Nichiren, Soka Gakkai and Komeito - Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan - page 39

the emperor and the shogun government as historical phenomena rather than
ends in themselves.
Nichiren had what Habito (1999a: 299) describes as grounded or bodily
awareness of seeing himself as living the Lotus Sutra

s predictions of perse-
cution for the sake of the Dharma. This was nothing short of a mystical sense
of

'

, something that accompanied his every thought, word
and action (Habito 1999a). Nichiren scholars refer to this as ji no ichinen
sanzen, or concretised, particularised cosmic plenitude, as opposed to ri no
ichinen sanzen, or conceptual, universal plenitude. The

' cosmic plenitude '

first succinctly depicts

Nichiren s attitude towards living how he interpreted the intention or spirit of

the Lotus Sutra as something he embodied in his own life. This is compared
to a meditative form for enlightenment represented by a conceptual under-
standing attributed to the Chinese Buddhist scholar Tientai. Habito argues
that Nichiren

'

' s mystical awareness of his own role in a given historical time

con rmation manifested in the perse-

cutions and tribulations he faced. As indicated, there seems to have been less
of a de

rmed the truth of this teaching, a con

nite divide between ' old Buddhism ' and ' new Buddhism ' (Stone

1999a, 1999b) than presumed. The di erence seems to have arisen more

because Nichiren returned to the traditional Tientai/Tendai position, but with
the political emphasis on actualising this rather revolutionary line of thinking.
First, Tientai and Nichiren shared the position that the Lotus Sutra reigns
supreme because of its promise of universal Buddhahood. Nichiren also
shared with his Tendai contemporaries the view that the honmon, or the
'

'

/essential chapters (the last 14 chapters of the Lotus Sutra)
are superior to the shakumon,or

origin teaching

/provisional chapters. In the
shakumon, Shakyamuni is portrayed to have attained enlightenment in his
lifetime, whereas in the honmon he is portrayed in the Lifespan of the Tath - -
gata (16th chapter) as having achieved enlightenment in the inconceivably
remote past (Jpn. gohyaku jinteng - ). For a variety of reasons (see Asai 1975),
the two divisions of the Lotus Sutra came to be ranked as inferior and
superior as indicated by the terminology of provisional and essential teaching.
At the time Nichiren arrived on the scene, the latter 14 chapters had been
appropriated by the

' trace teachings '

branch of Tendai scholarship as the basis for
hongaku doctrine (see Stone 1999b: 403). Nichiren saw himself as following
the line of Tendai leaders, 6 but with the mission to reveal how to practise in
his age. Fundamental disagreement over this question among Nichiren

' exoteric '

s closest
disciples erupted soon after his death, concerning what Nichiren had meant
should be the primary Buddhist practice and beliefs, the Nichiren Sh - sh -

'

' s

position of which I discuss below in relation to Soka Gakkai.
There have been other sources of tension, particularly as to Nichiren s best-

known writing, the Rissh - Ankoku Ron (On Establishing the Correct Teach-
ing for the Peace of the Land). It has warranted a host of interpretations,
most contentious precisely because of disagreement over his attitude towards
political leadership. The nuances of these interpretations are important to
understand to distinguish later twentieth-century interpretations of Nichiren.

'