Post by Brad KleeThanks for signing the petition,
[snip your lies, I would never sign anything of yours.]
Brad, you are a massively serially suicidal supreme king of fools...
Nichiren Daishonin never suffered Zen and other slanders of the Lotus Sutra without a rebuke, and nor shall I. ...
The three principles regarding slanderers of the Lotus Sutra are highlighted in BOLD, below: ...
From "Letter to Akimoto", WND I, pp. 1016-1018: ...
https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/144#para-14 ...
. .. But I, Nichiren, one man alone, declare that the recitation
. .. of the name of Amida Buddha is an action that leads to
. .. rebirth in the hell of incessant suffering, that THE ZEN
. .. SCHOOL IS THE INVENTION OF THE HEAVENLY DEVIL, that the
. .. True Word school is an evil doctrine that will destroy the
. .. country, and that the Precepts school and the observers of
. .. the precepts are traitors to the nation.
. ..
. .. Because I do so, from the sovereign on down to the common
. .. people, all people fear me more than they would an enemy of
. .. their parents, an enemy from a past existence, a plotter of
. .. treason, a night raider, or a bandit. They rage, they
. .. curse, they strike at me. Those who slander me are given
. .. grants of land, while those who praise me are driven from
. .. their areas or fined, and the people who desire to kill me
. .. are singled out for rewards. And on top of all this, I have
. .. twice incurred the wrath of the authorities.
. ..
. .. I am not only the strangest person alive in the world
. .. today; in the ninety reigns of human sovereigns, in the
. .. more than seven hundred years since the Buddhist teachings
. .. were first introduced to Japan, there has never been such a
. .. strange person. I, Nichiren, am like the great comet of the
. .. Bun'ei era (1264), a disorder of the heavens such as had
. .. never happened in Japan before that time. I, Nichiren, am
. .. like the great earthquake of the Shōka era (1257), a freak
. .. of the earth that had never before occurred in this land.
. ..
. .. In Japan since the history of this country began, there
. .. have been twenty-six perpetrators of treason. The first was
. .. Prince Ōyama, the second was Ōishi no Yamamaru, and so on
. .. down to the twenty-fifth, Yoritomo, and the twenty-sixth,
. .. Yoshitoki. The first twenty-four of these men were struck
. .. down by the imperial forces and had their heads put on
. .. display at the prison gate, or their corpses left to rot in
. .. the mountain fields. But the last two succeeded in
. .. overthrowing the sovereign and gaining complete control of
. .. the nation, and at that time the imperial rule came to an
. .. end.
. ..
. .. AND YET THESE VARIOUS PERPETRATORS OF TREASON ARE LESS
. .. HATED BY THE MASS OF PEOPLE THAN IS NICHIREN. If you ask
. .. why that should be, I will tell you. THE LOTUS SUTRA
. .. CONTAINS A PASSAGE DECLARING THAT THAT SUTRA IS FIRST AMONG
. .. ALL THE SUTRAS. However, the Great Teacher Kōbō declares
. .. that the Lotus Sutra ranks third, while the Great Teacher
. .. Jikaku declares that the Lotus Sutra ranks second, and the
. .. Great Teacher Chishō agrees with Jikaku. Hence at present,
. .. when the priests of Mount Hiei, Tō-ji, and Onjō-ji look
. .. upon the Lotus Sutra, they read the passage that says the
. .. Lotus Sutra is first, but what they understand when they
. .. read it is that the Lotus Sutra is second or third in
. .. standing.
. ..
. .. Neither the nobility nor the warrior clans have any
. .. detailed information about this matter. But since the
. .. eminent priests in whom they place their faith all
. .. subscribe to this opinion, the laity share the same view as
. .. their teachers.
. ..
