The Three Periods of Propagation – Prophecy in the Sutra of the Great Assembly (Daishi-kyo Sutra) Shakyamuni explained that after his passing, there will be three major periods, respectively, called the Former, Middle and Latter Days of the Law, during which his teachings will spread throughout the world. There are various explanations in the sutras and other records about the duration of the Former, Middle and Latter Days of the Law. In “The Selection of the Time,” Nichiren Daishonin writes: In the Sutra of the Great Assembly, the World-Honored One of Supreme Enlightenment specifies the three future ages for Bodhisattva Moon Storehouse (Gatsuzo). The Buddha states that after his passing, there will be five five-hundred-year periods. The first five-hundred-year period will be the age of enlightenment (gedatsu kengo). The second period will be the age of meditation (senjo kengo). Together, these two periods will comprise the thousand years [of the Former Day of the Law.] The third period will be the age of reading, reciting, and listening (doju tamon kengo). The fourth period will be the age of building temples and stupas (tazo toji kengo). These two periods will comprise the second thousand years [of the Middle Day of the Law.] The fifth five-hundred-year period will be an age of conflict (tojo kengo), when “people will dispute and fight over my teachings, and my pure Law will become lost.” (Gosho, p. 836) The Three Periods and the Five Five-hundred-year Periods 1. The Former Day of the Law A. The first five hundred years—the age of enlightenment B. The second five hundred years—the age of meditation 2. The Middle Day of the Law A. The third five hundred years—the age of reading, reciting, and listening B. The fourth five hundred years—the age of building temples and stupas 3. The Latter Day of the Law A. The fifth five hundred years—the age of conflict The Former Day of the Law The Former Day of the Law refers to the first thousand years following Shakyamuni’s passing, which is further comprised of two five-hundred-year periods, which are the age of enlightenment and the age of meditation, respectively. (Note: The word kengo, meaning “firmly established,” is appended to the Japanese names of the first four of the five five-hundred-year spans to indicate the predominant type of practice exercised during those periods.) During the first five-hundred-year period, the age of enlightenment, Shakyamuni’s teachings were transmitted correctly because the people who lived during that era were predominantly pure in heart. As a result, people practiced Buddhism to gain the Buddha’s wisdom and enlightenment. During the second five-hundred-year period, the age of meditation, people utilized Mahayana training to enter a state of profound meditation, quiet their minds and ponder questions in a logical fashion in an attempt to reach Buddhahood. Because Buddhist practice during the Former Day of the Law was replete with Shakyamuni’s teachings, training and proof (enlightenment), and because people who sought the Buddha path were endowed with superior capacities born of the good roots that they had produced through Buddhist practice in past lives, people were able to reap the fruits of Buddhahood during this thousand-year period. Shakyamuni established a lineage of twenty-four successors whose responsibility it was to guard and propagate his teachings during the Former Day of the Law. Mahakashyapa, Ananda and others restricted their efforts to the dissemination of the Hinayana teachings for about the first hundred years directly after Shakyamuni’s death. Thereafter, Ashvaghosha, Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu and others refuted the Hinayana teachings and promoted Mahayana doctrine instead. Furthermore, under the patronage of Kings Ajatashatru, Ashoka, Kamishka and others, Buddhist scripture was compiled, codified and widely disseminated throughout India. The Buddha’s Twenty-four Successors The following is a list of the twenty-four successors entrusted with the Buddha’s teachings and who carried on the Lamp of the Law. 1. Mahakashyapa 13. Kapimala 2. Ananda 14. Nagarjuna 3. Madhyantika 15. Aryadeva 4. Shanavasa 16. Rahulata 5. Upagupta 17. Samghanandi 6. Dhritaka 18. Samghayashas 7. Mikkaka 19. Kumarata 8. Buddhananda 20. Jayata 9. Buddhamitra 21. Vasubandhu 10. Parshva 22. Manorhita 11. Punyayashas 23. Haklena 12. Ashvagosha 24. Aryasimha The Middle Day of the Law The Middle Day of the Law refers to the thousand-year period following the thousand years of the Former Day of the Law. The Middle Day consisted of the third and fourth five-hundred-year periods, which were the age of reading, reciting, and listening, and the age of building temples and stupas, respectively. By this time, the Buddha had already been dead for a thousand years, and the number of spurious Buddhists intent on using Buddhism for less than honorable purposes was rapidly increasing. Buddhism, as it was handed down by the Buddha, was in grave danger of being lost. Because of the machinations of these “false prophets,” Mahayana teachings were being overturned in favor of Hinayana doctrine, and true Mahayana teachings were being supplanted by provisional Mahayana doctrine. Buddhism was falling into a state of utter confusion. During this age, the Buddha’s original teachings and practices hung on by the slenderest of threads. Fewer and fewer people were able to attain Buddhahood because while the outer forms of Buddhism still existed, their true substance was fading away. That is why this period is also called the Age of the Counterfeit Law. During the third five-hundred-year period, the age of reading, reciting, and listening, Buddhist canon spread to China, where many priests, including Kumarajiva and Hsuan-tsang, produced Chinese translations of and commentaries on the sutras. China was becoming a hotbed of doctrinal research. The fourth five-hundred-year period, the age of