Komatsubara Persecution – Dharma Talk – November 14, 2010

Komatsubara Persecution – Dharma Talk – November 14, 2010

Audio recording of this Dharma Talk given live after the service. There is material in the audio that does not appear in the written text.

Good morning, I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you all for being here today and thank you to the folks who have joined us on line this morning as well. Later this evening the folks in Raleigh will gather together at the home of Cristiano to practice the Lotus Sutra and will be listening to a recording of this Dharma talk.

The folks who have joined us here at the temple may have noticed something different about the statue of Nichiren we have enshrined in our altar. Unfortunately the folks who are watching this via our online stream and who are listening to the podcast are unable to see what I am talking about. It is customary at this time of year to mark the commemoration of the Komatsubara Persecution by placing a head dressing on Nichiren statues.

In larger temple complexes where there are several buildings there is usually one building set aside dedicated to the founder. This is true of almost all denominations. Such a building is called the Soshido, or Founders Hall. It is usually the statue in that hall which receives the head dressing. Here at this temple and others where one room has to serve multiple functions the dressing is placed on the statue in the main altar.

I attended a lecture given in the basement of the Founders Hall at Joen-ji when I was living at the temple. The lecturer was saying how in Nichiren Shu we worshiped Nichiren; of course this is not true at all. He gave as proof the fact that upstairs there was an almost life size statue enshrined. What he was failing to point out and what he was misleading people over was the fact that the Founders Hall is not a main worship hall, but instead is more like a monument hall.

That being said, today I don’t intend on giving a lecture about temple architecture, instead I want to share with you the story and significance of the Komatsubara Persecution, which will reveal to you the reason for the head dressing on the statue of Nichiren.

On November 11 in the year of Bunei or 1264 Nichiren was attacked on his way to visit a lay follower. He had been invited to attend a dinner and was on his way in the early evening, about 5PM, he was accompanied by 10 followers. Let me share with you the words of Nichiren regarding this event.

“…on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, between the hours of the monkey and the cock (around 5PM) on the highway called Matsubara in Tojo in the province of Awa, I was ambushed by several hundred Nembutsu believers and others. I was alone except for about ten men accompanying me, only three or four of whom were capable of offering any resistance at all. Arrows fell on us like rain, and swords descended like lightning. One of my disciples was slain in a matter of a moment, and two others were gravely wounded. I myself sustained cuts and blows, and it seemed that I was doomed. Yet, for some reason, my attackers failed to kill me; thus I have survived until now.”
‘Encouragement to a Sick Person’ by Nichiren Shonin WND I; 81

While this was not the first attack or persecution that Nichiren had suffered to date, it was the first time that he had been personally injured. Prior to this event he had been forced from his dwelling in Kamakura at Matsubagayatsu when Nembutsu and others set fire to his home. Also prior to this attack at Komatsubara he had recently been pardoned from his exile to Izu Peninsula; the first of two exiles he was to face. During the service we read from Chapter X of the Lotus Sutra a section we call ‘The Difficulty of Retaining the Sutra’ or Hotoge. You notice we use an irregular rhythm when we read this it is to remind us of the choppy waters when Nichiren was cast out of the boat and left stranded on a solitary rock as the tide was coming in.

Continuing with the events at Komatsubara, on the evening of 11 November 1264 Nichiren was on his way to visit Yoshitaka Kudo who was a lord of Amatsu. Nichiren had been staying in the area after having visited his home to care for his sick mother. Nichiren left Renge-ji temple of Hanabusa and was attacked by Kagenobu Tojo, a strong Nembutsu believer who disliked Nichiren’s criticism of that denomination of Buddhism. While the attack was going on Lord Yoshitaka Kudo, the person who had invited Nichiren heard of the assault and rode to aid and help defend Nichiren. By the end of the evening when the attack finally was over Kyoninbo one of Nichiren’s followers in his traveling group and Lord Yoshitaka Kudo were killed. Nichiren himself received a three or four inch cut on his forehead after deflecting a blow from a sword with his prayer beads. He also suffered a broken arm. Also, a couple of others among the defenders also suffered serious wounds though we do not know those details.

Later one of Yoshitaka Kudo’s sons, Nichiryu, became Nichiren Shonin’s disciple. In order to assure prayers for the late Kyoninbo and Yoshitaka Kudo, Nichiryu founded Kyoninji Temple on March 5, 1281. Among the treasures at this temple are the prayer beads which protected Nichiren from the blow of the sword, and the blooded robe of Kyoninbo.

It is said that some time after the attack Kagenobu Tojo, who had ordered the attack, went insane and died as a result of his insanity.

The Lotus Sutra says: “Ignorant people will speak ill of us, Abuse us, and threaten us with swords or sticks. But we will endure all this.” Chapter XIII. Nichiren viewed this attack and others that had already occurred as well as into his future life those that would occur as proof that he had lived his life fully based upon the Lotus Sutra, that he had fulfilled the predictions given by the Buddha regarding those who would practice the Lotus Sutra specifically in the Later Age of Degeneration.

