Gosho: Opening of the Eyes Workshop

LECTURE ON “THE OPENING OF THE EYES”
February 28, 1998, by Greg Martin

Good evening. How are you all doing? Me, too. Greetings from Momoyo, Jackie & Arik. They are all doing fine. The weather’s great in California, I have to say. Now I know why all those people live there. But we all miss all of our friends on the East Coast, especially here in Washington. It is definitely great to be back.
So tonight, I’m going to give a lecture on “The Opening of the Eyes.” This material appears in the January issue of Living Buddhism and you may have already studied this in your districts, but hopefully I will add a little bit to what you may have heard already.

First of all this letter, “The Opening of the Eyes,” was written by Nichiren Daishonin from Sado Island. He wrote this letter in the midst of his most difficult circumstance. As you probably know, he had been nearly executed on the beaches at Tatsunokuchi on September 12, 1271. Since they were unable to carry out the execution, they decided to exile him to Sado Island. Sado Island is a cold, desolate island in the cold north Japan Sea where the military government of Japan fully expected that he would not live out the winter. He was taken there in October or November, and they expected by Spring he would not be a problem any more. It was against the law to help him, to feed him, to give him writing materials, to provide him shelter, to provide anything to him while he was there. Yet, not only did he survive, he thrived on Sado Island. He was able to introduce some of his most strongest disciples in the midst of that difficulty. 

This letter, “The Opening of the Eyes,” is some 60 pages long in its original, so obviously we can’t study it all tonight. In this letter the Daishonin makes the following bold statement “I, Nichiren, am the richest man in all of present day Japan.” He didn’t have a yen to his name. Poorer than a church mouse, or a Kaikan mouse, but even in the midst of those difficulties, not only did he survive, not only did he endure, but the light and the flame of his life burned that much more brightly. In other words, he won a victory in the midst of those circumstances. The reason he could say he was the richest man in all of Japan was not because he had things that we normally associate with being rich — he didn’t have a home, he didn’t have a car, he didn’t have money, he didn’t have horse, which is the equivalent of a car, I suppose — but yet he had found the greatest treasure of human life, and that is the treasure of his own Buddhahood, the treasure of his own life within him. Recognizing that, or discovering that within himself, he could make such a statement. 

In other words, this letter called “The Opening of the Eyes” was written to open the eyes of the Japanese people to the towering state of life, the noble state of life of Nichiren Daishonin, the Buddha, which he was able to exhibit from within, to awaken people, those people who were his enemies, those people who were his followers. To open their eyes. If your eyes are closed, you’re walking around sleepwalking during life. Lots of people sleepwalk throughout their entire lives. They never actually entirely wake up. Some of you in here probably. Though, of course, things could have changed in the last three years.

When we look at the life of Nichiren in the midst of exile, in the midst of terrible circumstance, it may be hard for us to imagine and the tendency may be to think “Wow, the Buddha’s life is awesome” or “Nichiren Daishonin was incredible” and to look at the Buddha’s life, to be awed or inspired by the power or the incredible strength that he was able to exhibit. But where does this strength come from? By the way, the material in the Living Buddhism is a lecture by President Ikeda about this Gosho. On page 23, column 1, President Ikeda writes, “Nichiren Daishonin was stronger than anyone. What was the source of his strength? It was his concern for the people.” We often think, or I often think that “If I was stronger, it would be easier to take care of others. If I was stronger, I could endure persecution as well.” 

But that’s actually backwards. We think that “Well, the Buddha’s strong that’s why he could do what he did.” But what President Ikeda is saying here and what I really want to talk about is the source of this strength. It comes from one’s compassion. Compassion is not the result of being strong. Strength is the result of being compassionate. And that’s a different way of looking at our life. Then, in that context, the compassion which Nichiren Daishonin felt was for all the people of Japan. It came from a huge, huge determination he made to save all the people of the world actually. Because of that determination, because of that ichinen, or that commitment within his life to care for others, he knew that if he were to dare to try to help the people, he would be persecuted. It was clear. He knew that if he stood up on behalf of the happiness of the common human being that powerful forces would come to attack him. He knew. On April 28, 1253 when he first chanted Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and lectured for the first time to refute the enemies of the people, he fully knew he would be exiled twice, he would be sentenced to die, he would be persecuted again and again and again. Yet, he did it anyway. This is compassion. This is courage, as well.

