Editing Nichiren (section)

=== The Three Great Secret Dharmas ===
Since Nichiren deemed the world to be in a degenerate age where most teachings were ineffective, he held that people required a simple and effective method to attain Buddhahood. According to Nichiren, the way to Buddhahood was through the [[Three Great Secret Laws|Three Great Secret Dharmas]] (sandai hihō 三大秘法): the invocation of the ''Lotus Sutra''{{'}}s title (''daimoku''), the object of worship (''honzon''), and the ordination platform or place of worship (''kaidan'').<ref name="Collinson2000">{{Cite book |last=Collinson |first=Diané |title=Fifty Eastern thinkers |date=2000 |publisher=Routledge |others=Plant, Kathryn., Wilkinson, Robert |isbn=0-203-00540-6 |location=London |oclc=50493529}}</ref>{{rp|353}} Nichiren held that these three Dharmas are the concrete manifestations of "the actualization of ichinen sanzen" (ji no ichinen sanzen) specific to the age of Dharma Decline.<ref name=":0" />

A work attributed to Nichiren named the ''Sandai hi hō honjōji'' (三大秘法稟承事, ''Transmission of the three great secret Dharmas'') states that Nichiren discovered the three Dharmas in the 16th chapter of the ''Lotus Sutra,'' and that as the leader of the [[Bodhisattvas of the Earth]], he secretly received them from the original Buddha (honbutsu) who resides in the originally existing Land of Tranquil Light.<ref name="Sueki1999">{{Cite journal |last=Sueki |first=Fumihiko |date=1999 |title=Nichiren's Problematic Works |url=http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/2684 |url-status=live |journal=Japanese Journal of Religious Studies |volume=26/3-4 |pages=261–280 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180701053345/http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/2684 |archive-date=1 July 2018 |access-date=31 October 2018}}</ref>{{rp|266}}<ref name="Stone2003" />{{rp|264}}<ref name="Collinson2000" />{{rp|353}} Several modern scholars have questioned the authenticity of this text however.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Sueki1999" />{{rp|266,268}}<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Sato |first=Hiroo |date=1999 |title=Nichiren's View of Nation and Religion |url=http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/2687 |url-status=live |journal=Japanese Journal of Religious Studies |volume=26/3-4 |pages=320–321 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180701053350/http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/2687 |archive-date=1 July 2018 |access-date=31 October 2018}}</ref>

According to Nichiren, practicing the Three Secret Dharmas results in the "Three Proofs" which verify their validity. The first proof is "documentary," whether the religion's fundamental texts, here the writings of Nichiren, make a lucid case for the eminence of the religion. "Theoretical proof" is an intellectual standard of whether a religion's teachings reasonably clarify the mysteries of life and death. "Actual proof," deemed the most important by Nichiren, demonstrates the validity of the teaching through the actual improvements and experiences which manifest in the daily life of practitioners.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bluck |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k8R9AgAAQBAJ&q=actual+proof&pg=PA93 |title=British Buddhism: Teachings, Practice and Development |date=2006 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-15817-1 |page=93 |access-date=3 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220601192132/https://books.google.com/books?id=k8R9AgAAQBAJ&q=actual+proof&pg=PA93 |archive-date=1 June 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Murata |first=Koichi |title=Encyclopedia of Educational Theory and Philosophy |date=2014 |publisher=SAGE Publications |isbn=978-1-4833-6475-9 |editor-last=Phillips |editor-first=D. C. |page=506 |chapter=Makiguchi |access-date=12 November 2018 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=84StBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA506 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602160709/https://books.google.com/books?id=84StBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA506 |archive-date=2 June 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>The Essence of Nichiren Shu Buddhism, SanJose Temple, page 84. {{ISBN|0-9705920-0-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism 2002: Three proofs |url=http://www.sgilibrary.org/search_dict.php?id=2363 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214113855/http://www.sgilibrary.org/search_dict.php?id=2363 |archive-date=14 December 2013 |access-date=6 September 2013 |publisher=Sgilibrary.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ingram |first=Paul O. |date=1977 |title=Nichirin's Three Secrets |journal=Numen |volume=24 |issue=3 |page=215 |doi=10.2307/3269599 |jstor=3269599}}</ref>

