The Supreme Honzon of the World
Some
people say Nichiren Daishounin never mentioned about a Supreme Object of
Worship.
But the Kanjin no Honzon-sho says
otherwise:
“To
interprete {the words of Dengyo}, "fight and struggle" point to two problems
{facing the country}; the current mutiny within our domain, and the impending
{Mongol} invasion from the western seas. They indicate the time when the Supreme
Honzon of the world will be
established in this land; showing
the Venerable Shakya of the essential teaching flanked by [Bodhisattvas] who
emerged from a thousand domains on this earth. A Honzon such as this never existed
in Yuezhi and China.”
Here
we have in the Kanjin no Honzon-sho, the words of Nichiren Daishounin,
informing that He will in due course, establish the Supreme Honzon, the
foremost Object of Worship in the entire world. Such a Honzon, He stressed,
never existed in Yuezhi and China.
Note
: In the Kanjin no Honzon-sho, Tenjiku (天竺)
means India, and Yuezhi (月支) refers to Kushan,
the Central Asian empire in Bactria that later extended their rule southward
into Pakistan and Northern India. The problem is, English translations of the
Kanjin no Honzon-sho do not make that distinction which the Kanji version does.
They translate Tenjiku as India, and they translate Yuezhi as India too. They
should ask themselves, if Tenjiku and Yuezhi are both India, why need Nichiren
Daishounin make that distinction? The straightforward answer is, the Shakya of
Nichiren Daishounin is not the small Shakya of Tenjiku, but the Shakya of
Mahayana Buddhism, which emerged from the Yuezhi confederacy.
Now, compare the above passage from
the Kanjin no Honzon-sho with this inscription taken from the Hon-in-myou
Daihonzon:
“Following
the Great Awakened World Honored One’s {Good Physician} entry into extinction,
more than two thousand two hundred and twenty years have passed. Even so,
within the three countries: Yuezhi, China and Japan, this
DAIHONZON had yet to exist.”
Nichiren
Daishounin said, this Daihonzon never existed in the more than 2,220 thousand
years since the World Honored One {Good Physician} was said to have entered
Nirvana. It didn’t exist in the Yuezhi empire. It didn’t exist in China.
It didn’t exist in Japan. So He is going to establish it when the Mongol
invasion, His final prediction in the Rissho Ankoku-ron, becomes a reality.
There exist authenticated Mandalas by
Nichiren Daishounin from as
early as 1271. Yet the Kanjin
no HONZON-sho, dated April 1273, mentions the establishment of the
Supreme Honzon at an appropriate time to come.
Because Mandalas have been inscribed
way before the Kanjin no HONZON-sho was written, it can only be said that this
work concerns a HONZON to be inscribed in the near future.
The Mannen Kugo Dai-HONZON (the
Great Honzon for the salvation and protection [of humanity] for
the 10,000 years [of Mappo]) was inscribed in December 1274, after the Mongol invasion.
Note
: The Mannen Kugo Daihonzon is another name for the Hon-in-myou Daihonzon
propagated by Bodhisattva Jogyo.
It is the only object of worship to
be given the name "Daihonzon" by Nichiren Daishounin. More than that,
it is the designated Object of Worship for propagation by Bodhisattva Jogyo.
Email : onrindo@fujimon.org
July 13, 2008 © Fujimon
