Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra

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) FROM THE WISDOM OF THE LOTUS SUTRA

This excerpt is from SGI President Ikeda's collection of dialogues with Katsuji Saito, Takanori Endo and Haruo Suda entitled, The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra. The following excerpt is from volume 3, part 2, on the Devadatta chapter of the Lotus Sutra.

DEVADATTA: A PERSON OF AMBITION RATHER THAN FAITH

Saito: Why don't we begin by talking about just what kind of person Devadatta was? In the Buddha chapter of The New Human Revolution, President Ikeda, you offer a detailed description.

Suda: A great deal of lore has been handed down concerning Devadatta. Regarding his birth, some sources indicate he was a half-brother of Shakyamuni by a different mother, while others say he was Shakyamuni's cousin. The latter explanation seems to be the more common. In any event, Devadatta is thought to have been younger than Shakyamuni and to have renounced secular life about fifteen years after Shakyamuni attained enlightenment.

At first, Devadatta earnestly exerted himself in his Buddhist practice as a disciple of Shakyamuni. Because of his talent and ability, he gradually gained distinction in the Buddhist order. Later, however, it is said that he approached the prince Ajatashatru in order to gain backing and began trying to replace Shakyamuni as the head of the order.

Endo: It would appear that Devadatta was intelligent. The Daishonin says that he had committed to memory¸eighty thousand jeweled teachings (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 342). That may be why he grew arrogant.

Ikeda: Intelligence makes a good person that much better and an evil person that much worse. Probably Devadatta's inner mind was not that of a person of faith but of a person of ambition. A person of faith seeks self-mastery; a person of ambition or power seeks to control others. A person of faith takes action, works hard and struggles to overcome his or her inner weakness; a person driven by a desire for power forces others to work for his own selfish purpose, never reflecting upon himself. Devadatta, perhaps on account of arrogance, was such a person, and so in the end he departed from the path of a person of faith.

Suda: When Shakyamuni was advanced in years, Devadatta approached him with the request that the Buddha invest him with control of the Buddhist order. The reason he gave was Shakyamuni's age. It is said that even though Shakyamuni refused immediately, Devadatta repeated his demand three times. Since many different writings are in agreement on this point, it is generally accepted as historically accurate.

Ikeda: No matter how seemingly sound his words might have been, religion for Devadatta was ultimately nothing more than a means for realizing personal ambition. Devadatta's words and actions in this incident make plain his ignoble intentions.

Saito: Shakyamuni rebuked him to his face, calling him a person who licks the spit of others (WND, 245) referring to the fact that he had put himself under the protection of Ajatashatru. Devadatta solidified his traitorous resolve and left the order. Remarkably, Shakyamuni immediately instructed his disciples to spread word that Devadatta had evil intentions.

Ikeda: Shakyamuni did so because he did not want even one person to be led astray by Devadatta; such was his sense of responsibility. An evil person has to be clearly identified as evil. If measures to deal with such a person are halfhearted, everyone will be confused.

Also, in a struggle of this kind, speed is essential. If one vacillates and fails to act resolutely and decisively, people will be consumed by devils.

Also, the reason Shakyamuni scolded Devadatta in front of others, I believe, was so they would thoroughly understand what was at stake. Devadatta's reaction is said to have been one of profound humiliation at having been put to shame in front of others. This shows that he no longer possessed the humble spirit of a disciple. His petty pride outstripped his seeking spirit.

It may be that in private Shakyamuni had previously warned Devadatta, and that he only took the step of a public reprimand because Devadatta had not heeded the Buddha's earlier warnings.

Three in a series.

2) FROM MY DEAR FRIENDS IN AMERICA

This series contains excerpts of speeches SGI President Ikeda made in the United States which relate to Soka Spirit and are contained in the book My Dear Friends in America.

This excerpt is from a speech given on Sept. 16, 1993, in Malibu, Calif.

'GOJUKAI' CEREMONY A RECENT PHENOMENON

In the Latter Day of the Law, to embrace the Gohonzon and be constant in one's faith and practice throughout one's life mean to uphold the precepts. This is called embracing faith equals upholding the precepts. Thus, the true meaning of upholding the precepts in the Latter Day of the Law is to embrace the Gohonzon.

Nikko Shonin also wrote on the back of the Orally Transmitted Teachings on the Three Great Secret Laws, a transcription of Nichiren Daishonin's statement, that embracing [the Gohonzon] equals upholding the precepts.

No records show that Nichiren Daishonin, aside from the Tendai scholar-priest Sairen-bo, conferred the precepts on any of his other followers. Sairen-bo, as a priest of the Tendai school, had received the precepts of the theoretical teachings of the Lotus Sutra on Mount Hiei [where the head temple of the Tendai school is located]. It was probably on his own initiative that he requested the Daishonin to confer on him the precepts of the supreme teaching hidden in the depths of the essential teachings of the Lotus Sutra. With this exception, there are no records of the Daishonin having conferred the precepts on any of his disciples who were priests, much less records of lay followers having had the precepts conferred on them.

Commenting on this matter, 59th high priest Nichiko noted that in Nikko Shonin's time, there was no standard gojukai [Gohonzon-conferral] ceremony, and that we should therefore conclude that traditional Buddhist gojukai ceremonies were simply not held by Nichiren Shoshu [then known as the Fuji school] at that time. In fact, he notes, other Buddhist schools ccriticized the Fuji school for not having an established gojukai ceremony.

The gojukai ceremony conducted in more recent times was something that first Soka Gakkai president Tsunesaburo Makiguchi asked the priesthood to initiate after the Soka Gakkai's establishment. President Makiguchi asked the priests to initiate a gojukai ceremony for the increasing number of people who came to embrace faith through the Soka Gakkai because he wanted something that would strengthen those new members' commitment to faith and to practicing throughout their lives. His main focus was on helping the members to consolidate their faith. He did not by any means believe that the ceremony, or ritual, of gojukai was necessary in and of itself.

Satoru Izumi, chairperson of the Soka Gakkai Executive Guidance Committee who practiced in the early days of the Soka Gakkai, says that many of the new members at that time came to us from other religions. For this reason, the Soka Gakkai asked them to undergo the gojukai ceremony to make a fresh start, to cement their determination to uphold faith in true Buddhism, and to prevent them from falling away again.

Thus, Nichiren Shoshu's gojukai ceremony conducted in its more recent history was established as a result of the Soka Gakkai's great efforts in propagating the Daishonin's teachings.

From the perspective of Nichiren Buddhism, which teaches that embracing the Gohonzon means upholding the precepts, when you embrace the Gohonzon, or when you arouse faith in the Gohonzon for the very first time, you have at that moment received the precepts of the Latter Day of the Law.

The essence of receiving the precepts is when those people who wish to take faith vow to uphold the precepts -- in other words, to make the Gohonzon their object of devotion for the rest of their lives....

There are examples in the past where those receiving the bodhisattva precepts of Mahayana Buddhism made a personal vow before the Buddha to uphold the precepts. Nichiren Daishonin declares, This is my vow, and I will never forsake it! (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 281). You must never break a personal vow you have made.

The Daishonin teaches us this about faith: To accept is easy; to continue is difficult. But Buddhahood lies in continuing faith (WND, 471).

Never-regressing faith is what is important. To continue in faith is to truly uphold the precepts. In this sense, faith equals the precepts, and we of the SGI are the ones who in reality accept and uphold the precepts in the true spirit of Nichiren Buddhism.

Twenty-two in a series.