Response

The oneness of the Person and the Dharma (in Japanese ninpō ikka), also known as the Substantial Unity of the Person and the Dharma (ninpō tai-ichi), means that the Dharma is the Person and the Person is the Dharma. The Person and the Dharma form a harmonious whole. Of course, the fundamental meaning of the oneness of the Person and the Dharma is found in the fundamental Buddha. The reality of the Dharma is the great realisation of the saint in the infinite past of Kuon ganjo, as described in the sentence from the Treatise on what the Buddhas of the three phases see fit to keep and discard within the teachings: "When, in the past of five hundred grains of dust, the Thus-come Shakya was still an ordinary man, realising that his body was composed of earth, water, fire, wind and space, he instantly opened Awakening".

This saint is the Buddha endowed with the body of an ordinary man opening himself to the wonderful Dharma. This is why the Person who realised this awakening is the wonderful Dharma and the wonderful Dharma cannot exist elsewhere than in this Person who attested to this awakening. This is the substance of the substantive Unity of the Person and the Dharma. In order to enable the salvation of all beings for the eternity of the End of the Dharma, Nichiren Daishōnin, rebirth of the personal enjoyment body in the infinite past of Kuon Ganjo, manifested the soul of the Buddha from the substance of the oneness of the Person and the Dharma in the form of the great Honzon Mandala.

In the centre of this Dai Gohonzon (and all the Gohonzons of the Nichiren Shōshū) we read, "Nam Myōhōrengekyō Nichiren" and three small characters below Nichiren, which are pronounced "Zai gohan", meaning "seal of his presence". It should be understood from this arrangement that, in reality, the fundamental Buddha is Nichiren Daishōnin and that, at the same time, it expresses the meaning of the oneness of substance between the Person and the Dharma.

The reason for this provision comes from a written transmission entitled "Transmission of the Seven Points of the Gohonzon" in which Nichiren Daishōnin gives his final instructions with regard to the Gohonzon, noted down by Nikkō Shōnin. The point concerning the wording "Nichiren Zai gohan" is as follows: "For what reason should the heirs of successive generations write 'Nichiren Zai gohan'?". The master replied: "This is a profound secret. Transcribing the Dai-Gohonzon is not like practising calligraphy, where you have a model of the Gohonzon next to you and copy it faithfully. Putting down in writing the Dai Gohonzon of the High Sanctuary, which remains in the life of the High Priest, heir to the vital transmission, with a view to disseminating it to the people, is called retranscription. This is why it is said that all the Shōnin of the moment are Nichiren. This is why, again, in his Exegesis of the Treatise on the Honzon of the Observation of the Mind, Nichikan Shōnin wrote: "Is not the retranscription of the Honzon the conversion of others"?

Furthermore, in order to revive and renew the life of the Fundamental Buddha every day, the High Priest performs Ushi-Tora Gongyō, which is a re-enactment of Tatsunokuchi, from 2.30am, the same time as the persecution suffered by Nichiren Daishōnin.

Therefore, it is only natural that a Honzon that was not authorised by the High Priest, even if it is imitated using today's sophisticated copying and printing technology, cannot be the Gohonzon enabling us to become Buddha from this body. Furthermore, Nichiren Daishōnin's body contains the Person and the Dharma. The Dai Gohonzon contains the Person and the Dharma. Nichiren Daishōnin is the Person identical to the Dharma and the Dai Gohonzon is the Dharma identical to the Person. The Person and the Dharma in themselves form a single substance, are in a relationship of two things being one (in Japanese ni ni funi). In many Gosho, Nichiren Daishōnin expresses the profound meaning of the oneness of the Person and the Dharma. However, these explanations can be divided into four categories:

1.       from the point of view of the three virtues of Sovereign, Master, and Parents,

2.       from the point of view of the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra,

3.       from the point of view of the threefold body without artifice, and

4.       from the point of view of the Bodhisattva Higher-Practice (Jōgyō).

With regard to the approach to the oneness of the Person and the Dharma from the point of view of the three virtues of Sovereign, Master and Parents, Nichiren Daishōnin begins his Eye-opening Treatise with: "There are three categories of persons whom all beings must respect: Sovereign, Master and Parents". He concludes this long treatise with: "Nichiren is the Sovereign, Master, Father and Mother of all the people of Japan". In these sentences, Nichiren Daishōnin shows the substantive oneness of the Person and the Dharma, asserting that he himself is the Buddha endowed with the three virtues of Sovereign, Master and Parents.

