The Total Abolition of Slander of the Law, v3.0 +^

[Disbasing Zen Stories]

____ The Total Abolition of Slander of the Law, v3.0 ________

I state categorically --

1. That those followers of Nichiren Daishonin, who ignore his admonitions to avoid the slander of mixing extraneous practices (Martial Arts, Reiki, Yoga, Shinto statue idolatry, etc.) with Nichiren's practice of the Lotus Sutra are treating the Entity of the Mystic Law as their chattel slave. They bow to the Gohonzon and practice Buddhism devoutly to receive the benefits of that practice deeply in their lives, but after the butsudan doors are closed, they heap abuse, and profound torment on their Entity of the Mystic Law, who has steadfastly stuck with that slandering follower, providing every service through thick and thin: the Gohonzon was always there.
___________________________________________________________

From Theodore Dwight Weld's 1839 work, "American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses", p. 52-54

"TESTIMONY OF ANGELINA GRIMKÉ WELD."

"Mrs. Weld is the youngest daughter of the late Judge Grimké, of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, and a sister of the late Hon. Thomas S. Grimké, of Charleston."

"FORT LEE, Bergen Co., New Jersey, Fourth month 6th, 1839."

...

"I will first introduce the reader to a woman of the highest respectability--one who was foremost in every benevolent enterprise, and stood for many years, I may say, at the head of the fashionable elite of the city of Charleston, and afterwards at the head of the moral and religious female society there. It was after she had made a profession of religion, and retired from the fashionable world, that I knew her; therefore I will present her in her religious character. This lady used to keep cowhides, or small paddles, (called 'pancake sticks,') in four different apartments in her house; so that when she wished to punish, or to have punished, any of her slaves, she might not have the trouble of sending for an instrument of torture. For many years, one or other, and often more of her slaves, were flogged every day; particularly the young slaves about the house, whose faces were slapped, or their hands beat with the 'pancake stick,' for every trifling offence--and often for no fault at all. But the floggings were not all; the scoldings and abuse daily heaped upon them all, were worse: 'fools' and 'liars,' 'sluts' and 'husseys,' 'hypocrites' and 'good for- nothing creatures,' were the common epithets with which her mouth was filled, when addressing her slaves, adults as well as children. Very often she would take a position at her window, in an upper story, and scold at her slaves while working in the garden, at some distance from the house, (a large yard intervening,) and occasionally order a flogging. I have known her thus on the watch, scolding for more than an hour at a time, in so loud a voice that the whole neighborhood could hear her; and this without the least apparent feeling of shame. Indeed, it was no disgrace among slaveholders, and did not in the least injure her standing, either as a lady or a Christian, in the aristocratic circle in which she moved. After the 'revival' in Charleston, in 1825, she opened her house to social prayer-meetings. The room in which they were held in the evening, and where the voice of prayer was heard around the family altar, and where she herself retired for private devotion thrice each day, was the very place in which, when her slaves were to be whipped with the cowhide, they were taken to receive the infliction; and the wail of the sufferer would be heard, where, perhaps only a few hours previous, rose the voices of prayer and praise. This mistress would occasionally send her slaves, male and female, to the Charleston work-house to be punished. One poor girl, whom she sent there to be flogged, and who was accordingly stripped naked and whipped, showed me the deep gashes on her back--I might have laid my whole finger in them--large pieces of flesh had actually been cut out by the torturing lash. She sent another female slave there, to be imprisoned and worked on the tread-mill. This girl was confined several days, and forced to work the mill while in a state of suffering from another cause. For ten days or two weeks after her return, she was lame, from the violent exertion necessary to enable her to keep the step on the machine. She spoke to me with intense feeling of this outrage upon her, as a woman. Her men servants were sometimes flogged there; and so exceedingly offensive has been the putrid flesh of their lacerated backs, for days after the infliction, that they would be kept out of the house--the smell arising from their wounds being too horrible to be endured. They were always stiff and sore for some days, and not in a condition to be seen by visitors."

"This professedly Christian woman was a most awful illustration of the ruinous influence of arbitrary power upon the temper--her bursts of passion upon the heads of her victims were dreaded even by her own children, and very often, all the pleasure of social intercourse around the domestic board, was destroyed by her ordering the cook into her presence, and storming at him, when the dinner or breakfast was not prepared to her taste, and in the presence of all her children, commanding the waiter to slap his face. Fault-finding, was with her the constant accompaniment of every meal, and banished that peace which should hover around the social board, and smile on every face. It was common for her to order brothers to whip their own sisters, and sisters their own brothers, and yet no woman visited among the poor more than she did, or gave more liberally to relieve their wants. This may seem perfectly unaccountable to a northerner, but these seeming contradictions vanish when we consider that over them she possessed no arbitrary power, they were always presented to her mind as unfortunate sufferers, towards whom her sympathies most freely flowed; she was ever ready to wipe the tears from their eyes, and open wide her purse for their relief, but the others were her vassals, thrust down by public opinion beneath her feet, to be at her beck and call, ever ready to serve in all humility, her, whom God in his providence had set over them--it was their duty to abide in abject submission, and hers to compel them to do so--it was thus that she reasoned. Except at family prayers, none were permitted to sit in her presence, but the seamstresses and waiting maids, and they, however delicate might be their circumstances, were forced to sit upon low stools, without backs, that they might be constantly reminded of their inferiority. A slave who waited in the house, was guilty on a particular occasion of going to visit his wife, and kept dinner waiting a little, (his wife was the slave of a lady who lived at a little distance.) When the family sat down to the table, the mistress began to scold the waiter for the offence--he attempted to excuse himself--she ordered him to hold his tongue--he ventured another apology; her son then rose from the table in a rage, and beat the face and ears of the waiter so dreadfully that the blood gushed from his mouth, and nose, and ears. This mistress was a professor of religion; her daughter who related the circumstance, was a fellow member of the Presbyterian church with the poor outraged slave--instead of feeling indignation at this outrageous abuse of her brother in the church, she justified the deed, and said "he got just what he deserved." I solemnly believe this to be a true picture of slave-holding religion."

...

"The following circumstance occurred in Charleston, in 1828: A slaveholder, after flogging a little girl about thirteen years old, set her on a table with her feet fastened in a pair of stocks. He then locked the door and took out the key. When the door was opened she was found dead, having fallen from the table. When I asked a prominent lawyer, who belonged to one of the first families in the State, whether the murderer of this helpless child could not be indicted, he coolly replied, that the slave was Mr.----'s property, and if he chose to suffer the loss, no one else had any thing to do with it. The loss of human life, the distress of the parents and other relatives of the little girl, seemed utterly out of his thoughts: it was the loss of property only that presented itself to his mind."

From Theodore Dwight Weld, p. 68:

From the Mobile Examiner, August 1, 1837.

"POLICE REPORT--MAYOR'S OFFICE."

"Saturday morning, August 12, 1837."

"His Honor the Mayor presiding."

"Mr. MILLER, of the foundry, brought to the office this morning a small negro girl aged about eight or ten years, whom he had taken into his house some time during the previous night. She had crawled under the window of his bed room to screen herself from the night air, and to find a warmer shelter than the open canopy of heaven afforded. Of all objects of pity that have lately come to our view, this poor little girl most needs the protection of authority, and the sympathies of the charitable. From the cruelty of her master and mistress, she has been whipped, worked and starved, until she is now a breathing skeleton, hardly able to stand upon her feet."

"The back of the poor little sufferer, (which we ourselves saw,) was actually cut into strings, and so perfectly was the flesh worn from her limbs, by the wretched treatment she had received, that every joint showed distinctly its crevices and protuberances through the skin. Her little lips clung closely over her teeth--her cheeks were sunken and her head narrowed, and when her eyes were closed, the lids resembled film more than flesh or skin."

"We would desire of our northern friends such as choose to publish to the world their own version of the case we have related, not to forget to add, in conclusion, that the owner of this little girl is a foreigner, speaks against slavery as an institution, and reads his Bible to his wife, with the view of finding proofs for his opinions."

From Theodore Dwight Weld, p. 74:

"JOHN M. NELSON, Esq., a native of Virginia, now a highly respected citizen of Highland county, Ohio, and member of the Presbyterian Church in Hillsborough, in a recent letter states the following:--"

"In Staunton, Va., at the house of Mr. Robert M`Dowell, a merchant of that place, I once saw a colored woman, of intelligent and dignified appearance, who appeared to be attending to the business of the house, with an iron collar around her neck, with horns or prongs extending out on either side, and up, until they met at something like a foot above her head, at which point there was a bell attached. This yoke, as they called it, I understood was to prevent her from running away, or to punish her for having done so. I had frequently seen men with iron collars, but this was the first instance that I recollect to have seen a female thus degraded."

...

"Rev. JOHN DUDLEY, Mount Morris, Michigan, resided as a teacher at the missionary station, among the Choctaws, in Mississippi, during the years 1830 and 31. In a letter just received Mr. Dudley says:-- During the time I was on missionary ground, which was in 1830 and 31, I was frequently at the residence of the agent, who was a slaveholder.--I never knew of his treating his own slaves with cruelty; but the poor fellows who were escaping, and lodged with him when detected, found no clemency. I once saw there a fetter for 'the d--d runaways,' the weight of which can be judged by its size. It was at least three inches wide, half an inch thick, and something over a foot long. At this time I saw a poor fellow compelled to work in the field, at 'logging,' with such a galling fetter on his ankles. To prevent it from wearing his ankles, a string was tied to the centre, by which the victim suspended it when he walked, with one hand, and with the other carried his burden. Whenever he lifted, the fetter rested on his bare ankles. If he lost his balance and made a misstep, which must very often occur in lifting and rolling logs, the torture of his fetter was severe. Thus he was doomed to work while wearing the torturing iron, day after day, and at night he was confined in the runaways' jail. Some time after this, I saw the same dejected, heart-broken creature obliged to wait on the other hands, who were husking corn. The privilege of sitting with the others was too much for him to enjoy; he was made to hobble from house to barn and barn to house, to carry food and drink for the rest. He passed round the end of the house where I was sitting with the agent: he seemed to take no notice of me, but fixed his eyes on his tormentor till he passed quite by us."