building temples and stupas, furthermore witnessed the construction of many temples, stupas (memorial towers) and statues/images of the Buddha. In other words, the dissemination of Buddhism manifested more in physical form than in spiritual awakening. The Buddhist teachings that spread to China during this period were carefully integrated with pre-existing Taoist doctrine. Even so, doctrinal disputes became more and more prevalent among fellow Buddhists, which ultimately led to the formation of ten schools of Buddhist thought known as the three schools of the south and seven schools of the north. When the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai finally appeared on the scene, he revealed the fallacies of each of the ten schools and paved the way for the widespread diffusion of the Lotus Sutra. However, sects based on provisional Mahayana teachings, including Zen and Shingon, later spread throughout China, overshadowing the Lotus Sutra and the teachings of T’ien-t’ai. This gradually led to the degeneration of Shakyamuni’s teachings in China. It was during the age of building temples and stupas that Buddhism made its way to Japan, and in keeping with the words that describe this age, the Japanese produced a formidable number of temples and stupas in Kyoto and Nara. What became known as the six sects of Nara flourished in the city of Nara during this era, but when the Great Teacher Dengyo appeared during the Heian period, he soundly refuted the doctrines of all six sects and replaced them with the true teachings of the Lotus Sutra. Nevertheless, exactly as Shakyamuni had predicted, with the advent of the Latter Day of the Law, his pure Law began to fade. The Japanese Tendai sect, which was based on the Lotus Sutra, suffered a steady decline, while the doctrines of such erroneous sects as Shingon found a new lease on life and spread throughout the nation. The Six Sects of Nara (Nanto rokushu) The six sects of Nara were the Sanron, Jojitsu, Hosso, Kusha, Ritsu, and Kegon sects. They were the six most influential Buddhist denominations in Japan during the Nara period. The Japanese term for these sects, nanto rokushu, literally means, “six sects” (rokushu) “of the southern capital” (nanto). The word nanto, or southern capital, refers to Kyoto, the capital of Japan during the Heian period (Heian-kyo), and is used in contrast to the word hokuto, or “northern capital,” which referred to the city of Nara (Heijo-kyo). The Latter Day of the Law The age indicated by the Japanese term mappo refers to a final age when the Buddha’s Law would disappear. At this time, Shakyamuni’s teachings would lose their ability to lead people to enlightenment, people’s hearts would become increasingly corrupt and chaos within society would lead to endless disputes. With the dawning of the Latter Day of the Law, people began to lose respect for the Buddha’s teachings out of their own arrogance and mistrust. Erroneous ideologies sprung up one after the other, and some people even ventured to steal the doctrines of the Lotus Sutra and claim them as their own inventions. Consequently, people’s thinking became confused, their lives became poisoned with the unhealthy passions of greed, anger and ignorance, and society in general was filled with chaos and constant quarrels. (Shakyamuni himself had predicted that the Latter Day would be an age of conflict.) Furthermore, natural disasters began to occur with such unnatural frequency that it appeared as though the world were coming to an end. The world was becoming hopelessly corrupt. In the midst of this Latter Day societal dissolution, Shakyamuni’s pure Law gradually became totally ineffectual. It was also at this time, however, that Nichiren Daishonin introduced the Great Pure Law and Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo to eliminate Latter Day society’s darkness at its source. In The Medicine King (Yakuo; twenty-third) chapter of the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni speaks about how this Great Pure Law must surely spread throughout the world during the Latter Day of the Law. He instructs: “After I have passed into extinction, in the last five hundred year period, you must spread it abroad widely throughout Jambudvipa and never allow it to be cut off…” (Hokekyo; p. 539; The Lotus Sutra, Watson, p. 288) Shakyamuni predicts that during the fifth and final five-hundred-year period, which coincides with the dawning of the Latter Day of the Law, Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo, the Lotus Sutra for the Latter Day, would be revealed as the Buddhism that would relieve the sufferings of all mankind. Shakyamuni further predicts that this Law will spread throughout the entire world (Jambudvipa) without pause, for all time. The Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai comments on Shakyamuni’s prophecy as follows. “In the last five hundred year period, we are to share the blessings of the Mystic Way far and wide.” The Great Teacher Dengyo also proclaims: “Because the Former and Middle Days of the Law have nearly come to a close and the Latter Day is at hand, now is the time for the one vehicle of the Lotus Sutra.” Dengyo announces in this passage that the Latter Day is the age when the Mystic Law must spread throughout the world. Buddhism in India After Shakyamuni’s demise, his disciples gradually carried his teachings from their birthplace in central India to every corner of the nation. Thereafter, as the Buddhist community expanded, fringe elements in the two Buddhist factions—the conservative Theravada school, which strictly protected the Buddha’s teachings, and the more liberal and independent-minded Mahasamghika school—ultimately began forming splinter groups, which marked the beginning of sectarian Buddhism. Then, sometime around the beginning of the Common Era, Mahayana Buddhism gained predominance and many of the Mahayana scriptures became firmly established. During