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“Sensyu no Hana” 1892, vol.1

Kōno Bairei 幸野楳嶺 (1844 - 1895).

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a study

美と愛を学ぶことは特権です

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Kawanabe Kyōsai, Hokkai Dōjin Taking a Nap Under the Trees, 1886

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The indoor garden, Kyoto @walkergarden

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Nisshin (日親, October 14, 1407 – October 21, 1488) was a Nichiren Buddhist priest during the Muromachi period in Japan.

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Japanese illustration of the Lotus assembly.

During a gathering at Vulture Peak, Shakyamuni Buddha goes into a state of deep meditative absorption (samadhi), the earth shakes in six ways, and he brings forth a ray of light from the tuft of hair in between his eyebrows (ūrṇākośa) which illuminates thousands of buddha-fields in the east. Maitreya wonders what this means, and the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī states that he has seen this miracle long ago when he was a student of the Buddha Candrasūryapradīpa. He then says that the Buddha is about to expound his ultimate teaching, "The White Lotus of the Good Dharma". In fact, Mañjuśrī says this sutra was taught by other Buddhas innumerable times in the past.

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Japanese illustration depicting white lotuses in Chapter 25: "Universal Gateway" of the Lotus Sutra. Text inscribed by Sugawara Mitsushige, Kamakura period, c. 1257, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The Lotus Sūtra (Sanskrit: Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram, Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma, pinyin: Fǎhuá jīng; lit. 'Dharma Flower Sutra') is one of the most influential and venerated Buddhist Mahāyāna sūtras. It is the main scripture on which the Tiantai along with its derivative schools, the Japanese Tendai and Nichiren, Korean Cheontae, and Vietnamese Thiên Thai schools of Buddhism were established. It is also influential for other East Asian Buddhist schools, such as Zen.

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A section of Nichiren's treatise Risshō Ankoku Ron ("On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land")

Nichiren was a prolific writer. His collected works in four volumes contains up to five hundred writings. Nichiren also kept a copy of the Lotus Sūtra which he annotated profusely and has also been published. Many writings still exist in his original handwriting, some as complete works and some as fragments. Other documents survive as copies made by his immediate disciples. Nichiren's existing works number over 700 manuscripts in total, including transcriptions of orally delivered lectures, letters of remonstration and illustrations.

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Nichiren in his later years and his disciples. From the book JIGAGE E SHŌ ZOKUHEN (1818, Kyoto).

Nichiren was a charismatic leader who attracted many followers during both his missionary trips and his exiles. They included samurai, feudal lords, commoners and merchants, men and women. He taught his followers that women were equally able to attain enlightenment. He wrote to them often, sharing his rationale and strategies with them, openly urging them to share his conviction and struggles.

Nichiren's many extant letters demonstrate the scope and breadth of his relationship with them and his expectations for them. They recognized and trusted his charismatic leadership and his understanding of Buddhism. Many sought his guidance to overcome personal problems. Many were actively involved with supporting him financially and protecting his community of followers. Several of disciples were praised by him for sharing in his privations and a few lost their lives in these situations. The relationship between Nichiren and his disciples has been called shitei funi, the oneness of mentor and disciple. Although the functions of the mentor and disciple may vary, they share the same goals and the same responsibility. Nichiren claimed the precedent for shitei funi is a core theme of the Lotus Sutra, especially in chapters 21 and 22 where the Buddha entrusts the future propagation of the sutra to the gathered bodhisattvas

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The Assembly in Space Above Vulture Peak; from an illustrated Lotus Sutra, c. 1257.

In his later years, Nichiren did address the question of the devotee’s destiny after death. He taught that anyone who embraced the Lotus Sutra and had faith in it would enter the "Pure Land of Vulture Peak" (Ryōzen jōdō, 霊山浄土), associated with the Lotus Sutra's assembly in the air. This provided a peaceful postmortem destination for Nichiren's followers, analogous to the pure land of Sukhavati. However, Nichiren did not regard this Pure Land as realm separate from this world. Even though it encompasses the faithful deceased, this land is ultimately the sacred space of enlightenment accessible here and now through devotion to the Lotus Sūtra. It is thus the "land of tranquil light" (jō jakkōdo), the highest Pure Land in the Tendai system. For Nichiren, the boundary between the mundane and the sacred collapses in the moment of embracing the Lotus. By chanting Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, "gains entrance by faith" into the Buddha's presence, participating in the "eternal assembly in open space" (kokūe no gishiki) of the Lotus Sutra, where Shakyamuni and Many Jewels Buddha teach from the Jeweled Stupa.