From Theodore Dwight Weld, p. 75:

"Mr. CURTIS, a journeyman cabinet-maker, of Marietta, relates the following, of which he was an eye witness. Mr. Curtis is every way worthy of credit."

"In September, 1837, at 'Milligan's Bend,' in the Mississippi river, I saw a negro with an iron band around his head, locked behind with a padlock. In the front, where it passed the mouth, there was a projection inward of an inch and a half, which entered the mouth. "The overseer told me, he was so addicted to running away, it did not do any good to whip him for it. He said he kept this gag constantly on him, and intended to do so as long as he was on the plantation: so that, if he ran away, he could not eat, and would starve to death. The slave asked for drink in my presence; and the overseer made him lie down on his back, and turned water on his face two or three feet high, in order to torment him, as he could not swallow a drop.--The slave then asked permission to go to the river; which being granted, he thrust his face and head entirely under the water, that being the only way he could drink with his gag on. The gag was taken off when he took his food, and then replaced afterwards."

...

"EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM MR. JONATHAN F. BALDWIN, of Lorain county, Ohio. Mr. B. was formerly a merchant in Massillon, Ohio, and an elder in the Presbyterian Church there."

"DEAR BROTHER,--In conversation with Judge Lyman, of Litchfield county, Connecticut, last June, he stated to me, that several years since he was in Columbia, South Carolina, and observing a colored man lying on the floor of a blacksmith's shop, as he was passing it, his curiosity led him in. He learned the man was a slave and rather unmanageable. Several men were attempting to detach from his ankle an iron which had been bent around it. "The iron was a piece of a flat bar of the ordinary size from the forge hammer, and bent around the ancle, the ends meeting, and forming a hoop of about the diameter of the leg. There was one or more strings attached to the iron and extending up around his neck, evidently so to suspend it as to prevent its galling by its weight when at work, yet it had galled or griped till the leg had swollen out beyond the iron and inflamed and supurated, so that the leg for a considerable distance above and below the iron, was a mass of putrefaction, the most loathsome of any wound he had ever witnessed on any living creature. The slave lay on his back on the floor, with his leg on an anvil which sat also on the floor, one man had a chisel used for splitting iron, and another struck it with a sledge, to drive it between the ends of the hoop and separate it so that it might be taken off. Mr. Lyman said that the man swung the sledge over his shoulders as if splitting iron, and struck many blows before he succeeded in parting the ends of the iron at all, the bar was so large and stubborn--at length they spread it as far as they could without driving the chisel so low as to ruin the leg. The slave, a man of twenty-five years, perhaps, whose countenance was the index of a mind ill adapted to the degradations of slavery, never uttered a word or a groan in all the process, but the copious flow of sweat from every pore, the dreadful contractions and distortions of every muscle in his body, showed clearly the great amount of his sufferings; and all this while, such was the diseased state of the limb, that at every blow, the bloody, corrupted matter gushed out in all directions several feet, in such profusion as literally to cover a large area around the anvil. After various other fruitless attempts to spread the iron, they concluded it was necessary to weaken by filing before it could be got off, which he left them attempting to do."
___________________________________________________________

I state categorically --

2. That the abiding system supporting the mixing of extraneous practices (**) with the Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra within the Sangha, constitutes a system of chattel slavery of the Sangha held in bondage to those leaders supporting that mixing or tolerating it, and that must be a system of horrible cruelty, where each and every entity is tormented by slander of the Law, juxtaposed to that follower's Nichiren Buddhist practice of the Law. That condition of the perpetual treatment of the Entity of the Mystic Law as a slave en masse cannot possibly persist and is the true cause of the evil effects we see perpetrated upon the Sangha and their environment in the world.
[** Zen Tantric martial arts, Yakushi Kyo Reiki "healing", Yogic seated meditation or dhyana, worship or respect for Shinto or Shen Dao gods or the Shinto crane or Buddha statues, or other practices of the provisional sutras or distortions of Buddhism, many of which have become part of daily life and embedded into the culture within Japan and other "Buddhist" nations]
___________________________________________________________

From Theodore Dwight Weld, p. 69-70:

"Mr. SAMUEL HALL, a teacher in Marietta College, Ohio, and formerly secretary of the Colonization society in that village, has recently communicated the facts which follow. We quote from his letter..."

"The following statement is made by a young man from Western Virginia. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a student in Marietta College. All that prevents the introduction of his name, is the peril to his life, which would probably be the consequence, on his return to Virginia. His character for integrity and veracity is above suspicion."

'On the night of the great meteoric shower, in Nov. 1833. I was at Remley's tavern, 12 miles west of Lewisburg, Greenbrier Co., Virginia. A drove of 50 or 60 negroes stopped at the same place that night. They usually 'camp out,' but as it was excessively muddy, they were permitted to come into the house. So far as my knowledge extends, 'droves,' on their way to the south, eat but twice a day, early in the morning and at night. Their supper was a compound of 'potatoes and meal,' and was, without exception, the dirtiest, blackest looking mess I ever saw. I remarked at the time that the food was not as clean, in appearance, as that which was given to a drove of hogs, at the same place the night previous. Such as it was, however, a black woman brought it on her head, in a tray or trough two and a half feet long, where the men and women were promiscuously herded. The slaves rushed up and seized it from the trough in handfulls, before the woman could take it off her head. They jumped at it as if half-famished.'

'They slept on the floor of the room which they were permitted to occupy, lying in every form imaginable, males and females, promiscuously. They were so thick on the floor, that in passing through the room it was necessary to step over them.'

'There were three drivers, one of whom staid in the room to watch the drove, and the other two slept in an adjoining room. Each of the latter took a female from the drove to lodge with him, as is the common practice of the drivers generally. There is no doubt about this particular instance, for they were seen together. The mud was so thick on the floor where this drove slept, that it was necessary to take a shovel, the next morning, and clear it out. Six or eight in this drove were chained; all were for the south.'

'In the autumn of the same year I saw a drove of upwards of a hundred, between 40 and 50 of them were fastened to one chain, the links being made of iron rods, as thick in diameter as a man's little finger. This drove was bound west-ward to the Ohio river, to be shipped to the south. I have seen many droves, and more or less in each, almost without exception, were chained. I never saw but one drove, that went on their way making merry. In that one they were blowing horns, singing, &c., and appeared as if they had been drinking whisky.'

'They generally appear extremely dejected. I have seen in the course of five years, on the road near where I reside, 12 or 15 droves at least, passing to the south. They would average 40 in each drove. Near the first of January, 1834, I started about sunrise to go to Lewisburg. It was a bitter cold morning. I met a drove of negroes, 30 or 40 in number, remarkably ragged and destitute of clothing. One little boy particularly excited my sympathy. He was some distance behind the others, not being able to keep up with the rest. Although he was shivering with cold and crying, the driver was pushing him up in a trot to overtake the main gang. All of them looked as if they were half-frozen. There was one remarkable instance of tyranny, exhibited by a boy, not more than eight years old, that came under my observation, in a family by the name of D--n, six miles from Lewisburg. This youngster would swear at the slaves, and exert all the strength he possessed, to flog or beat them, with whatever instrument or weapon he could lay hands on, provided they did not obey him instanter. He was encouraged in this by his father, the master of the slaves. The slaves often fled from this young tyrant in terror.' "

From Theodore Dwight Weld, p. 89:

'Hon. JAMES K. PAULDING, the Secretary of the Navy of the U. States, in his "Letters from the South" published in 1817, relates the following:

"At one of the taverns along the road we were set down in the same room with an elderly man and a youth who seemed to be well acquainted with him, for they conversed familiarly and with true republican independence--for they did not mind who heard them. From the tenor of his conversation I was induced to look particularly at the elder. He was telling the youth something like the following detested tale. He was going, it seems, to Richmond, to inquire about a draft for seven thousand dollars, which he had sent by mail, but which, not having been acknowledged by his correspondent, he was afraid had been stolen, and the money received by the thief. 'I should not like to lose it,' said he, 'for I worked hard for it, and sold many a poor d--l of a black to Carolina and Georgia, to scrape it together.--He then went on to tell many a perfidious tale. All along the road it seems he made it his business to inquire where lived a man who might be tempted to become a party in this accursed traffic, and when he had got some half dozen of these poor creatures, he tied their hands behind their backs, and drove them three or four hundred miles or more, bareheaded and half naked through the burning southern sun. Fearful that even southern humanity would revolt at such an exhibition of human misery and human barbarity, he gave out that they were runaway slaves he was carrying home to their masters. On one occasion a poor black woman exposed this fallacy, and told the story of her being kidnapped, and when he got her into a wood out of hearing, he beat her, to use his own expression, 'till her back was white.' It seems he married all the men and women he bought, himself, because they would sell better for being man and wife! But, said the youth, were you not afraid, in traveling through the wild country and sleeping in lone houses, these slaves would rise and kill you? 'To be sure I was,' said the other, 'but I always fastened my door, put a chair on a table before it, so that it might wake me in falling, and slept with a loaded pistol in each hand. It was a bad life, and I left it off as soon as I could live without it; for many is the time I have separated wives from husbands, and husbands from wives, and parents from children, but then I made them amends by marrying them again as soon as I had a chance, that is to say, I made them call each other man and wife, and sleep together, which is quite enough for negroes. I made one bad purchase though,' continued he. 'I bought a young mulatto girl, a lively creature, a great bargain. She had been the favorite of her master, who had lately married. The difficulty was to get her to go, for the poor creature loved her master. However, I swore most bitterly I was only going to take her to her mother's at--and she went with me, though she seemed to doubt me very much. But when she discovered, at last, that we were out of the state, I thought she would go mad, and in fact, the next night she drowned herself in the river close by. I lost a good five hundred dollars by this foolish trick.' " Vol. I. p. 121.'
___________________________________________________________

I state categorically --

3. That slave system permitting the mixing of extraneous practices with the Buddhism of Lotus Sutra within that Sangha thwarts Kosen Rufu and will sustain a deadlock that must be surpassed, and can only be surpassed by a profound determination for the total abolition of slander of the Law, starting with the leadership of the Sangha. Slander of the Law IS chattel slavery for the Entity of the Mystic Law and slavery LEADS INVARIABLY to genocide. For the Sangha and the leaders of the Sangha to commit the great sin of ignoring Nichiren Daishonin and slandering the Law by mixing extraneous practices with Nichiren's practice of the Lotus Sutra is a profound kind of sin against Buddhism: ending that great sin can only be done through committing ourselves to the total abolition of slander of the Law throughout the leadership, then somehow through the Sangha, and finally somehow through society. The eternal Buddha deserves justice.
___________________________________________________________

From Theodore Dwight Weld, p. 25-26:

TESTIMONY OF THE LATE REV. JOHN GRAHAM,
...
EXTRACTS.
...
Darlington, Court House. S. C. March, 28th, 1838.
...

