SGI-USA Study Curriculum
Lectures on the Hoben and Juryo Chapters of the Lotus Sutra
by SGI President Daisaku Ikeda
Humankind Thirsts for the Mystic Law's
'Highly Effective Medicine'
Bu ken shi to. Kuno nyo ze. E sho kyobo. Gu ko yakuso.
Shiki ko mimi. Kai shitsu gu-soku. Toshi wago. Yo shi ryo
buku. Ni sa ze gon. Shi dai ro-yaku. Shiki ko mimi Kai shitsu
gu-soku. Nyoto ka buku. Soku jo kuno. Mu bu shugen.
"The father, seeing his children suffering like
this, follows various prescriptions. Gathering fine medicinal
herbs that meet all the requirements of color, fragrance
and flavor, he grinds, sifts and mixes them together. Giving
a dose of these to his children, he tells them: 'This is
a highly effective medicine, meeting all the requirements
of color, fragrance and flavor. Take it and you will quickly
be relieved of your sufferings and will be free of all illness."'
(LS16, 228)
Nichiren Daishonin's Strict, Fatherly Love
This passage describes the scene where the excellent physician,
the children's father, sees that his children have drunk
poison and are suffering and gives them medicine that he
prepares. Is there any parent who, seeing his or her children
suffer, would not try to relieve their pain? The image comes
to mind of a father desperately hurrying to grind down medicinal
herbs in a mortar to quickly prepare the medicine and saying,
"You must feel bad. Just hang in there a little longer.
I'm going to give you some medicine to drink."
The Buddha, similarly, shares the sufferings of all people
as though they were his own.
True sympathy means to relieve people of their suffering
and give them joy; it is not simply to direct one's pity
toward them. The- Buddha joins with people in their worries
and struggles until he has actually eliminated their suffering
and imparted true happiness and peace of mind to them.
At one point in the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni says, "I
am the father of living beings and I should rescue them
from their sufferings and give them the joy of the measureless
and boundless Buddha wisdom..." (LS3, 59).
Shakyamuni's compassion is like the love of a merciful
mother who sympathizes unconditionally with people in their
suffering. At the same time, it is also the strict love
of a merciful father who wages a thorough struggle to actually
remove that suffering and impart true peace and comfort.
The Lotus Sutra reveals the Buddha's "strict, fatherly
love." The pre-Lotus Sutra teachings present only fragmentary
glimpses of the "motherly love" of the Buddha's
compassion. The Great Teacher Dengyo says, 'The pre-Lotus
Sutra teachings preach only love. While they contain a little
of the teaching of the Buddha's motherly aspect, they lack
the teaching of strictness." It is important to understand
that the fundamental causes of suffering cannot be eliminated
with merciful, motherly love alone.
The Buddha can save all people precisely because he possesses
the virtuous qualities of both a strict father and a merciful
mother.
This is particularly true now in the Latter Day of the
Law, which is much more impure than Shakyamuni's age. Today,
the three poisons of greed, anger and stupidity are ingrained
in people's lives much more deeply. It is no easy matter
to remove such suffering. Therefore, as the "strict
father of the Latter Day," Nichiren Daishonin resolutely
conducted dialogue to move people in the depths of their
lives.
Josei Toda, the second Soka Gakkai president, explained:
"This teaching of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the love of
a strict father. Reward and punishment are very strict in
this Buddhism. Since it is not motherly love, there is both
scolding and love, each where it is due, each with the aim
of steadfastly leading people to happiness. This is fatherly
love."
"Strict father" and "merciful mother"
are of course metaphors indicating the Buddha's virtuous
qualities. They are not, by any means, attempts to make
hard-and-fast claims about the roles of mothers and fathers
in the home. In many cases, in fact, the mother is much
stronger than the father.
We Originally Possess the Highly Effective
Medicine
In the parable, the father combines the medicinal herbs
he has selected and makes a highly effective medicine that
is outstanding in color, fragrance and flavor and gives
this to his children. In terms of the principle of "relieving
suffering and imparting joy," this corresponds to both
"relieving suffering" and "imparting joy."
The teaching that "meets all the requirements of color,
fragrance and flavor" that the Buddha has given people
is the wisdom of the Lotus Sutra. The Buddha's teaching
does not merely relieve suffering. Like a father who bestows
his entire estate upon his children, the Buddha imparts
his wisdom --- which is the seed of happiness --- upon all
people.
The ultimate expression of this teaching is Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
Nichiren Daishonin left behind Nam-myoho-renge-kyo of the
Three Great Secret Laws as the effective teaching that meets
all requirements of color, fragrance and flavor.
Because this "medicine" is excellent in color,
fragrance and flavor, people can take it with peace of mind.
In this connection, the Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai of China
indicates that color, fragrance and flavor correspond to
the three types of learning, or the disciplines of precepts,
meditation and wisdom the fundamental elements that a practitioner
of Buddhism needs to master. He explains that color corresponds
to precepts, fragrance to meditation, and flavor to wisdom.
In Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism, color corresponds to
the high sanctuary of true Buddhism, fragrance to the object
of worship of true Buddhism, and flavor to the invocation
or daimoku of true Buddhism.
"He grinds, sifts and mixes them together" refers
to the grinding down of the medicinal herbs and the combination
of the proper ingredients. This might be likened to the
process of producing pure extract. Shakyamuni concentrated
the essence of all of his teachings in the Lotus Sutra.
