Nichiren: The Buddhist Prophet (Appendix - The Buddhist Conception of Reality)
The appendix section of a biographical book originally published in 1916
INTRODUCTION
At last, we have arrived at the final section of this book. Here we find an essay explaining the intricacies of various Buddhist notions of reality, as well as a chronological list of various significant events in Japanese Buddhism from before Nichiren was born, during Nichiren’s life, and after his death.
While very different from the narrative of Nichiren’s life that we completed in the last section, Anesaki’s elucidations surrounding these complicated Buddhist topics are very clear and thought-provoking, and make for an enjoyable read.
He was clearly a man who was passionate and thoughtful regarding these topics, and did a great job at explaining them in a way that can be appreciated by beginners and veterans alike. I personally found that his essay helped crystalize some concepts that I was already previously familiar with. Hopefully it benefits you as well.
Please enjoy this final chunk of Nichiren: The Buddhist Prophet.
NICHIREN: THE BUDDHIST PROPHET
BY MASAHARU ANESAKI
APPENDIX
THE BUDDHIST CONCEPTION OF REALITY
I. The Fundamental Tenets of Buddhism Concerning Reality
Buddhism is a comprehensive system of thought. In it we find a materialistic school, which denied the existence of the mind and affirmed the reality of the external world; there was also an extreme idealistic school, which explained all perceptions and phenomena as illusions. Moreover, in Buddhist thought, philosophical theories are intricately interwoven with religious faith regarding the person of the founder; and, similarly, the various ways of practising contemplation are inseparable from ethical considerations which bear upon the religious, or ecclesiastical, community. The mind is minutely analyzed; yet Buddhist psychology was not a theoretical study, but was considered to be a means of introspection in meditation, which in turn very much influenced the psychological theories in question.
The law of causation was the chief tenet of Buddhist cosmology; but for Buddhism this conception was highly teleological, being understood in the sense of moral retribution. Morality is taught, of course; and every Buddhist is expected to observe its rules; the moral ideal, however, was not limited to human life, but extended to all kinds of existence, visible and invisible. A religious ethic, or a philosophical religion, or a religious philosophy — each one of these designations may be applied to Buddhism; while in the numerous schools within it different points have been given prominence.
Thus, to abstract a phase of Buddhist thought, apart from other factors, is as if one were to dissect a human body into parts, and treat one of them as a unit. As a Buddhist simile expresses it, none of the numerous diamonds studded on a net can be touched without affecting all the others. Yet I shall try here to take up one aspect of Buddhist thought concerning reality. It would be an altogether hopeless task, if there were not a certain continuity of thread even in the meshes of a net. And this continuity is given in the conception of Dhamma, which means "law," or "truth." This is one of the Buddhist Trinity, the others being Buddha and Sangha, that is, the person of the founder and the community of believers.
This Trinity is the foundation of the Buddhist religion, and none of the three is perfect apart from the others. It will presently appear how the Buddhist conception expressed in the idea of Dhamma is supported by, and connected with, the faith in Buddha, the revealer of truth. But I shall start with the idea of Dhamma, apart from the other terms of the Trinity.
Dhamma (in Sanskrit, Dharma) is a very flexible term in Buddhist terminology. It meant originally, in the Brahmanic idea, "what endures," that is the law of social order. Buddha adopted this term, divorced from its association with social sanction, and used it to designate his teachings about the truths of existence. These teachings were expressed in words and preserved in writings, although to the Buddhist they were not merely letters or words, but truths, and therefore things, as well.
Buddha is the revealer of truths as they are in reality, and the doctrines are proclaimed in accordance with the reality of things. That is the reason why the word Dhamma, especially when used in the plural, means things, or conditions, or realities, both mental and physical. These things and conditions are not products of chance, but exist and change according to the definite order of laws, or truths. This order of truth is expressed pre-eminently by the law of causation, which is assumed by Buddhism to be universal and irrevocable throughout all changes of the world.
"That being present, this comes to be; because that has arisen, this arises" — this is the key-note of the Buddhist view of the world. The law of causation is applied to the physical and mental orders of existence, to the subjective and objective aspects of our being. It is the essential nature of things and processes that they are through and through ruled by the same Dhamma of causation.
Partly because of the assumption of universal causality, and partly because of its religious ideal of communion, Buddhism assumes the basic unity of existence, notwithstanding the fact that it admits apparent diversity. We comprehend the Dhamma of the external existence, because the same Dhamma is inherent in us; we understand other people, because they are beings subsisting by the same Dhamma. Thus, the fundamental nature of all Dhammas is one and the same. The fundamental nature of existence (dhamma), in this sense of unity, is called dhammata, that is, the essential quality of being subject to the laws of existence.
Dhammas exist and become such as they are (yathabhutam), and yet they are one in nature and in relation. Everything that is born and grows is subject to age, ills, and death — this is the essential nature of things. All Buddhas, of the past, present, and future, have attained, and will attain, the highest freedom by treading the same way of perfection — this is the universal qualification (dhammata) of Buddhas.