Under date of July, 1832, Mr. G. writes, "I wish you could have been at the breakfast table with me this morning to have seen and heard what I saw and heard, not that I wish your ear and heart and soul pained as mine is, 'with every day's' observation 'of wrong and outrage' with which this place is filled, but that you might have auricular and ocular evidence of the cruelty of slavery, of cruelties that mortal language can never describe--that you might see the tender mercies of a hardened slaveholder, one who bears the name of being one of the mildest and most merciful masters of which this island can boast. Oh, my friend, another is screaming under the lash, in the shed-room, but for what I know not. The scene this morning was truly distressing to me. It was this:--After the blessing was asked at the breakfast table, one of the servants, a woman grown, in giving one of the children some molasses, happened to pour out a little more than usual, though not more than the child usually eats. Her master was angry at the petty and indifferent mistake, or slip of the hand. He rose from the table, took both of her hands in one of his, and with the other began to beat her, first on one side of her head and then on the other, and repeating this, till, as he said on sitting down at table, it hurt his hand too much to continue it longer. He then took off his shoe, and with the heel began in the same manner as with his hand, till the poor creature could no longer endure it without screeches and raising her elbow as it is natural to ward off the blows. He then called a great overgrown negro to hold her hands behind her while he should wreak his vengeance upon the poor servant. In this position he began again to beat the poor suffering wretch. It now became intolerable to bear; she fell, screaming to me for help. After she fell, he beat her until I thought she would have died in his hands. She got up, however, went out and washed off the blood and came in before we rose from table, one of the most pitiable objects I ever saw till I came to the South. Her ears were almost as thick as my hand, her eyes awfully blood-shotten, her lips, nose, cheeks, chin, and whole head swollen so that no one would have known it was Etta--and for all this, she had to turn round as she was going out and thank her master! Now, all this was done while I was sitting at breakfast with the rest of the family. Think you not I wished myself sitting with the peaceful and happy circle around your table? Think of my feelings, but pity the poor negro slave, who not only fans his cruel master when he eats and sleeps, but bears the stripes his caprice may inflict. Think of this, and let heaven hear your prayers."

From Theodore Dwight Weld, p. 88:

Extract of a letter from Rev. C. S. RENSHAW, pastor of the Congregational Church, Quincy, Illinois. "Judge Menzies of Boone county, Kentucky, an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and a slaveholder, told me that he knew some overseers in the tobacco growing region of Virginia, who, to make their slaves careful in picking the tobacco, that is taking the worms off, (you know what a loathsome thing the tobacco worm is) would make them eat some of the worms, and others who made them eat every worm they missed in picking."

From Theodore Dwight Weld, p. 109-118, and writing for himself:

We here rest the case for the present, so far as respects the presentation of facts showing the condition of the slaves, and proceed to consider the main objections which are usually employed to weaken such testimony, or wholly to set it aside. But before we enter upon the examination of specific objections, and introductory to them, we remark,--

1. That the system of slavery must be a system of horrible cruelty, follows of necessity, from the fact that two millions seven hundred thousand human beings are held by force, and used as articles of property. Nothing but a heavy yoke, and an iron one, could possibly keep so many necks in the dust. That must be a constant and mighty pressure which holds so still such a vast army; nothing could do it but the daily experience of severities, and th ceaseless dread and certainty of the most terrible inflictions if they should dare to toss in their chains.

2. Were there nothing else to prove it a system of monstrous cruelty, the fact that FEAR is the only motive with which the slave is plied during his whole existence, would be sufficient to brand it with execration as the grand tormentor of man. The slave's susceptibility of pain is the sole fulcrum on which slavery works the lever that moves him. In this it plants all its stings; here it sinks its hot irons; cuts its deep gashes; flings its burning embers, and dashes its boiling brine and liquid fire: into this it strikes its cold flesh hooks, grapgling irons, and instruments of nameless torture; and by it drags him shrieking to the end of his pilgrimage. The fact that the master inflicts pain upon the slave not merely as an end to gratify passion, but constantly as a means of extorting labor, is enough of itself to show that the system of slavery is unmixed cruelty.

3. That the slaves must suffer frequent and terrible inflictions, follows inevitably from the character of those who direct their labor. Whatever may be the character of the slaveholders themselves, all agree that the overseers are, as a class, most abandoned, brutal, and desperate men. This is so well known and believed that any testimony to prove it seems needless. The testimony of Mr. WIRT, late Attorney General of the United States, a Virginian and a slaveholder, is as follows. In his life of Patrick Henry, p. 36, speaking of the different classes of society in Virginia, he says,--"Last and lowest a feculum, of beings called 'overseers'--the most object, degraded, unprincipled race, always cap in hand to the dons who employ them, and furnishing materials for the exercise of their pride, insolence, and spirit of domination."

Rev. PHINEAS SMITH, of Centreville, New-York, who has resided some years at the south, says of overseers--

"It need hardly be added that overseers are in general ignorant, unprincipled and cruel, and in such low repute that they are not permitted to come to the tables of their employers; yet they have the constant control of all the human cattle that belong to the master.

"These men are continually advancing from their low station to the higher one of masters. These changes bring into the possession of power a class of men of whose mental and moral qualities I have already spoken."

Rev. HORACE MOULTON, of Marlboro', Massachusetts, who lived in Georgia several years, says of them,--

"The overseers are generally loose in their morals; it is the object of masters to employ those whom they think will get the most work out of their hands,--hence those who whip and torment the slaves the most are in many instances called the best overseers. The masters think those whom the slaves fear the most are the best. Quite a portion of the masters employ their own slaves as overseers, or rather they are called drivers; these are more subject to the will of the masters than the white overseers are; some of them are as lordly as an Austrian prince, and sometimes more cruel even than the whites."

That the overseers are, as a body, sensual, brutal, and violent men is proverbial. The tender mercies of such men must be cruel.

4. The ownership of human beings necessarily presupposes an utter disregard of their happiness He who assumes it monopolizes their whole capital, leaves them no stock on which to trade, and out of which to make happiness. Whatever is the master's gain is the slave's loss, a loss wrested from him by the master, for the express purpose of making it his own gain; this is the master's constant employment--forcing the slave to toil--violently wringing from him all he has and all he gets, and using it as his own;--like the vile bird that never builds its nest from materials of its own gathering, but either drives other birds from theirs and takes possession of them, or tears them in pieces to get the means of constructing their own. This daily practice of forcibly robbing others, and habitually living on the plunder, cannot but beget in the mind the habit of regarding the interests and happiness of those whom it robs, as of no sort of consequence in comparison with its own; consequently whenever those interests and this happiness are in the way of its own gratification, they will be sacrificed without scruple. He who cannot see this would be unable to feel it, if it were seen.

...

That slaveholders do not practically regard slaves as human beings is abundantly shown by their own voluntary testimony. In a recent work entitled, "The South vindicated from the Treason and Fanaticism of Northern Abolitionists," which was written, we are informed, by Colonel Dayton, late member of Congress from South Carolina; the writer, speaking of the awe with which the slaves regard the whites, says,--

"The northerner looks upon a band of negroes as upon so many men, but the planter or southerner views them in a very different light."

Extract from the speech of Mr. SUMMERS, of Virginia, in the legislature of that state, Jan. 26, 1832. See the Richmond Whig.

"When, in the sublime lessons of Christianity, he (the slaveholder) is taught to 'do unto others as he would have others do unto him,' HE NEVER DREAMS THAT THE DEGRADED NEGRO IS WITHIN THE PALE OF THAT HOLY CANON."

PRESIDENT JEFFERSON, in his letter to GOVERNOR COLES, of Illinois, dated Aug. 25, 1814, asserts, that slaveholders regard their slaves as brutes, in the following remarkable language.

"Nursed and educated in the daily habit of seeing the degraded condition, both bodily and mental, of these unfortunate beings [the slaves], FEW MINDS HAVE YET DOUBTED BUT THAT THEY WERE AS LEGITIMATE SUBJECTS OF PROPERTY AS THEIR HORSES OR CATTLE."

...

That American slaveholders possess a power over their slaves which is virtually absolute, none will deny.*

* The following extracts from the laws of slave-states are proofs sufficient.

"The slave is ENTIRELY subject to the WILL of his master."--Louisiana Civil Code, Art. 273.

"Slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, reputed, and adjudged in law to be chattels personal, in the hands of their owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators and assigns, TO ALL INTENTS, CONSTRUCTIONS, AND PURPOSES, WHATSOEVER."--Laws of South Carolina, 2 Brev. Dig. 229; Prince's Digest, 446, &c.

