Living Rissho Ankoku Ron
A commentary
by Ryuei Michael McCormick
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The Subversive Nature of Nichirens Prophetic
Stance
Honen, Slanderer of the True Dharma
The Traveler, Still Furious, Persisted
WNSD1: p. 118, WND: p. 12
The guest is very upset by the hosts accusation that evil monks have
misled the rulers of Japan. To say this is to question the judgment of the
rulers. So the guest wants to know who exactly he is accusing and on what
grounds. Here we have come to the potentially subversive nature of the Rissho Ankoku Ron. Nichiren was very much in the mold of a Biblical
Hebrew prophet. He "spoke the truth to power" as some people say today.
The Hebrew prophets were not fortunetellers, though unfortunately that is how
many people often view them. Primarily the prophets were charged by God to warn
the rulers and the people that they were leading their country to ruin by
defying God's demands. These demands almost always concerned fidelity to God and
to God's call for justice. The prophets predictions were actually warnings of
what would happen if the nation did not change course, and words of hope if they
did repent and reform. In Nichiren's case, the Buddha Dharma inspired him. Like
the prophets he came before the rulers of Japan with words of warning and words
of hope. Unlike the prophets, Nichiren was not the representative of a deity,
but he did come before the rulers and the people with a call to fidelity to the
Truth and to a way of life that would restore justice and compassion to his
society based upon the teachings of the Lotus
Sutra.
Nichiren was a patriot, because he cared deeply about the welfare of the
people of Japan. But his patriotism was not the idolatrous nationalism that says,
"my country right or wrong." Rather, Nichiren's patriotism was of the
sort that caused him to risk his life by telling those in power what he believed
they needed to do to align Japan with the Wonderful Dharma so that true peace
and prosperity could be restored and maintained. Of course in doing so he had to
challenge the status quo of the military government and its patronage of
Buddhist movements which Nichiren believed were leading the country away from
the true intent of the Buddha's teachings.
It is important to remember that Nichiren was not just persecuted for
holding unorthodox religious views. Nichiren's views, at the time of the Rissho
Ankoku Ron, were not very far off from Tien-tai orthodoxy in the first
place. Rather, Nichiren's critique was subversive because he questioned the
judgment of the ruling Hojo regency that controlled the religious establishment
at that time. Military governments like the Kamakuran Shogunate do not take well
to having their judgment questioned, and Nichiren seems to have realized this
would be the reaction to his criticisms which is why he has the guest respond as
he does in this passage.
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