==== Daimoku ====
[[file:Nichiren calms a storm in Kakuda.jpg|thumb|Nichiren depicted calming a storm by chanting the daimoku]]
[[Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō|''Namu myōhō-renge-kyō'']], the ''daimoku'' ("the title" of the ''Lotus Sutra'' preceded by "Namo", meaning "homage to"), is both the essence of the ''Lotus Sutra''{{'s}} Dharma and the means to discover that truth, i.e. the interconnected unity of self, others and environment with Buddhahood itself. Nichiren sees this as the only truly effective practice, the superior Buddhist practice for this time. Thus, according to Nichiren, "it is better to be a leper who chants Nam(u)-myōhō-renge-kyō than be a chief abbot of the Tendai school."<ref name="Stone2003" />{{rp|56,254}}<ref name=":1" /> For Nichiren, the daimoku is "the heart of the eighty thousand sacred teachings and the eye of all buddhas," and contains the entire [[Buddhism|Buddhadharma]].<ref name=":0" />

Nichiren was influenced by [[Zhiyi]], who argued in his ''Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra'' (Fahua xuanyi 法華玄義) that the title of the sutra contains the meaning of the entire sutra (which itself contains the whole of Buddhism). Stone writes, "for Nichiren, the daimoku, as the embodiment of ichinen sanzen, encompasses all phenomena, including all beings and their environments in the ten realms of existence."<ref name=":0" /> This non-dual reality is contained in the term ''Myōhō'' (Miao in Chinese).<ref name=":5">Montgomery 1991, p. 132.</ref>

Furthermore, the daimoku is also said to contain the Buddha's enlightenment and all his spiritual powers.<ref name=":0" /> As he writes in the ''Kanjin honzon shō'': "Śākyamuni’s causal practices and their resulting virtues are all contained within the five characters Myōhō-renge-kyō. When we embrace these five characters, he will naturally transfer to us the merit of his causes and effects."<ref name=":0" /> He also writes:<blockquote>For those who are incapable of understanding the truth of ichinen sanzen, Lord Śākyamuni Buddha, with His great compassion, wraps this jewel in the five characters of myō, hō, ren, ge, and kyō and hangs it around the neck of the ignorant in the Latter Age of Degeneration.<ref>Kyōkō, FUJII. The Meaning of the Practice of Chanting in Nichiren Buddhism. Journal of East Asian Cultures 2023/2: VII–XIV <nowiki>http://doi.org/10.38144/TKT.2023.2.1</nowiki> <nowiki>https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2613-7519</nowiki></ref></blockquote>Like other Tendai figures of his time, Nichiren held that the ''Lotus Sutra'' taught the unity of the cause (skillful means) and the effect (Buddhahood). Nichiren held that the term ''Renge'' (Dharma Flower) represents how the cause and the effect (practice and Buddhahood) are one. This is symbolized by the lotus flower because its blossoms and seed pods grow at the same time.<ref name=":5" />

Thus, the chanting of the daimoku allowed one to access all the merit of the Buddha's practices. It links a practitioner to the Buddha's wisdom which sees all of reality as a single whole and thus allows one to attain the "realization of buddhahood with this very body."<ref name=":0" />

Furthermore, Nichiren saw this practice as going beyong the self-power [[Other power|other-power]] dichotomy used by Pure Land Buddhism:<blockquote>The Lotus Sutra establishes self-power but is not self-power. Since the "self" encompasses all beings of the ten realms, one’s own person from the outset contains the Buddha realm of both oneself and of all be- ings. Thus one does not now become a Buddha for the first time. [The sutra] also establishes Other-power but is not Other-power. Since the Buddha who is "other" is contained within us ordinary worldlings, this Buddha naturally manifests himself as identical to ourselves.<ref name="Stone 2003, p. 247">Stone 2003, p. 247.</ref></blockquote>For Nichiren, Buddhahood is immanently accessible through the daimoku. Nichiren also saw the daimoku as granting worldly benefits, such as healing and protection from harm.<ref name=":0" /> He taught that by relying on the daimoku, one would achieve a state of inner fredom, writing: "Recognize suffering as suffering, enjoy pleasures for what they are, and whether in suffering or joy, keep chanting Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō...Then you will know the joy of the Dharma for yourself."<ref name=":0" />

