Vol.63 , No.3(2015)194渡邊 寶陽「日蓮聖人の『法華経』観の特色」

Jburnal

_of]indian

andBudtthist StudiesVbl.

63,

No.

3,

March2015

(17)

Features

ofNichiren's

Understanding

of

the

Lotus

Sutra:

Ichinen

sanzen and

MyOhO

_goji

Wp(rANABE

HOy6

What are

the

characteristic

_points

ofNichiren's

H

g

(

1222-1282)

understanding of the

Lotus

Sutra?

First,we

have

toconfirm that

Nichiren

thoughtthetheoretical

foundation

of

the

Lotus

Sutra

is

centained inthe concept of Ichinensanzen "

{il

='

=f-

(three

thousand

realms

in

a single thought)

first

conceived

by

Zhiyi

ig

ac

(538-598),

the founderof the

Tiantai

School,

in

his

work Mbhe zhiguan

gEojIEee

(The

Great

Calming

and

Contempla-tion).

Secondly,

Nichiren

believed

that nobody could understand the teaching of

`CThree

thousand realms

in

a single thought"

in

theage ofmqppo-

*tik

(latter

age ofthe

dharma).

Because of this,

he

upheld and

_practiced

the

Lotus

Sutra

only by chanting itstitle,

"Myd-h6-ren-ge-kyO."

Everybody

knows

thatthiswas

Nichiren's

way _of accepting theLotzts

Sti-tra

in

order tospread

it

not only

in

Japan

but

also throughout

the

world even intothe mod-ern age.

Before

I

go

into

the

details,

Iwould liketorefer to a few itemsof background

knowl-edge ofBuddhism. As

is

well

known,

Buddhism was founded inIndia,was spread north and south to

become

Mahay5na

Buddhism

and Theravdda Buddhism respectively.

In

Japan,Saich6

Rki

(767-822)

introducedTiantaiBuddhisrn

from

China

and spread the

LotusSutra,and

insisted

on

fusing

the

fbur

teachingsofperfection, esoteric,

_precepts

and

meditation. However, thePure Land Buddhism

became

popular.

Genshin

taE

(942-1O17)wrote the

ojdyo-shfi

al!keesc

and Ibhijo-yo-ketsu"ftetrk, and H6nen

tiEirk

(1133-1212)

wrote the

Sk3njaku

hongan nenbutsushti

ueV<t7ts

vaf2

'Ctssc.

These

books

had

great

influence

over theentire Japanand caused thePure Land Buddhism tospread.

Many

Bud-dhist

denominations

inJapanaccepted PureLand Buddhisrneven today.

When Nichirenstarted

his

career as a Buddhistmonk, he confronted thePureLand Bud-dhism thatspread throughout

Japan

by

H6nen

and

his

disciples.

Nichiren

wrote theShugo

kokkaron

tiiffNawh, i) _a

year

beforethe Risshoankokuron

[iZIEfftNwh

when

he

was

NII-Electronic Library Service

(18)

FeaturesofNichiren's Understandingofthe LotusSutra

(H,

wn'iANABE)

Nichiren

said

in

his

Shugo kokkaronthatGenshindidnot describehistrue

ideas

suMciently

in

his

_Qioj,6shti,

butthey were well

described

in

his

Ibhij'O

_ybketsu,

written ten

_years

later;

Nichirenexplained the eight most

dreadfu1

hells

in

_the

beginning

_ofhis Kbn

ho-b6sho-

eeff

tlkte

).2) Hisexplanation here was

in

fact

a summary of

Clidyoshfi.3)

Many

_parts

ofNichi-ren's teachings _{were related somehow} to

Hbnen

_and

his

PureLand Buddhism.

With

thispointofview,

let

me

discuss

how

Nichiren

devoted

himselftothe_propagation

of the Lotus

Suira

by

_examining

his

Shugo

kokharon.

He wrote tbe book when he was

thirty-eight_yearsold at MatsubagayatsuinKamakura. He

built

a smal1 hutthereafter he

proclaimed

hisnew

faith

and was

ejected

from

Kiyosumi

[[empleattheage ofthirty-two.