With regard to the approach to the oneness of the Person and the Dharma from the point of view of the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra, the Oral Transmission of the Doctrine states: "The Honzon is the substance of the body of the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra".

Concerning this "practitioner of the Lotus Sutra", Nichiren Daishōnin states in the Eye-opening Treatise: "Looking at the world today, who among all the monks, apart from Nichiren, has been criticised and slandered, beaten with sword and staff for the cause of the Lotus Sutra? Without Nichiren, these prophetic stanzas would be a lie". It should be noted that "the prophetic stanzas" are the twenty-line stanzas in the chapter Exhortation to Guard the Lotus Sutra, recounting the difficulties encountered by the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra in propagating this sutra throughout the End of the Dharma.

Indeed, only Nichiren Daishōnin read these stanzas with his body. Thus, as the identity of the Honzon and the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra, there is also here a dimension of Person and Dharma. Of course, the notion of "practitioner of the Lotus Sutra" has various meanings, but ultimately, the identity of the fundamental practitioner and the Buddha is the primary meaning.

From the point of view of the threefold unadorned body, the Treatise on the Three Great Esoteric Dharmas states: "The Honzon erected in the chapter Life Span is the revered Shakya, sovereign of the teaching, with the threefold unadorned body present at the beginning, having a deep and lasting connection with this earth since before the past of the five hundred grains of aeon dust".

Furthermore, in the Oral Transmission of the Doctrine, Nichiren Daishōnin states: "The Thus-coming is the revered Shakya. In its general sense, it refers to the Buddhas of the three phases and the ten directions. In its particular sense, it refers to the threefold body whose original nature is without artifice. Today, the meaning of Nichiren and his followers is that the Thus-Being is, in the general sense, all sentient beings. In the particular sense, it is Nichiren, his disciples and his benefactors. Therefore, the threefold body without artifice is the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra in the End of the Dharma. The precious name of the triple body without artifice is Nam Myōhōrengekyō". This extract shows the oneness of substance between the Person and the Dharma as the triple body without artifice. I would add that in this oral transmission of the doctrine, Nichiren Daishōnin twice uses the expressions "general meaning" and "particular meaning". The distinction between "general meaning" and "particular meaning" is a most important point in our faith, practice and study. These two expressions are synonymous with the expressions "from the superficial point of view" (ichi-ō) and "from the deep point of view" (sai-ō) and "teachings that still remain within a certain dimension (tōbun) and those that extend beyond (kasetsu), which are found in many Gosho. Nichiren Daishōnin translates in this Oral Transmission of the Doctrine, the notions of "general" and "particular" in the context of the Buddha's body.

Thus, the two distinctions general and particular are declined in various ways in the teaching, such as the distinction between the time of the Buddha's lifetime and the End of the Dharma, between sowing and maturing, and harvesting, and the distinction between the rulers of the wonderful Dharma teaching. Moreover, as each of these two meanings represents a major logic within the Buddha's teaching, it can be said that this is an important doctrine that determines the nature and status of the Dharma.

In the reply to Messire Soya, Nichiren Daishōnin states:

"The Bodhisattva Superior-Practice received the water of wisdom from the wonderful Dharma of the Thus-Coming Shakyamuni, to pour it into the dried desert of the lives of beings in this evil world of the final era. This is the meaning of wisdom. The Venerated Shakya transmitted this teaching to the bodhisattva Superior-Practice. Nichiren is now spreading this doctrine in Japan. Here we have the two meanings of the general and the particular. If you confuse the general and the particular in the slightest way, it's pointless thinking about attaining Buddhahood and you'll wander endlessly through the cycle of life and death".

Hence the importance of distinguishing between the general and the particular.

Returning to today's topic, from the point of view of the Bodhisattva Higher Practice (Jōgyō), again in the Oral Transmission of the Doctrine, we read:

"A thousand grasses, ten thousand trees are none other than the bodhisattva sprung from the earth. Indeed, their original state is the bodhisattva sprung from the earth. "Original" means that the benefit of the infinite past of the five hundred grains of eon dust is the benefit without beginning or end. This bodhisattva is the Person holding the original Dharma. The original Dharma is Nam Myōhōrengekyō.

This passage teaches that the Person holding the original Dharma is the bodhisattva Jōgyō, thereby indicating the oneness of the Person and the Dharma.