During our lives we may not expect to experience such harsh obstacles as Nichiren faced, and I hope that none of you do. However you should expect things to arise in your life that may make it difficult to practice the Lotus Sutra. When I converted to Nichiren Buddhism, in 1969 I was in the Marine Corps at the time. A few days after I brought my Omandala back to my barracks and enshrined it into its altar I was told by my commanding officers that I could not keep such a thing. I was told that if I didn’t give it up and quit practicing that I would have my security clearance taken away. This would have meant I would have probably been sent to Vietnam right away, since I could no longer continue working in the air wing.

Of course I was outraged; I felt that no one could do such a thing to me in this country. We have after all, freedom of religion here. Over the course of about six months I was able to finally overcome this situation and was finally allowed to practice freely. This would not be the last time I faced such a direct challenge to my practice.

In our practice though, obstacles such as these are often the easiest to face up too. They are easy to identify and they confront us directly. It is the insidious obstacles that sneak up on us that are sometimes the most difficult to overcome. By this I am referring to things such as our lazy nature, or complacency.

It is not entirely impossible that you won’t face a major challenge to your practice but it is almost certain you will face the more subtle challenges such as overcoming laziness or complacency. Things may seem to be going well for you, and you may think without even realizing it that it is alright to skip your practice. You may not even notice it happening until you find yourself not even doing any Buddhist practice. Still things may go well for you, and you may think that you no longer need to practice Buddhism at all. It has happened to people. Yet this fails to consider the true purpose for practicing Buddhism in the first place.

We do not practice solely because we want to live a life of leisure, or of tranquility. We practice so that we can change our lives on a very fundamental level. We practice to change the core of our lives, change our basic nature and tendencies. This is not something done over a short period of time. When you figure how long you have lived to date, you have had that much time and beyond into the infinite past to create a kind of life that originally caused you to seek out Buddhism for some reason. You can imagine how long it will really take you to change all the bad things, all the bad habits, all the unskillful ways you have developed to solving your problems, it is not something accomplished with any permanency over a few weeks, a few months or even a few years.

The Lotus Sutra says:

“Only perverted people say, ‘Things are permanent and pleasant.’” Chapter XIV.

So, no matter how well things may appear to be going at this moment, they are certain to change. Now that is not to say that we need live in constant fear, in fact the opposite is true. We should live in great joy, but the greatest joy can come from the knowledge that things are certain to change and through our Buddhist practice we are most prepared to face those changes and to see them as they fundamentally are.

The Lotus Sutra talks about nine easy things to do and six difficult things. In case you think that since you don’t face major obstacles your aren’t being heroic or that your practice is too mundane you should reconsider in light of these easy things to do:

1. Easy to expound all other sutras
2. Easy to grasp Mt. Sumeru and hurl it a distance
3. Easy to move a world consisting of one thousand million Sumeru worlds with tip of toe
4. Easy to stand in the highest heaven and expound other sutras to all living beings
5. Easy to grasp the sky and wander around with it
6. Easy to put the great earth on the nail of a to and go up to Brahman heaven
7. Easy to shoulder a load of hay and stay unburned in the fire at the end of the kalpa of destruction
8. Easy to store 84,000 teachings and expound to people and cause hearers to obtain six supernatural powers.
9. Easy to expound the Dharma to many thousands of billions of living beings causing them to become Arhats

Those are the easy things described in Chapter XI in the Lotus Sutra. If you are like I am you are thinking those don’t sound too easy. You may even be wondering what could be harder than any of those.

What you are doing every day as you chant Odaimoku, recite the Sutra, study and try to live your life by its teachings, and thereby influence others to do the same, is actually what the Buddha says is much more difficult thing to do in this Later Age of Degeneration; even more difficult than any of the above. Here are the six difficult things to do:

1. Difficult to expound the Lotus Sutra in the evil world after the Buddha’s extinction
2. Difficult to copy and keep this sutra or cause others to copy it after the Buddha’s extinction
3. Difficult to read this sutra even for a little while in the evil world after the Buddha’s extinction
4. Difficult to keep and expound to even one person after the Buddha’s extinction
5. Difficult to hear and receive this sutra, and ask the meaning of it after the Buddha’s extinction
6. Difficult to keep this sutra after the Buddha’s extinction

Today we commemorate the terrible events that occurred to Nichiren on his way to visit a believer. Every day Nichiren lived his life courageously as did many of his contemporary followers. In light of their sacrifice we may think we have it easy, and in some regards we do. Yet every day you each strive to do your Buddhist practice, every day you try to practice the Six Paramitas, or the Eightfold Path and base your lives on the teachings in the Lotus Sutra you are in fact doing something that few people are able to do for even one or two days. Some people are unable to carry out such a practice for even a moment, some are able too for a short period of time, fewer still can do so for many years.

I encourage each of you, no matter what, to continue your practice of chanting Odaimoku and reciting the Sutra throughout your entire lives.

In closing let me share this passage from the Lotus Sutra:

We will wear the armor of endurance because we respect you and believe you. We will endure all these difficulties in order to expound this sutra. We will not spare even our lives. We treasure only the unsurpassed enlightenment. We will protect and keep the Dharma in the future if you transmit it to us.” Lotus Sutra Chapter XIII