Itis

generally

thought thatNichiren'sreligious thought

had

a

_political

aspect

in

light

of

the

fact

thathe_presentedhis

Rissho-

ankokziron to

Hojo-

[Ibkiyori

atze

eeme,

a man

in

_power

aMliated with the

Karnakura

Shogunate.

Nichirenwas attacked at Matsubagayatsu in

Au-gust,I260,a month after

his

_presentationofthe

Rissho-

ankokuron. He was exiled toIzu

in

1261 and attacked again at

Komatsubara

in

1264.

Nichirenwas almost executed at

[latsu-noknchi

in

1271 and exiled toSado.Through these

_persecutions

he identifiedhimselfas a

practitionerof theLotus

Sutra.

However,

he

said

in

his

Kbimohasho"

ma

e

}19

that

he

con-vinced himselfofbeingtheGreatBodhisattva_ofSuperior Practice

(JOgyd

Bosatsu_nlttig

me

)

from

the

underground after he experienced the

Four

Major

Persecutions.

Meanwhile

in

1262

in

the1<y6kijikokusho-

Xee

ee

apt,

he

said that_propagationofthe

Lotus

Slaitra,

as the

future

book

ofthe Buddha, should

have

been

based

on the

Five

Categories

ofteaching,

ca-pacity,time,country and order.

Later,

in

the

Kdimokusho",

he

said that"order"

was

re-placed

by

"teacher"

because

ofhis

identification

as the GreatBodhisattvaof Superior Prac-tice.

After

writing the Kbimokusho",

he

wrote ACyoraimetsuge_{gogohyakusaishi} kanjin

honzonshO

anJIItapaEEillilEueaGenJ"7Nijt4p

at Sado Islandand explained the

impor-tance ofupholding the title_of

the

Lotus

SZitra

(Odaimoku

S3sc

E),

_and

described

"the Honzon ofmapp6"

(JRUiCDJ4scpt)

and elucidated why

he

had

tocarry out

his

duty

as the

Great

Bodhisattva

of

Superior

Practice.

Also

after

he

entered

into

Minobusan,

he

wrote the

Slenjisho-

ncHlitg)

and

Hjonjo-

W,eell)

to

describe

the

details

ofhis teaching.

Accordingtohisfivemajor works, hisfaithintheabsolute necessity ofpropagating the Lotus

Shrtra

became

more

_purified

tlllroughhismany

_{persecutions.}

That isthe

_general

un-derstanding

ofNichiren's teaching.

On

the

other

hand,

the theme of the

Shz{go

kokkaron

was salvation

by

upholding the

-1112-FeaturesofNichiren's Understandingofthe LotusSutra

(H.

WAmNABE)

(19)

tusSatra

in

turbulenttimesas stated

in

the

Rissh6

ankokuron.

It

criticized H6nen and

his

Pure Land Buddhism. He thought that

Genshin

understood thatthe

Pure

Land

Buddhism

was expedient, and thatthe

Lotus

Sutra

and theNirvanaSittrawere the essential teachings

of Buddhism.

Ithink thatitisimportantto

discuss

his

initial

understanding of

Buddhism

and why

he

praised

the

Lotus

Stitra

with his

S;ijugo

kokkaroninorder tosee

how

he

developed

his

Bud-dhist

_philosophy.[lhis

is

the main

theme

ofthis essay.

The

Shugo

kokkaron

consists of a_prologueand seven chapters. Iwant todiscussseveral

important

_points

ofeach chapter

from

the

beginning.

1.

DiMculty

ofBeing

Born

as a

Human

being

Inthe

beginning

of

the

Shugo

kokkanron,

Nichiren

describedhow difficultitwas tobe

bom

as a

human

being.

Upon refleetion, Iconsider myself fortunatetohavebeenbom intheSah5WbrldinJapanand to

haveunexpectedly escaped thethreeevil realms, fbrour chances of beingbernintheevil realrns

areasnumerous as thenumber ofdust _particlesinalltheworlds ofthe universe while our chances

4)

ofbeing borninthehuman realm are as small astheamount ofsoil on afingemail.

