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The One-eyed Turtle and the Floating Sandalwood
Log
The Anrakugyo chapter in the fifth
volume of the Lotus Sutra states, "Bodhisattva Monjushiri,
as for this Lotus Sutra, throughout countless numbers of countries
one cannot even hear the name of it."
This passage means that we living beings,
transmigrating through the six paths of the threefold world,
have been born at times in the world of Heaven, at other times
in the world of Humanity, and at still other times in the
worlds of Hell, Hunger and Animality. Thus we have been born
in countless numbers of countries where we have undergone
innumerable sufferings and occasionally enjoyed pleasures,
but we have never once been born in a country where the Lotus
Sutra has spread. Or even if we might have happened to be
born in such a country, we did not chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
We never dreamed of chanting it, nor did we ever hear others
chant it.
To illustrate the extreme rarity of encountering
this sutra, the Buddha likened it to the difficulty of a one-eyed
turtle encountering a floating sandalwood log with a hollow
in it. To give the essence of this analogy: Eighty thousand
yojana down on the bottom of the ocean there lives
a turtle. He has neither limbs nor flippers. His belly is
as hot as heated iron while the shell on his back is as cold
as the Snow Mountains. What this turtle yearns for day and
night, morning and evening--the desire he utters at each moment--is
to cool his belly and warm the shell on his back.
The red sandalwood tree is regarded as sacred
and is like a sage among people. All other trees are considered
ordinary trees and are like ignorant men. The wood of this
sandalwood tree has the power to cool the turtle's belly.
The turtle longs with all his might to climb onto a sandalwood
log and place his belly in a hollow therein in order to cool
it, while at the same time exposing the shell on his back
to the sun in order to warm it. However, by the laws of nature,
he can rise to the ocean's surface only once every thousand
years, and, even then, it is difficult for him to find a sandalwood
log. The ocean is vast, while the turtle is small, and floating
logs are few. Even should he find floating logs of other wood,
he seldom finds one of sandalwood. And even when he is fortunate
enough to find a sandalwood log, it rarely has a hollow the
size of his belly. If [the hollow is too large and] he falls
into it, he cannot warm the shell on his back, and there will
not be anyone to pull him out. If the hollow is too small
and he cannot place his belly in it, the waves will wash him
away, and he will sink back to the ocean's floor.
Even when, against all odds, the turtle comes
across a floating sandalwood log with a hollow of the proper
size, having only one eye, his vision is distorted, and he
perceives the log as drifting eastward when it is actually
drifting westward. Thus the harder he swims in his hurry to
climb onto the log, the farther away from it he goes. When
it drifts eastward, he sees it as drifting westward, and in
the same way, he mistakes south for north. Thus he always
moves away from the log and never can approach it.
In this way, the Buddha explained how difficult
it is for a one-eyed turtle to encounter a floating sandalwood
log with a suitable hollow in it, even once in countless infinite
kalpas. He employed this analogy to illustrate the rarity
of encountering the Lotus Sutra. However, one should be aware
that even if he should encounter the floating sandalwood log
of the Lotus Sutra, it is rarer still to find the hollow of
the Mystic Law of the daimoku, which is difficult to chant.
The ocean represents the sea of the sufferings
of birth and death, and the turtle represents us, living beings.
His limbless state indicates our lack of good fortune. The
heat of his belly represents the eight hot hells into which
we are led by our anger and resentment, and the cold of the
shell of his back, the eight cold hells that result from our
covetousness and greed. His remaining at the bottom of the
ocean for a thousand years means that we fall into the three
evil paths and cannot easily emerge. His rising to the surface
only once every thousand years illustrates how difficult it
is to emerge from the three evil paths and be born as a human
being even once during countless kalpas at the time when Shakyamuni
Buddha has appeared in the world.
Other floating logs, such as those of pine
or cypress, are easy to find, but a sandalwood log is difficult
to encounter. This illustrates that it is easy to encounter
all other sutras but difficult to meet the Lotus Sutra. And
even if the turtle should encounter a floating sandalwood
log, finding one with a suitable hollow is still more difficult.
This means that even if one should encounter the Lotus Sutra,
it is rare to be able to chant the five characters of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo
which are its essence.
The turtle mistakes east for west and north
for south. Similarly, common mortals regard superior teachings
as inferior and inferior teachings as superior, though they
flaunt their knowledge and pretend to be wise. They regard
powerless teachings as those which lead to enlightenment,
and declare teachings inappropriate to the people's capacity
to be suitable for them. Thus they believe that the Shingon
teaching is superior and the Lotus Sutra is inferior, and
that the former suits the people's capacity but the latter
does not.
Consider will what I have just related. The
Buddha made his advent in India and preached various sacred
teachings during his lifetime. In the forty-third year of
this preaching career he began to expound the Lotus Sutra.