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Nichiren chanting for fishermen at Ishiwa River, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳).

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Nichiren in exile on Sado. Nichiren believed that the sufferings of exile allowed him to live and practice the Lotus Sutra every moment of every day with his very body

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Great Mandala by Nichiren, Honman-ji, Kyoto.

The chanting of the daimoku is to be done while contemplating the daimandara 大曼荼羅 ("great mandala") or gohonzon 御本尊 ("revered object of worship"). Japanese Buddhists often had a personal shrine with an object of worship (honzon), which could be a painting, mandala or statue. These objects were often held to embody the powers of the Buddhas. Nichiren created a unique honzon style in the form of a calligraphic mandala (in Chinese characters and two Siddham glyphs) representing the entire cosmos, specifically centered around the Lotus Sutra's ceremony in the air above Vulture Peak. Nichiren inscribed many of these mandalas as personal honzons for his followers. More than 120 of them survive in Nichiren's own hand with his signature. Nichiren drew on earlier visual representations of the Lotus Sutra and was also influenced by contemporary figures like Myōe and Shinran who also created calligraphic honzon for their disciples. Since these did not require expert painters or expensive materials to make, they could be made in larger numbers for wide dissemination. Nichiren's gohonzons contain the daimoku written vertically in the center. It is flanked by the names of Śākyamuni and Prabhūtaratna Buddha, as well as the names of various bodhisattvas (especially prominent being the Four Bodhisattvas of the Earth), deities, and other beings. These figures also represent ichinen sanzen, the mutual inclusion of the ten realms. Thus, the great mandala embodies the entire cosmos and its interfusion with Buddhahood. In other words, the gohonzon symbolizes the non-duality between our world and the sacred realm of the original Buddha of the Lotus Sutra, where the sutra is being taught eternally.

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Nichiren depicted calming a storm by chanting the daimoku.

Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, the daimoku ("the title" of the Lotus Sutra preceded by "Namu", meaning "homage to"), is both the essence of the Lotus Sutra's Dharma and the means to discover that truth, i.e. the interconnected unity of self, others and environment with Buddhahood itself. Nichiren sees this as the only truly effective practice, the superior Buddhist practice for this time. Thus, according to Nichiren, "it is better to be a leper who chants Nam(u) Myōhō Renge Kyō than be a chief abbot of the Tendai school." For Nichiren, the daimoku is "the heart of the eighty thousand sacred teachings and the eye of all buddhas," and contains the entire Buddhadharma.

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Print illustration of Nichiren and a disciple, by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.

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Nichiren bowing before the Mandala Gohonzon which he wrote by himself.

While on Sado island, Nichiren inscribed the first Mandala Gohonzon (御本尊). Although there is evidence of a Gohonzon in embryonic form as far back as the days right before his exile, the first in full form is dated to 8 July 1273 and includes the inscription of "Nichiren inscribes this for the first time." His writings on Sado provide his rationale for a calligraphic mandala depicting the assembly at Vulture Peak (Gṛdhrakūṭa) which was to be used as an object of devotion or worship. Nichiren found doctrinal rational for this in the 16th (Life span) chapter of the Lotus Sutra. It is at this time that he developed the concept of a three-fold "secret Dharma" of the daimoku, the object of worship (honzon), and the ordination platform (kaidan).

At the bottom of each mandala he wrote: "This is the great mandala never before revealed in Jambudvipa during the more than 2,200 years since the Buddha's nirvana." He inscribed many Mandala Gohonzon during the rest of his life. More than a hundred Mandala Gohonzon preserved today are attributed to Nichiren's own hand

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Nichiren in the Snow at Tsukahara, Sado Province

Nichiren was exiled to a second location, on Sado Island in the Sea of Japan. Upon arriving, he was dispatched to a small dilapidated temple located in a graveyard. Nichiren was accompanied by a few disciples and in the first winter they endured terrible cold, food deprivation, and threats from local inhabitants.