The important point I want to make is that those qualities of compassion, of courage, that we often see in the life of Nichiren Daishonin, for example, we see in the life of other great people. There are many examples. I think President Ikeda is a good one, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. — many people who, when you look at their life, you think “Wow, how did they do that?” And we may question, “Gee, I don’t think I can do that.” But we need to realize that all of them are human beings, just like you and I, who dared to care, who dared to decide to pledge, to determine, who cared enough about the suffering of the people to stand up to the forces causing suffering. And this is where the strength of the Buddha, this is where the strength of life comes from. It comes from that determination. 

Mothers are good examples of that. How can they ever, ever have a second child? Boggles my mind. For fathers, it’s not such a big deal. But, how could a woman do that more than once? If you’ve ever watched childbirth, it’s a pretty amazing thing. But that’s why women are so incredible, because of their love and care, their desire to bring life into the world allows them to tap into the strength necessary and the courage. Think about that, Men. Pretty awesome. It’s pretty incredible if we think about it — that that reservoir of courage, of compassion of concern lies within the heart of every human being. It’s there waiting to be tapped. Waiting to be brought forth. But it’s compassion and courage which opens that up. If you wait to be strong and then you’ll do something, then you might was well die. It’s over. Because you’ll wait forever. 

The Daishonin’s life is incredible because he dared to dream a big dream, because he dared to challenge the difficulties and the negativity and the powerful forces which were putting the people down, holding them without happiness, and he dared to pledge, “I’m going to make the people happy.” That’s where his strength came from. That’s where that towering state of life which we read in the Gosho, especially in “The Opening of the Eyes” came from. That’s its source. 

If you care for someone, but you won’t do anything about it, that’s not genuine. For example, you see your neighbor’s kid out in the street, eating dirt, I don’t know ... when I was a kid, my neighbor used to eat dirt. If you see your neighbor’s kid eating dirt and you go “Oh, I really care. They’re really good friends of mine. I do really care” but you fail to act, you might as well be feeding it to him yourself. 

Compassion has two aspects. On the one hand, to show generosity and concern for others, “Oh, I care, I’m concerned,” but the second part is to be strict against evil that’s causing people to be unhappy. To say, “Wow, I’m really concerned about the people, but I don’t want to do anything. I don’t want to take any action. Don’t ask me to get involved.” This is false friendship. This is not genuine compassion. What prevents us from taking initiative or taking action is “Well, how will it look? People may not like me. People might feel funny. It might inconvenience me. I might actually become part of the problem.” 

Pres. Toda once said the thing that’s lacking most in present society is genuine compassion — the willingness to not just feel it, but to do it. To take action. And my apologies to those who don’t like hearing about the temple issue, but that’s why to fail to act when someone is making people unhappy is not real friendship. It’s false. “Oh, I care about you, but I’m not going to mess with the people who are making you miserable.” 

So, this lofty state of life which the Daishonin demonstrates and which we can witness in his life on Sado, it comes from his compassion. This incredible determination and this courage to do it even though he knew powerful enemies would attack him — and this has been true for every great human being who has pledged him or herself to the happiness of the people — he knew this would bring forth and bring to life negative forces. 

People who have evil intent, people who thrive on, who profit from, who gain from the people’s unhappiness, who profit from the people’s disunity, from the people’s lack of power — those forces exist. I’m sure I don’t have to relate that to you. Once you decide, once we as a collective decide we’re going to achieve Kosen-Rufu, we’re going to save the people, we’re going to save America, the minute we decide that, we may think, “This is great, we’re going to save the people.” But implicit in that pledge is “and we will face the enemies when they surely arise.” Because they will. We should have no doubt about that. Therefore, it takes courage to do so. 

In that sense this letter, “The Opening of the Eyes,” has two meanings. Actually the letter itself, when you read it, is a description of Nichiren opening his own eyes, awakening to his true self, realizing that “Look what I have within? I can move the universe. I have Buddha.” So, on one level, it’s a description of his opening of the eyes, awakening from a dream, if you will. At the same time, to open the eyes of the Japanese, to open the eyes of the military government to who he is. “Look at me,” he’s saying. “Look at the life which I have. To persecute me is to persecute the great treasure, the great pillar of Japan itself.” 

But is that the only reason he wrote this? Simply to say “Look how great I am. Look at how great my life is. Look at how wonderful it is?” If you believe that that’s the reason he wrote “The Opening of the Eyes,” then what happens is Nichiren becomes elevated. Nichiren is somehow better than us, stronger, more compassionate, more caring, and we elevate him, as is human tendency to elevate great people to something better than us, to something above us. To make them divine. To make them godly. This is the history of human religion, if you will. 