the second century CE, various theoretical dissertations were appended to these Mahayana scriptures. It is during this period that such great theoreticians as Nagarjuna and Vasubandhu made their advent to lend unprecedented, clear interpretations on the true spirit of the Buddhist scriptures. Compilation of the Buddhist Scriptures Although Shakyamuni expounded Buddhism over the course of fifty years, neither were his teachings preserved in written form, nor did his disciples keep any kind of records of his sermons. However, after Shakyamuni’s passing, his disciples gathered together, both to prevent the Buddha’s teachings from becoming scattered and lost, and to organize the Buddha’s various doctrines. During these gatherings, Shakyamuni’s disciples recited and compiled each of his teachings from memory. These assemblies of the Buddha’s disciples are collectively referred to as the councils to compile the scriptures. The first council took place the year the Buddha died. Although there were several more councils thereafter, their specific dates are uncertain, though there are a number of opinions on the matter. The First Council In the year of Shakyamuni’s passing, King Ajatashatru sponsored the building of a lecture hall in front of the Cave of the Seven Leaves, south of Rajagriha in Magadha. There, at a gathering of five hundred monks presided over by the aged Mahakashyapa, Upali, who was foremost in keeping the precepts, recited the rules of conduct (the storehouse of precepts) that Shakyamuni had prescribed. Thereafter, Ananda, who was foremost at listening to Shakyamuni’s doctrines, recited the Buddha’s teachings (the storehouse of sutras). The great assembly then confirmed and organized the content of the leading disciples’ recitations. This compilation of the Buddha’s teachings, which took seven months to complete, is known either as the Compilation at Rajagriha, after the place where the project took place, or as the Assembly of the Five Hundred Monks, after the men who undertook this task. The opening phrase, “Thus I heard,” appears at the beginning of many of the sutras, to verify that the subsequent teaching is exactly as the Buddha’s disciples heard him preach it. It should be noted that the Buddha’s teachings were confirmed at this first council exclusively through memorized recitation. No written record was made of those proceedings. It is said that this method of preservation was used at the time as a specific form of meditation. Apparently, the prevailing thought was that the written word was insufficient to capture such noble doctrine. The Second Council and the First Schism within the Buddhist Order The second council was convened about a hundred years after the Buddha’s passing in response to growing dissatisfaction with the rules on conduct. As a result, seven hundred monks, including Yasa, assembled at the Great Grove Monastery in Vaishali with the primary goal of amending the code of conduct. The Council at Vaishali, sometimes called the Assembly of the Seven Hundred Monks, convened for eight months. Monks in the Vaishali region at that time tended to interpret the precepts with a leaning toward tolerance, as a result of which, they allowed ten theretofore unacceptable practices, including the receiving of alms in the form of money and the use of salt. When the seven hundred monks gathered from east and west to deliberate on these ten new practices, they found them contrary to the Buddha’s instructions and therefore banned them all once again. At the same time, there were combined recitations of the precepts and the sutras. Thereafter, the monks who favored the practices banned by the council held their own conclave. This schism within the Buddhist order caused the formation of two conflicting schools, the Theravada school, which interpreted doctrine and the code of conduct according to tradition, and the Mahasamghika School, which took a more lenient stand on the code of conduct. This rift within the Buddhist order is referred to as the original schism. Buddhism before this schism is referred to as original Buddhism, while post-schism Buddhism is called sectarian Buddhism. The Third Council In the third century BCE, King Ashoka, the third king of the Maurya dynasty, became a devout patron of Buddhism. He constructed many temples and stupas and offered support to the Buddhist order. Under King Ashoka’s sponsorship, Maudgalyayana convened a council of one thousand priests at Pataliputra to compile the three divisions of Buddhist canon, i.e., sutras, precepts and commentaries. Conducted during the course of nine months, this convention is referred to either as the Council at Pataliputra or the Gathering of the One Thousand Monks. The Fourth Council In the second century, King Kanishka, the third ruler of the Kushana dynasty and rivaled only by King Ashoka in his protection of Buddhism, spared no effort to build temples and promote the spread of Buddhism. By this time, Buddhism in India had become divided into many contentious schools, with each school proclaiming supremacy over its rivals. In the midst of this widespread controversy, the patron King Kanishka asked Parshva, the Buddha’s tenth successor, to call together an assembly of five hundred monks and others in an attempt to unify the warring schools of Buddhism. The council met in Kashmir to consolidate the Buddha’s three divisions of canon. The Rise of Mahayana Buddhism About a hundred years after the Buddha’s passing, the Buddhist order, which had split into the Theravada and Mahasamghika schools as a result of the second council, experienced successive rifts thereafter, ultimately dividing into eighteen splinter groups, and then again into twenty groups. There were various reasons for these schisms, including divergent interpretations of the Buddha’s teachings. Some of the independent schools, however, were formed because of the teachings of elder monks who had formed their