The Silk Road, part 1 of 4 +^

[Disbasing Zen Stories]

Toxic Zen Story #4, part 1 of 4: The Silk Road, Franciscans, Dominicans, Mongol Invasions & Kamikaze, Inquisitions, Torquemada, Tokugawas, Jesuits, and Dharma Debates.


____ Background for Toxic Zen Stories ____________________

https://groups.google.com/group/alt.zen/msg/b4ad0ce368728934?hl=en

____ part 1 of 4 _________________________________________

. "No One Expects The Spanish Inquisition !!!! " -
. Monty Python. Right?

Actually, there is a causal explanation for the Spanish Inquisition, but it is not observable as a sequential chain of causes and effects, that our deluded view of time and causality is most accustomed to seeing.

It's more like the simultaneity of cause and effect - view of life in the three existences, where causal chains can be pulled, as well as pushed.

It all comes down to distortions of the Buddha's teachings, and which translation of the sutras you are using.

From "The Selection of the Time - Nichiren, disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha", the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin pp. 554-555:

. 'When both old and new translations (80) are
. taken into consideration, we find that there are
. 186 persons who have brought sutras and treatises
. from India and introduced them to China in
. translation. With the exception of one man, the
. Tripitaka Master Kumarajiva, all of these
. translators have made errors of some kind. But
. among them, Pu-k'ung is remarkable for the large
. number of his errors. It is clear that he
. deliberately set out to confuse and mislead
. others. ...'
.
. '... In the third and ninth volumes of the Nirvana
. Sutra, we find the Buddha predicting that when
. his teachings are transmitted from India to other
. countries many errors will be introduced into
. them, and the chances for people to gain
. enlightenment through them will be reduced.
. Therefore, the Great Teacher Miao-lo remarks:
. "Whether or not the teachings are grasped
. correctly depends upon the persons who transmit
. them. It is not determined by the sage's original
. pronouncements."(82)'
.
. 'He is saying that no matter how the people of
. today may follow the teachings of the sutras in
. hopes of a better life in the hereafter, if the
. sutras they follow are in error, then they can
. never attain enlightenment. But that is not to be
. attributed to any fault of the Buddha.'
.
. 'In studying the teachings of Buddhism, apart
. from the distinctions between Hinayana and
. Mahayana, provisional and true, and exoteric and
. esoteric teachings, this question of the
. reliability of the sutra translation is the most
. important of all.'

Let's repeat that for emphasis:

. '... IF THE SUTRAS THEY FOLLOW ARE IN ERROR, THEN THEY
. CAN NEVER ATTAIN ENLIGHTENMENT ...'
.
. '... APART FROM THE DISTINCTIONS between Hinayana and
. Mahayana, provisional and true, and exoteric and
. esoteric teachings, THIS QUESTION OF THE RELIABILITY OF
. THE SUTRA TRANSLATION IS THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL.'
. - Nichiren Daishonin

____ Preface: Zen Founder _________________________________

Zen is the snake that bites its own tail. If you embrace the void and acausality, you will find yourself later in the midst of catastrophic emptiness saying "how'd that happen?".

Under Prajnatara (Perfect Wisdom Shining Star) of India, there was a disciple named Bodhidharma (Buddha Law). Under these grandiose names, they studied the Buddha's teachings, after Buddhism had traveled East to China. The Buddha foretold that Buddhism would fall into a Hellish path in India, after the Buddha's highest teachings had moved on.

Bodhidharma was a native of Conjeeveram, near Madras in India. He traveled from India and arrived at Ching-Ling (now Nanking), or perhaps at Guangzhou (Canton), perhaps both. There, Bodhidharma met with the Emperor's emissary (some say Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty, see footnote), where they discussed the Sutras.

As Bodhidharma (also called Da Mo, or Ta Mo in China, and Daruma in Japan) believed in dhyana or meditation upon the nothingness at the heart of life, and as the Lotus Sutra had been translated into Chinese by Kumarajiva who traveled from India a century earlier and had served the Liang Dynasty well, the lesser and distorted teaching of dhyana/ch'an/zen was rejected by practitioners of the highest teaching, and Bodhidharma was banished from Imperial territory.

As an icchantika, or incorrigible disbeliever in the Lotus Sutra, he could not be allowed to spread his teachings in the Emperor's domain (they wished to live happily, you see). But by banishing him, they did not act as bodhisattvas, to thoroughly correct his errors and not let him slip away to corrupt others, and thusly fall into the hell of incessant sufferings (Aviichi Hell) for countless lifetimes. Out of this single uncompassionate act, much of the suffering of the world has come.

After he was banished, Bodhidharma went to the Shaolin Monastery at Loyang, West of Kaifeng in the Henan (Honan) Province of Western China, where the Huang He (Yangtze or Yellow River) tumbles out of the break between Zhongtiao Shan (2367m) on the North and Quanbao Shan (2094m) on the South, to flood the rest of China. At the Shaolin Monastery, he widely disseminated his distorted views of Buddhism, corrupting first the Shaolin Monks and ultimately the rest of the world.