But what happens is the minute you elevate another, what happens to you? You go down. And the minute you put a gap between this person — whether it’s Jesus, or Mohammed, Moses, Nichiren, or whomever — the minute you elevate them, you lower yourself. There’s gap formed in there, right? And what happens when there’s a gap formed? People get in there. People insert themselves between you and this great person. People who may be close associates with that person, people who for whatever reason would use that as an opportunity to insert themselves as intermediaries, as interpreters of this great person. 

So, if we believe that “The Opening of the Eyes” is written to elevate the Daishonin’s life, if that is his intent, then believing that to be true, then priests, for example, can insert themselves and say, “Well, Nichiren is great, therefore of course, the Dai-Gohonzon is special and great.” Of course, the Dai-Gohonzon is a great thing, don’t get me wrong, but we elevate it to some special status which you’ve gotta go see before you die or you’ll never going to attain Buddhahood, which was never the intent. And then whoever owns this object or whoever has the key to the place where it is enshrined becomes a special person who is elevated. And whoever works in that area becomes elevated, and we continue to fall down the ladder until the people become out of the loop, the people become inconsequential. And the people through their close association miss the whole point. But if you read “The Opening of the Eyes” that way, it becomes a source for saying that “Nichiren, the True Buddha is elevated above all other human beings, and I have control of his object. I have control of his doctrine.” And that’s how the High Priest becomes His Holiness. The Daishonin of modern times. Infallible, incapable of making an error. That’s how it happens. 

But who is it that allows that elevation to take place? Human beings. Because it’s so hard to believe in yourself. It’s so hard to believe you could be that way because we’re all so painfully aware of our weaknesses. So we put our trust in others who appear to be stronger, who appear to be wiser, but ultimately it’s a distrust of self. It’s a betrayal of one’s own possibility. But this is human history, unfortunately. And false leaders and false prophets, as the Bible says, have shown a proclivity for taking advantage of our self-doubt for their own advantage. This is what the temple issue is all about. Strength and weakness.

Every human being has strength and every human being has weakness. There are not strong people and weak people. The question is not “Why is Bill (Aiken) strong, why is Greg (Martin) weak?” That’s not the question because both of us have strengths. Both of us have weaknesses. All of us do. That’s what the Gohonzon means. It’s all there. The good, the bad, the ugly, it’s all in the Gohonzon. Everything about a human being is there. So the question is not “whose strong and whose weak?” The question is “When am I strong and when am I weak? Buddhism explains that a person is strong when they have something important to do. A person with nothing significant to do can never win over their own weaker natures. That’s why one of the greatest benefits of our practice is an awakening sense of purpose. I know when I walked through the doors of my first meeting, I did not come here to save all mankind and show compassion and do my human revolution. Thanks goodness they didn’t tell me about that at my first meeting. But as I began to practice, I began to care. It mattered to me. I began to feel like, “Gee, maybe I can help others. Maybe I can make a difference. Maybe my life is important. I can do something with it.” That makes one strong. 

The ultimate purpose is to practice this Buddhism for the sake of others. To share in the great pledge of Nichiren Daishonin. To become part of that great determination to save all mankind. To bring all human beings to Buddhahood “Mai-ji-sa-ze-nen.” To make all people equal to oneself. In other words, to awaken to our mission. We are the Bodhisattvas of the Earth. We are those people who are regular people who emerge from the great realm of our daily life with a pledge to help other people through the practice of this Buddhism. To practice for others and to make that your pledge is to make the mind of Nichiren yours. And when you make the mind of Nichiren or the determination of Nichiren yours, you also open up the strength, the courage, the confidence which was within in Nichiren’s life, which is within your own life, and you become strong. You become wise, you become capable. But only the pledge to help others allows that to happen. Compassion is the key to open this up. 

In his lecture President Ikeda mentions on page 22 that the title of “The Opening of the Eyes” refers to opening the eyes or the minds of the Japanese people (column 1). “In light of the sutra, it is clear that Nichiren Daishonin was truly a person of justice. With this writing, the Daishonin declares that he is the votary of the Lotus Sutra and hence, the Buddha of the Latter Day of the Law.” Well, I don’t know about you, but I wondered about that for a long time. I’m sure you’ve been losing sleep over that and that is, “Why do we say Bodhisattva Jogyo is the True Buddha? How did they figure that out?” So, I’m going to explain it to you.

