equated the S ́akyamuni Buddha of the “origin teach-
ing” with Vairocana or Mahavairocana, the cosmic
Buddha of the tantric teachings who is without be-
ginning or end and who pervades everywhere. The
Lotusalso served as a basis for Taimitsu ritual, for ex-
ample, in the “Lotus rite” (Hokke ho), performed to
eradicate sin, build merit, and realize awakening. The
MANDALA used in this rite depicts S ́akyamuni and
Prabhutaratna seated together in its central court, as
they appeared in the jeweled stupa, and may have in-
fluenced the form of Nichiren’s mandala. SAICHO
(767–822), founder of Japanese Tendai, had already
identified the Lotus Sutrawith the doctrine of “real-
izing buddhahood with this very body” (sokushin
jobutsu). Taimitsu thought and practice further pro-
moted understandings of the Lotusas enabling the di-
rect realization of enlightenment.
Another distinctive Lotus-based development of
Japanese Tendai was the doctrine of original enlight-
enment, which dominated Tendai doctrinal studies
from approximately the eleventh through seventeenth
centuries. Though deeply colored by the assumptions
of tantric Buddhism, original enlightenment doctrine
was classified by its producers as “exoteric,” in con-
trast to esoteric transmissions of tantric ritual. Origi-
nal enlightenment thought might be seen as an attempt
to reinterpret traditional Tiantai/Tendai doctrines and
texts—including the works of Zhiyi and Zhanran, stan-
dard debate topics, and even the Lotus Sutraitself—
from the perspective that enlightenment is not
“attained” but innate from the outset.
Largely through the medium of the Tiantai/Tendai
tradition, both on the continent and in Japan, the Lo-
tus Sutrabecame associated with PURELANDBUD-
DHISM. Zhiyi had incorporated Pure Land elements
into the constantly walking samadhi, the second of the
“four kinds of samadhi” in his system of meditation.
Here the practitioner circumambulates an altar to
AMITABHABuddha while at the same time visualizing
Amitabha’s marks and qualities, eventually gaining
insight into the nonduality of the visualized Buddha
and the visualizing mind. During the Song dynasty
(960–1279), Tiantai monks took the lead in promot-
ing societies for Pure Land practice, including both
monastics and LAITY. In Japan during the Heian pe-
riod, an especially close connection existed between the
Lotus Sutraand Pure Land Buddhism, exemplified on
Mount Hiei, the great Tendai monastic center, where
monks performed the Lotussamadhi in the morning
and chanted the Amitabha Sutrain the evening. Mount
Hiei was also the first site in Japan for practice of the
“continuous nenbutsu,” said to have been introduced
from Mount Wutai in China by Saicho’s disciple En-
nin. This was a ritual form of contemplating Amitabha
and intoning the Amitabha Sutrawith the aim of erad-
icating sin and achieving birth in Amitabha’s Pure
Land, which became incorporated into Tendai prac-
tices. Lotus-Pure Land associations flourished in the
broader society as well, and many people recited and
copied the Lotus Sutrawith the aspiration of achieving
birth in Amitabha’s paradise. Not until the Kamakura
period (1185–1333), with the advent of teachers like
HONEN(1133–1212) and Nichiren, would strongly
exclusivist forms of both Lotusand Pure Land devo-
tion emerge.
Nichiren and modern Lotus-based movements.
Nichiren developed a strongly exclusivist reading of the
Lotusas the only true teaching. He believed that the
Buddha had intended this sutra specifically for the Fi-
nal Dharma age, in which he and his contemporaries
believed they were living. Other, provisional sutras,
Nichiren insisted, could no longer lead to buddhahood
in this benighted era. Accordingly, he stressed the prac-
tice of shakubuku,or teaching the dharma by directly
rebuking attachment to provisional teachings. He saw
his work of spreading faith in the Lotusas preparing
the way for Bodhisattva Superior Conduct (Vis ́istacari-
tra;Japanese, Jogyo), the leader of the bodhisattvas who
are S ́akyamuni’s original disciples, taught by him since
his enlightenment in the inconceivably distant past, as
described in the origin teaching. In chapter fifteen,
these bodhisattvas emerge from beneath the earth and
vow to spread the Lotusafter S ́akyamuni’s nirvana.
Much of the later Nichiren tradition would identify
Nichiren as an actual manifestation of Bodhisattva Su-
perior Conduct.
The Lotus Sutraforetells grave trials that its devo-
tees will face in upholding it in an evil age after the
Buddha’s nirvana. Historically, these passages proba-
bly reflect opposition from the Buddhist establishment
encountered by the particular Mahayana community
that compiled the sutra. Nichiren, however, saw these
predictions as being borne out in the trials and perse-
cutions he himself faced, and he read the Lotusas a
work of prophecy being fulfilled by himself and his dis-
ciples. He termed this “reading with the body” (shiki-
doku), meaning to practice the Lotus not only by
verbally reciting it and mentally believing in its teach-
ings, but also by gladly undergoing in one’s own per-
son the harsh trials that the sutra says its devotees in
the latter age must endure.LOTUSSUTRA(SADDHARMAPUNDARIKA-SUTRA)