Bodhidharma's school was known as Dhyana (from the Mahayana source), or as Ch'an in China, and eventually as Zen in Japan. It comes to flower in many different forms, in many different places down through the ages.

Bodhidharma's very existence is denied by the Zen community, rendering the life of their founder as itself a void. This allows no one to be responsible, and the Zen community to walk away from the train wreck. So let's assume that the history is true, and hold Bodhidharma and Zen accountable, just this once. There was surely a founder who brought Dhyana from India, however many names he is called.

Footnotes on Wu-Ti:

Concerning Emperor Wu: from "The Selection of the Time - Nichiren, disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha", Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 544:

. 'Those concerned about their next life would
. do better to be common people in this, the Latter
. Day of the Law, than be mighty rulers during the
. two thousand years of the Former and Middle Days
. of the Law. Why won't people believe this? Rather
. than be the chief priest of the Tendai school, it
. is better to be a leper who chants Nam-myoho-
. renge-kyo! As Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty said
. in his vow, "I would rather be Devadatta and sink
. into the hell of incessant suffering than be the
. non-Buddhist sage Udraka Ramaputra."'

This reference is to a document in which Emperor Wu (464--549), the first ruler of the Liang dynasty, pledged not to follow the way of Taoism. It actually says that he would rather sink into the evil paths for a long period of time for going against Buddhism (yet nevertheless forming a bond with it) than be reborn in heaven by embracing the non-Buddhist teachings. This story appears in The Annotations on "Great Concentration and Insight." Udraka Ramaputra was a hermit and master of yogic meditation, the second teacher under whom Shakyamuni practiced. He is said to have been reborn in the highest of the four realms in the world of formlessness.

From the Encyclopedia Britannica:

. Wu-Ti: Born 464 , China. Died 549 , China
.
. Pinyin Wudi (posthumous name, or shih), personal
. name (hsing-ming) Hsiao Yen , temple name (miao-
. hao) (nan-liang) Kao-tsu founder and first emperor
. of the Southern Liang dynasty (502–557), which
. briefly held sway over South China. A great patron
. of Buddhism , he helped establish that religion in
. the south of China.
.
. Wu-ti was a relative of the emperor of the
. Southern Ch'i dynasty (479–502), one of the
. numerous dynasties that existed in South China in
. the turbulent period between the Han (206 BC–AD
. 220) and T'ang (618–907) dynasties. He led a
. successful revolt against the Southern Ch'i after
. his elder brother was put to death by the emperor.
. He proclaimed himself first emperor of the Liang
. dynasty in 502, and his reign proved to be longer
. and more stable than that of any other southern
. emperor in this period.
.
. A devout believer, Wu-ti diligently promoted
. Buddhism, preparing the first Chinese Tripitaka,
. or collection of all Buddhist scripts. In 527 and
. again in 529 he renounced the world and entered a
. monastery. He was persuaded to reassume office
. only with great difficulty. In 549 the capital was
. captured by a "barbarian" general, and Wu-ti died
. of starvation in a monastery.

____ Preface: Types of Zen _______________________________

There is a hierarchy of Zen, in power and toxicity. The lesser forms of Zen pave the way in societies and cultures for the more powerful forms. Once a society or culture is corrupted, in even the tiniest way, by any form of Zen, the tendency will be to move inevitably towards greater corruption by the more powerful and toxic variants. In this way, Zen undermines everything that can be undermined in the world, leaving only that which is incorruptible (the correct practice of the Lotus Sutra). The hierarchy of Zen is as follows, in general terms:

Physical Zen: All of the martial arts are based on Zen, starting
. with Shaolin Kung Fu, Tai Chi, Karate, Aikido, JiuJitsu,
. Judo, Kendo, Bushido, Ninjitsu, etc. Tai Chi came from
. Shaolin Qigong, which also led to Acupuncture,
. Acupressure and Falun Gong. As the chaos in society
. grows, people need to feel they can protect themselves and
. their loved ones, and in this way they are corrupted further.

Christian Zen, Jewish Zen, Hindu Zen, Islamic Zen: These are
. basically mixtures, wherein the monotheist believer in a
. deity, feels they can practice Zen meditation without a
. problem, since it is not theistic. While this reasoning is true,
. it ignores the absolutely overwhelming corruption produced
. by Zen, which will ultimately undermine their belief system
. and every facet of their life, by bringing all of the negatives
. in the Zen adherent's's daily life and environment to the
. forefront, with increasing amplification and psychotic
. effect.