That they desire this absolute power, is shown from the fact of their holding and exercising it, and making laws to confirm and enlarge it. That the desire to possess this power, every tittle of it, is intense, is proved by the fact, that slaveholders cling to it with such obstinate tenacity, as well as by all their doings and sayings, their threats, cursings and gnashings against all who denounce the exercise of such power as usurpation and outrage, and counsel its immediate abrogation.

...

To deny that cruelty is the spontaneous and uniform product of arbitrary power, and that the natural and controlling tendency of such power is to make its possessor cruel, oppressive, and revengeful towards those who are subjected to his control, is, we repeat, to set at nought the combined experience of the human race, to invalidate its testimony, and to reverse its decisions from time immemorial.

A volume might be filled with the testimony of American slaveholders alone, to the truth of the preceding position. We subjoin a few illustrations, and first, the memorable declaration of President Jefferson, who lived and died a slaveholder. It has been published a thousand times, and will live forever. In his "Notes on Virginia," sixth Philadelphia edition, p. 251, he says,--

"The WHOLE COMMERCE between master and slave, is a PERPETUAL EXERCISE of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting DESPOTISM on the one part, and degrading submission on the other...... The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, GIVES LOOSE TO THE WORST OF PASSIONS; and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities."

Hon. LEWIS SUMMERS, Judge of the General Court of Virginia, and a slaveholder, said in a speech before the Virginia legislature in 1832; (see Richmond Whig of Jan. 26, 1832,)

"A slave population exercises the most pernicious influence upon the manners, habits an character, of those among whom it exists. Lisping infancy learns the vocabulary of abusive epithets, and struts the embryo tyrant of its little domain. The consciousness of superior destiny takes possession of his mind at its earliest dawning, and love of power and rule, 'grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength.' Unless enabled to rise above the operation of those powerful causes, he enters the world with miserable notions of self-importance, and under the government of an unbridled temper."

The late JUDGE TUCKER of Virginia, a slaveholder, and Professor of Law in the University of William and Mary, in his "Letter to a Member of the Virginia Legislature," 1801, says,--

"I say nothing of the baneful effects of slavery on our moral character, because I know you have been long sensible of this point."

The Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, consisting of all the clergy of that denomination in those states, with a lay representation from the churches, most, if not all of whom are slaveholders, published a report on slavery in 1834, from which the following is an extract.

"Those only who have the management of servants, know what the hardening effect of it is upon their own feelings towards them. There is no necessity to dwell on this point, as all owners and managers fully understand it. He who commences to manage them with tenderness and with a willingness to favor them in every way, must be watchful, otherwise he will settle down in indifference, if not severity."

GENERAL WILLIAM H. HARRISON, now of Ohio, son of the late Governor Harrison of Virginia, a slaveholder, while minister from the United States to the Republic of Colombia, wrote a letter to General Simon Bolivar, then President of that Republic, just as he was about assuming despotic power. The letter is dated Bogota, Sept. 22, 1826. The following is an extract.

"From a knowledge of your own disposition and present feelings, your excellency will not be willing to believe that you could ever be brought to an act of tyranny, or even to execute justice with unnecessary rigor. But trust me, sir, there is nothing more corrupting, nothing more destructive of the noblest and finest feelings of our nature than the exercise of unlimited power. The man, who in the beginning of such a career, might shudder at the idea of taking away the life of a fellow-being, might soon have his conscience so seared by the repetition of crime, that the agonies of his murdered victims might become music to his soul, and the drippings of the scaffold afford blood to swim in. History is full of such excesses."

WILLIAM H. FITZHUGH, Esq. of Virginia, a slaveholder, says,--"Slavery, in its mildest form, is cruel and unnatural; its injurious effects on our morals and habits are mutually felt."

Hon. SAMUEL S. NICHOLAS, late Judge of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, and a slaveholder, in a speech before the legislature of that state, Jan. 1837, says,--

"The deliberate convictions of the most matured consideration I can give the subject, are, that the institution of slavery is a most serious injury to the habits, manners and morals of our white population--that it leads to sloth, indolence, dissipation, and vice."

Dr. THOMAS COOPER, late President of the College of South Carolina, in a note to his edition of the "Institutes of Justinian," page 413, says,--

"All absolute power has a direct tendency, not only to detract from the happiness of the persons who are subject to it, but to DEPRAVE THE GOOD QUALITIES of those who possess it. . . . . the whole history of human nature, in the present and every former age, will justify me in saying that such is the tendency of power on the one hand and slavery on the other."

A South Carolina slaveholder, whose name is with the executive committee of the Am. A. S. Society, says, in a letter, dated April 4, 1838:--

"I think it (slavery) ruinous to the temper and to our spiritual life; it is a thorn in the flesh, for ever and for ever goading us on to say and to do what the Eternal God cannot but be displeased with. I speak from experience, and oh! my desire is to be delivered from it."

Monsieur C. C. ROBIN, who was a resident of Louisiana from 1802 to 1806, published a work on that country; in which, speaking of the effect of slaveholding on masters and their children, he says:--

"The young creoles make the negroes who surround them the play-things of their whims: they flog, for pastime, those of their own age, just as their fathers flog the others at their will. These young creoles, arrived at the ago in which the passions are impetuous, do not know how to bear contradiction; they will have every thing done which they command, possible or not; and in default of this, they avenge their offended pride by multiplied punishments."

Dr. GEORGE BUCHANAN, of Baltimore, Maryland, member of the American Philosophical Society, in an oration at Baltimore, July 4, 1791, said:--

"For such are the effects of subjecting man to slavery, that it destroys every humane principle, vitiates the mind, instils ideas of unlawful cruelties, and eventually subverts the springs of government."--Buchanan's Oration, p. 12.

President EDWARDS the younger, in a sermon before the Connecticut Abolition Society, in 1791, page 8, says:--

"Slavery has a most direct tendency to haughtiness, and a domineering spirit and conduct in the proprietors of the slaves, in their children, and in all who have the control of them. A man who has been bred up in domineering over negroes, can scarcely avoid contracting such a habit of haughtiness and domination as will express itself in his general treatment of mankind, whether in his private capacity, or in any office, civil or military, with which he may be invested."

The celebrated MONTESQUIEU, in his "Spirit of the Laws," thus describes the effect of slaveholding upon the master:--

"The master contracts all sorts of bad habits; and becomes haughty, passionate, obdurate, vindictive, voluptuous, and cruel."

WILBERFORCE, in his speech at the anniversary of the London Anti-Slavery Society, in March, 1828, said:--

"It is utterly impossible that they who live in the administration of the petty despotism of a slave community, whose minds have been warped and polluted by that contamination, should not lose that respect for their fellow creatures over whom they tyrannize, which is essential in the nature and moral being of man, to rescue them from the abuse of power over their prostrate fellow creatures."

In the great debate, in the British Parliament, on the African slave-trade, Mr. WHITBREAD said:

"Arbitrary power would spoil the hearts of the best."
___________________________________________________________

I state categorically --

4. The eternal leader of the movement for the total abolition of slander of the Law (and slavery and genocide) is none other than Nichiren Daishonin. Through the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin (Gosho:
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/toc/) and the Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings (Ongi Kuden:
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/ott/toc/) , Nichiren is valiantly leading the way to a better world for the human race: his unknowing abolitionist followers included Louis X, king of France (abolished French national slavery in 1315), Bartolome de las Casas (his book led to the temporary abolition of slavery through the Spanish empire from 1542-1545), James Edward Oglethorpe (temporary abolition of slavery in the Georgian Colony from 1734-1743), Maximilien Robespierre (abolished slavery throughout French empire only to be re-established by Napoleon), William Wilberforce, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Theodore Dwight Weld, Jose Gregorio Monagas, and Abraham Lincoln. One way or another, we will follow Nichiren Daishonin to that better world.

5. That path will become far less grim once the leaders of the Sangha commit themselves to ending the abiding system supporting the mixing of extraneous practices (**) with the Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra within the Sangha, that constitutes a system of chattel slavery of the Sangha held in bondage to those leaders supporting that mixing or tolerating it in any way. Silently continuing or abiding with the status quo of this great evil is to court genocide, war and devastation. The reason we have war and the horrors like it in a world filled with Buddhas, can only be because they believe some things are worse than war and the horrors like it, and they will find a way to resolve this intolerable deadlock if we cannot bring ourselves to resolve it in the Sangha.
___________________________________________________________

All practitioners of Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism who slander the Law mercilessly will argue with great passion that they treat the Entity of the Mystic Law with respect. However, they, like the slaveholders of the early 19th century, are blinded to their error and are in a profound state of denial.

Here is another illuminating passage from Theodore Dwight Weld, p. 122-124.

'Was there ever a more ridiculous doctrine, than that a man's opinion of his own actions is the true standard for measuring them, and the certificate of their real qualities! -- that his own estimate of his treatment of others is to be taken as the true one, and such treatment be set down as good treatment upon the strength of his judgment. He who argues the good treatment of the slave, from the slaveholder's good opinion of such treatment, not only argues against human nature and all history, his own common sense, and even the testimony of his senses, but refutes his own arguments by his daily practice. Everybody acts on the presumption that men's feelings will vary with their practices; that the light in which they view individuals and classes, and their feelings towards them, will modify their opinions of the treatment which they receive. In any case of treatment that affects himself, his church, or his political party, no man so stultifies himself as to argue that such treatment must be good, because the author of it thinks so.'

... 'The declarations of slaveholders, that they treat their slaves well, will put no man in a quandary, who keeps in mind this simple principle, that the state of mind towards others, which leads one to inflict cruelties on them, blinds the inflicter to the real nature of his own acts. To him, they do not seem to be cruelties; consequently, when speaking of such treatment toward such persons, he will protest that it is not cruelty; though, if inflicted upon himself or his friends, he would indignantly stigmatize it as atrocious barbarity. The objector equally overlooks another every-day fact of human nature, which is this, that cruelties invariably cease to seem cruelties when the habit is formed, though previously the mind regarded them as such, and shrunk from them with horror.'