Buddha's teachings and injunctions aim at the purification of the mind, and are efficacious to lead us up to the supreme enlightenment — this is the invariable import of the Dhamma. The term Dhammata applies to every one of these aspects of the universal nature. The same idea is expressed adverbially by the word tathataya, that is, in accordance with nature, and as a noun by tathata, i.e., "as it is," or "thusness.”
Therefore, Buddha is called Tathagata, the One who has attained the Truth of existence, the Dhammata or Tathata of the world, and has come to reveal the same truth to us. He is the Truth-winner and Truth-revealer. Because the Dhammata is the same in him and us, his truth is revealed to us, and we are enlightened by the same truth.
The Dhamma is the truth revealed by Buddha, the Lord of Truth; yet he is not the creator of it. We are enlightened by the truths taught by him, but we can be thus enlightened because our existence and nature are based on the same Dhammata that is found in Buddha himself. The final Dhammata is the fountain of Buddhist attainment and revelation, for Buddha as well as for ourselves. The world of Dhammas is a perpetually flowing stream; foam and flakes float on its surface, but one can attain the tranquil ocean of Nirvana by pursuing the course of the stream; after all, one and the same is the water in the fountain, in the stream, and in the ocean.
Seen in this way, the fundamental Dhammata of things and beings is the source of illusion as well as of enlightenment, of vices as well as of virtues. One who does not realize this unity is in illusion, while one who has grasped the Dhammata or Tathata, is a Buddha. It is said:
All are subject to the laws (dhammas) of ill.
Of age, as well as of death;
Beings exist according to the laws.
[(yatha dhamma, tatha sutta), (Anguttara, v. 57.)]
The deluded are distressed by these changes, while the enlightened man is not troubled by them because he knows the truth. The Truth is permanent, even independent of persons who are troubled by it, or are enlightened in it. Again, it is said:
Where there is birth, age and death necessarily follow. This realm
(of causal nexus) is perpetual, regardless of the Tathagata's appearing
or not appearing (in this world) ; and the stability of truth (dhamma-tthiti)
and the order of truth (dhamma-niyamata) follow their necessary
and natural concatenation. The Tathagata has comprehended this,
and penetrated into the Truth; having comprehended and penetrated
into it, he announces and preaches it, makes it known, establishes
and reveals it, and makes it clear and visible…
[Samyutta, 12. 20.]
Herein is a point of great importance, which gave rise to two opposite interpretations of Buddha's teachings. One school understood in this thesis the permanent stability of the Dhamma, meaning thereby external existence; while the other interpreted the stability of truth as existing in our own mind. The difference may be stated thus: The school which emphasized the objective import of the Dhamma ran to an extreme verging on materialism, asserting the reality of the external order, and denying the mind, on the ground of the doctrine of non-ego. The opposite direction was taken by the other school, which saw no meaning in what is usually spoken of as the objective world, apart from its significance as a manifestation of the universal Dhammata.
The consequence was that the truth of existence was to be realized only in the enlightened mind of a Buddha, and that, therefore, reality belonged, not to the world of visible diversity, but to the realm of transcendental unity. The former tendency was represented by the Sarvasti-vadins, the men who asserted that "all exists"; who were opposed by nearly all others, though the extreme transcendental view was not universally accepted. Before taking up the opposition, we must inquire what Buddha's own position was.
Buddha always explicitly repudiated the two extremes, the Permanence-view (Sassata-vada) and the Nihilistic view (Uccheda-vada), that is, the views which either assert or deny the reality of the external world per se. He once said to his great disciple, Kaccana:
The world, for the most part, holds either to a belief in being (atthi) or to a belief in non-being (natthitam). But for one who, in the light of the perfect insight, considers how the world arises, belief in the non-being of the world passes away. And for one who, in the light of the perfect insight, considers how the world ceases, belief in the being of the world passes away… That all is existent (sabbam atthi) is one extreme; that all is non-existent (sabbam natthi) is another extreme. The Tathagata, avoiding the two extremes, preaches his truth, which is the Middle Path… [Samyutta, 12. 15; Warren, p. 165.]
The former view is that of common-sense realism, which Buddha refuted by showing how change and decay actually go on before our eyes. Buddha opposed this kind of realism, not by denying reality altogether, but by demanding a change in the conception of reality, a transfer of the idea of reality from the conception of permanent external existence to that of becoming ruled by the law of causation.
On the other hand, the nihilistic theory differs from Buddha's position in a very subtle manner, because Buddha rejects the idea of permanence, yet sees reality in things and processes; both being Dhammas by virtue of the same law. He accepts the assertion that nothing exists in the sense that nothing persists by itself; but he rejects the same assertion by making a counter-affirmation that reality consists in the stability and order of truth, of the law of causation. This is what he called the Middle Path, as he preached the Middle Path in his ethics, rejecting both the hedonistic life and ascetic self- mortification.
The Buddhist realism above referred to was in fact not so materialistic as it was believed to be by the opposing schools. Yet it concentrated its effort upon an analysis of the Dhammas, as if they were merely external existences, and neglected the significance of Buddha's Tathagataship, which consisted in his having grasped the truth of existence in his enlightened mind.