It took me a long time to figure this out, and I like talking about it so you’re my captive audience. In explaining that point, the Daishonin uses an episode from the Ceremony in the Air on pg. 24 of Living Buddhism. If we examine the Hoben Chapter of the Lotus Sutra, we find Shakyamuni Buddha, Taho Buddha and the various Buddhas from the Ten Directions who are emanations of Shakyamuni Buddha gathering together in the Treasure Tower. And why? As the sutra itself says, “each has come to this place on purpose to make certain the Law will long endure.” 

The Daishonin uses this story or this episode of the Ceremony in the Air to illustrate the fundamental teaching that he wants to make sure will endure for all eternity. To make sure that the truth is never lost. So, to understand this, there is one very important thing that you need to keep in mind throughout and which is the key to understanding Buddhism itself. It’s the key which Nichiren Daishonin was able to use to unlock the meaning of the Lotus Sutra which had been lost for 1,000 years or more. And that key is simple but hard to remember. The key is — everything in Buddhism, everything you read, everything you study, all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the universe are all about one important person and the attainment of Buddhahood in the life of that one important person. And that person is ONESELF. It’s not about, in the deepest sense, some other Buddha, some other person 700 years ago, some other individual, somebody else’s life. It’s always about the attainment of Buddhahood in oneself. The minute someone tells you “Well, this is about someone else’s Buddhahood,” you don’t have the power. The minute someone is elevated and you’re lowered, it is no longer about your happiness. It becomes something else. That’s when the key is lost. 

Shakyamuni Buddha in the Lotus Sutra explained this point very, very clearly and as we study President Ikeda’s lectures, “The Dialogue on the Lotus Sutra,” for example, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the truth is there, what it really meant. T’ien-T’ai knew it. Nichiren Daishonin wrote in his Gosho over and over again, “Never seek the Gohonzon outside of yourself. Never look anywhere else but here.” In “On Attaining Buddhahood” he says, “Never seek the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha or the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the universe outside of oneself. If you do so (this is a paraphrase), even if you master Buddhist theory, if think the truth is outside of you, nothing will happen because the key is lost. Shakyamuni knew this, but it didn’t take very long for his followers to lose the key. And what did they do? The minute they lose the key, they elevated him. 

Shakyamuni was a human being. The Gosho says the purpose of Shakyamuni’s advent lies in his behavior as a human being. It doesn’t say, it lies in Shakyamuni’s divine behavior as a Buddhist god. It doesn’t say that. It’s about human beings. When we talk about the Lotus Sutra being a description of Shakyamuni’s enlightenment, the danger is we start thinking that that’s something that happened exclusively in Shakyamuni’s life — although it did happen. Rather I think we should say the Ceremony in the Air is an explanation, a depiction of the attainment of Buddhahood in the life of you. It’s about oneself. The Gohonzon is about oneself. The Ceremony in the Air is about oneself. 

This is Shakyamuni’s deepest intent, to teach all of us how to attain Buddhahood. So he thought, “I’m going to create this Ceremony in the Air to explain to future generations about the possibility, the nobleness of themselves.” But what happened? Buddhist scholars after a few short generations couldn’t understand the Ceremony in the Air. The Lotus Sutra is too complicated for them, they think. They began to tell people, “This is not a teaching for regular people. This teaching is too complicated. We’re not going to follow that one. We’re going to follow the other ones we understand. We don’t really understand this thing.” And they lost the key. T’ien-t’ai found it, it’s part of his ichinen sanzen theory, but it got lost again. Nichiren Daishonin found the key.

Now let’s get back to the Ceremony in the Air. Remember everything is about who? (Audience reply: “You.”) It’s about oneself. All of President Ikeda’s guidance is about oneself. So, in the Ceremony in the Air the first major event is the Treasure Tower appears. The earth opens up and out of the earth comes this huge Treasure Tower. Like a spaceship kind of thing. It’s suspended in the air, but it doesn’t come from outer space. It doesn’t come from heaven. It comes from the earth. It comes from within one’s own life. And this Treasure Tower suspended in the air above the earth is half the diameter of the earth itself. The Treasure Tower refers to oneself. It’s your life. Each individual human life is a Treasure Tower and each individual human life is as large, on the scale of a planet, that’s how important a single human life is. 