'The following fact, related by the late lamented THOMAS PRINGLE, whose Life and Poems have recently been published in England, is an appropriate illustration. Mr. Pringle states it on the authority of Captain W. F. Owen, of the Royal Navy.'

"When his Majesty's ships, the Leven and the Barracouta, employed in surveying the coast of Africa, were at Mozambique, in 1823, the officers were introduced to the family of Senor Manuel Pedro d'Almeydra, a native of Portugal, who was a considerable merchant settled on that coast; and it was an opinion agreed in by all, that Donna Sophia d'Almeydra was the most superior woman they had seen since they left England. Captain Owen, the leader of the expedition, expressing to Senor d'Almeydra his detestation of slavery, the Senor replied, 'You will not be long here before you change your sentiments. Look at my Sophia there. Before she would marry me, she made me promise that I should give up the slave trade. When we first settled at Mozambique, she was continually interceding for the slaves, and she constantly wept when I punished them; and now she is among the slaves from morning to night; she regulates the whole of my slave establishment; she inquires into every offence committed by them, pronounces sentence upon the offender, and stands by and sees them punished.' "

'To this, Mr. Pringle, who was himself for six years a resident of the English settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, adds:'

"The writer of this article has seen, in the course of five or six years, as great a change upon English ladies and gentlemen of respectability, as that described to have taken place in Donna Sophia d'Almeydra; and one of the individuals whom he has in his Theodore eye, while he writes this passage, lately confessed to him this melancholy change, remarking at the same time, 'how altered I am in my feelings with regard to slavery. I do not appear to myself the same person I was on my arrival in this colony, and if I would give the world for the feelings I then had, I could not recall them.' "

'Slaveholders know full well that familiarity with slavery produces indifference to its cruelties and reconciles the mind to them. The late Judge Tucker, a Virginia slaveholder and professor of law in the University of William and Mary, in the appendix to his edition of Blackstone's Commentaries, part 2, pp. 56, 57, commenting on the law of Virginia previous to 1792, which outlawed fugitive slaves, says:'

"Such are the cruelties to which slavery gives rise, such the horrors to which the mind becomes reconciled by its adoption."

'The following facts from the pen of CHARLES STUART, happily illustrate the same principle:'

"A young lady, the daughter of a Jamaica planter, was sent at an early age to school in England, and after completing her education, returned to her native country."

"She is now settled with her husband and family in England. I visited her near Bath, early last spring, (1834.) Conversing on the above subject, the paralyzing effects of slaveholding on the heart, she said:"

" 'While at school in England, I often thought with peculiar tenderness of the kindness of a slave who had nursed and carried me about. Upon returning to my father's, one of my first inquiries was about him. I was deeply afflicted to find that he was on the point of undergoing a "law flogging for having run away." I threw myself at my father's feet and implored with tears, his pardon; but my father steadily replied, that it would ruin the discipline of the plantation, and that the punishment must take place. I wept in vain, and retired so grieved and disgusted, that for some days after, I could scarcely bear with patience, the sight of my own father. But many months had not elapsed ere I was as ready as any body to seize the domestic whip, and flog my slaves without hesitation.' "

"This lady is one of the most Christian and noble minds of my acquaintance. She and her husband distinguished themselves several years ago, in Jamaica, by immediately emancipating their slaves."

"A lady, now in the West Indies, was sent in her infancy, to her friends, near Belfast, in Ireland, for education. She remained under their charge from five to fifteen years of age, and grew up every thing which her friends could wish. At fifteen, she returned to the West Indies -- was married -- and after some years paid her friends near Belfast, a second visit. Towards white people, she was the same elegant, and interesting woman as before; apparently full of every virtuous and tender feeling; but towards the colored people she was like a tigress. If Wilberforce's name was mentioned, she would say, 'Oh, I wish we had the wretch in the West Indies, I would be one of the first to help to tear his heart out!' -- and then she would tell of the manner in which the West Indian ladies used to treat their slaves. 'I have often,' she said, 'when my women have displeased me, snatched their baby from their bosom, and running with it to a well, have tied my shawl round its shoulders and pretended to be drowning it: oh, it was so funny to hear the mother's screams! !' -- and then she laughed almost convulsively at the recollection."

'Mr. JOHN M. NELSON, a native of Virginia, whose testimony is on a preceding page [of Hillsborough. Mr. Nelson removed from Virginia to Highland county, Ohio, many years since, where he is extensively known and respected.], furnishes a striking illustration of the principle in his own case. He says:'

"When I was quite a child, I recollect it grieved me very much to see one tied up to be whipped, and I used to intercede with tears in their behalf, and mingle my cries with theirs, and feel almost willing to take part of the punishment. Yet such is the hardening nature of such scenes, that from this kind of commiseration for the suffering slave, I became so blunted that I could not only witness their stripes with composure, but myself inflict them, and that without remorse. When I was perhaps fourteen or fifteen years of age, I undertook to correct a young fellow named Ned, for some supposed offence, I think it was leaving a bridle out of its proper place; he being larger and stronger than myself took hold of my arms and held me, in order to prevent my striking him; this I considered the height of insolence, and cried for help, when my father and mother both came running to my rescue. My father stripped and tied him, and took him into the orchard, where switches were plenty, and directed me to whip him; when one switch wore out he supplied me with others. After I had whipped him a while, he fell on his knees to implore forgiveness, and I kicked him in the face; my father said, 'don't kick him but whip him,' this I did until his back was literally covered with welts."

'W. C. GILDERSLEEVE, Esq., a native of Georgia, now elder of the Presbyterian church, Wilkesbarre, Penn. after describing the flogging of a slave, in which his hands were tied together, and the slave hoisted by a rope, so that his feet could not touch the ground; in which condition one hundred lashes were inflicted, says:'

"I stood by and witnessed the whole without feeling the least compassion; so hardening is the influence of slavery that it very much destroys feeling for the slave."

'[The wife of DAVID L. CHILD, Esq., of Northampton, Massachusetts, Secretary of the United States' minister at the Court of Lisbon during the administration of President Monroe] Mrs. CHILD, in her admirable 'Appeal,' has the following remarks:'

"The ladies who remove from the free States into the slaveholding ones almost invariably write that the sight of slavery was at first exceedingly painful; but that they soon become habituated to it; and after a while, they are very apt to vindicate the system, upon the ground that it is extremely convenient to have such submissive servants. This reason was actually given by a lady of my acquaintance, who is considered an unusually fervent Christian. Yet Christianity expressly teaches us to love our neighbor as ourselves. This shows how dangerous it is, for even the best of us, to become accustomed to what is wrong."

"A judicious and benevolent friend lately told me the story of one of her relatives, who married a slave owner, and removed to his plantation. The lady in question was considered very amiable, and had a serene, affectionate expression of countenance. After several years residence among her slaves, she visited New England. 'Her history was written in her face,' said my friend; 'its expression had changed into that of a fiend. She brought but few slaves with her; and those few were of course compelled to perform additional labor. One faithful negro woman nursed the twins of her mistress, and did all the washing, ironing, and scouring. If, after a sleepless night with the restless babes, (driven from the bosom of their mother,) she performed her toilsome avocations with diminished activity, her mistress, with her own lady-like hands, applied the cowskin, and the neighborhood resounded with the cries of her victim. The instrument of punishment was actually kept hanging in the entry, to the no small disgust of her New England visitors. For my part,' continued my friend, 'I did not try to be polite to her; for I was not hypocrite enough to conceal my indignation.' "
https://archive.org/details/americanslaverya1839weld2

As in chattel slavery (which I consider to be entirely the same thing as slander of the Law: essentially the torture of the Entity of the Mystic Law) it is the constant exposure to slander that destroys the compassion for protecting the Law and the Entity of the Mystic Law, and eventually one becomes blinded to the evils of slander and those evils gradually move to the forefront of one's life to be on display to the Sangha and the Gohonzon during practice. This is the highest desire of the demons of slander of the Law: to manifest themselves inside the Sangha.

I find that last letter from Mrs. Child to be especially enlightening.

How "extremely convenient to have such submissive servants", because the Entity does not directly complain?

How she would punish a slave immediately after serving her family, like slandering immediately after the butsudan doors were closed?

How she kept the whip hanging in the entry hall, like a prized Shinto statue at the back of the room, or a Buddhist antique statue head in the front hall, or the nunchaku hanging on the wall, or the reiki treatments happening at the back of the room during the daimoku toso, or the yoga seated lotus position during district meeting gongyo, or the exchange of Qigong herbs after a shakubuku meeting, ... I could go on? Slander, once hidden, becomes prominent and finally central to one's life inside the Sangha.

Or in the previous letter by Charles Stuart, where the lady from the West Indies wanted to get the famous abolitionist in her clutches and "tear his heart out", for rebuking her slave-holding society?

We can recall the prolonged beating with a stout cane that Senator Charles Sumner took on the Senate floor by a Southern Congressman that almost killed him, for generally characterizing any slaveholder's attachment to the institution of chattel slavery in a famous speech as sexually depraved. After more than a year, he recovered and returned to the Senate and later was the person who introduced the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery, which later passage in the House was dramatized in the Spielberg movie, "Lincoln". Years later he was a principal in shaping the 14th (Civil Rights) and 15th (Voting Rights) Amendments as well, but the kind of reactionary vengeance the prompted his infamous beating does not end with death: in 1960, David Donald of Goodman, Mississippi (in the center of the most deadly cotton plantation state of the deep South at the heart of Jim Crow, Ku Klux Klan, and lynching activity and only 50 miles from where the Klan murdered the 3 civil rights volunteers) actually received a Pulitzer Prize for his profound trashing of Charles Sumner in a biography. This specific kind of demonic hatred is deathless and is, in fact, an eternal tribute.
http://history.furman.edu/~benson/docs/sumnerksh2.htm (the Crime Against Kansas speech)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caning_of_Charles_Sumner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sumner

Certainly, the demon of slander itself possessing slanderers, and eventually those slanderers themselves, cannot bear to hear Nichiren Daishonin's rebuking of slander of the Law and will demonstrate a profound hatred for those who quote Nichiren's words, like the lady from Mrs Child's letter whose face "had changed into that of a fiend".
___________________________________________________________

This raises some interesting questions for research.