The realists missed the point in their conception of Dhamma, because they proceeded to its analysis, apart from the ideal interpretation of the Dhammas as given by Buddha himself. Thus, this school of realists was controverted by adducing the personal example of Buddha, and by emphasizing the significance of faith in him as the Tathagata, in the conception and interpretation of reality. In other words, the opposition took the orthodox course of never separating the conception of Dhamma from the personality of Buddha as the Truth-winner and Truth-revealer.
Now, not speaking of the extreme transcendentalism, the orthodox theory of the Middle Path may be formulated in the following way:
Buddha has unquestionably said that the truth-order exists and works, regardless of whether a Tathagata appears, or not. But, who among Buddhists could, without his revelation of Dhamma, have realized that truth? In fact, the external-realist asserts the truth-order in consequence of Buddha's teaching; and Buddha taught this because the truth was grasped by him. This we say, not merely in the sense that Buddha is our authority in this matter, but in the sense that the truth-order would remain a meaningless entity or process, unless there were at least one man who had realized it and interpreted its meaning.
Undoubtedly, the truth-order may be working, even while you or I do not realize it. Yet it has become known to us through Buddha's revelation, and then in our own enlightenment. Enlightenment and revelation are the essential factors in the nature of the truth-order, because the conception truth-order does not mean a dead entity, nor a merely external order, but implies a realization of its import in the enlightened mind, which represents the ideal order of existence.
Otherwise expressed, the world, the realm of truths (dhamma-dhatu), as a whole, is the stage on which the beings in the world attain their own Dhammata; and therefore the world, subsisting by itself, but without knowing its own meaning — its own truth-order — is an imperfect manifestation of its real nature. Only a half, and the inferior half, of reality, of the real nature of existence, is rightly to be conceived as the merely external existence; the other half, the essential and integral half, is first revealed to us when we bring to light our own real nature.
It is a realization of the Dhammata, on my part or yours; this is, however, not a merely individual work, but the enlightenment of an individual mind as a part of the world, nay, as the key to the revelation and realization of its real nature. Reality (Sanskrit, dharma-tathata, dharma-svabhava) is nothing but a full realization of the true nature; and in the true nature of the world, the ideal interpretation plays no less part than what is erroneously called external existence. The conception of reality becomes meaningless, unless an integral part, or aspect, is realized through at least one individual. What then is the significance of enlightenment on the part of an individual?
Here is conspicuously shown the significance of Buddha's attainment and revelation, by which he plays an integral part in the world's truth-order, and herein lies the importance of his personality as the Truth-winner and Truth-revealer. It is in his person that the real import of existence has come to light; it is in his enlightenment in the fundamental nature (dhammata) of theworld that the cosmos has found its own mouth-piece, the representative, the embodiment, of its truth-order; it is through his revelation that the world, including ourselves and many other beings of different sorts, has gained the key to the interpretation and comprehension of its real meaning. Knowing and seeing, enlightenment and revelation — all are nothing but the essential nature of the truth-order, by which the meaning of existence, and therefore of reality, is made explicit, or can be evolved.
Wherefore it is said:
The Exalted One knows knowing, sees seeing; he is the One who has become the eyes (of the world); he is the One who has become knowledge (or enlightenment); he is the One who has become truth; he is the One who has become Brahma (the highest deity of Brahmanism); he is the instructor, the revealer, the One who pours out good, the One who gives immortality; the Lord of Dhamma, that is the Tathagata. [Samyutta, 35. 116, etc.]
Buddha, the Tathagata, is the prototypical representative of the seer, of the knower, of the one who has realized his own true nature, together with that of the whole world. In short, Buddha's enlightenment is the interpretation of the world, which means not simply a process in an individual mind, but plays an integral part in the existence of the world, being a revelation of its own meaning — a self-realization of the world, so to speak. This is the view of the Middle Path.
Now, let me further expound the Buddhist conception of the relation between the world and the individual, which gives the key to the understanding of its conception of reality.
The individual, as such, is neither real, in the commonly asserted sense of being a personally persistent entity, nor unreal, in the sense that it has no place in existence. It is unreal, because it is subject to constant change; but it is real, as a product of causation, as a manifestation of character accumulated by karma. Either of these points of view leads to the thesis, "There is no (substantial) ego." But Buddhism sees in the person of the Tathagata a real individual, the individual par excellence, because the Dhammata of the universe is represented,embodied, realized, in his person as the Tathagata. It is in the personal enlightenment of universal truths in Buddha that the realm of Dhamma has come to self-consciousness, to the full realization of its meaning. In other words, the person of the Tathagata is not an individual personality, in contradistinction to other individuals, but in communion with all others.
When I say "all others," I mean it, not as an aggregate of separate individuals, nor as a haphazard crowd of individuals, but as unified in the basic unity of the Dhammata, and united in the realization of the universal communion. This is the teaching of the Ekayana, of which we shall see more presently. An individual, according to Buddhism, is no more a mere individual, if, and so far as, he identifies himself with others; his ego is transformed to a universal self. Buddhism does not call this transformed and expanded self a self, but a Tathagata, or a "being of truth" (dhamma-kaya), as in the case of Buddha.