On the outside of the Treasure Tower are seven jewels, the most important things that the Treasure Tower of human life has. These seven jewels you have as a human being. They are what make you unique, what make you different from the animal world, and these seven jewels are not — and this may discourage some of you — they’re not good looks, a beautiful spouse, a big house, these are not the jewels of life. Sorry to disappoint some of you. The important jewels of humanity is our ability to believe in the Law — our ability to chant daimoku, our ability to teach others about this great Buddhism — because those qualities will open the Treasure Tower so that the treasures that are within it can be revealed. 

The Treasure Tower opens. Shakyamuni goes up into the Treasure Tower. He beams himself up into the Treasure Tower and Taho Buddha is already there. Then Shakyamuni brings up all of his disciples into a spaceship kind of thing. So, they’re all gathered in the Ceremony in the Air. This is all about who? (Audience reply: “Oneself”). So this is a description of what happens within your own life. The Treasure Tower is your own life. You have the qualities to believe in, to propagate, and teach this great Buddhism. You can open the Treasure Tower of your own life through your practice. And when you open the Treasure Tower of your own life, you’ll find that there are Buddhas sitting in there. Actually, there are three kinds of Buddhas sitting in there. By the way, this is depicted in the background of the Gohonzon behind the bold characters. All this is happening. 

Shakyamuni’s there, Taho Buddha’s there, then Shakyamuni uses his laser beam — he’s got a laser beam in his forehead — so this light comes out and he shines the light coming from his forehead on other planets in the universe. He finds Buddhas there and he beams them or transports them back to the ceremony. So now all of the Buddhas, not only of the planet earth, but of the entire universe are gathered together in this Treasure Tower. All of the Buddhas, both human and non-human Buddhas (for you Star Trek fans). Three thousand years ago, Buddhism had postulated that there were enlightened Buddhas, which means you have to be intelligent enough to believe and practice, teach and propagate, right?, who are in nonhuman form. They were WAY ahead of us. 

So all the Buddhas gather. In all the teachings of Shakyamuni before the Lotus Sutra, every Buddha had their own place, they had their own land. For example, the Buddha of Lifelike Mystic Power had the land of Lifelike Mystic Power. So each Buddha had their own place. But now all the Buddhas are in one place. This is significant. Something important is going to happen. For all those Buddhas to gather something big is about to happen. The most important thing in all of Shakyamuni’s teachings is about to take place. These three Buddhas — okay we’re going to get technical now for a few minutes so bear with me — Buddhism explains that life is threefold. We think life is mind/body, good/bad, male/female, a duality. But Buddhism says that while it looks like life is a duality — mind and body — in fact, life is threefold. There’s another level of life in which the mind and body are one. This is called the essential level of life. This is called the three truths. The three truths are: (1) the physical body that we have, (2) our mental or emotional state (called nature), and (3) our essential life — kind of what Christianity might call a soul or a spirit, not exactly, but kind of like that. So if you are in hell, you’re in hell here (pointing to the chest) and because you’re in hell here, you think like hell and you look like hell. But when you are Buddha, when you manifest Buddha, you manifest it here, the state of the Buddha is here and your essential life will be Buddha. Your mind, which reflects the inner state, will think like a Buddha, you’ll have the wisdom of the Buddha, which is called the mind of the Buddha and you will have the compassionate behavior of the Buddha. It’s all consistent. You will have the three bodies of the Buddha. That’s what that’s called. So the three bodies of the Buddha, which is the essential Buddha, the wisdom of the Buddha and the compassionate behavior or action or the physical body of the Buddha. 

In the Ceremony in the Air they are all gathered together in one place for the first time. Up until this time, they had been separated in the teachings of Shakyamuni. Now they’re in one place. It’s called the Unification of the Three Properties of the Buddha. All the Buddhas are together and the three parts of the Buddha are in one place. Then the earth opens up again and now the Bodhisattvas of the Earth emerge. The Bodhisattvas of the Earth represent human beings — the lower nine worlds — and they’re going to enter the Treasure Tower. So pretty soon all of human life is there. And remember this is all happening in whose life? (Audience replies: oneself!) 