Reflecting on all these indications, it turns out that the notions of the three virtues of sovereign, master and parents, of the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra, of the threefold body without artifice, of the bodhisattva Superior-Practice, all refer to Nichiren Daishōnin who appeared in the End of the Dharma. And the Great Mandala, expressing as it does the action and teaching of Nichiren Daishōnin must be venerated as the Dai Gohonzon of the oneness of the Person and the Dharma.

When the beings of the End of the Dharma chant Daimoku with faith and without other thoughts, they are then of one substance with the Dharma and the Person of the great Mandala as a practitioner and immediately realise the purpose of their coming into this world, which is Buddhahood.

Now, only we, practitioners of the Nichiren Shōshū, have faith in this profound doctrine of the oneness of the Person and the Dharma, the substance of the teaching of the profound of the phrases of the original doctrine.

In The Saint Knows the Three Phases (Shōnin chi sanze ji - 聖人知三世事), Nichiren Daishōnin writes:

"If I overestimate myself, people will think I am proud; if I belittle myself, then I will despise the Sutra. If the pine is high, the wisteria is long; if the spring is deep, the stream is long".

This passage underlines the difficulty of teaching this doctrine. The erroneous schools of Nichiren Shū do not understand the deep doctrine taught in the sentences of the Lotus Sutra, in particular the identity of the Person and the Dharma, and take as their Honzon the ephemeral Buddha Shakyamuni, a Person inferior to the Dharma.

Let us clarify this difference between the notions of "Dharma superior to the Person" and "Oneness of the Person and the Dharma".

Some people think that the Dharma exists beforehand in the universe, as a Law, and that the Buddha is the one who awakened to it. This way of thinking is representative of provisional and ephemeral teachings. The Nichiren Shōshū way of thinking is based on Nichiren Daishōnin's teaching, that is to say. the identity (Ikka) of the Person (Nin) and the Dharma (Hō). The Person and the Dharma being "non-two" (Funi), they are inseparable. There is a very profound philosophy here. Even if the Dharma seems to exist on its own, in fact it does not.

Unlike the universal law of gravitation that Isaac Newton discovered and developed, a law that existed before him, in reality, the "unprecedented" Law (Dharma) to which the Buddha awakened exists only in the Buddha's body, within the Buddha's wisdom of which it is the content, neither before his awakening nor outside it. In Buddhism, it is when the Buddha has awakened and shows us his awakening that we, ordinary humans, can have access to it. Only the Buddha can see Nam Myōhōrengekyō, for only the Buddha has awakened to it. The others can only become Buddha by having faith in the awakening indicated to us by the Buddha.

This is the problem with Buddhism, particularly in our school. Some people see Nam Myōhōrengekyō only as an external law that governs the universe (like God, in short). However, it is only when the Buddha has awakened to it that, for us, the Dharma takes on its full value. As long as the Buddha has not attained enlightenment, the Dharma does not exist. On this subject, the 65th High Priest Nichijun Shōnin, speaking of the Sōka Gakkai without naming it, wrote the following:

"Some people think that Nam Myōhōrengekyō exists somewhere in the universe. This is a serious mistake. Nam Myōhōrengekyō is the body of the Buddha. In reality, it exists only within the Buddha's wisdom". Nam Myōhōrengekyō is not a mere law; it is the Buddha. Nam Myōhōrengekyō is not a mere law; it is the Nam Myōhōrengekyō of the oneness of the person and the Dharma. In our school, the Gohonzon is not just a Mandala; it is not just a law; it is the body of the Buddha.

These same people, using the doctrine of the oneness of the Person and the Dharma for pernicious purposes, claim that the Dharma is the organisation (Sōka Gakkai) itself, while the Person is the driving force (Daisaku Ikeda) of the organisation. Now, all these allegations are merely erroneous doctrines, the main causes of the fall into hell of those who adopt and profess them.

Nichiren Daishōnin began to inscribe Gohonzon from his exile on the island of Sado. He gradually modified their content, finally arriving at its final and ultimate form, the Dai Gohonzon, inscribed on 12 October in the 2nd year of Kōan (1279), which he transmitted to Nikkō Shōnin.

When we face this Gohonzon and chant the Daimoku, our faith, which has been hidden in our hearts since the past of kuon, is awakened by the power of the Buddha and the Dharma, grows and finally becomes the one indestructible thought like a diamond. In this way, we obtain the great benefit in our life that leads us to the Buddha's awakening. Here, faith in the Honzon is the key to attaining Buddhahood in our lifetime and laying the foundation for happiness.