Looked at in this way, any individual is a Tathagata who realizes the universal Dhammata of the universe, not only in his ideas, but in his life, and lives the life of the universal self. So long as, and so far as, he regards himself as separate from others, every individual is only a partial, and therefore imperfect, manifestation of his own real nature (dhammata) , while everyone is destined to attain the height, or depth, of his own true self in communion with all others, by virtue of the basic unity of the fundamental Dhammata. When this ideal is attained, even partially, one has so far realized his real self, which is no longer an ego in the sense that he once cherished. He is the same person in appearance, but in reality his self is so far transformed.
What thus happens resembles the metamorphosis of an insect. Buddha, in recalling his former lives, designates his former self by the pronoun "I," but he is at the same time most emphatic in distinguishing his former "I" — even the "I" when he lived as a prince or a recluse — and calls himself "Tathagata," in the third person, as the designation of his true personality and high dignity.
The same title may be applied to anybody who reaches the same attainment as Buddha; and, in fact, Buddha called every one of the same attainment a Tathagata. In short, every one who has found his own real nature in the fundamental Dhammata of all existences, that is, in communion with the Tathagatas, is one who has become truth, become insight, and thereby identified himself with the universe. It is in the conception of reality attained by such a person that the universe is realizing its universal Dhammata.
A necessary consequence of this idea about the relation between the individual and the world is the teaching of the Ekayana. It means the one and the same way for all the Tathagatas of the past, present, and future. It is the Way, and at the same time the Ideal — the way to realize the truth of universal communion, and the ideal to be reached by that way. It is also the foundation of existences, and the goal of the way, because an ideal is vain without foundation, and the two are simply two aspects of the same Dhammata. Buddha said:
The Perfectly Enlightened of the past, and the Buddhas of the future,
As well as the present Perfectly Enlightened One who dispels sorrows from many
All have lived, do live, or will live,
By revering Dhamma; this is the Dhammata of all Buddhas.
[Samyutta, 6. 1. 2; com. 5. 47. 18.]
This unity of the Ekayana is manifested in the Buddhist community, which, though limited in its visible manifestation, is to be extended without limit to include all beings of every possible description, and of all ages. Thus, the Buddhist community is a realization of the universal communion of all Buddhas and Buddhas-to-be, who are — or ought to be — united in the revelation of the final Dhammata. This is the reason why Buddha disdained anyone who, being satisfied with the tranquillity of his mind, remains a solitary sage. Such a sage is called a Pacceka-buddha, or self-satisfied wise man, and is regarded not only as a selfish man, but one who does not see the real light, either his own, or that of the world. The Tathagata, on the contrary, is an individual who is no longer an individual merely, but has identified himself with all others.
Thus, the Tathagata is the ideal person in the Buddhist religion, and it is only in the life of the Tathagata that the full meaning of the universe is realized. This ideal is called also Dhamma, which here means "norm," as Mrs. Rhys Davids correctly renders it. The moral norm and religious ideal for every Buddhist consists in attaining, as Buddha has shown by his own example, the supreme enlightenment in the truth-order and the fundamental nature of the world, in accordance with the truth of existence, and by treading the same One Road, in company with the Buddhas of all ages.
The Buddhist ideal, seen in this light, necessarily demands the life of fellowship, in which the real continuity of life, or the Dhammata of existence, is first realized. In this fellowship, an individual no longer remains a separate being, but becomes a personal embodiment of the universal life — "das Objectwerden des Subjects," to borrow the Hegelian terminology. The "communion of saints" transforms our self into the universal self; and therein is brought to light the true nature of reality.
To sum up, the Buddhist conception of reality is the existence in which the universal nature of existence is realized in the enlightened mind which is the realization of the all-embracing fellowship. It rejects reality apart from this personal enlightenment; it rejects an enlightenment in a secluded self — the former being externalism and the latter transcendentalism. But both aspects of being embraced and "aufgehoben" in the realization of the universal Dhammata. In short, the true conception of reality is brought to light only in the unity of Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha.
II. Tendai's Doctrines of the Middle Path AND Reality
Tendai-Buddhism is a school representing, most faithfully and elaborately, the Middle Path of the Buddhist doctrine. It is a school founded, in the sixth century, by a Chinese monk from Tendai, named Chi-ki; and its chief aim was to achieve a higher synthesis of the external-realism of materialistic tendency and the acosmism of transcendental extreme. It further elaborated the theory of reality along the line of the thought above indicated, and on the basis of the "Lotus of Truth." This book, as has been observed above, may be called the Johannine Gospel of Buddhism. It tries to solve the problems of reality by the key given in the identification of Buddha's enlightenment with cosmic truth.
Omitting further reference to the book, I here cite a saying which became the starting point of Tendai's theory of reality. The saying is a verse in Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka Sastra, or Treatise on the Middle Path.
It says:
Everything arises according to causation;
We regard it as a vacuity (sunyata),
(But) it is phenomenal reality by virtue of appearance,
Which is at the same time the Middle Path. (p. 503.)