own methodologies, while others were established for no other reason than geographic isolation. During this continuing splintering process, the various schools were forced to focus foremost on their particular interpretations of the sutras and the rules of conduct, so that the practice of Buddhism gradually became academic and egocentric, with scarcely a semblance of its original and true substance. In reaction to this corruption of the Buddha’s teachings, a new movement began in an effort to recapture the original intent of Buddhism – the relief of humanity’s suffering. Activists within this new movement strongly believed that the true purpose of Shakyamuni’s teachings was not limited to practice by individuals for their own attainment of Buddhahood alone, but was directed toward the ultimate happiness of all people. On that basis, the new activists called their own practice, which sought salvation for all people, Mahayana (greater vehicle), and ostracized the purely egocentric practices with the appellation Hinayana (lesser vehicle). The values of the Mahayana activists resonated among many Hinayana sectarianists, which led to the rapid diffusion of Mahayana Buddhism throughout India. The Development of Mahayana Buddhism While the Mahayana propagation movement advanced, a great number of Mahayana scriptures also were compiled. Then around the second century CE, commentaries were written on the sutras by such renowned theoreticians as Nagarjuna and others. Nagarjuna systematized the doctrine of emptiness (non-substantiality; Jp. ku) through such works as The Middle Treatise (Skt., Madhyamaka-karika; Jp. Chu-ron), Treatise on the Great Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom (Skt., Mahaprajnaparamita-shastra; Jp. Daichido-ron) and Discourse on the Ten Stages (Skt., Dashabhumi-vibhasha-shastra; Jp. Jujubibasha-ron), thus creating the foundation for Mahayana ideology. Because of this accomplishment, Nagarjuna is revered as the founder of many Mahayana sects in both China and Japan, and often is referred to as the father of eight sects. Nagarjuna’s successors focused most of their research on The Middle Treatise, hence, their lineage became known as the Middle Way School (Skt., Madhyamika School; Jp. Chugan-ha). Later on in the fourth century, other prominent scholars appeared, including Asanga (Jp. Mujaku) and Vasubandhu (Jp. Seshin, also Tenjin), who established the consciousness only ideology and worked to further promote Mahayana Buddhism. Successors to this lineage became known as the Consciousness Only school, which, together with the Middle Way School, formed two Buddhist centers of higher learning, thus strengthening the influence of academic Buddhism. In the sixth century, however, Buddhism began to lean toward the esoteric and the occult. Local Hindu influence also became so powerful that Buddhism was eventually absorbed into the Hindu religion. Moreover, Islam began to spread into India in about the 11th Century, at which time Muslim aggression caused many monks, nuns, and priests to flee India for safe havens in Nepal and Tibet. Followers of Islam destroyed Buddhist monasteries and slaughtered the priests and nuns living in them. Finally, in 1203 CE, Bikuramasila Monastery, the only remaining bastion of Indian Buddhism, succumbed to an overwhelming Muslim onslaught, which marked the extinction of Buddhism in India. Arguments Denying that the Buddha Expounded Mahayana Doctrine As Mahayana Buddhism grew, so did the argument that the Buddha did not expound Mahayana doctrine. People who espoused this idea claimed that Mahayana doctrine was the invention of the Buddha’s disciples who compiled the scriptures after the Buddha’s passing. The same individuals claimed that the only sutras that the Buddha actually expounded and which were most closely related to Hinayana doctrine were the Hinayana Agama sutras. Although the argument denying the Buddha’s exposition of Mahayana Buddhism had existed in India since ancient times, and mention is made of it in the Great Wisdom Sutra, the idea itself never gained much popularity. While Buddhism itself came up against opposition in China because of established Taoist beliefs, the idea that Shakyamuni did not teach Mahayana doctrine never arose there. In the middle of the Edo period in Japan, a Confucian scholar by the name of Nakamoto Tominaga wrote an ideological treatise entitled Shutsujo gogo, and a scholar of the Japanese classics named Atsutane Hirata wrote a pro-Shinto work entitled Shutsujo shogo. Both of these works spoke out in support of the argument denying that the Buddha expounded Mahayana Buddhism. During the Meiji period, anti-Mahayana sentiment continued, but without much support. Nonetheless, the various arguments against the Buddha’s expounding of Mahayana doctrine seem to have developed during the series of gatherings of Shakyamuni’s own disciples after the Buddha’s death, which were held in order to compile the Buddha’s teachings. Even so, these arguments fail to consider Shakyamuni’s vow to relieve the sufferings of all humanity and the true intent of the scriptures that he expounded. Because Shakyamuni preached his doctrines to bring relief to all people, the mindset that caused practitioners of Hinayana doctrine to practice for their own perfection alone, and their assumption that this was what the Buddha truly intended, goes against Shakyamuni’s reason for expounding Buddhism in the first place. Had Shakyamuni not been a Buddha enlightened to every phenomenon in the universe, neither could he have made such accurate predictions as he did in the Mahayana scriptures, nor would he have been able to reveal the incomparably perfect and profound teaching of the Lotus Sutra. For the above reasons, the fact that Shakyamuni’s soul and his teachings are correctly expounded in modern-day Mahayana Buddhism clearly demonstrates that Shakyamuni is indeed the author of Mahayana doctrine.

