Truth of the Shackled and Bound Prometheus

The Justice Chronicle, provided by Soka Gakkai International-USA, is a free monthly e-mail in support of the Soka Spirit movement. Soka Spirit is the SGI's educational effort to create value and deepen our understanding of Nichiren Buddhism through increased awareness of issues surrounding the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood and the spiritual foundation of the SGI movement.

1) FILL THE WORLD WITH THE LIGHT OF WISDOM AND CULTURE

This series contains SGI President Ikeda's 1991 message to commemorate March 16, Kosen-rufu Day, which originally appeared in the May 1991 issue of the Seikyo Times. It was written shortly after the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood began taking action against the Soka Gakkai at the end of 1990.

A TRUE KING IS MASTER OF HIMSELF

No one understood the truth of the shackled and bound Prometheus. And there had even been some who ridiculed him.

[In Percy Bysshe Shelley's Prometheus Unbound,] Prometheus states: Mother, thy sons and thou / Scorn him, without whose all-enduring will / Beneath the fierce omnipotence of Jove / Both they and thou had vanished like thin mist / Unrolled on the morning wind! -- Know ye not me, / The Titan? He who made his agony / The barrier top your else all-conquering foe? (Act I, lines 113-119).

Still he retained regal equanimity, as though to say, I am a king.

Pity the self-despising slaves of Heaven, / Not me, within whose mind sits peace serene / as light in the sun, throned.... How vain is talk?(Act I, lines 429-31).

And: Yet am I king over myself, and rule / The torturing and conflicting throngs within (Act I, lines 492-93).

A king is not one who rules over others but one who is a master of himself.

Prometheus had true fortitude. Even thus imprisoned, he continued to speak his mind freely.

To begin with, as one of the Titans [an order of gods that predated the Olympian pantheon of gods of which Zeus was chief], Prometheus had been active longer than Zeus. And when Zeus acceded to his throne [by overthrowing his father Cronus], Prometheus had assisted him on the condition that he would make people free.

Prometheus states: Evil minds / Change good to their own nature. I gave all / He has, and in return he chains me here / Years, ages, night and day: whether the Sun / Split my parched skin, or in the moony night / The crystal-winged snow cling round my hair -- / Whilst my beloved race is trampled down by his thought-executing ministers. / Such is the tyrant's recompense: 'tis just: / He who is evil can receive no good; / And for a world bestowed, or a friend lost, / he can feel hate, fear shame -- not gratitude: / He but requites me for his own misdeed. / Kindness to such is keen reproach, which breaks / With bitter stings the light sleep of Revenge. / Submission, thou dost know, I cannot try (Act I, lines 380-95).

Just as Prometheus says, for an evil person to owe a debt of gratitude to another is itself a source of anguish. For such a person believes that to be grateful to another wounds his own dignity.

Such people constantly demand that others kneel at their feet and sing their praises.

Such persons certainly distinguish themselves from the crowd, but only through the poverty and baseness of their hearts. And until the day of reckoning, they maintain the appearance of arrogance and power.

Five in a series.

2) SGI PRESIDENT IKEDA'S GUIDANCE ON PILGRIMAGE

The Nichiren Shoshu priesthood claims that physically chanting before the Dai-Gohonzon is a fundamental practice of Nichiren Buddhism. This series contains guidance from SGI President Ikeda addressing these claims in light of Nichiren Daishonin's true teachings. This excerpt appeared in the February 1994 Seikyo Times, pp. 13-14.

IT IS THE HEART THAT IS IMPORTANT

There are those who say that one cannot have true faith or attain Buddhahood unless one physically chants before the Dai-Gohonzon of the High Sanctuary of true Buddhism.

This is such a ridiculously erroneous doctrine that there is no need to even try to refute it.

The Gohonzon in each member's home is one with the Dai-Gohonzon; each Gohonzon is an emanation of the Dai-Gohonzon, an equal manifestation of the Dai-Gohonzon. The benefit of these Gohonzon is exactly the same as the benefit of the Dai-Gohonzon.

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Nichiren Daishonin wrote to his follower Lord Matsuno, whom he had never met: How is it that you can have faith in Nichiren, though you have never met him? It is, no doubt, the result of good causes you have planted in your life in the past. Since the time has come when you are certain to attain Buddhahood in your next life, you now have aroused faith (Gosho Zenshu, p. 1379).

Today, we could say that ot to have met the Daishonin is equivalent to ot having physically chanted before the Gohonzon and also, naturally, ot having physically chanted before the Dai-Gohonzon.

The Daishonin exclaimed how wonderful it was that Lord Matsuno had taken faith in spite of the fact that he had never met the Daishonin personally, assuring him that he would certainly attain Buddhahood.

Our heart, our faith is extremely important. The Daishonin states, It is the heart that is important (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 1000).

Attaining Buddhahood is not decided by such externals as to whether we have met the Daishonin or not, or whether we have physically chanted before the Dai-Gohonzon.

It also goes without saying that to assert that a person does not have faith unless he or she visits the Head Temple Taiseki-ji is a complete contradiction of the Daishonin's words. Those who make this assertion are betraying the Dai-Gohonzon, the embodiment of the original Buddha, the Daishonin. How can the enemies of the Dai-Gohonzon possibly expect to receive benefit even if they chant before the Dai-Gohonzon? As it states in the Gosho, if you have faith, everything you do is communicated to the original Buddha. It is communicated to the Dai-Gohonzon. The Daishonin will definitely praise your faith as wondrous.

As the Daishonin indicates when he speaks of good causes you have planted in your life in the past, the workings of the Buddhist Law cannot be comprehended by looking at this life alone; they must be viewed from the standpoint of eternity.

High Priest Nikken Abe's delusion that he can have everything his own way by threatening the Soka Gakkai members with cunning schemes, crazed as he is by his petty desires, is clear proof that he has no understanding of Buddhism whatsoever. His plots can never destroy the link between the Daishonin and the Soka Gakkai members who are the Bodhisattvas of the Earth -- a link that has existed from the eternal past.

The Daishonin also writes: The place where those who practice the Lotus Sutra dwell is itself the Pure Land. Why should one bother to search for it elsewhere? (GZ, 72).

The Pure Land is not found in some special, separate place. The true Pure Land is wherever the votary of the Mystic Law, the practitioner of kosen-rufu, is active.

Why should one bother to search for it elsewhere? asks the Daishonin, indicating that there is absolutely no need to do so.

Thus to declare that believers cannot attain Buddhahood unless they visit Taiseki-ji is a falsehood that violates the teachings of the Daishonin. The regrettable fact of the matter is that the head temple has now been transformed into the abode of the devil king of the sixth heaven. That means that those who visit the head temple without criticizing its slander of the Law are guilty of the offense of complicity and as such will suffer the same punishment as slanderers of the Law.

Three in a series.

SOKA SPIRIT IN THE PUBLICATIONS

This section highlights articles published in the World Tribune and Living Buddhism related to the Soka Spirit movement.

April 12 World Tribune page 2: In this installment of the World Tribune series Significant Dates, entitled Practicing With the Same Mind As Nichiren, Mid-Atlantic Bureau Chief David Joray writes about the publication of the collected writings of Nichiren Daishonin on April 28, 1952. He describes the Soka Gakkai's victory in achieving this in spite of resistance from Nichiren Shoshu.

April 12 World Tribune Seize the Day insert, page C: Introducing Soka Spirit In Our Districts provides a suggested guide for SGI-USA youth looking for ways to discuss Soka Spirit within a larger context of Buddhism and the SGI at their district discussion meetings.