Protected: From electrified to spiritualized, a societal paradigm shift

Author : Eshin Miura

Nichiren sect special Honzan Myokenji Temple History 48th

Translator : Joel Breckinridge Bassett

1).   3 Aspects of One Body

 This graph illustrates various values of various products from a 3rd party perspective. Our modern age is a car based society. However a picture of a car or a plastic car model is useless. And even if you have a real car, it’s junk if not in working order. Good driving skill is also essential, a car destroyed by an accident is a terrible burden, a good driver makes all the difference.

The jewel itself is comparable to the Dharma body, its brilliance to the reward body, and its precious nature to the manifested body. When these three virtues, which form a unity, are treated as separate entities and schools are established on that basis, one dislikes such schools because of their insufficiency. But when the three are combined to form a single whole, this is known as the unity of the three truths. This unity of the three truths is comparable to the Thus Come One of original enlightenment, whose three bodies are in fact a single body.

The Unanimous Declaration by the Buddhas (三世諸仏総勘文教相廃立)

Shakyamuni is only 1/3rd of the complete Buddha. Amida Buddha for example only represents a manifestation of the reward body. Nichiren Shonin taught that the Object of Devotion, the Gohonzon Mandala, represents the complete Buddha containing all three Buddha bodies.