The Three Periods of Propagation – Prophecy in the Sutra of the Great Assembly (Daishi-kyo Sutra)

Shakyamuni explained that after his passing, there will be three major periods, respectively, called the Former, Middle and Latter Days of the Law, during which his teachings will spread throughout the world.

There are various explanations in the sutras and other records about the duration of the Former, Middle and Latter Days of the Law. In “The Selection of the Time,” Nichiren Daishonin writes:

In the Sutra of the Great Assembly, the World-Honored One of Supreme Enlightenment specifies the three future ages for Bodhisattva Moon Storehouse (Gatsuzo). The Buddha states that after his passing, there will be five five-hundred-year periods. The first five-hundred-year period will be the age of enlightenment (gedatsu kengo). The second period will be the age of meditation (senjo kengo). Together, these two periods will comprise the thousand years [of the Former Day of the Law.] The third period will be the age of reading, reciting, and listening (doju tamon kengo). The fourth period will be the age of building temples and stupas (tazo toji kengo). These two periods will comprise the second thousand years [of the Middle Day of the Law.] The fifth five-hundred-year period will be an age of conflict (tojo kengo), when “people will dispute and fight over my teachings, and my pure Law will become lost.”

(Gosho, p. 836)

The Three Periods and the Five Five-hundred-year Periods

1.The Former Day of the Law

A.The first five hundred years—the age of enlightenment

B.The second five hundred years—the age of meditation

2.The Middle Day of the Law

A.The third five hundred years—the age of reading, reciting, and listening

B.The fourth five hundred years—the age of building temples and stupas

3.The Latter Day of the Law

A.The fifth five hundred years—the age of conflict

The Former Day of the Law

The Former Day of the Law refers to the first thousand years following Shakyamuni’s passing, which is further comprised of two five-hundred-year periods, which are the age of enlightenment and the age of meditation, respectively. (Note: The word kengo, meaning “firmly established,” is appended to the Japanese names of the first four of the five five-hundred-year spans to indicate the predominant type of practice exercised during those periods.)

During the first five-hundred-year period, the age of enlightenment, Shakyamuni’s teachings were transmitted correctly because the people who lived during that era were predominantly pure in heart. As a result, people practiced Buddhism to gain the Buddha’s wisdom and enlightenment.

During the second five-hundred-year period, the age of meditation, people utilized Mahayana training to enter a state of profound meditation, quiet their minds and ponder questions in a logical fashion in an attempt to reach Buddhahood.

Because Buddhist practice during the Former Day of the Law was replete with Shakyamuni’s teachings, training and proof (enlightenment), and because people who sought the Buddha path were endowed with superior capacities born of the good roots that they had produced through Buddhist practice in past lives, people were able to reap the fruits of Buddhahood during this thousand-year period.

Shakyamuni established a lineage of twenty-four successors whose responsibility it was to guard and propagate his teachings during the Former Day of the Law. Mahakashyapa, Ananda and others restricted their efforts to the dissemination of the Hinayana teachings for about the first hundred years directly after Shakyamuni’s death. Thereafter, Ashvaghosha, Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu and others refuted the Hinayana teachings and promoted Mahayana doctrine instead.

Furthermore, under the patronage of Kings Ajatashatru, Ashoka, Kamishka and others, Buddhist scripture was compiled, codified and widely disseminated throughout India.

The Buddha’s Twenty-four Successors

The following is a list of the twenty-four successors entrusted with the Buddha’s teachings and who carried on the Lamp of the Law.

1.Mahakashyapa13. Kapimala

2.Ananda14. Nagarjuna

3.Madhyantika15. Aryadeva

4.Shanavasa16. Rahulata

5.Upagupta17. Samghanandi

6.Dhritaka18. Samghayashas

7.Mikkaka19. Kumarata

8.Buddhananda20. Jayata

9.Buddhamitra21. Vasubandhu

10.Parshva22. Manorhita

11.Punyayashas23. Haklena

12.Ashvagosha24. Aryasimha

The Middle Day of the Law

The Middle Day of the Law refers to the thousand-year period following the thousand years of the Former Day of the Law. The Middle Day consisted of the third and fourth five-hundred-year periods, which were the age of reading, reciting, and listening, and the age of building temples and stupas, respectively.

By this time, the Buddha had already been dead for a thousand years, and the number of spurious Buddhists intent on using Buddhism for less than honorable purposes was rapidly increasing. Buddhism, as it was handed down by the Buddha, was in grave danger of being lost. Because of the machinations of these “false prophets,” Mahayana teachings were being overturned in favor of Hinayana doctrine, and true Mahayana teachings were being supplanted by provisional Mahayana doctrine. Buddhism was falling into a state of utter confusion.

During this age, the Buddha’s original teachings and practices hung on by the slenderest of threads. Fewer and fewer people were able to attain Buddhahood because while the outer forms of Buddhism still existed, their true substance was fading away. That is why this period is also called the Age of the Counterfeit Law.

During the third five-hundred-year period, the age of reading, reciting, and listening, Buddhist canon spread to China, where many priests, including Kumarajiva and Hsuan-tsang, produced Chinese translations of and commentaries on the sutras. China was becoming a hotbed of doctrinal research.