Inthisway he emphasized

how

fortunate

he

was to

be

born

in

Japan,

and

how

important

it

was

fbr

him

to encourage

himself

tolivewith trueBuddhism and seek enlightenrnent.

The

Shugo

kokharon

has

_generally

been

treatedinclose connection with Nichiren's

criti-cism ofH6nen and

his

Pure

Land

teaching

in

the

RisshO

ankokuron. Theremay be a

_goed

reason

fbr

thistreatment,as itistruethat

in

the Shugo

kokkaron

Nichiren

fbund

profbund

meaning inthe five_periodsof the Buddha's life,criticized H6nen and hisPure Land

Bud-dhism,

and expressed that

the

true

intention

of the

Buddha

was

fbund

in

the

Lotus

Shrtra

and

Nirvana

Sutra.

However,

it

seems more

important

tonote thatthese aspects

found

in

the

Shtrgo

kokkaron

should

have

sprung

from

Nichiren's

basic

awareness ofthe meaning

of

his

own

birth

as a

human

being

and

his

deep

sense that

he

had

a mission totryand

real-ize

the ultimate teaching of Buddha and _propagateitinJapan,the landinwhich he ob-tained

his

own

birth

as a

human

being.

He talked about the

diMculty

of

being

born

as a human again inhis

Sleishun

tenno'_gosho

MueiEgas#

later

written at

Minobusan.

In

it,

it

is

written:

NII-Electronic Library Service

(20)

FeaturesofNichiren's Understandingofthe LotusSleitra

(H.

wrr/kNABE)

theIVirvanaSutra,isas small as theamount of dirton a fingernailthough theremay bean

surable amount of soilon theearth. 5)

We

know

thatthose

_praises

are a starting _pointofhis understanding ofBuddhism.

2.

The

Five

Periods

of the

Buddha's

Life

2.1.Ibhidai

_gojizu

As

is

well

known,

Zhiyi

divided

the Buddha's

life

into

the

five

_periods.They were the

periodofthe

Avatamsaka

Sutra

(etwM),

A'gama

Sutras

(Fnjftff),

Vaipulya

Sutr[zs

(JE

gatsuE"),

Pncv'n"opin'amitdSsitras

(rentM)

and theLotus-AJIrvanaSbetra

(2ikfffi

'

zeasff)

.Thisisthetraditionalunderstanding _of Buddha's teachings intheTiantai_school.

Nichirenalso accepted thisidea.6)

Nichiren

explained this

idea

not only

in

his

Shugo

kokkaron

but

also

in

other writings.

When

he

taught

it

to

his

disciples

and

fbllowers,

he

depicted

it

in

thetwo Ilrhidui

_gojizu

di

t{:Elileepa

in

1260

and

1268.

He also

drew

thelbhicini_gojikeizu-,flitEliHIsee

_pa

fbur

times

in

1275,

1276,

1279

and

1280,

and others.

r

22.1.

S5kyamuni

Buddha,

the

Buddha

of

Many

IYeasures,and the Buddhas

in

Tbn

Directions

In the second section of theShugo

kokkaron,

to

determine

whether the Lotus-IVirvana

SzitrcLs

or thetriple

Pure

Land

sutras will continue to

lead

_people

to salvation

fbrever,7)

Nichiren

said, "Sakyamuni

declared

that

the

Lotus

Sutra

was supreme of allthesutras that

he

had

_preached,

was

_preaching,

and would

be

_preaching.

The Many TreasuresBuddha

at-testedthe truthof theLotusShrtra.Buddhas manifested

in

various worlds allover the

uni-verse also verified thetruthof theLotusSutraby touching the Brahma-Heaven with their

own tongues.The sole

_purpose

ofthese threeevents was to

have

theLotusSutra

last

fbrever

in

thisworld."8)

Sakyamuni

Buddha's threetimes

_preaching

means that

he

had

_preached

in

the_past,was

preaching

in

the

present,

and would

be

preaching

inthe

future.

Itmeans thattheLotus

Su-tra was supreme above all the sutras he had _preached,was _preaching,and weuld

be

preaching

fbr

thereason thattheLotusSutratranscends

the

impermanent

world and exists

in

theabsolute.

