teaching that ultimately sets forth this principle is called Myoho-renge-kyo.”

　These passages from the treatises and their explanations quoted here will make the matter clear, and one should therefore examine them carefully. Nothing is hidden or held back, and hence the dual explanations of the lotus as both entity and metaphor are fully expounded.

　In the final analysis, the meaning of the Lotus Sutra is that the metaphor is none other than the entity of the Law and that the entity of the Law is none other than the metaphor. That is why the Great Teacher Dengyō in his commentary says: “The Lotus Sutra contains a great many metaphors and parables. However, when it comes to the major parables, we find that there are seven of them. These seven parables are none other than the entity of the Law, and the entity of the Law is none other than these metaphors and parables. Therefore, there is no entity of the Law outside of the metaphors and parables, and there are no metaphors and parables outside of the entity of the Law. In other words, the entity of the Law refers to the entity of the truth of the essential nature of phenomena, while the metaphors and parables represent the entity of the Mystic Law as manifested in actual phenomena. The matters are none other than the entity of the truth, and the entity of the truth is none other than the matters. Therefore, it can be said that the Law and its metaphors constitute a single entity. This is why the passages from the papers and the Annotations by the Tendai school all explain the lotus as both the Law itself and a metaphor for it.”

　This passage is perfectly clear in meaning, and therefore I need say nothing further.

Continued

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