Nichiren, Soka Gakkai and Komeito - Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan - page 36

This is the Japanese reading of the Chinese title Miao-fa-lien-hua-ching (today s

pronunciation), or the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law (or Dharma). 3
Nichiren advocated the chanting of the title of the Lotus Sutra as the way to
manifest Buddhahood. Nichiren maintained that to uphold the Lotus Sutra

'

-
to read, recite, live with faith in its teachings, expound it, and teach it to
others was not only the way to a supreme way of life but also the way to

transform society. 4
Dolce (1999) has argued that the Buddhist practice of Nichiren was not
simply the embodiment of the Lotus Sutra as mediated by Tendai doctrine,
but a development that can be better understood within the context of prevail-
ing esoteric rituals of the Lotus Sutra. She sees Nichiren as having preserved,
rather than invented, two important elements of esoteric praxis, namely the
mandala (the honzon) and the mantra (Namu-my - ho-renge-ky - ) for which his
Buddhist practice is known. The honzon is a visualisation in diagrammatic
form of the

-

, a visualisation that has certain antecedents in other
esoteric iconographic representations prior to Nichiren. By tracing the tradi-
tions of objects as representation of the absolute and of the Lotus Sutra, it is
possible to see Nichiren as adding a calligraphic scroll to these iconographic
physical images of the absolute. Dolce discusses Nichiren

' absolute '

s attitude towards
esoteric Buddhism by placing his extension of the Lotus Sutra and Tendai
doctrine and tradition not necessarily as a break with

'

Buddhism, but
rather as emerging out of a particular doctrinal development of which ante-
cedents can be found in the past. She shows how the ritual dimension of
esoteric Buddhism at the time of Nichiren provided him with speci

' old '

c models

for what would develop into his own honzon.
Honzon means object of devotion, and often the honori x go pre-

cedes the word making it gohonzon, which indicates further respect. In the
Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind (1273), Nichiren describes this
mandala as:

c pre

My - ho-renge-ky - appears in the centre of the [treasure] tower with the
Buddhas Shakyamuni (also written S - kyamuni) and Many Treasures (Tah - )
seated to the right and left, and flanking them, the four bodhisattvas,

followers of Shakyamuni, led by Superior Practices. Manjushr

- , Maitreya,
and the other bodhisattvas, who are followers of the four bodhisattvas,
are seated below.

ı

(Writings of Nichiren Daishonin (WND)-1, 366)

Nichiren depicts calligraphically the treasure tower described in the Lotus
Sutra, which he takes as representing the absolute, or reality when manifested
through enlightenment to the Law de ned as Namu-my - ho-renge-ky - .InThe

Real Aspect of the Gohonzon (1277), Nichiren says that all living beings of the
Ten Worlds

'
(WND-2, 832), something they can manifest when the Law is at the centre of
their life as depicted on Nichiren

' display the digni ed attributes that they inherently possess

'

s honzon. In this way, and di erent to