Is there a depraved sexual component to slandering the Law and torturing the Entity of the Mystic Law, a rapturous pleasure derived from refusing to heed the Daishonin's pleas to avoid slandering Buddhism at all costs?

Does the devilish function provide a payment for slanderous practices that addicts those who follow him instead of Nichiren Daishonin and makes the attachment to evil a set of biochemical reactions enhanced by repetition, basically an addiction?

Is that what causes their responses to anyone rebuking their slander to be so extreme?

From the Wikipedia article on Addiction:

"Addiction is a state characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli, despite adverse consequences. It can be thought of as a disease or biological process leading to such behaviors. The two properties that characterize all addictive stimuli are that they are (positively) reinforcing (i.e., they increase the likelihood that a person will seek repeated exposure to them) and intrinsically rewarding (i.e., they activate the brain's "reward pathways", and are therefore perceived as being something positive or desirable)."

... "Physical dependence occurs when the body has adjusted by incorporating the substance into its "normal" functioning – i.e., attains homeostasis – and therefore physical withdrawal symptoms occur upon cessation of use. Tolerance is the process by which the body continually adapts to the substance and requires increasingly larger amounts to achieve the original effects. Withdrawal refers to physical and psychological symptoms experienced when reducing or discontinuing a substance that the body has become dependent on. Symptoms of withdrawal generally include but are not limited to anxiety, irritability, intense cravings for the substance, nausea, hallucinations, headaches, cold sweats, and tremors."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addiction

Chronic high-dose exposure to psychostimulants like amphetamine, methylphenidate, phenethylamine, and cocaine all induce signaling events in the brain's reward centers through the increased concentration of synaptic dopamine:

"Following presynaptic dopamine and glutamate co-release by such psychostimulants, postsynaptic receptors for these neurotransmitters trigger internal signaling events through a cAMP pathway and calcium-dependent pathway that ultimately result in increased CREB phosphorylation. Phosphorylated CREB increases levels of delta-FosB, which in turn represses the c-fos gene with the help of corepressors. A highly stable (phosphorylated) form of delta-FosB, one that persists in neurons for one or two months, slowly accumulates following repeated exposure to stimulants through this process. delta-FosB functions as 'one of the master control proteins' that produces addiction-related structural changes in the brain, and upon sufficient accumulation, with the help of its downstream targets (e.g., nuclear factor kappa B), it induces an addictive state."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addiction#Biomolecular_mechanisms

Could such a process be responsible for people's demonic attachment to external psychostimulant processes like chattel slavery, genocidal activities and their parents: slander of the Law and torture of the Entity of the Mystic Law?

It is possible that slandering the Law and keeping the Entity of the Mystic Law in the torment of perpetual chattel slavery through mixing slanderous practices with the Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra is simply a rapturous psychosexual addiction complete with a dopamine reaction.

If so, then that could explain why rebuking slander of the Law is such a wholly dangerous pursuit, like blocking the path between an addict and their drugs.

Then it should be possible to clinically measure increased dopamine levels and the presence of activities in the neural pathways (delta-FosB increases last for months) after exposure to slanderous objects and practices.

Of course, the objective scientific observation of those processes only augments the subjective observations by the true victim of slanderous practices, who is well aware of them now, and always has been.
___________________________________________________________

Let me put this in another way.

A follower of Nichiren Daishonin steeped in a culture of slander of the Law, enjoying a Judo or Karate match sees something very different from that which the Entity of the Mystic Law, who does not forget the source of that practice, sees. The Entity does not forget that Judo arose from Jujitsu at the Eisho-ji Jodo Pure Land Temple, and Karate from the Fist Law (Guan Fa in Chinese, pronounced Kempo in Japanese) of Shorinji Kempo, and that all the Asian martial arts ultimately derive from the Kung Fu of the Zen Shaolin Temple (Shorinji = Shaolin) where Bodhidharma first invented Zen, Qigong and Tai chi through plagiarizing and then discarding the sutras and the attempted murder of the Buddha and theft of his mantle as founder of Buddhism (which Devadatta attempted during the Buddha's life.) Certainly the victims who are beaten or subjugated by these practices of distortions of Buddhism do not forget, either, because the Buddha did not make his appearance in this world to preach about the art of killing.

Although a follower of Nichiren Daishonin steeped in a culture of slander of the Law might enjoy the silent tranquility of the tea ceremony, the Entity of the Mystic Law does not forget that the tea ceremony arose from the Zen rituals of Eichu and Sen no Rikyu (Rikyu was of Hideyoshi's court, he was forced to commit seppuku over some slight) or that "Tea is Zen and Zen is Tea," and also that Nichiren stated unequivocally that "Zen is the invention of the Heavenly Devil."

("Letter to Akimoto", WND I, pp. 1016,
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/144#para-14 )

Although a follower of Nichiren Daishonin steeped in a culture of slander of the Law might enjoy giving or receiving Acupuncture or following other Qigong practices like Tai Chi, the Entity of the Mystic Law does not forget that the source of these practices was none other than Bodhidharma (also known as Da Mo, Ta Mo or Daruma) a Devadatta of the Shaolin Temple and also that Nichiren stated clearly that "Contamination at the source of a river will pollute its entire length."

("On Curing Karmic Disease", WND I, pp. 634,
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/76#para-11 )

Although a follower of Nichiren Daishonin steeped in a culture of slander of the Law, who is a huge fan of Kendo, might enjoy the action as combatants practice their Samurai arts while whirling their wooden swords, the Entity of the Mystic Law does not forget that during the 14th century after the deaths of Nichiren Daishonin and his Samurai Shijo Kingo, that the new Ashikaga shogunate moved from Kamakura to Kyoto, and the bakufu (military government) subsequently fell under the heavy influence of Gozan Rinzai Zen (Gozan refers to the "five mountains", which were the five huge militarized Rinzai Zen temples in Kyoto.) It was there and then that the Samurai way and its martial arts became completely infused and mixed inseparably with Rinzai Zen, and the bakufu itself became populated with Zen scribes to create the bakufu's river of laws over the next half-millennium, regulating everything from the tea ceremony to which temple must be attended to retain one's head. Certainly the victims of the fine Samurai art of beheading who were bound and helpless captives in front of crowds of soldiers with their snapping cameras, under the watchful eyes of their Zen chaplains during the Rape of Nanking did not appreciate D.T. Suzuki's Zen distortion that "the hand holding the sword is the Buddha's hand," either.

("The rape of Nanking: an undeniable history in photographs" James Yin, Young Shi, pp. 140, Innovative Publishing Group, 1996)

Although a follower of Nichiren Daishonin steeped in a culture of slander of the Law might enjoy giving or receiving Reiki "healing", the Entity of the Mystic Law does not forget that a Reiki or Medicine Master is merely a Tantric practitioner of the mudras of the Medicine Master Sutra, or Yakushi Kyo, which is the sutra about the Buddha of the Eastern Region, and whose practices are clearly identified as extraneous and a slander of a provisional teaching by Nichiren himself, "Then, what great physician or what efficacious medicine can cure the illnesses of all people in the Latter Day of the Law? They cannot be cured by the mudras and mantras of the Thus Come One Mahavairochana, the forty-eight vows of the Thus Come One Amida, or the twelve great vows of the Thus Come One Medicine Master, not even his pledge to 'heal all ills.' Not only do such medicines fail to cure these illnesses; they aggravate them all the more."

("Offering Prayers to the Mandala", WND I, pp. 415,
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/46#para-4 )

So, certainly Nichiren neither forgets nor appreciates the Reiki practice of slander, either.

Although a follower of Nichiren Daishonin steeped in a culture of slander of the Law might give three "Banzai!" cheers in good spirit, the Entity of the Mystic Law does not forget that it is short for the Shinto yell "Tenno Heika Banzai!" or "Long live the Emperor!", which is shortened for the shock effect in a suicide attack as an act of Zen seppuku or hara-kiri. Certainly the corralled and bound victims of mock "Banzai!" bayonet charges, which were captured in photos from the Rape of Nanking did not forget or appreciate that, either. (ibid., Yin, pp. 60)

