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On Filial and Unfilial Conduct
I have received your gift of a sack of rice, sent in donation
for a memorial service on the anniversary of Lord Ueno's
passing. I will offer it in the presence of the Buddha and
recite the Jigage.
As for what it means to be filial, by first knowing about
unfilial behavior, we can understand the meaning of filial
piety. As an example of unfilial conduct, a person called
Yu-meng once struck his father, and as a result was destroyed
by a bolt of lightening. A person called Pan-fu cursed his
mother, and as a result was attacked and devoured by a poisonous
snake. King Ajatashatru killed his father, and as a result
contracted white leprosy. King Virudhaka killed one of his
parents, and as a result he was trapped in a burning boat
on a river and fell alive into the hell of incessant suffering.
Never have there been instances of people incurring such
retribution for killing unrelated persons. By considering
the results of unfilial conduct, we can understand how great
the benefit of filial conduct must be.
The more than three thousand volumes of outer scriptures
concern no other matters; they teach nothing but filial
conduct toward one's father and mother. Yet though [by following
these teachings] one may fulfill his duties to his parents
in the present life, he will be unable to help them in their
life to come. The debt of gratitude owed to one's father
and mother is as vast as the ocean. If one cares for them
while they are alive but does nothing to help them in their
next life, his actions, by comparison, are like a single
drop of water.
The more than five thousand volumes of inner scriptures
likewise concern no other matters; they simply set forth
the merits of filial piety. However, though the Buddha's
first forty years and more of teachings may seem to be about
filial conduct, he did not reveal the true teaching on filial
conduct in them. Therefore, though they appear to fall within
the realm of teachings of filial conduct, they are in fact
unfilial.
The Venerable Maudgalyayana rescued his mother from the
suffering of the realm of hungry spirits. However, he was
only able to lead her to the worlds of Humanity and Heaven,
and could not enable her to enter the path of attaining
Buddhahood. Shakyamuni Buddha, at the age of thirty, expounded
the Dharma to his father, King Shuddhodana, enabling him
to attain the highest of the four fruits. And at the age
of thirty-eight, he enabled his mother, Lady Maya, to attain
the stage of arhat. Yet, while such deeds may resemble filial
conduct, the Buddha was in fact thereby guilty of unfilial
behavior, for, though he freed his parents from the six
paths, he caused them to enter a path that would never lead
to Buddhahood. This is like reducing a crown prince to the
status of commoner, or like marrying a princess of royal
blood to a man of lowly birth.
For this reason, the Buddha declared that, [had he only
expounded the provisional teachings,] "I would have
fallen into miserliness and greed, and such a thing would
never do." Having given his parents a meal of boiled
barley while begrudging them amrita, and having offered
them unrefined sake while denying them refined sake, the
Buddha had become the most unfilial of persons. Like King
Virudhaka, he should have fallen alive into the great citadel
of the hell of incessant suffering, and like King Ajatashatru,
he should have contracted white leprosy in that very body.
However, forty-two years [after he attained enlightenment],
he expounded the Lotus Sutra, saying, "Though these
persons may arouse thoughts of extinction and enter nirvana,
yet in that land, seeking the Buddha wisdom, they will be
able to hear this sutra." Because Shakyamuni expounded
the Lotus Sutra in order to repay the dept of gratitude
he owed to his father and mother, Taho Buddha, who had come
from the Land of Treasure Purity, praised him as a Buddha
of true filial piety. And the Buddhas of the ten directions
assembled and declared him to be the most filial among all
the Buddhas.
Pondering matters in this light, we can see that the people
of Japan are all unfilial. In a passage of the Nirvana Sutra,
the Buddha taught that unfilial people would be more numerous
than the dust particles of the earth. Thus, the sun, the
moon and the eighty-four thousand stars in heaven each grow
enraged and glare with furious eyes at the country of Japan.
That is what today's divination masters are reporting to
the ruler as "frequent disturbances in the heavens."
And with strange happenings on the earth occurring day after
day, the country is like a small boat tossed about on the
great sea. This is the reason why the children of Japan
have lost their vitality, and why the women are vomiting
blood.
Your are the most filial person in all of Japan. Bonten
and Taishaku will descend from heaven to serve as left and
right wings to you, and the gods of the earth in the four
directions will support your feet, revering you as their
father and mother. There is still much that I would like
to say, but I will conclude here.
With my deep respect,
Nichiren
The eighth day of the third month in the third year of
Koan (1280)
Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Vol. 6, page
287.
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