2.2.2.

Re-recognition

efa

Moment

ofFaith

Thus, itshould benoted thatthetme _purpose of Genshininwriting the

qdyo-shfi

was to convert

-1114-FeaturesofNichiren's Understandingofthe LotusSittra

(H,

WAiANABE)

(21)

peopletohave faithinthe LotusSutrabycomparing themerits ofthe nenbutsu, supreme ofall

9)

Lotassutras,tothemerits ofthe LotusStitrashowing thesuperiority efthe latter. Thisstatement is

fbllowed

by:

Intheseventh itemof thetenthchapter on the"Questions

and Answers" inhisClidyjsha,Genshin

discussedthe comparative _{superiority ofthe} merit ofvarious _practicesand considered thenenbutsu themost reliable fbrrebirthinthePureLand.Immediatelyafter this,hecompared thenenbutsu, the

supreme _practicein_{sutraspreached}befbre_theLotblsSutra,_tothemerit ofhaving a moment of faith

preached intheLotusSiitra,decisivelystating thatthe merit ofhaving a moment oftrue faithis

hundreds,thousands,tenthousandstimesgreaterthanthatof concentrated _practiceef the

butsu.10)

2.3.Slander

It

is

stated

in

the

Lotus

Sutra,

fascicle

2,

chapter 3 "A Parable,""Ifa _person

does

_not

be-lieve

in

but

instead

slanders thissutra,

he

will immediately

destroy

all

the

seeds

fbr

attain-ingBuddhahood in

this

world." It

is

because

one aspect of

having

no

faith

in

thissutra

causes others toabandon theLotusstitra.ii)

3.

Reasons

Why

the

Senjaku

hougan

nenbutsushuH

SIanders

the

True

Dharma

Nichiren

criticized

H6nen's

Slenjaku

hongan

nenbutsushti _atmany

_places

inhis_works. i2)

The

_purposeof thisessay

is

to

discuss

Nichiren's

faith

in

his

S7ingo

kokkaron.

It

is

not nec-essary todiscussthischapter indetailshere.

4.

Seriptural

Statement

to

Show

Why

Slanderers

of

the

True

Dharma

should

be

Punished

I

will also

leave

thischapter out ofconsideration

in

this_paper

fbr

_thesame reason. i3)

5.

Difliculty

of

Meeting

"Good

_Friends"

and the

True

Dharma

(

1

)

Nichirenexplains

how

diMcult

it

is

to

be

born

a

human

beingand to encounter

Bud-dhism.

14)

(2)

Nichiren

illustrates

thateven

if

one was

born

a

human

being

and encountered

Bud-dhism,

dirncult

as

it

was, he might fa11intothethreeevil realms ifheassociated with "evil

friends.',

i5)

(3)

Nichirendiscusseswhat was a "good

friend"

fbr

theunenlightened

in

the

Latter

Age

NII-Electronic Library Service

(22)

FeaturesofNichiren's Understandingofthe LotusSutra

(H.

WATANABE)

6.

Precautions

that

the

Practitioners

of the

Lotus-AJirvana

Sutras

should

Keep

in

Mind

Answering

a _questionof

believing

in

the

Odaimoku

without understanding itsmeaning,

he

said that

it

was

due

tothemeritorious acts ofpast

lives

thatanyone happened to

be

born

ina landwhere theLotusSleitraisknown. i7) As the result, anyone vvould not fa11into

the

evil realms. '8) He said thatwe should tryto_gainpeaceofmind

by

_practicing

theLotus

Su-trainreply to what Genshin said

in

his

Ichij'o'_yo-ketsu,"the entire landof Japan seems

ready tobelievesolely

in

the

_perfect

teaching.i'

He

also said thattheEternalTrueBuddha,

theorigin of all Buddhas

in

manifestation,

is

always

in

this

Saha

world according to state-ments

in

chapter XVI ofthe LotusShrtra.

In

addition,

he

emphasized thattheLotus

SZitra

is

the

best

and tme teachingamong all sutras, and isvery difficulttobelieveand understand.