==== Gohonzon ====
[[file:Great Mandala by Nichiren (Honmanji).jpg|thumb|Great Mandala by Nichiren, Honmanji, [[Kyoto]]]]
The chanting of the daimoku is to be done while contemplating the daimandara 大曼荼羅 ("great [[mandala]]") or gohonzon 御本尊 ("revered object of worship").<ref name=":0" /> Japanese Buddhists often had a personal shrine with an object of worship (honzon), which could be a painting, mandala or statue. These objects were often held to embody the powers of the Buddhas. Nichiren created a unique honzon style in the form of a calligraphic mandala (in Chinese characters and two Siddham glyphs) representing the entire cosmos, specifically centered around the ''Lotus Sutra''{{'}}s ceremony in the air above [[Vulture Peak]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite web |title=The Real Aspect of the Gohonzon |url=https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/101 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222001014/http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/101 |archive-date=22 December 2017 |access-date=20 July 2018 |work=Nichiren Buddhism Library |publisher=Soka Gakkai}}</ref><ref name="Collinson2000" />{{rp|354}}

Nichiren inscribed many of these mandalas as personal honzon for his followers. More than 120 of them survive in Nichiren's own hand with his signature.<ref name=":0" /> Nichiren drew on earlier visual representations of the ''Lotus Sutra'' and was also influenced by contemporary figures like [[Myōe]] and [[Shinran]] who also created calligraphic honzon for their disciples. Since these did not require expert painters or expensive materials to make, they could be made in larger numbers for wide dissemination.<ref name=":0" />

Nichiren's gohonzons contain the daimoku written vertically in the center. It is flanked by the names of Śākyamuni and [[Prabhutaratna|Prabhūtaratna]] Buddha, as well as the names of various bodhisattvas (especially prominent being the [[Bodhisattvas of the Earth|four bodhisattvas of the earth]]), deities, and other beings. These figures also represent ''ichinen sanzen'', the mutual inclusion of the ten realms. Thus, the great mandala embodies the entire cosmos and its interfusion with Buddhahood.<ref name=":0" /> In other words, the gohonzon symbolizes the non-duality between our world and the sacred realm of the original Buddha of the ''Lotus Sutra'', where the Sutra is being taught eternally.<ref>Montgomery 1991, pp. 132-33.</ref>

According to Stone, the logic of this mandala is influenced by [[Vajrayana|Esoteric Buddhist]] [[Deity yoga|yogas]], in which the yogi visualizes their unity with the Buddha realm.<ref name=":0" /> However, for Nichiren, the unity of oneself and the Buddha is not achieved through yogic means, but mainly through faith. As Stone explains, "by chanting the daimoku, the devotee "enters" the mandala, the realm of the original buddha’s awakening, and participates in the enlightened reality that it depicts."<ref name=":0" />

==== Kaidan ====
Nichiren discusses the ordination platform (kaidan 戒壇) or place of worship'','' less frequently than the other great secret Dharmas for the mappō era. Teachings on it can be found in the ''Sandai hi hō honjōji'', a work of questionable authenticity.<ref name=":0" /> Traditionally, a kaidan is a place where the [[Buddhist ethics|Buddhist precepts]] are transmitted to [[Samanera|novices]]. However, Nichiren held that the merit of the precepts was already contained within the daimoku, and that embracing the ''Lotus Sutra'' was the only true precept in the final Dharma age. Nichiren's intentions for the establishment of an "ordination platform of the origin teaching" (honmon no kaidan 本門の戒壇) is thus far from clear, though he seems to have held that it would supercede the Tendai ordination platform on [[Mount Hiei]]. The ''Sandai hi hō honjōji'' teaches that it will be built as great Dharma center for all the people of the world once the emperor and his government all embraced the ''Lotus Sutra''.<ref name=":0" />

Nichiren left the fulfillment of the ''kaidan'' to his successors and its interpretation has been a matter of heated debate. Some state that it refers to the construction of a physical ordination platform sanctioned by the emperor; others contend that the ordination platform is the community of believers (''[[sangha]]'') or, simply, the place where practitioners of the ''Lotus Sutra'' live and make collective efforts to realize the ideal of establishing the true Dharma in order to establish peace to the land (''rissho ankoku''). The latter metaphorical interpretation is based on the ''Lotus Sūtra'' itself which states that "the place of enlightenment" is any place where one upholds the sutra. The latter conception reflects Nichiren's understanding that Buddhist practice must be grounded in a concrete place and must be engaged with the real world outside of temples and hermitages.<ref name=":0" /> It has also been interpreted as promoting engagement with the secular world as well as working to improve society.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Sueki1999" />{{rp|266,268}}<ref name=":2" />