The fourth five-hundred-year period, the age of building temples and stupas, furthermore witnessed the construction of many temples, stupas (memorial towers) and statues/images of the Buddha. In other words, the dissemination of Buddhism manifested more in physical form than in spiritual awakening.

The Buddhist teachings that spread to China during this period were carefully integrated with pre-existing Taoist doctrine. Even so, doctrinal disputes became more and more prevalent among fellow Buddhists, which ultimately led to the formation of ten schools of Buddhist thought known as the three schools of the south and seven schools of the north. When the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai finally appeared on the scene, he revealed the fallacies of each of the ten schools and paved the way for the widespread diffusion of the Lotus Sutra. However, sects based on provisional Mahayana teachings, including Zen and Shingon, later spread throughout China, overshadowing the Lotus Sutra and the teachings of T’ien-t’ai. This gradually led to the degeneration of Shakyamuni’s teachings in China.

It was during the age of building temples and stupas that Buddhism made its way to Japan, and in keeping with the words that describe this age, the Japanese produced a formidable number of temples and stupas in Kyoto and Nara. What became known as the six sects of Nara flourished in the city of Nara during this era, but when the Great Teacher Dengyo appeared during the Heian period, he soundly refuted the doctrines of all six sects and replaced them with the true teachings of the Lotus Sutra.

Nevertheless, exactly as Shakyamuni had predicted, with the advent of the Latter Day of the Law, his pure Law began to fade. The Japanese Tendai sect, which was based on the Lotus Sutra, suffered a steady decline, while the doctrines of such erroneous sects as Shingon found a new lease on life and spread throughout the nation.

The Six Sects of Nara (Nanto rokushu)

The six sects of Nara were the Sanron, Jojitsu, Hosso, Kusha, Ritsu, and Kegon sects. They were the six most influential Buddhist denominations in Japan during the Nara period.

The Japanese term for these sects, nanto rokushu, literally means, “six sects” (rokushu) “of the southern capital” (nanto). The word nanto, or southern capital, refers to Kyoto, the capital of Japan during the Heian period (Heian-kyo), and is used in contrast to the word hokuto, or “northern capital,” which referred to the city of Nara (Heijo-kyo).

The Latter Day of the Law

The age indicated by the Japanese term mappo refers to a final age when the Buddha’s Law would disappear. At this time, Shakyamuni’s teachings would lose their ability to lead people to enlightenment, people’s hearts would become increasingly corrupt and chaos within society would lead to endless disputes.

With the dawning of the Latter Day of the Law, people began to lose respect for the Buddha’s teachings out of their own arrogance and mistrust. Erroneous ideologies sprung up one after the other, and some people even ventured to steal the doctrines of the Lotus Sutra and claim them as their own inventions. Consequently, people’s thinking became confused, their lives became poisoned with the unhealthy passions of greed, anger and ignorance, and society in general was filled with chaos and constant quarrels. (Shakyamuni himself had predicted that the Latter Day would be an age of conflict.) Furthermore, natural disasters began to occur with such unnatural frequency that it appeared as though the world were coming to an end. The world was becoming hopelessly corrupt.

In the midst of this Latter Day societal dissolution, Shakyamuni’s pure Law gradually became totally ineffectual. It was also at this time, however, that Nichiren Daishonin introduced the Great Pure Law and Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo to eliminate Latter Day society’s darkness at its source.

In The Medicine King (Yakuo; twenty-third) chapter of the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni speaks about how this Great Pure Law must surely spread throughout the world during the Latter Day of the Law. He instructs: “After I have passed into extinction, in the last five hundred year period, you must spread it abroad widely throughout Jambudvipa and never allow it to be cut off…” (Hokekyo; p. 539; The Lotus Sutra, Watson, p. 288) Shakyamuni predicts that during the fifth and final five-hundred-year period, which coincides with the dawning of the Latter Day of the Law, Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo, the Lotus Sutra for the Latter Day, would be revealed as the Buddhism that would relieve the sufferings of all mankind. Shakyamuni further predicts that this Law will spread throughout the entire world (Jambudvipa) without pause, for all time. The Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai comments on Shakyamuni’s prophecy as follows. “In the last five hundred year period, we are to share the blessings of the Mystic Way far and wide.” The Great Teacher Dengyo also proclaims: “Because the Former and Middle Days of the Law have nearly come to a close and the Latter Day is at hand, now is the time for the one vehicle of the Lotus Sutra.” Dengyo announces in this passage that the Latter Day is the age when the Mystic Law must spread throughout the world.

Buddhism in India

After Shakyamuni’s demise, his disciples gradually carried his teachings from their birthplace in central India to every corner of the nation. Thereafter, as the Buddhist community expanded, fringe elements in the two Buddhist factions—the conservative Theravada school, which strictly protected the Buddha’s teachings, and the more liberal and independent-minded Mahasamghika school—ultimately began forming splinter groups, which marked the beginning of sectarian Buddhism. Then, sometime around the beginning of the Common Era, Mahayana Buddhism gained predominance and many of the Mahayana scriptures became firmly established. During the second century CE, various theoretical dissertations were appended to these Mahayana scriptures. It is during this period that such great theoreticians as Nagarjuna and Vasubandhu made their advent to lend unprecedented, clear interpretations on the true spirit of the Buddhist scriptures.