Therefbre,

to

Nichiren

the

teaching

of

the

Lotus

Sutra

is

better

than

pre-Lotus

sutras, the

Sutra

ofJnj7nite

Meaning

(Ch.

Pht-liangyiJ'ing,

Jp.MuryOgi

_kyO

f,fiiE,..gtsM)and theArlrvana

Slattra.

Thisiscalled, "Superior tothreeteachings."Secondly,theBuddha of

Many

Treasures

comes and certifiesthe

truth-fulness

oftheLotus

SutTa

when itis

_preached.

AccordingtoNichiren,theBuddha ofMany

Treasures

doesso inorder to realize

his

wish.

Thirdly,

all

Buddhas

inten

directions

whe

were taught

from

theremetest _pastcome together and _praisethe

Lotus

Shatra

when

it

is

preached.

The LotusSutrawas

brought

to

Japan

from

India,

through the silk road, China,and the

Korean Peninsula.Itwas

highly

respected.

While

nobles inthe Heian Periodrespected

sutras themselves, not teachings,

D6gen

gJli

(1200-1253)

in

the

Kamakura

Period

un-derstoodtheLotusSutrathrough

his

Zen

experience and wrote S;h6bo-_geizaO

IE2il

NRwt

for

20

_years.

On

the other hand,Nichirenaccepted the

Lotus

Sutra

as a

future

book

for

salva-tion

for

the

_people

in

themappO. That iswhy Nichirendidnot take theMohe zhiguan

by

Grand MasterTiantaias a method ofmeditation. Rather,

he

took "Ichinen sanzen"

(Three

thousand realms

in

a single thought)

preached

in

the

fascicle

5ofthe Mohe zhigblan as the most importantteaching as sublime act of chanting the Daimoku fbrthesalvation ofpeople

in

the age ofmampo-. rlliat

is

where

Nichiren's

understanding of theLotus

Sutra

is

quite

dif

ferent

from

others.

His

_profbund

doctrine

was revealed inhisAeyoraimetsugo

gagohyaku-saishi

hanjin

honzonsho-

written

in

theconviction thathewas

the

heir

of the

Bodhisattva

of

-1116-Features　ofNichiren ’

s　Understanding　of　the　Lotus　Sutra（H ．　WATANABE ） _（23_） Superior　Practice．　As　a　concluding　remark

，　

I

　would 　

like

　to　emphasize 　that，　

his

　unique 　un − derstanding　of　the　Lotus　

Sutra

　was 　

found

　

in

　

his

　Shugo　

kokkaron

　written 　at　the　age　of　thirty−

eight _，　whereas 　it　may 　safely　

be

　said　that　

he

　must 　

have

　

had

　such 　understanding 　when 　he

proclaimed

　

his

　new 　

faith

　at　the　age　of　thirty−two．

1

）The　ShoJwa　teihon　Nichiren　Sho’nin 　ibun昭和 定本日蓮 聖 人遺 文 （hereafter　Sh6wa　teihon）

，p． 209．

2

）　翫δwαteihon，　P．247．

3）Watanabe　H6y6　

Va

辺宝 陽，　IVichiren　Bukkyδ一ron ’　Sono　kicho−　o　nasu 〃mono 日蓮仏 教論：その基 調 を な す もの （T（）kyo：Shunjttsha_，　2003 ）_，P．59 ． ） ） ） ） ） ） ） ） ） ） ） ） ） ） ） 4567891011121314151617185んδwα teihon ，　P．89． 翫 δwα teihon_，　p．1395． ε海δM／ateihon ，　p．50． 5乃δwo 　teihon，　p．101． 3乃δwσ teihon_，　p．102． 3乃δwα teihon，　p．104． Shδwa 　teihon_，　p．104． 翫 δ｝vα teihon，　p．105， 5力δwα teihon_，　p．108， Shδwa 　teihon，　P．114． 5んδwo 　teihon_，　P．　l　l　9． 島 δwα teihon ，　P．119． 肋 δwo 　teihon，　P．119． ShδM〜o　teihon，　p．125． ShOn・ateihon ，　P．129．

〈Key　words _＞ Nichiren，　Lo’〃3 翫’砌

（Professor　Emeritus