Daily Study - The Sutra of True Requital

Taken from the extracts in December's Art of Living magazine

For me, this Gosho really empowers women - how amazing was Nichiren Daishonin's lifestate to take on the task of propagating the Mystic Law to women, for whom traditionally, enlightenment could not take place in their present lifetime. His way of thinking - the proclamation of equal entitlement for enlightenment, the practical application to allow enlightenment and subsequent propagation, seems so advanced for its time. He seems to me to be a hero for women's liberation and equality…

This sutra is superior to all other sutras. It is like the lion king, the monarch of all the creatures that run on the ground, and like the eagle, the king of all the creatures that fly in the sky. Sutras such as the Devotion to Amida Buddha Sutra are like pheasants or rabbits. Seized by the eagle, their tears flow; pursued by the lion, fear grips their bowels. And the same is true of people like the Nembutsu adherents, the Precepts priests, the Zen priests, and the True Word teachers. When they come face to face with the votary of the Lotus Sutra, their color drains away and their spirits fail.

For all those who wished to believe the Lotus Sutra and yet could not do so with complete certainty, the fifth volume presents what is the heart and core of the entire sutra, the doctrine of attaining Buddhahood in one’s present form. It is as though, for instance, a black object were to become white, black lacquer to become like snow, an unclean thing to become clean and pure, or a wish-granting jewel to be placed into muddy water [to make it transparent]. Here it is told how the dragon girl became a Buddha in her reptilian form. And at that moment there was no longer anyone who doubted that all men can attain Buddhahood. This is why I say that the enlightenment of women is expounded as a model.

Nichiren Daishonin uses the example of the Dragon King's daughter (Dragon Girl) to show how women too have inherent Buddhahood and the potential to attain Buddhahood in their present form.  We don't have to wait for our next lifetime, we don't need to suffer whilst we wait, and we can do it right now, no matter what our karma or circumstances.

When Nichiren Daishonin talks of "attaining Buddhahood", it doesn't mean that we reach a separate physical place, or wave a placard in the air proclaiming that we are now Buddhas :)  but more that we manifest our Buddha nature - our courage, compassion, wisdom - in our daily life. We don't need to be some kind of superman/woman; our pond can be as murky as you like - we continue to be ordinary people. But we have the inherent power, which comes from our daimoku, to summon up this lifestate - to make Buddhahood the dominant world from which we operate. 

I see this as truly liberating for women in the 13th century who would not have had the freedom that we enjoy today. Of course, some of us might not feel like Buddhas all of the time :) but through faith, we do understand that we have the potential to be - rather than women who were told that there was no hope for them, that they had to wait until rebirth, that they had to continue to suffer. We, the Bodhisattvas of the Earth in the Latter Day of the Law, don't need to continue that cycle of suffering & rebirth, a little more suffering, and rebirth again. We have Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. 

Now I, Nichiren, was born as a human being, something difficult to achieve, and I have encountered the Buddha’s teachings, which are but rarely to be met with. Moreover, among all the teachings of the Buddha, I was able to meet the Lotus Sutra. When I stop to consider my good fortune, I realize that I am indebted to my parents, indebted to the ruler, and indebted to all living beings.

With regard to the debt of gratitude owed to our parents, our father may be likened to heaven and our mother to the earth, and it would be difficult to say to which parent we are the more indebted. But it is particularly difficult to repay the great kindness of our mother.
Since I have realized that only the Lotus Sutra teaches the attainment of Buddhahood by women, and that only the Lotus is the sutra of true requital for repaying the kindness of our mother, in order to repay my debt to my mother, I have vowed to enable all women to chant the daimoku of this sutra.

In this paragraph, we see Nichiren's commitment to showing his gratitude to his parents; his mother in particular. He feels that the best way he can repay his gratitude is for his mother to attain enlightenment, and all women thereafter. Of course, without our parents, we would not have been born to meet the practice in this lifetime.

Buddhism in Japan today is exactly like this. It is merely plots and rebellions in a different form. The Lotus Sutra represents the supreme ruler, while the True Word school, Pure Land school, Zen school, and the Precepts priests, by upholding such minor sutras as the Mahavairochana Sutra and the Meditation on the Buddha Infinite Life Sutra, have become the deadly enemies of the Lotus Sutra. And yet women throughout Japan, unaware of the ignorance of their own minds, think that Nichiren, who can save them, is their foe, and mistake the Nembutsu, Zen, Precepts, and True Word priests, who are in fact deadly enemies, for good friends and teachers. And because they look upon Nichiren, who is trying to save them, as a deadly enemy, these women all join together to slander him to the ruler of the country, so that, after having been exiled to the province of Izu, he was also exiled to the province of Sado.

I can imagine the vehement anger of these women described by Nichiren who plotted with his enemies to banish him to Izu and Sado. What a difference to our own behavior. The women of the Soka Gakkai who exert themselves tirelessly propagating the Mystic Law are beyond compare, making causes for the happiness of themselves, their families and for the whole of society. How deluded these women must have been to be so determined to cause Nichiren such suffering.

Nevertheless, when I was exiled to the province of Sado, the constable of the province and the other officials, following the design of the ruler of the nation, treated me with animosity…(E)very single steward and Nembutsu believer worthy of the name kept strict watch on my hut day and night, determined to prevent anyone from communicating with me. Never in any lifetime will I forget how in those circumstances you, with Abutsu-bo carrying a wooden container of food on his back, came in the night again and again to bring me aid. It was just as if my deceased mother had suddenly been reborn in the province of Sado!

How full of gratitude does Nichiren sound for Sennichi's care and gift of much-needed food? The bond with her mentor must have been very strong for her to make the journey amidst such circumstances. He likens her to his mother, a wonderfully moving comparison which shows his profound respect for his disciple.

Background
This letter was written at Minobu on the twenty-eighth day of the seventh month of the first year of Koan (1278), the day after Abutsu-bo, a lay follower, arrived on his third journey from Sado Island to visit Nichiren Daishonin. This letter is the Daishonin’s answer to one that Abutsu-bo had delivered from his wife, the lay nun Sennichi.
Some scholars maintain that the lay nun Sennichi served as an attendant to a court lady accompanying the Retired Emperor Juntoku during his banishment to Sado after the Jokyu Disturbance of 1221, but it is more likely that she was a native of the island. She and her husband were devoted followers of the Daishonin and supplied him with food, writing materials, and other necessities for more than two years, until his pardon in 1274. After the Daishonin’s move to Minobu, the lay nun sent her husband with offerings to visit him there at least three times.
In the first portion of this letter, the Daishonin emphasizes the superiority of the Lotus Sutra from the standpoint of its teaching that women can attain Buddhahood. The provisional teachings, he says, deny that women can become Buddhas; only the Lotus Sutra clearly reveals that they are able to do so. The Daishonin declares that the enlightenment of women as taught in the Lotus Sutra shows that all living beings can attain Buddhahood in their present form.
He then takes up the subject of repaying one’s debt of gratitude to one’s parents, especially to one’s mother. Since the Lotus is the only sutra that guarantees the enlightenment of women, he says, it is also the only one that truly enables one to requite one’s mother’s kindness. Nevertheless, the women of Japan reject both the Lotus Sutra and its votary, and chant only the name of Amida Buddha. But, says the Daishonin, Amida will never protect an enemy of the Lotus Sutra. Thus he shows that the one vehicle of the Lotus Sutra is the basis of all Buddhist teachings.
While in exile on Sado, the Daishonin was harshly treated by many of the islanders. The lay nun Sennichi and her husband, however, risked their personal safety to serve him and maintained their faith despite many hardships.