So the Bodhisattvas of the Earth emerge. They represent the lower nine worlds in their highest state, which is yearning for, aspiring for Buddhahood. But the puzzlement is there are four Bodhisattvas. Now, I’ve lost a lot of sleep over this one. Why are there four? There should be three because everything in Buddhism is three. There’s three of them and there’s an extra one. It took me a long time to — doesn’t this bother you? So the four Bodhisattvas emerge from the earth and they enter the Treasure Tower. But actually, why are there four? There should be the essential Bodhisattva, the mind of the Bodhisattva and the body of the Bodhisattva. In fact, there are those three, but there’s an extra one. Seems like Shakyamuni threw one in there just to confuse us. But actually, I finally figured it out. It’s not four. It’s 3 + 1. There are the three Bodhisattvas with Bodhisattva Jogyo representing the rest. He stands forward in front of. It’s 3 + 1. Now it’s crystal clear. 

So the three: Muhengyo, Anryugyo, Jyogyo — there are two Jogyo’s, by the way, just to confuse us — the three Bodhisattvas represent the three virtues of our life in it’s highest state. The virtue of eternity (Muhengyo, I think it is, but don’t quote me on this) represents the eternity within our life as we awaken to the eternity of life, to the eternity of causality within ourselves, to learn that this enlightened state is indestructible. Then the mind of the Bodhisattva is purity as we strive to purify our mind of the delusion of the three poisons which cloud it. As we make efforts to do so, we develop the virtue of Bodhisattva Jyogyo, the other Jogyo, which is purity. And then the physical body of the Bodhisattva is happiness (Anryugyo). As we awaken to the eternity of life and purify our mind of the three poisons, we take action guided by wisdom, and we experience what we call benefit or happiness. Those are the three virtues of a human being reaching for, aspiring for enlightenment. 

So those three enter the Treasure Tower. The three Buddhas are there, the three parts of the lower nine worlds are there and Bodhisattva Jogyo is right smack dab in the middle of things. Then Shakyamuni says, “Who is going to propagate the Law in the time of Mappo?” 
Now if you remember earlier in the Ceremony in the Air all the other Bodhisattvas said, “We want to propagate the Law in the time of Mappo. We want to do it.” But Shakyamuni said, “No, you’re not qualified.” Now as all these other Bodhisattvas appear, Bodhisattva Jogyo steps forward to represent them all. Shakyamuni said, “Who will propagate this teaching in the time of Mappo in the face of the three powerful enemies?” This is what the other Bodhisattvas did not have the courage to do. Bodhisattva Jogyo steps forth, and he pledges on behalf of the gathering of more Bodhisattvas than the number of sands in all the Ganges rivers. That’s a lot of sand. And he says, he makes the pledge of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth to propagate the Law even if we’re abused, to propagate the Law even if we’re attacked, to propagate the Law in the face of the most powerful enemy of all, which is the third powerful enemy — religious leaders believed to be saints who work in collusion with the government to persecute the Bodhisattvas — and he pledges on behalf of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth, “We will propagate the Law at that time.” And that’s when all the Buddhas led by Shakyamuni transfer the Law, transfer the truth to Bodhisattva Jogyo specifically, and to all of them. 

At that moment in the Ceremony in the Air, Bodhisattva Jogyo is the only single individual that simultaneously embodies the nine worlds in one and the three Buddhas in one. It’s all in the life of Bodhisattva Jogyo. That’s called Kechimyaku, the Heritage of the Law, the transfer of the truth, the seed of Buddhahood from all the Buddhas of the universe to Bodhisattva Jogyo. And it happens because of his pledge, his determination. That’s what qualifies him and the others to receive the truth. To receive it into their life. 

But, remember this is all about (Audience replies: “Oneself!”). What that means is that when you, any human being, sits in front of the Gohonzon chanting daimoku to the Gohonzon with the pledge of Bodhisattva Jogyo, when you decide, “I choose to be Bodhisattva Jogyo. I choose to be a Bodhisattva of the Earth.” When we pray to the Gohonzon with that powerful determination, you know what happens? Kechimyaku of the Law, the seed of all the Buddhas in the universe comes gushing forth from within it’s original place, from within our life in the depths of our being. And because of that pledge, you attain Buddhahood. And you will have the mind of the Buddha and the behavior of the Buddha. In other words, the strength of Nichiren, the strength which we see in “The Opening of the Eyes” arises because when he pledged himself as Bodhisattva Jogyo, he opened the great reservoir of his own Buddhahood and you can do exactly the same thing. 
Now in the Ceremony in the Air when Bodhisattva Jogyo receives this truth, and he has the three properties of the Buddha, the three properties of the Bodhisattvas in his life at that moment, now you have to remember that earlier in the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni says “You think I attained Buddhahood here in India, but I didn’t. First, I too, practiced Buddhist austeries. It has been a long, long time since I attained enlightenment.” But he had a teacher. Who was that teacher? Who was that original Buddha? Who was the true Buddha who taught Shakyamuni as well? The key is to know “Who is Bodhisattva Jogyo, because he’s the only one with the three properties of the Buddha, right? He taught all those Buddhas. He’s the only one who possesses all the qualities. 