Vacuity (sunyata, or sunnata in Pali) is an ancient term used in Buddhism, and meant something beyond common sense or ordinary ratiocination (cp., for instance, Samyutta, 55, 52; 20, 7; etc.). It was not a mere negation, as it is often understood; but speculations at which we must now glance clustered about it. "Vacuity" was understood by the transcendentalists to mean the voidness of phenomenal things, and so the real entity was interpreted as being beyond all distinctions and causal relations.
This position is most fully stated in the one hundred thousand slokas of the Prajna-paramita, a book aiming at the annihilation of all relativities" by an almost endless repetition of neither, nor. But this annihilation was always carefully distinguished from the nihilistic view (uccheda) that nothing exists, because the Buddhist vacuity supposes a something beyond relativities, unknowable, yet attainable in meditation. [It was this aspect of Buddhism, concisely put in the "Diamond Cutter," that attracted Lafcadio Hearn's poetic genius, and was connected by him with Spencerian agnosticism.]
Now Nagarjuna accepted the transcendentalist standpoint, but at the same time admitted an apparent reality (prajnapti) in what is given (upada). What he called the Middle Path was a synthesis of the two points of view. In spite of his adherence to the Middle Path, which was the precious inheritance of Buddhist thought, he did not give a definite statement of it, but left it to the domain of contemplative vision, attainable by only a select few. Thus, it was Tendai's task to draw a more positive and definite conclusion from Nagarjuna's statement of the Middle Path, and for this purpose he translated the two extreme views into the terms of universality and particularity.
Vacuity, according to Tendai, means nothing but the non- being of a particular existence apart from the universal Dhammata. We speak of this or that thing or substance, quality or condition, and think it to be a reality, in and by itself. Nothing is more erroneous than this, because we know that nothing in this world, visible or tangible, exists without causal nexus. It is a Dhamma, a thing or condition, because it is a manifestation of the Dhamma, the law of causation. Vacuity does not mean the voidness of any existence in itself, but vanity of the view that sees in it a reality apart from the fundamental Dhammata.
Thus, the thesis of vacuity implies the antithesis, that what is apparently existing is a reality, in the sense that it is given, given as something the meaning of which must be sought deeper and higher. In other words, an abstract universality is a vacuity, not less than a mere particularity; either is a mere abstraction apart from a datum. A particular datum may be an appearance, and yet be a product of the universal law of causality, and a manifestation of the fundamental nature of existence. A thing or a condition exists actually, and although it is subject to decay, and may disappear according to causality, it is so far a reality — a phenomenal appearance.
The synthesis amounts to affirming both vacuity and appearance at the same time. The conception of vacuity has shown us that a particular existence is void, when taken in itself; but it points to the reality of the universal, as an outcome of a thoroughgoing negation of relativity. On the other hand, the idea of phenomenal appearance has demonstrated that there is a reality in phenomena which is no less essential to our conception of being than the reality attached to the universal.
The world of the universal, the unity of all things in the fundamental nature (dhammata), is the foundation of every particular existence, pre-existent to all particular manifestations. Yet its manifestations in concrete beings, Dhammas, are as real as the pre-existent universals, being subject to the laws, Dhammas, which rule all. That they are ruled by the same laws shows their unity in the basis. The particular derives its being from the universal nature of things, while the universal could not fully realize its true nature without manifesting itself in a particular.
Both are real, but either by itself is imperfectly real. The Middle Path consists in uniting the two aspects of existence, universal and particular, and in seeing therein the true reality. To this argument, the consideration of Buddha's personality gave the key, and we shall see how it is developed.
As to the relation between the particular and the universal, the case of Buddha is not only an example, but the typical representative. He was born as a human being, passed through mental struggles, and finally attained Buddhahood, and lived the fifty years of his ministry as the Truth-revealer. This is an actual life of a particular person, and no one can deny its facts, except the docetists [Cp. the author's article on "Docetism (Buddhist)" in the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics] against whom the orthodox Buddhists took a united stand. Yet he was a Buddha, because he was enlightened in cosmic truths and realized the universal nature of Buddhahood, which is called Bodhi, or Enlightenment. He is Bodhi incarnate, so to speak, and Bodhi is the universal and fundamental nature (dhammata) of the spiritual existence, which is pre-existent to appearance of particular Buddhas, and the a priori basis of their attainment.
The epithet "Tathagata" is an adequate expression of the relation between the universal Bodhi and particular Buddhas. Buddha's personal life is a particular phenomenon, and the significance of his Buddhahood is lost, is a vacuity, when considered apart from the Truth he has attained and revealed to us. Yet the Truth (tatha) is a mere abstraction, a dead name, unless there appears a Tathagata in concrete human life. The true reality in the person of Buddha consists in the dignity of the Tathagata attained by a particular person, in virtue of the universal Bodhi which is the essential condition of his communion with the Buddhas of the past and of the future.
