英語訳
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These are the practices of Shingon's three mysteries transmitted by the great masters and others. People of sharp faculties should truly practice the contemplative practices of the three mysteries. People of dull faculties, though they cannot perfect the three mysteries, if they chant mantras with their mouths, they will eliminate sins and be born in the Pure Land. Next, "Zen" includes Patriarchal Zen and Tathāgata Zen. Though Dengyō, Jikaku and others transmitted Patriarchal Zen, in the latter age it has been yielded to the Zen school and is not specialized in at Mt. Hiei. Tathāgata Zen is vigorously promoted at Mt. Hiei. These are the so-called seven transmissions of the Eshin school, the profound purport of the Danna school, and the Kimyō altar. All are practices for superior faculties. Next, "precepts" refers to Mahāyāna perfect and sudden precepts. These are completely different from the Hīnayāna Vinaya schools of Nanto and Northern Capital, like heaven and earth, clouds and mud. The source is based on the wonderful principle of the Lotus Sūtra's revelation, incorporating the ten grave prohibitions of the Brahmā Net and the forty-eight minor precepts. The Zhiguan states: "Know that the wonderful contemplation of the Middle Way is the true essence of precepts. This is supreme, pure, ultimate precept-keeping." This passage expresses the true meaning of the perfect precepts. Laypeople with faith who receive the three pure precepts, even if they keep only one portion, gain victory as partial upāsakas. How much more so for those who keep half or all portions. Without distinction between monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen, all equally receive the three pure precepts. These are the precepts that embrace moral rules, embrace good dharmas, and embrace sentient beings. The ten grave prohibitions are within the precepts that embrace moral rules.
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Those with faith should keep them even if only partially. Next, "nenbutsu" refers to the nenbutsu of the Eshin school. Its foundation emerges from within the Mahā-śamatha-vipaśyanā. The "Ten Doubts Treatise" is also a fundamental commentary on Tendai nenbutsu. The great patriarch Nāgārjuna Bodhisattva and Master Nanyue were originally nenbutsu practitioners. The great masters of the Tang dynasty such as Zhangan and Miaole all practiced nenbutsu. This is recorded in detail in the "Biographies of Eminent Monks Who Achieved Rebirth" in the "Chronicle of Buddha and Patriarchs." In our country, the nenbutsu practices of Dengyō Daishi, Jikaku Daishi and others are numerous. Among them, the former worthy Eshin compiled the "Collection of Essentials for Rebirth" and revived Tendai nenbutsu. Even great beings of superior faculties and sharp wisdom still practice nenbutsu. How much more so for common foolish beings of inferior faculties. Regarding this, there are two types of differences between Tendai school nenbutsu and Pure Land school nenbutsu. First is the difference between phenomena and principle. Pure Land gate nenbutsu phenomenally separates defiled and pure lands, rejecting the defiled land and seeking the pure land. Now, Tendai school nenbutsu, though rejecting the defiled land and seeking the pure land, originally contemplates with the effort of dharma-realm one-mind, viewing the Pure Land, Amida, and all sentient beings as all being one-mind true characteristics, and practices nenbutsu relying on other-power in order to accomplish this contemplation. From Ryōnin Shōnin during Emperor Toba's reign, this came to be called "interpenetrating nenbutsu." That Tendai interpenetrating nenbutsu has greater merit and virtue than the exclusive nenbutsu of the Pure Land gate
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is stated in the "Genkō Shakusho." Second is the difference between broad and narrow. The mind of Shandao of the Pure Land gate takes reciting the Buddha's name as the primary practice and does not mix in other various practices. This temporarily teaches one path for inferior faculties. Now, the mind of the Tendai Eshin school does not prevent broadly practicing myriad practices outside of nenbutsu. With nenbutsu as the main body, it permits practicing myriad practices such as Lotus and Shingon on top of that. The above five types of practices—Tendai, esoteric, Zen, precepts, and nenbutsu—should all be practiced according to one's spiritual capacity.
Question: The Nichiren school also practices the Lotus Sūtra. What about the orthodoxy or heterodoxy of their doctrine?
Answer: Nichiren's merit in propagating the Lotus Sūtra does not yet compensate for the fault of slandering the dharma and destroying people. It is greatly slanderous and heretical. Even if one reads the Lotus Sūtra ten million times and practices the contemplation of three thousand realms in one thought, how can one who has the sin of slandering the Mahāyāna escape the Avīci Hell? When the Great Master Tiantai explained the passage from the Lotus Sūtra's "Parable" chapter stating "then cuts off all Buddha-seeds in the world, and when that person's life ends, he enters Avīci Hell," he showed that those who slander the various Mahāyāna sūtras such as Vaipulya and Prajñā also cut off Buddha-seeds. This doctrine appears in various other sūtras and treatises. Therefore, the position established by the Nichiren school maintains that "no one attained the Way in the pre-Lotus period" and "no one attains the Way in other schools," thereby destroying other sūtras and other schools, so they are precisely
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criminals who slander the dharma and belong to the category of uninterrupted hell karma. This is precisely because they misinterpret the passage "the true reality was not yet revealed in over forty years" and consider people of orthodox dharma in various schools to have perverted views. Also, beginning with the Ise Tenshō Imperial Grand Shrine, they slander the various shrines of Japan's sixty-odd provinces as evil demons and heretical spirits, and obstruct people's pilgrimages—this is unprecedented great treason in all ages. The refutations and establishments of various schools are not slander of dharma but merely skillful means before their respective spiritual capacities. Only the Nichiren school consists of truly dharma-slandering evil people. One should not sit together with them. See the "Record of Destroying Heterodoxy and Revealing Orthodoxy" for details.
End of Brief Record of Ten Schools
There is one Eitoku. His enlightened mind awakened within, and he newly took refuge in the Tendai gate. How wondrous—a person of many good roots from past lives! Therefore I had this mountain monk record the origins and conclusions of the various schools. I could not refuse the request. Just as I was about to take up brush and ink with my inadequate talent, I was occupied with relief efforts for famine victims and memorial services, while the masses mourned their deceased relatives. For this reason I could not obtain even a moment's time. Moreover, the seasonal weather was hot and dry, and I frequently suffered from bodily ailments. Unexpectedly, this book took over thirty days to complete and is still unpolished. I can only await future worthies to edit and supplement it. What I earnestly hope is simply that all sentient beings achieve the single fruit of enlightenment.
Written in the second year of Jōō era [1653], year of the Water Dragon, mid-autumn, second day, by the monk Shinchō