But Bodhisattva Jogyo’s virtue is true self. Bodhisattva Jogyo is the true self of oneself. When we get in touch with that primordial determination, if you will, to be, to choose, “I will be Bodhisattva Jogyo. I will be Bodhisattva of the Earth. I pledge myself to practice not just for me but for others as well.” When we pray to the Gohonzon with that fierce determination — and all you need to have is determination and the courage to go for it, so to speak — once you go for it, the strength, the wisdom, all the qualities you need to do it will come gushing forth. But if you wait for the strength and qualities to come before deciding, nothing will happen. It begins with the pledge of Bodhisattva Jogyo. That’s why Bodhisattva Jogyo is the original Buddha, the true Buddha. The original Buddha or True Buddha is the original, eternally existing Buddha within your own life. 

You are, as Nichiren says to Abutsubo, a true Buddha. You are originally endowed with the qualities of Buddha. How do you get them? How do you open them up? Where do you access that? It is in the compassionate determination of a Bodhisattva of the Earth. When we remember that, or if you don’t have a clue of what that is, you can chant daimoku to figure it out. But, when we make that pledge before the Gohonzon, awesome things are set in motion. Awesome powers within ourselves are tapped and we can do, we can achieve the same state of life as Nichiren Daishonin himself. And in so doing we need not elevate him, but rather respect him. A great teacher should be respected, but never elevated because it’s denial. Remember that, “Yes, Nichiren was great, what a wonderful, what an incredible human being, but I, too, possess those same qualities. I, too, can live a life of equal incredibleness, of equal victory because I possess Nichiren Daishonin within myself.” 
Nichiren Daishonin knew that the key would be lost because that is human nature. I imagined he pondered, “How can I make sure that future generations don’t lose this key? That they don’t forget? How can I make sure they don’t elevate me and, in so doing, devalue or bring themselves down? How can I make sure that certain people don’t get in there and begin to control the people and use what I’ve taught for themselves?” So he decided to hang it right in front of you. He used the Ceremony in the Air as a backdrop and he said, “Now devote yourself, which means to believe in, to practice and propagate this great Law, now devote yourself to this Law and your life will be that of Nichiren.” 

In that sense, the Gohonzon is a three-dimensional experience. Nichiren is standing there as Bodhisattva Jogyo making his pledge, “I will devote myself now to Myoho-renge-kyo” and you are standing right with him when you do gongyo or daimoku. When you stand behind him in that ceremony with the same mind, with that same pledge, you experience the same thing that he did. But if anyone uses this teaching, this incredible liberating, empowering teaching of Buddhism, if anyone uses that to elevate someone else, to elevate themselves to control believers is attempting to use this power to make others spiritually subservient to them is denying the fundamental message. That’s why we have to be very careful. And also, I may say, Pres. Ikeda is great. I love Pres. Ikeda’s teachings, but we should never elevate him. We must strive, respect, of course, what a wonderful teacher, what a wonderful human being he is. I’m so happy to have been born now to be able to practice with a person who can teach me these things. I couldn’t have learned these things on my own. By myself I’d never, forget it. But we should never elevate him if it means to think, “Well that’s great for President Ikeda, but I could never do that.” The minute we think that, I think he’s disappointed. I think he’s unhappy. Because I believe his message to us is “Let me show you, not how great I am, let me show you how great you are! Let me show you how great the human being is.”

So in that sense, “The Opening of the Eyes” is a letter written to each and every one of us. Not to just open our eyes to how great Nichiren is, but to open up our eyes to the grandeur and nobleness and incredible power within our own self. To open our eyes to our own possibility, to our own Buddhahood and to show us that the key to bringing that up, to opening it up and bringing it forth from within us is the pledge of a Bodhisattva, that compassionate determination, which takes courage — the courageous, compassionate determination to propagate this Law even in the face of powerful enemies. That’s how one attains Buddhahood and that’s what I think is one of the messages of this great, great rhetoric called “The Opening of the Eyes.” Thanks for your indulgence.