For eight years thereafter, all his disciples embraced the
Lotus Sutra, which is like a wish-granting jewel. However,
Japan is separated from India by two hundred thousand ri
of mountains and seas, so that the people here could not even
hear the name of the Lotus Sutra
One thousand two hundred years and more after
the death of Shakyamuni Buddha, the Lotus Sutra had been brought
as far as China but still had not been transmitted to Japan.
One thousand five hundred years and more after his death,
Buddhism was first introduced to Japan from Paekche during
the reign of Japan's thirtieth ruler, Emperor Kimmei. Moreover,
in the seven hundred years that have passed since Prince Shotoku
first caused Buddhism to be introduced from China, the Lotus
Sutra and all other sutras have been propagated widely, so
that form the ruler on down to the common people, those who
are sensible have come to embrace either the entirety or one
volume or chapter of the Lotus Sutra in order to repay their
debt to their parents. Thus they believe that they are truly
embracing the Lotus Sutra. But they have never chanted Nam-myoho-renge-kyo,
and though they appear to believe in the Lotus Sutra, in fact,
they are far from believing in it.
It is as if the one-eyed turtle, having found
the sacred sandalwood which is difficult to encounter, were
not to put his belly into the hollow. If he did not, he would
have encountered the sandalwood to no purpose, and he would
instantly sink back to the bottom of the ocean.
In these more than seven hundred years, the
Lotus Sutra has spread widely in our country, and those who
read, teach, make offerings to or embrace this sutra are more
numerous than rice and hemp seedlings or bamboo plants and
reeds. However, none of them ever chants Nam-myoho-renge-kyo
in the same way that he calls on the name of the Buddha Amida,
nor do any of them urge others to chant it. To read the various
sutras or call upon the names of the various Buddhas is like
the turtle encountering a log of ordinary wood. Not being
sandalwood, the log cannot cool the turtle's belly. Nor being
the sun, it cannot warm the shell on his back. Such teachings
merely please the eye and gladden the heart, but bring no
benefit. They are like plants which blossom but bear no fruit,
or words which are not put into practice.
Only I, Nichiren, first chanted Nam-myoho-renge-kyo
in Japan. In the twenty or more years since the summer of
the fifth year of the Kencho era (1253), I alone have been
chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo day and night, morning and evening.
Those who chant the Nembutsu number ten million. I enjoy no
support from anyone in authority, while the allies of the
Nembutsu enjoy power and are of noble birth. However, when
the lion roars, all the other beasts are silenced, and a dog
will be terrified by a tiger's shadow. Once the sun rises
in the eastern sky, the light of all the stars fades completely.
The invocation of Amida's name has exerted
influence where the Lotus Sutra has not spread. But once the
invocation of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo has been raised, the Nembutsu
will become like a dog cowering before a lion or the light
of the stars paling before the sun. The daimoku and the Nembutsu
are as unequal as a hawk and a pheasant. That is why the four
kinds of people all view me with jealousy and why everyone,
both high and low, feels hatred for me. Those who make groundless
accusations against me fill the country, and the wicked abound
in the land. Therefore, people choose what is inferior and
detest what is superior. It is though one were to assert that
a dog is braver than a lion, or that the stars appear brighter
than the sun. Thus my bad reputation as a man of erroneous
views has spread far and wide, so that in one way or another
I have been falsely accused, vilified, attacked by swords
and staves and exiled repeatedly. All these persecutions coincide
perfectly with the passage in the fifth volume of the Lotus
Sutra. Therefore, tears spring to my eyes and joy fills my
body.
Here I have neither clothing sufficient to
cover my body nor provisions enough to survive. I live like
Su Wu, who sustained himself by eating snow while he lived
among the northern barbarians, or like Po-i, who subsisted
on bracken while living on Mount Shou-yang. Who other than
my parents would trouble to visit me in such a place? Where
it not for the protection of the three treasures, how could
I sustain my life for a single day or even for a moment? I
can only marvel that you so frequently send a messenger to
me, when we have never even met. The fourth volume of the
Lotus Sutra states that Shakyamuni Buddha will assume the
form of a common mortal in order to make offerings to the
votary of the Lotus Sutra. Could it be that Shakyamuni Buddha
has entered your body, or is this the expression of your virtue
accumulated in the past?
A woman known as the dragon king's daughter
achieved Buddhahood through faith in the Lotus Sutra; she
therefore pledged to protect women who embrace this sutra
in the latter age. Could it be that you are related to her?
How worthy of respect!
Nichiren
The twenty-sixth day of the third month in
the second year of Koan (1279), cyclical sign tsuchinoto-u
Major Writings of Nichiren Daishonin,
Vol. 4, page 295.
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