This solution of the relation between the particular and the universal in the person of Buddha as the Tathagata serves, at the same time, as the solution of the questions which arose concerning the acquisition or inherence of Buddhahood. Buddhahood is an acquisition, viewed from the standpoint of phenomenal appearance, as is actually shown in the career of Buddha. But it is, at the same time, inherent in his nature, and also in each of us, because without the pre-existent universal Buddhahood, a Buddha loses the foundation of his dignity. He has become a Tathagata by treading the same way, the One Road, as all other Tathagatas, and by thus entering the communion of Buddhahood; and this apparent acquisition is the necessary development of the Buddhahood inherent in an individual and pre-existent to individual persons.
The standpoint of the Middle Path thus emphasizes equally both the a posteriori acquisition and the a priori inherence of Buddhahood, because either one of these two aspects, without the other, is an imperfect idea of the Buddha as such. In other words, Buddha is really a man, and verily the Truth. As a man he has realized the truth of the oneness of existence; he is the Truth-winner. The person in whom the Dhammata of the universe has come to light, and who has "become Truth," "become knowledge," cannot but be the adequate representative of the Dhammata, that is, the Tathata. The Lord of Truth, the Ruler of the Realm of Truth, derives his dignity from the very source of Truth, and therefore he can work as the Truth-revealer. The actual human manifestation is a condescension on the part of the universal Truth; while the latter is first embodied and actualized in the former.
The universal Buddhahood is called Dharma-kaya, or "Truth-body," while the personal Buddha is Nirmana-kaya, or "Condescension-body "; and these two, together with another, the Sambhoga-kaya, or "Bliss-body," the spiritual manifestation of Buddhahood, make up the Buddhological Trinity. This doctrine of the Trinity is a very old one in Buddhism, and Tendai emphasizes the unity of the three, because the three aspects, considered as a unity, constitute the only right view of Buddha's person, and of the true reality exemplified in his person.
The Trinity of Buddha's person, however, is not limited to him alone, but in each of us is inherent the corresponding Trinity, or, as we may conveniently express it, the unity of the universal foundation and the particular manifestation. A concrete human being is a reality, but his full meaning is based on humanity in general. There is a man, and he is the man who would embody in his person the essential nature of humanity, not in the abstract, but concretely. The universal "humanity" is the "Truth- body" of every human being, and his life under particular conditions is his "Condescension-body," while his own self-consciousness, and the influence that he means to exert upon his fellow-beings constitute his "Bliss-body." In short, the unity of the universal man and the particular man is the reality of man.
The same remark applies to every other kind of existence, and Tendai assumes, in accordance with Buddhist tradition, ten different realms of sentient beings. The nethermost one is the hell (naraka), or rather purgatory, where beings of extreme viciousness, deprived of the light of wisdom, are tormented by their own vices. The furious spirit (asura) is a manifestation of hatred and greed; the hungry ghost (preta) represents never-satisfied greed, combined with stupidity; the beast (tiryak) is the life of stupidity and blindness; the heavenly worlds (deva) are the abodes of those beings who are intoxicated with pleasure and careless of others. These five, together with mankind (manusya), are the six stages of transmigration.
Above these, are two kinds of beings who are self-satisfied in their own attainment in meditation or learning, and make no further effort to realize the vitality of the universal communion, represented by the learned Sravaka and the self-contented Pratyeka-buddha, above referred to. The Bodhisattva is a being, who, having attained a certain height of spiritual illumination, is striving earnestly for the salvation of others.
Above them all stands Buddha, in whom the universal communion and the fundamental nature of all beings are realized in idea and life, and who, by virtue of his wisdom and mercy, leads other beings to the same light. Thus, in every being in each of these classes there is manifested the relation of the universal and the particular, the concrete life of the universal Dhammata; but it is in Buddha alone that the full light of universal truths and the all-embracing communion are realized.
Though Tendai thus distinguishes the ten kinds of existence, he emphasizes the interchangeability of their natures and the interdependence of their existence. Take, for instance, the case of Buddha. Although he is above all others, he has in no wise lost the character of the others, or he could not arouse in himself compassion for others. Even in him, the nature of the extremely vicious is still inherent, the only difference between his nature and that of others being that in him the inferior qualities are subdued, and not allowed to work. Similarly with all others, even in the beings in the hells, Buddhahood, and humanity, and other capacities are still extant, though latent.
Viewed in this way, the ten realms of existence and their respective natures are interchangeable and communicable. This point is formulated as the theory of the "mutual participation" of all existences; and since all ten are present, whether actually or potentially, in each of the ten, the interrelations among them are hundredfold, that is, ten times ten.
To develop and explain the doctrine of the "mutual participation," Tendai formulated the conditions of existence in any realm in the ten categories of being. The classification is taken from the Lotus, in which these categories are adored as the key to Buddha's insight into the world.
[Note: The formula is found in the second chapter of the book (p. 30 in the Kern-Nanjio edition). The Sanskrit text has five categories and their ultimate union: What (ye te dharmah), how (yatha te dharmah), of what condition (yadrsas te dharmah), with what marks (yal-laksnanas le dharmah), of what entity (yat-svabhavas te dharmah), and the summation of the five.]