. .. With regard to other groups, the Zen school describes
. .. itself as a teaching transmitted apart from the sutras, and
. .. hence speaks with scorn of the Lotus Sutra. The Nembutsu
. .. school asserts that "not even one person in a thousand" can
. .. be saved through the other teachings and that "not a single
. .. person has ever attained Buddhahood" through them, by which
. .. it means that, in comparison to the Nembutsu, the Lotus
. .. Sutra is too lofty to practice and therefore ought to be
. .. rejected. The Precepts school is composed of Hinayana
. .. doctrines. Even in the Former Day of the Law the Buddha
. .. would not condone the spread of such teachings, so surely
. .. he would never approve of them being propagated in the
. .. Latter Day of the Law, causing the ruler of the nation to
. .. be confused and misled.
. ..
. .. Three women of antiquity-Ta Chi, Mo His, and Pao Ssu-misled
. .. the rulers of the three dynasties and caused them to lose
. .. their thrones. And in the same way, these evil doctrines
. .. are propagated throughout the nation and cause the Lotus
. .. Sutra to lose its proper place. As a result, the great
. .. sovereigns Antoku, Takahira, and the others were cast aside
. .. by the Sun Goddess and Great Bodhisattva Hachiman and
. .. drowned in the sea or were exiled to distant islands. They
. .. were overthrown by families who for generations in the past
. .. had been their followers, and this was because they had
. .. lost the protection of the heavenly deities. They put their
. .. faith in those who are enemies of the Lotus Sutra. But
. .. because there was no one who understood this, they had no
. .. way to learn of their error. This is illustrated in the
. .. statement that wise men can perceive the cause of things,
. .. just as snakes know the way of snakes.
. ..
. .. I, Nichiren, am no wise man. But just as a snake can
. .. understand the mind of a dragon and crows can foretell the
. .. coming of good or bad fortune in the world, so I was able
. .. to fathom the course that events would take. AND I KNEW
. .. THAT, IF I SPOKE OUT ON THE MATTER, I WOULD INSTANTLY MEET
. .. WITH PUNISHMENT, WHILE IF I DID NOT SPEAK OUT, I WOULD FALL
. .. INTO THE GREAT AVĪCHI HELL.
. ..
. .. In practicing the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, THERE ARE
. .. THREE PRINCIPLES that must be understood. THE FIRST IS THAT
. .. REGARDING SLANDERERS. The monk Superior Intent, the monk
. .. Shore of Suffering, the Scholar Vimalamitra, and the Great
. .. Arrogant Brahman are examples. These men dressed their
. .. bodies in the three robes, lifted a single begging bowl up
. .. before their eyes, and meticulously observed the two
. .. hundred and fifty precepts, and yet they were in fact
. .. enemies of the Mahayana and in the end fell into the great
. .. citadel of the hell of incessant suffering.
. ..
. .. In recent times in Japan there have been men like Kōbō,
. .. Jikaku, and Chishō who observed the precepts just as those
. .. earlier monks did and who did not differ from them in
. .. wisdom. But because they asserted that the True Word
. .. teaching of the Mahāvairochana Sutra ranked first and the
. .. Lotus Sutra ranked second or third, if my view of the
. .. matter should by any chance be correct, they are now in the
. .. great citadel of the hell of incessant suffering.
. ..
. .. It is a fearful thing to utter such words, and still more
. .. does one hesitate to put them into writing. But when the
. .. Buddha himself has declared that the Lotus Sutra is
. .. foremost, IF ONE LEARNS OF A PERSON WHO RANKS IT SECOND OR
. .. THIRD AND, OUT OF FEAR OF OTHER PEOPLE OR OF GOVERNMENT
. .. AUTHORITIES, FAILS TO SPEAK OUT, THEN "ONE IS IN FACT HIS
. .. ENEMY," THAT IS, ONE IS ACTING AS A FEARFUL ENEMY TO ALL
. .. LIVING BEINGS. THIS IS STATED IN BOTH THE SUTRAS AND THE
. .. COMMENTARIES, AND SO I SPEAK OUT.
. ..
. .. To speak out without fearing others and without flinching
. .. before society-this is what the sutra means when it says,
. .. "We care nothing for our bodies or lives but are anxious
. .. only for the unsurpassed way."
. ....
. .. It is not that one does not recall the calumny, the staves
. .. and stones that were suffered by Bodhisattva Never
. .. Disparaging. It is not that one is unafraid of the world.
