نيشرين

الأعمال

• 1260إقامة التعليم الصحيح لسلام البلاد (Risshō ankoku ron)

  رسالة قدّمها إلى الشوغونية تلقي بتبعة المجاعة والكوارث على التعاليم الباطلة وتدعو إلى الإيمان الحصري بسوترا اللوتس.

الموقف

For Nichiren the Lotus Sutra, as interpreted by Zhiyi’s Tiantai school, is the Buddha’s final and complete teaching, and in the age of the decline of the Dharma only it can save. Its essence lies in its title, so chanting the daimoku, Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, is sufficient practice. He denounced Pure Land, Zen and Shingon as slandering the Dharma. In 1260 he blamed famine, epidemics and earthquakes on the state’s support for false teachings and predicted foreign invasion, which he saw confirmed by the Mongol attacks of 1274 and 1281. His legacy ranges from modern lay movements such as Sōka Gakkai to a 20th-century “Nichirenism” invoked by ultranationalists.

الحياة والسياق

Nichiren was born in 1222 in a fishing village in Awa province and stressed his humble origins. He entered a local temple as a boy and studied in Kamakura and on Mount Hiei. From 1253 he proclaimed the Lotus Sutra alone. His attacks on other schools brought exile to Izu, a near-execution in 1271 and exile on Sado until 1274. He then withdrew to Mount Minobu; he died in 1282.

أعمال رئيسة أخرى

• The Opening of the Eyes (Kaimoku shō, 1272)
• The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind (Kanjin honzon shō, 1273)