Editing Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō (section)

==== The ''Shuzenji-ketsu'' ====

One medieval Tendai oral teachings text (''kuden homon''), the ''Shuzenji-ketsu (Doctrinal Decisions of Hsiu-ch'an-ssu),'' contains an example of daimoku chanting. The ''Shuzenji-ketsu'' recommends the chanting of daimoku as a deathbed practice, stating that this practice is a "Dharma container" which can include within it the [[Zhiyi#Threefold Truth and Threefold Contemplation|threefold contemplation of Tiantai.]] The text mentions that "through the workings of the three powers of the Wondrous Dharma [Dharma, Buddha, Faith], one shall at once attain enlightened wisdom and will not receive a body bound by birth and death."<ref name=":1" /> The text also teaches daimoku recitation as a method of contemplating the three thousand realms in one thought (ichinen sanzen), again at the time of death, and pairs it with recitation of the name of [[Guanyin|Kannon]] bodhisattva.<ref name=":1" />

The text also teaches daimoku recitation as part of a contemplative rite described as follows:<blockquote>You should make pictures of images representing the ten realms and enshrine them in ten places. Facing each image, you should, one hundred times, bow with your body, chant Namu Myoho-renge-kyo with your mouth, and contemplate with your mind. When you face the image of hell, contemplate that its fierce flames are themselves precisely emptiness, precisely provisional existence, and precisely the middle, and so on for all the images. When you face the image of the Buddha, contemplate its essence being precisely the threefold truth. You should carry out this practice for one time period in the morning and one time period in the evening. The Great Teacher Zhiyi secretly conferred this Dharma essential for the beings of dull faculties in the last age. If one wishes to escape from birth and death and attain bodhi, then first he should employ this practice. – ''Shuzenji-ketsu,'' trans. Jacqueline Stone <ref>{{Cite web |last=Ranallo-Higgins |first=Frederick M. |title=Knowing Nichiren, Scholar Jacqueline Stone on one of Buddhism's great traditions and its founder: An interview with Jacqueline Stone by Frederick M. Ranallo-Higgins |url=https://tricycle.org/magazine/nichiren-buddhism-history/ |access-date=2025-03-17 |website=Tricycle: The Buddhist Review |language=en}}</ref>  </blockquote>The dating of the ''Shuzenji-ketsu'' is uncertain and it has provoked much scholarly controversy in Japan. Scholars disagree on whether the work influenced or is influenced by Nichiren, as well as whether it predates him, post-dates Nichiren, or whether it emerged independently at around the same time.<ref name=":1" /> Shimaji Daito (1875-1927) for example, places it in the cloistered rule period (1086-1185).<ref name=":1" /> Tamura Yoshiro meanwhile dates the work to 1250-1300.<ref name=":1" /> Takagi Yutaka meanwhile agrees with the view that the text is from the late [[Heian period]] and that it demonstrate's the era's concern for a proper death. Many scholars have noted that devotion to Amitabha and the Lotus Sutra were key elements of the Buddhism of the Heian period, where they were seen as complementary. The Tendai school at mount Hiei was known for a schedule of practice which focused on ''Lotus Sutra'' rites in the morning and Pure Land practices in the evening. This custom was later described through the motto "daimoku in the morning and nembutsu in the evening."<ref name=":1" />