. .. It is just that the censure of the Lotus Sutra is even more
. .. severe. It is like the case of Sukenari and Tokimune, who
. .. acted as they did even though they found themselves in the
. .. camp of the shogun, because they longed to avenge
. .. themselves upon their enemy and were ashamed at the thought
. .. of failing to do so.
. ..
. .. THE ABOVE IS THE PRINCIPLE RELATING TO INDIVIDUAL SLANDERERS.
. ..
. .. AS FOR THE FAMILIES OF SLANDERERS, the family members may
. .. pass their entire lives without slandering the Lotus Sutra.
. .. But even though they practice it every hour of the day and
. .. night, the fact that they were born into the family of a
. .. slanderer means that they will invariably be reborn in the
. .. hell of incessant suffering. For example, those persons who
. .. were born into the family of the monk Superior Intent or
. .. the monk Shore of Suffering and became their disciples or
. .. lay supporters all fell, against their will, into the hell
. .. of incessant suffering. Or it is like the family members of
. .. Yoshimori. Setting aside those who gave their lives in
. .. battle, even the children still in their mothers' wombs,
. .. torn from their mothers' bellies, were killed before birth.
. ..
. .. Now I, Nichiren, have mentioned the three great teachers
. .. Kōbō, Jikaku, and Chishō, who boldly state in their
. .. writings that the Lotus Sutra represents the region of
. .. darkness, that it is a false and deluded doctrine. If what
. .. the Lotus Sutra itself says is correct, then what do you
. .. suppose will become of the priests at Mount Hiei, Tō-ji,
. .. Onjō-ji, the seven major temples of Nara-at all the 11,037
. .. temples throughout Japan? If the examples cited earlier are
. .. any indication, they will without a doubt fall into the
. .. great citadel of the hell of incessant suffering.
. ..
. .. SUCH IS THE PRINCIPLE RELATING TO THE FAMILIES OF SLANDERERS.
. ..
. .. NEXT, WE COME TO THE COUNTRY OF SLANDERERS. Those persons
. .. who happen to live in a country where there are slanderers
. .. of the Law will all-everyone in the entire country-be
. .. condemned to the great citadel of the hell of incessant
. .. suffering. Just as all the various waters gather in the
. .. great ocean, so all kinds of misfortune gather about such a
. .. country. They will abound in the way that grass and trees
. .. abound on a mountain.
. ..
. .. WHEN THE THREE CALAMITIES PILE UP MONTH AFTER MONTH AND THE
. .. SEVEN DISASTERS APPEAR DAY AFTER DAY, THEN HUNGER AND
. .. THIRST WILL PREVAIL AND THE COUNTRY WILL BE CHANGED INTO A
. .. REALM OF HUNGRY SPIRITS. WHEN PLAGUE AND DISEASE SWEEP OVER
. .. THE LAND, THE COUNTRY WILL BECOME A REALM OF HELL. WHEN
. .. WARFARE BREAKS OUT, IT WILL BE TRANSFORMED INTO A REALM OF
. .. ASURAS. AND WHEN PARENTS, BROTHERS, AND SISTERS, IGNORING
. .. THE FACT THAT THEY ARE KIN, BEGIN TAKING EACH OTHER FOR A
. .. HUSBAND OR WIFE, THE COUNTRY WILL BECOME A REALM OF
. .. ANIMALS. UNDER SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES, ONE DOES NOT HAVE TO
. .. WAIT UNTIL DEATH TO FALL INTO THE THREE EVIL PATHS. WHILE
. .. ONE IS STILL ALIVE, THE COUNTRY IN WHICH ONE LIVES WILL BE
. .. CHANGED INTO THESE FOUR EVIL REALMS.
. ..
. .. SUCH IS THE PRINCIPLE RELATING TO A COUNTRY WHERE
. .. SLANDERERS LIVE.
Pay attention this time, Brad Klee, for your own sake, the sake of your family and your country, if you actually give a damn about them. ...
-Chas. ...
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