Although a follower of Nichiren Daishonin steeped in a culture of slander of the Law might enjoy revering or worshiping statues of gods (or god-emperors), or enshrining the Shinto talisman, or the Nichiren Shoshu Shinto crane in their altar, butsudan, or butsugu, the Entity of the Mystic Law does not forget that Shinto is a syncretic faith that was evolved from Tantric Buddhism and distortions of the Lotus Sutra mixed with Confucianism and Daoism. Shinto originated in China as Shen Dao, the Kingly Way, or Way of the Gods and it's purpose was to confuse kings and gods and place them both above the Buddhas: later in Japan for the ends of the Emperors in Kyoto and finally Nobunaga, the Shogun Hideyoshi and at the very summit of distortion for the Shoguns Tokugawa, through the ancient wickedness of a Tendai monk called Tenkai and an army of bakufu Zen scribes. Tenkai, a notoriously traitorous follower of Dengyo, was employed by the Tokugawa Iemitsu and rewarded his mentor Dengyo by placing words in his mouth to the effect that not only were the gods above the Buddhas, but also that the greatest of the gods was the object of worship of the Sanno Ichijitsu (One Truth) Shinto Cult: the ashes of the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Ieyasu (Iemitsu's grandfather), as the one true god over all of creation (presumeably inspired by his Jesuit associates, whom Tenkai later betrayed as well.) The ashes of Ieyasu the God were the focal point of a weary Sankin Kotai, which was really a tozan pilgrimage from all points through Edo (Tokyo), stopping to pay homage to Iemitsu and his heirs, but ending finally to worship at the enormous Sanno Ichijitsu shrine bearing Ieyasu's ashes at Mt. Nikko, just north of Edo. The followers of the Sanno Ichijitsu cult were a select elite: the royal family (emperor, princes), the nobility (daimyo lords) and the high priests of all Buddhist sects in Japan, including Nissei, the 17th High Priest of the Fuji School, all bowing in defeat to Ieyasu (and by reflected glory, to his heirs.) All of the Buddhist sects were placed by Tenkai under the umbrella of the temple hierarchy (Honmatsu-ji), with Sanno Ichijitsu Shinto on top, Mt. Minobu of the traitorous Nichiren Shu in the middle and the Fuji school of Nichiren Daishonin and Nikko Shonin on the bottom. Self-identification of Sankin Kotai pilgrims in heavily armed groups (which could be quite large as they moved through the Kanto heartland of the Tokugawa) was accomplished by round emblems (called mon) denoting the royals and daimyo clans (kamon) or Buddhist sects (shinmon), which were heavily regulated in size and carefully recorded in books for use by the Tokugawa spy networks on the roads, who were always fearing invasion. The Honmatsu-ji-Shinto-regulated and Minobu-conferred shinmon for the Fuji school was the Shinto crane, now the emblem of Nichiren Shoshu, and still residing on many SGI altar butsugu, butsudans, and even the backing paper of Gohonzon received before the (blessed) excommunication by Nichiren Shoshu in 1991. The verminous Nissei the 17th and his next six successive High Priests of the Fuji School (all of whom were statue worshippers from the slanderous Yobo-ji Temple) were adoring Shinto Tozan pilgrims in their worship of Ieyasu's ashes at Mt. Nikko: those evil priests did not forget what their crane emblem (tsuru shinmon) signified: the Shinto crane meant the total defeat and denigration of the Fuji School. (Ooms, H. (1985). "Tokugawa Ideology: Early Constructs, 1570-1680" (pp. 178-181 specifically, generally the whole work). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.), (SGI-USA Study Department. (2000). The Untold History of the Fuji School (1st ed., pp. 61). Santa Monica, CA: World Tribune Press.) and

("Shinto Tsuru Shinmon - A Toynbee Analysis of the Fuji School", pp. 91-97,
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B1xmnHkI0Z-dYjM0ZDg5NTMtZDNkNy00MDIxLWE1MjMtNTBiZDIwODBhNzIw&hl=en )

Although a follower of Nichiren Daishonin steeped in a culture of slander of the Law might gain flexibility and tranquility in his practice of the Yoga and the Tantra of Hinduism (referred to by Nichiren as the Non-Buddhist Schools of India in the Opening of the Eyes Gosho), the Entity of the Mystic Law does not forget that the Yoga asanas (the classical positions) are not only physical prayers from the Vedas and Upanishads, but they are nothing more or less than the mudras of Tantric Buddhism, or Shingon. Nichiren talks about Tripitaka Master Hsuan-tsang and his attempts to prove the superiority of the Mahavairochana Sutras of Shingon (True Word School) over the Lotus Sutra, based partly on Hsuan-tsang's distorted view of Bodhisattva Maitreya's Treatise on the Stages of Yoga Practice. Hsuan-tsang argued that the Lotus Sutra was lesser, because it does not include all the variety of the mudras, mantras and mandalas relating to all the Buddhas of the Mahavairochana teachings:

("The Lotus Sutra and True Word Teachings", WND II, pp. 277-278,
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-2/Content/189#para-30

and

"The Bodies and Minds of Ordinary Beings", WND I, pp. 1130,
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/171#para-18 ).

In fact, the practice of the Lotus Sutra is infinitely superior PRECISELY BECAUSE it has only one mudra (Gassho: palms held together in prayer), only one mantra (Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo) and only one mandala (Gohonzon) and only prays to one Buddha (Myoho-Renge, the Buddha that rules throughout Jambudvipa, our reality, and the dharma realm from beginning to end.) Nichiren describes how Bodhisattva Maitreya expounded the "Stages of Yoga Practice" in spreading the provisional teachings

("On the Five Guides for Propagation", WND II, pp. 557,
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-2/Content/247#para-119 )

before the Lotus Sutra was preached and categorizes the "Treatise on the Stages of Yoga Practice" as a connecting teaching

("Rooster Diagram of the Five Periods", WND II, pp. 1036,
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-2/Content/367#para-2 )

If we might tend to forgive Yoga and other practices of the provisional teachings and become confused, Nichiren reminds us that "In this age, the provisional teachings have turned into enemies of the true teaching. When the time is right to propagate the teaching of the one vehicle, the provisional teachings become enemies. When they are a source of confusion, they must be thoroughly refuted from the standpoint of the true teaching. Of the two types of practice, this is shakubuku, the practice of the Lotus Sutra. With good reason T'ient'ai stated, 'The Lotus Sutra is the teaching of shakubuku, the refutation of the provisional doctrines.'"

("On Practicing the Buddha's Teachings", WND I, pp. 394,
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/42#para-14 )

I also do not forget, and if other followers of Nichiren Daishonin tend to become confused and forget all of this, then they can simply read my arguments again, and remember.
___________________________________________________________

Let me put this in yet another way.

Who has more arbitrary power than an ordinary human being practicing Nichiren's Buddhism with the power to slander the Law at will and exercise that power over a completely defenseless Entity of the Mystic Law, with the arrogance of a Roman Emperor over slaves, who invisibly serve him and are suffering outside of his knowledge.

Who has more arbitrary power than an ordinary human being practicing Nichiren's Buddhism with the power to slander the Law at will and exercise that power over the completely defenseless Entity of the Mystic Law, like an arrogant dictator who can afterwards lie about it to himself and construct an errant history of self-reinforcing rationalization and explanatory illogic to explain his evil acts to himself and cast himself as the hero of his personal narrative, while casting Nichiren as the over-strict, too-rigid-about-slander-of-the-Law, villain of the story:

"That was seven hundred years ago, what Nichiren said about Zen does not apply to Zen now: it's a different Zen,"

or "Reiki isn't Tantric Buddhism, it's just a healing art,"

or "Nichiren himself had a golden statue of Shakyamuni and showed veneration towards it, I should be able to show appreciation to the Buddha, too."

or "It's just Yoga stretches, why are you complaining about that?"

or "Shijo Kingo was a Samurai, and offered to do seppuku (hara kiri) by Nichiren's side, and even though seppuku is a Zen practice, it must be OK,"

or "The crane emblem was Nichiren's family crest,"

or "I've always gone to my Tantric healer, give me a break,"

or "Acupuncture fixed my back problems, we've always used it,"

or "I do Tai Chi with my mother's group, it's just exercise,"

or "Mr. Toda did Judo, the police train with Judo, there's nothing wrong with it,"

or "They're statues of Buddhist gods and deities, I'm just showing respect to the Buddhist gods, what harm can it do?"

These all translate to hatred of Nichiren Daishonin and despising of his message: that at the root of all human misery is precisely this slander of the Law. Mr. Toda urged us to "abolish human misery", and that is my intent.
___________________________________________________________

Here are a small selection of Nichiren's responses to any excuses his followers might make to defend their mixing of extraneous practices of provisional teachings, distortions of Buddhism and other slanders of the Law, with Nichiren's practice of the Lotus Sutra:

"But a vessel is susceptible to four faults. The first is being upset or covered, which means that the vessel can be overturned or covered with a lid. The second is leaking, which means that the water leaks out. The third is being defiled, which means that the contents can be contaminated. Though the water itself may be pure, if filth is dumped into it, then the water in the vessel ceases to be of any use. The fourth is being mixed. If rice is mixed with filth or pebbles or sand or dirt, then it is no longer fit for human consumption," from

"Letter to Akimoto", WND I, p. 1014.
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/144#para-3

'Or we may be the kind of practitioners of the Lotus Sutra whose mouths are reciting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo one moment, but Namu Amida Butsu the next. This is like mixing filth with one's rice, or putting sand or pebbles in it. This is what the Lotus Sutra is warning against when it says, "Desiring only to accept and embrace the sutra of the great vehicle and not accepting a single verse of the other sutras." [Note: Lotus Sutra, chap. 3.]
The learned authorities in the world today suppose that there is no harm in mixing extraneous practices with the practice of the Lotus Sutra, and I, Nichiren, was once of that opinion myself. But the passage from the sutra [that I have just quoted] does not permit such a view,' from

"Letter to Akimoto", WND I, p. 1014.
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/144#para-6

'Bodhisattva Nagarjuna in his Commentary on the Ten Stages Sutra states, "Do not rely on treatises that distort the sutras; rely on those that are faithful to the sutras." The Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai says, "That which accords with the sutras is to be written down and made available. But put no faith in anything that in word or meaning fails to do so." The Great Teacher Dengyo says, "Depend upon the preachings of the Buddha, and do not put faith in traditions handed down orally." Enchin, also known as the Great Teacher Chisho, says, "In transmitting the teachings, rely on the written words [of scriptures]," ' from

"The Opening of the Eyes", WND I, p. 264.
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/30#para-238

' "Not relying upon persons" means that when persons of the first, second, third, and fourth ranks preach, even though they are bodhisattvas such as Universal Worthy and Manjushri who have attained the stage of near-perfect enlightenment, if they do not preach with the sutra in hand, then they are not to be accepted, ' from

"The Opening of the Eyes", WND I, p. 263.
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/30#para-237

"The meaning of this passage is that, if one turns one's back on even one verse or one phrase of this sutra, one is guilty of a crime equal to that of killing all the Buddhas of the ten directions in the three existences of past, present, and future," from

"Conversation between a Sage and an Unenlightened Man", WND I, p. 108.
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/13#para-65

"If we merely rely upon the commentaries of various teachers and do not follow the statements of the Buddha himself, then how can we call our beliefs Buddhism?" from