Compilation of the Buddhist Scriptures

Although Shakyamuni expounded Buddhism over the course of fifty years, neither were his teachings preserved in written form, nor did his disciples keep any kind of records of his sermons. However, after Shakyamuni’s passing, his disciples gathered together, both to prevent the Buddha’s teachings from becoming scattered and lost, and to organize the Buddha’s various doctrines. During these gatherings, Shakyamuni’s disciples recited and compiled each of his teachings from memory. These assemblies of the Buddha’s disciples are collectively referred to as the councils to compile the scriptures.

The first council took place the year the Buddha died. Although there were several more councils thereafter, their specific dates are uncertain, though there are a number of opinions on the matter.

The First Council

In the year of Shakyamuni’s passing, King Ajatashatru sponsored the building of a lecture hall in front of the Cave of the Seven Leaves, south of Rajagriha in Magadha. There, at a gathering of five hundred monks presided over by the aged Mahakashyapa, Upali, who was foremost in keeping the precepts, recited the rules of conduct (the storehouse of precepts) that Shakyamuni had prescribed. Thereafter, Ananda, who was foremost at listening to Shakyamuni’s doctrines, recited the Buddha’s teachings (the storehouse of sutras). The great assembly then confirmed and organized the content of the leading disciples’ recitations. This compilation of the Buddha’s teachings, which took seven months to complete, is known either as the Compilation at Rajagriha, after the place where the project took place, or as the Assembly of the Five Hundred Monks, after the men who undertook this task.

The opening phrase, “Thus I heard,” appears at the beginning of many of the sutras, to verify that the subsequent teaching is exactly as the Buddha’s disciples heard him preach it.

It should be noted that the Buddha’s teachings were confirmed at this first council exclusively through memorized recitation. No written record was made of those proceedings. It is said that this method of preservation was used at the time as a specific form of meditation. Apparently, the prevailing thought was that the written word was insufficient to capture such noble doctrine.

The Second Council and the First Schism within the Buddhist Order

The second council was convened about a hundred years after the Buddha’s passing in response to growing dissatisfaction with the rules on conduct. As a result, seven hundred monks, including Yasa, assembled at the Great Grove Monastery in Vaishali with the primary goal of amending the code of conduct. The Council at Vaishali, sometimes called the Assembly of the Seven Hundred Monks, convened for eight months.

Monks in the Vaishali region at that time tended to interpret the precepts with a leaning toward tolerance, as a result of which, they allowed ten theretofore unacceptable practices, including the receiving of alms in the form of money and the use of salt. When the seven hundred monks gathered from east and west to deliberate on these ten new practices, they found them contrary to the Buddha’s instructions and therefore banned them all once again. At the same time, there were combined recitations of the precepts and the sutras.

Thereafter, the monks who favored the practices banned by the council held their own conclave. This schism within the Buddhist order caused the formation of two conflicting schools, the Theravada school, which interpreted doctrine and the code of conduct according to tradition, and the Mahasamghika School, which took a more lenient stand on the code of conduct. This rift within the Buddhist order is referred to as the original schism. Buddhism before this schism is referred to as original Buddhism, while post-schism Buddhism is called sectarian Buddhism.

The Third Council

In the third century BCE, King Ashoka, the third king of the Maurya dynasty, became a devout patron of Buddhism. He constructed many temples and stupas and offered support to the Buddhist order. Under King Ashoka’s sponsorship, Maudgalyayana convened a council of one thousand priests at Pataliputra to compile the three divisions of Buddhist canon, i.e., sutras, precepts and commentaries. Conducted during the course of nine months, this convention is referred to either as the Council at Pataliputra or the Gathering of the One Thousand Monks.

The Fourth Council

In the second century, King Kanishka, the third ruler of the Kushana dynasty and rivaled only by King Ashoka in his protection of Buddhism, spared no effort to build temples and promote the spread of Buddhism.

By this time, Buddhism in India had become divided into many contentious schools, with each school proclaiming supremacy over its rivals.

In the midst of this widespread controversy, the patron King Kanishka asked Parshva, the Buddha’s tenth successor, to call together an assembly of five hundred monks and others in an attempt to unify the warring schools of Buddhism. The council met in Kashmir to consolidate the Buddha’s three divisions of canon.

The Rise of Mahayana Buddhism

About a hundred years after the Buddha’s passing, the Buddhist order, which had split into the Theravada and Mahasamghika schools as a result of the second council, experienced successive rifts thereafter, ultimately dividing into eighteen splinter groups, and then again into twenty groups. There were various reasons for these schisms, including divergent interpretations of the Buddha’s teachings. Some of the independent schools, however, were formed because of the teachings of elder monks who had formed their own methodologies, while others were established for no other reason than geographic isolation.

During this continuing splintering process, the various schools were forced to focus foremost on their particular interpretations of the sutras and the rules of conduct, so that the practice of Buddhism gradually became academic and egocentric, with scarcely a semblance of its original and true substance.

