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Five Senior Priests and their
deviation from Nichiren Daishonin (Part 4) |
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The five senior priests could
not support Nikko Shonin and thus betrayed the Daishonin’s
teaching, because they were jealous of him. Their ill
feelings toward the Daishonin’s foremost disciple
eventually clouded their perspective and led them astray.
Of the five senior priests, Nissho (1221-1323) and Nichiro
(1245-1320) became disciples of the Daishonin before Nikko
Shonin (1246-1333) had. To them, Nikko Shonin was a junior
priest. Niko (1253-1314) and Nitcho (1252-1317) joined
the Daishonin’s order after Nikko Shonin, but they
considered themselves his equals in status and seniority.
Nichiji (1250-?) entered the priesthood under the guidance
of Nikko Shonin, but he disliked obeying his senior. Their
jealousy and emotionalism clouded their judgment so much
that they eventually stopped visiting Minobu and started
to propound their own teachings.
Besides jealousy, the five senior priests’ cowardice
and ignorance of the Daishonin’s Buddhism also played
a role in their betrayal. After the Daishonin’s
passing, Nissho and Nichiro—who lived in Kamakura,
the seat of the shogunate government—were oppressed
by the government, which threatened to destroy their temples.
They managed to escape from this predicament by offering
to pray for the government based on the Tendai sect’s
practice. Fearing persecution and eager to preserve their
security and social status, they curried favor with the
government while compromising their teacher’s will.
The five senior priests’ shallow understanding of
Buddhism and weak faith led them to believe that the Daishonin
was spreading the Lotus Sutra based on the Tendai doctrine.
In this regard, Nikko Shonin explains: “The five
senior priests proclaimed that Sage Nichiren’s teaching
is that of the Tendai school, so they called themselves
in their letters submitted to the government ‘the
followers of the Tendai school’” (Gosho Zenshu,
1601). They also allowed their junior priests to receive
the precepts at the Tendai school’s head temple
at Mount Hiei (GZ, 1601).
The five senior priests’ betrayal of the Daishonin’s
teaching was detailed in Nikko Shonin’s writings
such as “On the Matters That the Believers of the
Fuji School Must Know” (GZ, 1601-09) and “Refuting
the Five Senior Priests” (GZ, 1610-16). According
to Nikko Shonin’s account, the five senior priests’
errors can be summarized as follows:
1) They asserted that the Daishonin’s teachings
belong to the Tendai school, and that he spread the teaching
of the Lotus Sutra following the teaching of Dengyo.
2) They visited Shinto shrines in places such as Ise,
Mount Izu, Hakone and Kumano.
3) They regarded copying of the Lotus Sutra as a legitimate
practice and encouraged it.
4) They allowed their disciples to enter the priesthood
and receive the precepts at the Tendai sect’s head
temple at Mount Hiei.
5) They called the Daishonin’s letters written in
the common language of the time (Japanese phonetic characters)
their teacher’s shame and destroyed them.
6) They made a statue of Shakyamuni and regarded it as
an object of devotion.
7) They disrespected Gohonzon inscribed by the Daishonin,
hanging them behind Shakyamuni’s statues, leaving
them in a corridor, burying them with bodies or selling
them off for profit.
Not only did the five senior priests go against the Daishonin’s
teaching, but they also slandered Nikko Shonin for admonishing
their errors. As Minobu school scholars acknowledge in
The Doctrinal History of the Nichiren Sect, there was
nothing remarkable in the five senior priests’ Buddhist
study. They grew weak in faith, became fearful of persecutions,
became oblivious to the Daishonin’s desire to spread
the Law and eventually completely strayed from the Daishonin’s
teaching. These characteristics shared by the five senior
priests are applicable to those who betrayed Buddhism
throughout its history.
In the document entrusting Kuon Temple at Mount Minobu
to Nikko Shonin (dated the thirteenth day of the tenth
month in the fifth year of Koan [1282]), the Daishonin
states: “The teachings expounded by Shakyamuni for
fifty years I have transferred to Byakuren Ajari Nikko.
He shall be chief priest of Kuon Temple at Mount Minobu.
Those who betray him, be they lay believers or priests,
shall be known as slanderers of the Law” (GZ, 1600).
When the five senior priests started opposing and denouncing
Nikko Shonin, they further proved themselves to be slanderers
of the Law.
In “Letter from Sado,” the Daishonin also
warns his followers of the treachery of priests against
Buddhism: “Neither non-Buddhists nor the enemies
of Buddhism can destroy the correct teaching of the Thus
Come One, but the Buddha’s disciples definitely
can. As a sutra says, only worms born of the lion’s
body feed on the lion” (WND, 302). The Daishonin’s
premonition came true soon after his passing. The five
senior priests, as “the Buddha’s disciples,”
attempted to destroy their teacher’s work from within.
As the Daishonin points out, throughout the history of
Buddhism, its decline and corruption have been caused
by priests, especially those of high status. The history
of the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood is no exception to this
historical pattern.
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