"Questions and Answers about Embracing the Lotus Sutra", WND I, p. 56.
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/8#para-11

'In a scripture called the Nirvana Sutra, the Buddha says, "Rely on the Law and not upon persons." Relying on the Law here means relying on the various sutras. Not relying upon persons means not relying on persons other than the Buddha, such as the bodhisattvas Universal Worthy and Manjushri or the various Buddhist teachers I have enumerated earlier.' from

"On Repaying Debts of Gratitude", WND I, p. 692.
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/88#para-12

"A sutra says: 'Rely on the Law and not upon persons. Rely on the meaning of the teaching and not on the words. Rely on wisdom and not on discriminative thinking. Rely on sutras that are complete and final and not on those that are not complete and final.' [Note: Nirvana Sutra. These injunctions are termed the 'four reliances,' but they are also known as the 'four standards.'] The meaning of this passage is that one should not rely upon the words of the bodhisattvas and teachers, but should heed what was established by the Buddha. It further means that one should not rely upon the teachings of the True Word, Zen, and Nembutsu schools, which are based upon the sutras of the Flower Garland, Agama, Correct and Equal, and Wisdom periods, [Note: Collectively, the provisional teachings preached prior to the Lotus Sutra, according to T'ien-t'ai's classification of sutras.] but should uphold the sutras that are complete and final. And by relying upon 'sutras that are complete and final,' it means upholding the Lotus Sutra," from

"How Those Initially Aspiring to the Way Can Attain Buddhahood through the Lotus Sutra", WND I, p. 872.
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/110#para-4

'Each school declares its own sutra to be superior, all other sutras being dismissed as inferior, and on this basis labels itself the correct school. But their arguments are based merely upon the words of the teachers and not upon the Buddha's teaching. Only the Lotus Sutra was proclaimed superior by the Buddha himself when he expounded the simile of the five flavors, likening them to the teachings of the five periods. He also declared that of all the various sutras that he "has preached, now preaches, and will preach," in terms of the path of attaining Buddhahood, none could rival the Lotus Sutra. These statements are in truth the Buddha's own golden words,' from

"How Those Initially Aspiring to the Way Can Attain Buddhahood through the Lotus Sutra", WND I, p. 874.
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/110#para-16

Some people respond to hearing Nichiren's quotes on the topic of the abomination that is slander of the Law, by accusing those rebuking slander as "interpreting the Gosho". When Nichiren talks about slander of the Law, he is clear and unequivocal on what is slander and how abominable it is. Even a small child could understand Nichiren's clear and unmistakable message. How could any reasoning adult miss the point? It is only because of attachments to evil.
___________________________________________________________

One could, instead of persecuting and abusing those who rebuke slander of the Law, decide to follow Nichiren Daishonin and attain the way:

As Nichiren states in "The Essentials for Attaining Buddhahood", WND I, p. 747, 'The Nirvana Sutra states: "If even a good monk sees someone destroying the teaching and disregards him, failing to reproach him, to oust him, or to punish him for his offense, then you should realize that that monk is betraying the Buddha's teaching. But if he ousts the destroyer of the Law, reproaches him, or punishes him, then he is my disciple and a true voice-hearer." You should etch deeply in your mind the two words "see" and "disregard" in the phrase "sees someone destroying the teaching and disregards him, failing to reproach him." Both teacher and followers will surely fall into the hell of incessant suffering if they see enemies of the Lotus Sutra but disregard them and fail to reproach them. The Great Teacher Nan-yueh says that they "will fall into hell along with those evil persons." [Note: This phrase is found in a passage from On the Peaceful Practices of the Lotus Sutra, which reads: "If there should be a bodhisattva who protects evil persons and fails to chastise them . . . then, when his life comes to an end, he will fall into hell along with those evil persons."] To hope to attain Buddhahood without speaking out against slander is as futile as trying to find water in the midst of fire or fire in the midst of water. No matter how sincerely one believes in the Lotus Sutra, if one is guilty of failing to rebuke slander of the Law, one will surely fall into hell, just as a single crab leg will ruin a thousand pots of lacquer. This is the meaning of the passage in the sutra, "Because the poison has penetrated deeply and their minds no longer function as before." [Note: Lotus Sutra, chap. 16.]'
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/89#para-7

As Nichiren states in "Encouragement to a Sick Person", WND I, pp. 77-78, "Moreover, every single person is guilty of slander of the Law, an offense exceeding even the ten evil acts or the five cardinal sins. Although few people slander the Lotus Sutra with actual words of abuse, there are none who accept it. Some appear to accept the sutra, but their faith in it is not as deep as their faith in the Nembutsu or other teachings. And even those with profound faith do not reproach the enemies of the Lotus Sutra. However great the good causes one may make, or even if one reads and copies the entirety of the Lotus Sutra a thousand or ten thousand times, or attains the way of perceiving three thousand realms in a single moment of life, if one fails to denounce the enemies of the Lotus Sutra, it will be impossible to attain the way. To illustrate, it is like the case of someone in the service of the imperial court. Even though he may have served for a decade or two, if he knows someone to be an enemy of the emperor but neither reports him to the throne nor shows personal animosity toward him, all the merit of his past services will be thereby negated, and he will instead be charged with an offense. You must understand that the people of this age are slanderers of the Law. (This is the second [of the five guides for propagation.])"
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/10#para-8

As Nichiren states in "Conversation between a Sage and an Unenlightened Man", WND I, p. 108, "Is not one who fails to heed the warnings of this sutra in effect cutting off the tongues of the Buddhas and deceiving the worthies and sages? This offense is truly fearful. Thus, in the second volume it says, 'If a person fails to have faith but instead slanders this sutra, immediately he will destroy all the seeds for becoming a Buddha in this world.' [Note 34. Lotus Sutra, chap. 3.] The meaning of this passage is that, if one turns one's back on even one verse or one phrase of this sutra, one is guilty of a crime equal to that of killing all the Buddhas of the ten directions in the three existences of past, present, and future.
If we use the teachings of the sutras as a mirror in which to examine our present world, we will see that it is a difficult thing to find one who does not betray the Lotus Sutra. And if we understand the true meaning of these matters, we can see that even a person of disbelief cannot avoid being reborn in the hell of incessant suffering. How much more so is this true, then, for someone like the Honorable Honen, the founder of the Nembutsu school, who urged people to discard the Lotus Sutra in favor of the Nembutsu! Where, may I ask, in all the five thousand or seven thousand volumes of sutras is there any passage that instructs us to discard the Lotus Sutra?"
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/wnd-1/Content/13#para-65
___________________________________________________________

What happens the first time that the strict admonitions of Nichiren Daishonin are encountered regarding slander of the Law, by a typical lay believer: it is mostly confusion regarding the idea that holding evil views and attitudes, and expressing evil words and acting out evil deeds regarding Buddhahood, the Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra, the other sutras, provisional teachings and practices could possibly be as important as holding evil views and attitudes, and expressing evil words and acting out evil deeds towards other members, the Sangha and disturbing the unity of true believers. Nichiren, in his writings, seems to put all of these evils on the same enormous scale of wrongness. It is as if to Nichiren, that the supreme teaching and the people who follow it are one and the same, and without distinction.

When followers of Nichiren Daishonin ignore his admonitions to avoid slandering the Law, they grow attached to their slanderous practices. Successively their compassion for Nichiren's words admonishing them to avoid slander of the Law will diminish, until finally they can no longer bear to hear them: it becomes an agony even to hear the reference and that creates and reinforces a silent conspiracy against the words of Nichiren Daishonin inside the Sangha following Nichiren Daishonin. It becomes disruptive of the unity of true believers even to speak of it, and that disruption is a slander of the Law.

This is how the devilish function turns the medicine of the Law against itself.

Why would anyone cling so ferociously to extraneous practices, when it is obvious they are not Nichiren's practice of the Lotus Sutra? Why would anyone cling so ferociously to Buddhist and Hindu texts that are provisional and extraneous to Nichiren's Gosho and the Lotus Sutra? Why would anyone cling so ferociously to religious objects of worship and other accretions that are not the Gohonzon? These ferocious attachments are nothing more than the functions of demons that accompany slanderous texts, practices and objects. Slander and demons are two in appearance and one in essence.

My constant prayer is to eradicate every demonic slander and replace them all with the shoten zenjin (Buddhist gods), in my five components and every living being, throughout the world of living beings in the ten directions and three existences of Jambudvipa, and across the dharma realm. I only follow Nichiren Daishonin as closely as I do, because my mentor Daisaku Ikeda has taught me to do so. Sensei calls the Daishonin, "the greatest sage in the universe," and he has freed me from any kind of doubt that what he says about the Daishonin is absolutely the truth.

I am the most unworthy of bodhisattvas of the earth, it is certainly true. Nevertheless, because I follow Nichiren Daishonin and am determined to fulfill his desires, then what I am calling for is the Total Abolition of Slander of the Law. I am well aware, from following this path myself in Soka Spirit, that it will call for the most profound kind of human revolution from everybody. The unpleasantries involved will be, in a word, "biblical".

If it were not for my Sensei, Daisaku Ikeda, I would have no hope whatsoever, but I have borrowed Sensei's hope and I keep it close to my heart.

-Chas.

"It's been a long time comin', but ... change goin' come. Oh, yes it is!" - Sam Cooke, 1964

___________________________________

LS Chap. 16 .....

All harbor thoughts of yearning
and in their minds thirst to gaze at me.
When living beings have become truly faithful,
honest and upright, gentle in intent,
single-mindedly desiring to see the Buddha
not hesitating even if it costs them their lives,
then I and the assembly of monks
appear together on Holy Eagle Peak.
At that time I tell the living beings
that I am always here, never entering extinction,
but that because of the power of an expedient means
at times I appear to be extinct, at other times not,
and that if there are living beings in other lands
who are reverent and sincere in their wish to believe,
then among them too
I will preach the unsurpassed Law.