They are:
Essence
Attribute
Manifestation or mark
Potency
Function
First cause
Secondary cause
Effect
Retribution
The consummate unity of all nine
We can easily see that these categories are nothing but an extension and amplification of the original tenet of causality (paticca-samuppada).
By causality we usually understand today the necessary connection existing between an antecedent and its consequent. But the Buddhist conception of causality is more flexible, and is applied to the same kind of necessary link, to any relation of interaction, interdependence, correlation, or coordination, founded on an intrinsic necessity. The necessity may be a link existing between the beings or phenomena, or between the thing and the knowledge of it, or vice versa. In this respect, the Buddhist idea of causation covers the same ground as the ratio efficiens, as formulated in Scholastic philosophy. Although all these relations may finally be reduced to the terms of antecedent and consequent, the Buddhist would not confine the causal relation within the idea of time relation.
This is a consequence of the conception that all existences are correlated by the virtue of the same dhammata, and that therefore the relations existing among them are mutual, both in reality and in thought. The cause, in the usual sense of the word, conditions the consequence, but the consequence no less conditions the cause, though the mode of conditioning differs. A cause without its consequence is nonsense, and, at least so far, the former is conditioned by the latter. In this way, the application of causality was extended, and the formula of causality, cited above in the original wording by Buddha, may be applied to the ten categories, as the mutual relations conditioning one the other.
Take, for instance, the categories of "essence," "attribute," and "mark." Because there is an essence, its attributes manifest themselves; because there are attributes, we know that there is the essence; because there are attributes, the marks appear; because there are marks, the attributes are discernible, etc. In this way the mutual dependence of the categories is established, and applied to the existence of every being, which is made up of a certain configuration and concatenation of the conditions, and in which the conditions of the categories are necessarily present.
It may make the position of Tendai clearer to speak, in this connection, of a division of Buddhist thought about the idea of causality. The question was whether causality should be understood as a serial causation or as a relation of mutual dependence, and the difference between the two conceptions involved the difference between a static and a dynamic view of the world.
The one school, which took the serial view of causality, traced, forward and backward, the evolution of the phenomenal world out of the primeval entity, and the involution of the former into the latter. The other school emphasized the interrelation and co-ordination of things, almost without regard to the questions of origin and final destiny. The latter was Tendai's position, and is known by the name "Reality-View," in contradistinction to the "Origination- View" or "Emanation Theory," of the other.
Whatever the difference may signify, and whatever the original teaching of Buddha may have been, the "Origination-View" always inclined to take the derivative phenomena more or less as illusions; while the "Reality-View" devoted its attention to a close examination of existences as they are, and inclined to justify every being as a necessary phenomenon in the world of mutual interdependence. The former aims at reabsorption of the individual minds into the primeval Mind, while the latter sees in the full presentation of facts and relations the consummate realization of universal enlightenment.
Thus, almost contrary to our expectation, the philosophy of the "Origination-View" is static, while the "Reality-View" tends to be dynamic. The theory of "mutual participation" was a result of Tendai's conception of causality in terms of correlation and co-ordination.
Another group of categories, to explain life in group (dhatu) is threefold: the stage on which a certain group of beings play their role and manifest their nature; the constituents which supply materials and components to the stage; and the individuals making up the realm.
Now all of these kinds of being, and the categories of existence, are essential to the consideration of reality, of the true nature of any being. The Middle Path view consists in taking up all these conditions of being, and in summing them up in one term, that is, "Reality" — the reality as it is, as it is conditioned, as it is grounded, and as it ought to be. Thus, in this view of reality is expressed the conception of Dhamma as the consummation of the various views held by different schools, and as the final unification of the manifold aspects implied in the term Dhamma.
In fine, the Tendai Buddhist conception of reality consists in harmoniously uniting all aspects of existence, and in realizing the working of the many-sided Dhamma, even in one being; even in one particle of dust, as the followers of Tendai are fond of saying.
To recapitulate, Tendai had examined the manifold views of reality, and found justification in each of them; and his ambition was to unify them, by looking at every particular existence as if it were an adequate representative of the whole cosmos (dharma-dhatu). His conception of reality is equivalent to seeing everything sub specie aeternitatis, but his aeternitas differed greatly from that of Spinoza in being not monistic, but "according to the three thousand aspects" — ten realms to each of ten, this hundred in the ten categories of existence, and this thousand multiplied by the three categories of group existence.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
-----The Period before Nichiren-----
A.D. 500-800 The introduction of Buddhism and its establishment in Japan.
538 (or 552) Buddhism officially introduced into Japan.
593-622 The reign of Prince-regent Shotoku, the great organizer and patron of Buddhism.
720-760 The flourishing period of Nara, the era of "Heavenly Peace."
800-1000 The age of ecclesiastical organization.
767-822 Saicho, or Dengyo Daishi, the founder of the Hiei institutions, on the basis of Tendai Buddhism.
774-835 Kukai, or Kobo Daishi, the organizer of Shingon mysticism.
942-1007 Genshin, the abbot of Eshin-in, the greatest of the pioneers of Amita-Buddhism.
1000-1200 The age of ecclesiastical degeneration.