In reaction to this corruption of the Buddha’s teachings, a new movement began in an effort to recapture the original intent of Buddhism – the relief of humanity’s suffering. Activists within this new movement strongly believed that the true purpose of Shakyamuni’s teachings was not limited to practice by individuals for their own attainment of Buddhahood alone, but was directed toward the ultimate happiness of all people. On that basis, the new activists called their own practice, which sought salvation for all people, Mahayana (greater vehicle), and ostracized the purely egocentric practices with the appellation Hinayana (lesser vehicle).

The values of the Mahayana activists resonated among many Hinayana sectarianists, which led to the rapid diffusion of Mahayana Buddhism throughout India.

The Development of Mahayana Buddhism

While the Mahayana propagation movement advanced, a great number of Mahayana scriptures also were compiled. Then around the second century CE, commentaries were written on the sutras by such renowned theoreticians as Nagarjuna and others. Nagarjuna systematized the doctrine of emptiness (non-substantiality; Jp. ku) through such works as The Middle Treatise (Skt., Madhyamaka-karika; Jp. Chu-ron), Treatise on the Great Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom (Skt., Mahaprajnaparamita-shastra; Jp. Daichido-ron) and Discourse on the Ten Stages (Skt., Dashabhumi-vibhasha-shastra; Jp. Jujubibasha-ron), thus creating the foundation for Mahayana ideology. Because of this accomplishment, Nagarjuna is revered as the founder of many Mahayana sects in both China and Japan, and often is referred to as the father of eight sects. Nagarjuna’s successors focused most of their research on The Middle Treatise, hence, their lineage became known as the Middle Way School (Skt., Madhyamika School; Jp. Chugan-ha). Later on in the fourth century, other prominent scholars appeared, including Asanga (Jp. Mujaku) and Vasubandhu (Jp. Seshin, also Tenjin), who established the consciousness only ideology and worked to further promote Mahayana Buddhism. Successors to this lineage became known as the Consciousness Only school, which, together with the Middle Way School, formed two Buddhist centers of higher learning, thus strengthening the influence of academic Buddhism.

In the sixth century, however, Buddhism began to lean toward the esoteric and the occult. Local Hindu influence also became so powerful that Buddhism was eventually absorbed into the Hindu religion. Moreover, Islam began to spread into India in about the 11th Century, at which time Muslim aggression caused many monks, nuns, and priests to flee India for safe havens in Nepal and Tibet.

Followers of Islam destroyed Buddhist monasteries and slaughtered the priests and nuns living in them. Finally, in 1203 CE, Bikuramasila Monastery, the only remaining bastion of Indian Buddhism, succumbed to an overwhelming Muslim onslaught, which marked the extinction of Buddhism in India.

Arguments Denying that the Buddha Expounded Mahayana Doctrine

As Mahayana Buddhism grew, so did the argument that the Buddha did not expound Mahayana doctrine.

People who espoused this idea claimed that Mahayana doctrine was the invention of the Buddha’s disciples who compiled the scriptures after the Buddha’s passing. The same individuals claimed that the only sutras that the Buddha actually expounded and which were most closely related to Hinayana doctrine were the Hinayana Agama sutras.

Although the argument denying the Buddha’s exposition of Mahayana Buddhism had existed in India since ancient times, and mention is made of it in the Great Wisdom Sutra, the idea itself never gained much popularity.

While Buddhism itself came up against opposition in China because of established Taoist beliefs, the idea that Shakyamuni did not teach Mahayana doctrine never arose there.

In the middle of the Edo period in Japan, a Confucian scholar by the name of Nakamoto Tominaga wrote an ideological treatise entitled Shutsujo gogo, and a scholar of the Japanese classics named Atsutane Hirata wrote a pro-Shinto work entitled Shutsujo shogo. Both of these works spoke out in support of the argument denying that the Buddha expounded Mahayana Buddhism. During the Meiji period, anti-Mahayana sentiment continued, but without much support.

Nonetheless, the various arguments against the Buddha’s expounding of Mahayana doctrine seem to have developed during the series of gatherings of Shakyamuni’s own disciples after the Buddha’s death, which were held in order to compile the Buddha’s teachings. Even so, these arguments fail to consider Shakyamuni’s vow to relieve the sufferings of all humanity and the true intent of the scriptures that he expounded. Because Shakyamuni preached his doctrines to bring relief to all people, the mindset that caused practitioners of Hinayana doctrine to practice for their own perfection alone, and their assumption that this was what the Buddha truly intended, goes against Shakyamuni’s reason for expounding Buddhism in the first place. Had Shakyamuni not been a Buddha enlightened to every phenomenon in the universe, neither could he have made such accurate predictions as he did in the Mahayana scriptures, nor would he have been able to reveal the incomparably perfect and profound teaching of the Lotus Sutra.

For the above reasons, the fact that Shakyamuni’s soul and his teachings are correctly expounded in modern-day Mahayana Buddhism clearly demonstrates that Shakyamuni is indeed the author of Mahayana doctrine.