Nichiren Shonin and His Lay Followers
By Rev. Kanji Tamura, Litt. D.
Associate Professor,
Rissho University
Ryoke-no-ama and Nii-ama (2)
Go-honzon not given to O-ama
Nichiren Shonin wrote his mainwork, “Kanjin Honzon-sho (A TreatiseRevealing the Spiritual Contemplationand the Most Venerable One)” at Ichinosawa,Sado, showing his realizationof himself being a bodhisattva dispatchedby the Eternal Buddha to thisworld in the Latter Age of Degeneration.Based on this realization, hewrote, for the first time, “the Go-honzon(the Most Venerable One” in theform of a mandala. He conferred thesemandalas to his followers occasionally.More than 120 of these mandalas, confirmedto be written by Nichiren Shonin,exist today.As many disciples and followers were bestowed these mandalas, O-amaasked Nichiren Shonin to give her one.However, our Founder turned down her request,though with hesitation. O-ama was the wife of a senior official to whom the parents of our Founder and Founder himself owed much. However,O-ama appeared to be not firm in her faith, and therefore Nichiren Shonin did not write the Go-honzon for her.
Consequence of the Go-honzon
Nichiren Shonin explains in his letter,“the Go-honzon was not revealed even during the lifetime of Sakyamuni Buddha. It is revealed only in the Lotus Sutra, specifically in the chapters from XI to XXII. The revelation starts in Chapter XI, in which the Stupa of Many Treasures emerges from underground
and stays in the sky. Sakyamuni Buddha and thecongregation alsostay up in the sky.Thus the aerialassembly starts. InChapter XVI, followingthe revelationof the eternityof the Buddha, theaerial assembly is vested with the characteristic of the Go-honzon. And in Chapter XXI and XXII, the Go-honzontakes a complete form when theLotus Sutra is transmitted to bodhisattvas who are the original disciplesof the Eternal Buddha.”Nichiren Shonin preaches that Sakyamuni transmitted the Odaimoku,the title of the Lotus Sutrawhich symbolizes the teachings of the essential section of the Lotus Sutrarevealing the Eternal Buddha to“Superior Practice Bodhisattva” and other bodhisattvas, the true disciples ofthe Eternal Buddha, by calling them out from underground where they have been kept hidden at the bottom of the great earth from the eternal past.According to the Founder, SakyamuniBuddha prophesizes, “The Odaimoku should not be spread in the 2,000 years of my death. Since then,the time will come at the beginning ofthe Latter Age of Degeneration, when monks who defy the True Dharma fill the world, heavens and good deities rage, comets pass through the sky, andthe earth quakes like big waves.“Countless disasters such as disastrous droughts, great fires, deluges,storm damages, epidemics, famines,and large-scale wars ensure.“And when people all over the world take on armor and take up arrows and rods, the power of Buddhas,bodhisattvas and deities becomepowerless, people fall into the Hell ofIncessant Suffering as rain falls, if oneputs on the Dai-mandala bearing the O-daimoku on one’s body, and prays,kings will come to save the countries,the whole nation will get rid of disastersand great fires of hell after death.”We can hang the Dai-mandala in itsright place as an object of worship, putit on oneself as an amulet or imagine itin one’s mind to deepen faith.
Blame O-ama’s Unsettled Faith
Our Founder continues (in summary),I have been preaching the Odaimokufor more than 20 years. Asprophesized in the Lotus Sutra that those who spread the teaching of the
Lotus Sutra never fail to face persecutions,the master of the country, locallords and lords of manors, and otherrich land-owning families, and thewhole nation became my enemy.“And the Steward Tojo Kagenobubecame my enemy.” “The lord of the manor and his people (including Oama)are stupid. They are precarious intheir faith, sometimes maintaining itand other times throwing it away.When Nichiren was sentenced to beexiled in Sado, they abandoned the Lotus Sutra. This is why I have always been telling you the Lotus Sutra is hard to believe and hard to understand.“If I bestow the Go-honzon to Oama wishing to save her since Nichiren owes her very much, the ten female raksasa demons (guardians of the practitionersof the Lotus Sutra) will claimthat Nichiren is unfair.“If I do not award it to O-ama,Nichiren is deemed fair, but O-amawill think ill of me, without knowing of her own sin.”Thus Nichiren Shonin tells her that He does not give the Go-honzon to her following the strict instruction of the Lotus Sutra.
Nii-ama Receives Go-honzon
Nichiren Shonin thus declined Oama’splea to have the Go-honzon,showing the meaning and significance of the Most Venerable One. Meanwhile,he wrote to Nii-ama, “Though you and O-ama seem to belong to the same family, I can see your devotion.You have often shown your devotion by sending me offerings either while I was in Sado or at Minobusan. Since you are persistent in your faith, I presented you with the Go-honzon.”
(Tr. K. S.)
(to be continued
[215x338]