1157 and 1159 The civil wars which gave occasion to the rise of the military clans.
1159-1185 The reign of the Taira clan, in Miyako.
1186 The establishment of the Minamoto Dictatorship at Kamakura.
1200-1300 The age of religious reformation.
1133-1212 Honen, the propounder of Amita-Buddhism.
1155-1213 Jokei, the reformer of Ritsu, or the disciplinary school of Buddhism.
1140-1215 Eisai, the introducer of Zen Buddhism, of the Rinzai school.
1200-1253 Dogen, the great Zen master, of the Sodo school.
1219 The Hojos thrust aside the Minamotos.
1221 The defeat of the Imperial party.
-----Nichiren's Lifetime -----
1222 Nichiren born (2nd month, 16th day; March 30).
1233 Nichiren sent to Kiyozumi.
1237 Nichiren ordained; his religious struggles.
1243-53 Nichiren studying at Hiei and other centres of Buddhism.
1253 Nichiren proclaims his religion "to the universe" and to mankind (4th m. 28th d.; May 17).
1253-58 Nichiren on missionary journeys, and resident in Kamakura.
1258-59 Nichiren studying at the library of the Iwamoto monastery.
1260 "The Establishment of Righteousness and the Security of the Country " presented to the Hojo government. (7th m. 16th d.; August 24).
1260 Nichiren attacked by a mob (8th m. 27th d.; October 3).
1261-63 Nichiren exiled to Izu (arrived there 5th m. 12th d.; June 11th).
1262 Nichiren formulates his five theses.
1263 Nichiren released and returned to Kamakura (2nd m. 22d d.; April 1).
1264-68 Nichiren on missionary journeys, chiefly in his native province.
1264 The peril in the Pine Forest (11th m. 11th d.; December 1).
1268-69 Mongol envoys come to Japan.
1268 Nichiren renews his remonstrance and sends letters to the authorities and prelates (10th m. 11th d. ; November 16).
1269-70 Nichiren on missionary journeys, probably in Kai.
1271 Nichiren returns to Kamakura, and the final issue fought.
1271 Nichiren arrested and sentenced to death; the nar-row escape at Tatsu-no-kuchi (9th m. 12th d.; October 17).
1271-74 Nichiren exiled to Sado, an island in the Sea of Japan.
1271 Nichiren starts from Echi for Sado (10th m. 10th d.; November 13).
1271 Nichiren stays at Teradomari, the port for Sado, (21-27th d.; November 24-30).
1271 Nichiren arrives at Sado (28th d.; December 1).
1272 "Opening the Eyes" finished (2nd m.; March).
1273 "The Spiritual Introspection of the Supreme Beings" finished (4th m. 25th d.; May 13).
1273 The graphic representation of the Supreme Being made (7th m. 8th d.; August 21).
1273 Several other important essays written.
1274 The sentence of release arrives at Sado (3rd m. 8th d.; April 16).
1274 Nichiren arrives at Kamakura (3rd m. 26th d.; May 4).
1274 Nichiren called to the government office (4th m. 8th d.; May 15).
1274 Nichiren leaves Kamakura (5th m. 12th d.; June 17).
1274-82 Nichiren lives in retirement in Minobu.
1274 Nichiren arrives at Minobu (5th m. 17th d.; June 22).
1274 "A Treatise on the Quintessence of the Lotus of Truth" finished (5th m. 24th d.; June 29).
1274 Mongols invade western islands, in autumn.
1275 "The Selection of the Time," and other writings.
1276 "In Recompense of Indebtedness," and other writings.
1277-78 The incident of Kingo, Nichiren's beloved disciple.
1281 "The Three Great Mysteries" finished (4th m. 8th d.; April 27).
1281 The great armada of the Mongols arrives at the Bay of Hakata (5th m. 21st d.; June 9).
1281 Nichiren sends a circular, the "Epistle of the Little Mongols" (6th m. 16th d.; July 3).
1281 The Mongol armada destroyed (int. 7th m. 1st d.; August 16).
1282 Nichiren leaves Minobu (9th m. 8th d.; October loth).
1282 Nichiren arrives at Ikegami, and writes his last letter (9th m. 19th d.; October 21).
1282 Nichiren dies (10th m. 13th d.; November 14th).
-----The Period after Nichiren's Death-----
1300-1500 The rise of Nichirenite Buddhism and its conflicts with other forms of Buddhism.
1283 A convention of Nichiren's disciples; his writings brought together (the first anniversary of his death).
1289 The first schism; Nikko deserts Minobu.
1294 Nichizo starts his propaganda in Miyako, later a great centre of the Nichirenite propaganda.
1295 Nichiji starts on a missionary journey to the north; believed to have gone to Yezo and Siberia.
1342 Nichizo, the great apostle of Nichiren, dies.
1314-92 Nichiju, the missionary in Miyako and in the north.
1385-1464 Nichiryu, the missionary in the central provinces.
1407-88 Nisshin, the persecuted.
1422-1500 Niccho, the organizer of the Minobu institutions.
1536 The persecution of the era Temmon, the severest blow given to the Nichirenite movement.