Questions and Answers on the Temple Issue
7. WHY DOES NICHIREN SHOSHU CLAIM THAT THE GOHONZON
ISSUED BY THE SGI IS "COUNTERFEIT"?
This charge is an attempt by the priesthood to
instill doubt and fear in members' hearts, and to exploit their
faith in the Gohonzon. The Gohonzon issued by the SGI are not
the SGI's own invention, nor are they counterfeit.
As mentioned before, in response to a proposal
from Sendo Narita, the chief priest of Joen-ji, the SGI reproduced
a Gohonzon transcribed in 1720 by Nichikan, the twenty-sixth high
priest, and made it available to its membership. They are valid
and authentic Gohonzon of Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism.
The priesthood asserts that the Gohonzon issued
by the SGI are "counterfeit" because: i) they have not
"been authorized by the high priest"; 2) they have not
"received the legitimate 'eye-opening' ceremony"; and
3) they are "not issued by the head temple" (NST
News, Special Issue, p. 9).
Nichiren Daishonin, in a letter known as "The
Real Aspect of the Gohonzon," writes:
Never seek this Gohonzon outside yourself . The Gohonzon
exists only within the mortal flesh of us ordinary people who
embrace the Lotus Sutra and chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. The Gohonzon
is found in faith alone. As the sutra states, "Only with
faith can one enter Buddhahood." (MW-1, 2 13)
Here, the Daishonin teaches us that it is our
faith that taps the Gohonzon's power, power that is located within
us. Nowhere in his writings does Nichiren Daishonin state that
we need sanction from a high priest to benefit from our practice.
Not even the Daishonin himself advocated that his sanction was
necessary to achieve benefit or attain Buddhahood, as he wrote
in "Reply to Nichigon-ama:
Whether or not your prayer is answered depends upon your
faith; if it is not, the fault in no way lies with
me, Nichiren. (MW-5, 305)
The significance of "eye-opening" lies
in opening the eye of the Buddha within us - in other words, in
recognizing and revealing the Buddha nature within us. To this
end, Nichiren Daishonin stresses faith in the Lotus Sutra, that
is, the Gohonzon. The priesthood insists that the high priest
must perform an eye-opening ceremony over the Gohonzon to empower
it. However, the ritual known as the eye-opening ceremony is nothing
more than a formality passed down from provisional, esoteric Buddhism.
It has no relation to the essential spirit or Practice of the
Daishonin's Buddhism.
In some writings, the Daishonin refers to the
eye-opening ceremony as applied to wooden and painted images,
meaning Buddhist statues and the like. He is not talking about
the Gohonzon in these passages and nowhere in his writings does
he mention an eye-opening ceremony being necessary to empower
the Gohonzon.
Most people in the Daishonin's day believed that
such ceremonies gave power to statues of Shakyamuni Buddha and
other Buddhist objects. In actuality, it had already become a
popular source of income for priests, who collected offerings
for performing such ceremonies.
For example, in "Consecrating
an Image of Shakyamuni Buddha Made by Shijo Kingo," the
Daishonin encourages Shijo Kingo, who has just offered him a statue
of Shakyamum Buddha:
In performing the eye-opening ceremony for painted or wooden
Buddha images, the only authority to rely on is the Lotus Sutra
and the Tendai sect. (mw-6, 161)
By the "Tendai sect" the Daishonin
is referring to the principle of ichinen sanzen (a single life
moment possesses three thousand realms), which explains that Buddhahood
is inherent in all phenomena. By saying that the eye-opening ceremony
must be based on the Lotus Sutra, the Daishonin debunks the idea
that formal eye-opening ceremonies by priests are necessary and
stresses faith in the Lotus Sutra, in other words, faith in the
Gohonzon, as the key to summoning forth the state of Buddhahood.
He resolutely declares that our chanting daimoku
with faith enables us to call forth the Buddha nature not only
from within ourselves but from all phenomena. He further indicates
that when it comes to the power of prayer, all people are equal,
so long as they do not act against the intent of the sutra.
The priesthood's claim that the Gohonzon issued
by the SGI are counterfeit because they are not issued by the
head temple is unfounded. In the past, many Nichiren Shoshu branch
temples reproduced Gohonzon transcribed by different high priests
and issued them to their parishioners of their own accord, without
the high priest's permission or an eye- opening ceremony performed
by him. The priesthood's assertions are not only against Nichiren
Daishonin's teaching but also inconsistent with its own history.
And yet, recently it published a document that reads:
One should never worship anything as a Gohonzon
that has not been authorized as such by the High Priest, who has
inherited the Heritage of the Law, even if it was inscribed by
Nichiren Daishonin himself... This has been a basic tenet of Nichiren
Shoshu for seven hundred years. (From an NST-published translation
of an article from a special issue of their Japanese-language
publication Daibyakuho, c. autumn 1993)
It is important to note that benefit from the
Gohonzon derives neither from the high priest's permission nor
an "eye-opening" ceremony, but from our faith and practice
in accord with the Daishonin's spirit.
Back to the Table of Contents
| 