Nichiren Daishonin "ground, sifted and mixed together"
the causes (practices) and virtues (effects) of all Buddhas
and expressed the result as the Three Great Secret Laws.
Regarding the words, "meet all the requirements,"
Nichiren Daishonin says, "'All' here means that this
is the highly effective medicine of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo
that includes the ten thousand practices, ten thousand good
acts and the various paramitas" (Gosho Zenshu, p 755).
And, "Showing profound compassion for those ignorant
of the gem of ichinen sanzen, the True Buddha wrapped it
within the single phrase Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, with which
he then adorned the necks of those living in the Latter
Day" (The Major Writings of Nichiren Dai shonin, vol.
1, p. 82).
Medicine produces its effect only if ingested. In metaphorical
terms, the doctrine of "the three thousand realms in
a single moment of life" (ichinen sanzen) established
by T'ien-t'ai is not the medicine for the people of the
Latter Day --- the people of the Latter Day cannot ingest
it as it is. How can it be made simpler and more clear,
so that anyone can ingest it (i.e., practice it)? It is
the Buddha's work, as an excellent physician, to find a
solution to this problem.
Encouraging the children to drink the medicine, the father
tells them: "This is a highly effective medicine, meeting
all the requirements of color, fragrance and flavor. Take
it and you will quickly be relieved of your sufferings and
will be free of all illness."
From the standpoint of the Daishonin's Buddhism, this passage
indicates the benefit of the Gohonzon. The Gohonzon is the
highly effective medicine for those who are suffering. Its
great benefit is such that, in the words of Nichikan Shonin,
"No prayer will go unanswered, no offense will remain
unforgiven, all good fortune will be bestowed and all righteousness
proven." It truly "meets all the requirements."
As for those who embrace the Gohonzon, not only will their
sufferings quickly vanish, but they will realize a state
of life that is happy and free of ailment.
President Toda characterized the father's words here as
the "Buddha's promise." In other words, from the
standpoint of its implicit meaning, this sutra passage represents
Nichiren Daishonin's declaration that all people of the
Latter Day of the Law can definitely become happy.
The Daishonin says:
Within the five characters of the daimoku there is not
a single thing that is not included. Therefore, if we take
a dose of it, we will "quickly be relieved of our sufferings."
(Gosho Zenshu, p. 755)
Everyone is entitled to become happy. And it is the prerogative
of those experiencing the greatest suffering to become the
happiest. Those who work the hardest can develop their lives
far more than others. This is the mystic nature of faith.
People who advance together with those experiencing the
greatest suffering are genuine Buddhists.
Suffering Is Necessary To Bring Out the
Full Flavor of Joy
In any age, ordinary people suffer the greatest under the
weight of society's strains and distortions. None are more
miserable than those who follow foolish leaders.
Individuals of true greatness never forget that the people
are the true treasure of society. When Victor Hugo completed
Les Mise'rables, he appended to the work a brief preface
in which he wrote that as long as "ignorance and poverty
persist on earth, books such as this cannot fail to be of
value." (1)
"I want to rid the world of misery" --- this
was President Toda's heartfelt proclamation. He was an unparalleled
leader who always advanced together with the people.
When lecturing on the passage of the "Life Span"
chapter we are studying, Mr. Toda, with characteristic humor,
once remarked:
We have come to this saha world in order to enjoy ourselves.
But without a dash of suffering, we couldn't savor the full
flavor of joy. The fact of the matter is that the world,
far from being a place of amusement, is full of suffering.
Those listening to him learned that as long as they possessed
the "highly effective medicine" of the Mystic
Law, they each could cross the raging seas of society and
establish a state of life of profound calm and composure.
How such broadminded words of a true spiritual leader dispelled
the dark clouds of unease and shed light into the hearts
of people living amid the confusion of the postwar era!
This is the way of a true leader. No matter how exhausted
he was, whenever he found members who were suffering or
worn out, President Toda poured his entire being into encouraging
them. With the same spirit and immense life force, SGI members
today embrace those who are struggling or sick.
All of you have been taking action with this spirit. Even
with your own pressing concerns, you drive yourselves to
try your best to encourage those in dire need. And when
you hear reports about how people have become happy or gained
benefit through faith, it dispels all sense of fatigue.
The SGI has created such a network of people helping one
another become happy. The SGI is a great castle of happiness
created by the hearts of ordinary people. No one can destroy
this noble solidarity of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth.
Nichiren Daishonin observes that even though people of
power can destroy Buddha images or temples, they are powerless
to destroy Buddhism itself (Gosho Zenshu, p. 182). And it
is impossible for someone's spirit to be destroyed from
without. As long as we have beautiful unity, the world of
the Mystic Law is absolutely indestructible.
We live in a time when the three poisons are particularly
strong and we suffer just as the children in the parable
suffered from the poison they drank. The deadlock of the
present age is due to people having forgotten their inner
revolution. This is the lesson we must learn from the 20th
century. In every field, people search for a philosophy
to remove the poisons in their hearts. All humankind thirsts
for the "highly effective medicine" of the Mystic
Law.
Nichiren Daishonin says that followers who practice the
Mystic Law are the "original possessors of this highly
effective medicine" (Gosho Zenshu, p. 755). Our compassionate
practice to relieve others of suffering and give them joy
will doubtless become a great harbinger to the revival of
the heart and the revival of humanism in the 21st century.
- Cited from the Penguin Books edition, 1982.
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