Nuremberg Zen: The widespread belief by a population, that
. the purpose of the Buddha's advent in the world was to
. teach Zen: that Zen is Buddhism. This is, of course, an
. absolutely distorted view of the Buddha's life and teachings.
. Shakyamuni made it transparently clear, at the very end of
. his life in the Nirvana Sutra, wherein he states that the Lotus
. Sutra is his highest teaching in the past, present and future,
. and is the purpose of his advent on this Earth, and that his
. followers should honestly discard provisional teachings
. (teachings other than the Lotus Sutra).
.
. Nuremberg Zen was promulgated first by D.T. Suzuki's
. work with Paul Carus, then by Eugen Herrigel's Zen in the
. Art of Archery (and the many who copies: Zen in the Art
. of Marketing, Sales, Bakery, etc.) and finally by Alan Watts,
. the Norman Vincent Peale of Zen. Nuremberg Zen creates
. the environment of chaos and widespread misery that are
. the preconditions for the spread of more toxic forms of
. Zen.

Stanford Zen: This is the Lay organization of Zen. It was
. developed in conjunction with the activities of Frederic
. Spiegelberg, a Lutheran who taught theology at the
. University of Dresden, and fleeing the effects of Nuremberg
. Zen in Germany, came to teach at Stanford, and founded
. the American Academy of Asian Studies with Alan Watts
. and others, which became the California Institute of Integral
. Studies, after it spawned Esalen with Richard Price and
. Michael Murphy. Esalen was the proving ground for the
. Large Group Awareness Therapy organizations, of which
. Werner Erhard's EST was most prominent. EST morphed
. into a business school executive training seminar
. organization called the Landmark Forum, or Landmark
. Education, which has now become the de facto Lay
. organization for Zen, projecting itself onto Wall Street and
. the Fortune 500.

Green Dragon Zen: In this category I place Soto, which is the
. parent of the Green Dragon Society, Rinzai, Fuke, Northern
. and Southern Chinese Ch'an sects, Vietnamese and Korean
. sects, and all the variant sects which practice the most toxic
. forms of Zen: those which actually use the Lotus Sutra as a
. means to promulgate their distorted views of Buddhism.
. This is the greatest slander of the Lotus Sutra which is
. possible. I lump them all under the Green Dragon banner
. (I'm sure they do not appreciate this, but that is not a
. concern), because Green Dragon has had a tradition of
. secret propagation, and penetration of new areas with the
. most aggressive intent to build a lasting foothold in every
. society it touches. All of the other sects in any locale, will
. orient themselves to the Green Dragon.

Nuremberg Zen, Physical Zen and the monotheist Zen mixtures will all eventually pave the way for Stanford Zen and the Green Dragon, if they are not themselves undercut by the king of sutras, the Lotus Sutra. (Zen believers cannot resist the allure of greater power. When they try the Lotus Sutra and find that it fills the void inside, they will find they like it.)

Finally, there is the enabling group for all of the worst religious and social movements in history:

Fellowship of Evil Friends: This loosely collected group of
. Occultists,Theology professors and educators, is at the
. branching point for most of corrupt religious movements
. of the world. This grandfather of this group is the occultist
. Meister Eckart, and it includes: Dietrich Eckart (Thule
. Society), Paul Carus (Open Court Publishing), Frederic
. Spiegelberg (Stanford, AAAS), Michael Murphy (Esalen),
. and a host of powerful media people, pundits, gurus and
. self-help authors. They are all quite happy to connect you
. up with some form of evil, but step back from
. commitment themselves, always stopping at the door, as
. you foolishly, trustingly pass through. In this way they
. catalyze the evil transformation, but survive its effects to
. spread further evil, later on.

____ Preface: Powers of Zen ______________________________

Variations upon Zen which have evolved into new strains and then major branches of Zen, have increased their toxic power by piling slander upon slander over hundreds of years. The greatest slanders are attached to the most powerfully evil forms of Zen, which are those that have attacked the Lotus Sutra directly or the votaries (devotees) of the Lotus Sutra, the Sangha, directly. One can think of this with the mathematical analogy of a powers of a variable, that Zen becomes exponentially more powerful and evil as slanders are piled upon slanders ...

[Zen] Bodhidharma discards the Lotus Sutra, seeking wisdom that is from transmissions outside the sutras, transmitted from person to person (ishin denshin). The families of Chinese Zen under Bodhidharma's influence include: Dhyana, Ch'an, Western Ch'an, Qigong, Tai-Chi, Acupuncture, and the Chinese and Korean Martial Arts up to 1200 CE.

[Zen Squared] Dogen uses the Lotus Sutra as a means to teach and propagate Zen. The families of Japanese Zen under Dogen's influence are: Soto Zen, Rinzai Zen, Green Dragon Zen, Bushido and the Japanese Martial Arts up to 1500 CE.

[Zen Cubed] Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and the Tokugawa Shogunate use various Samurai and Daimyo tactics, which are based on Zen, to subjugate and crush Nichiren Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra in the 1500s and 1600s. The families of Japanese Zen under the Tokugawa influence are: Soto Zen, Rinzai Zen, Green Dragon Zen, Bushido and the Japanese Martial Arts up to 1867 CE.

[Zen Squared Squared] After the Meiji regime's overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the militarization and buildup of Japanese society into an armed camp, forces all of Buddhism under Shinto, and Zen becomes Imperial Way Zen. This ultimately leads to the crushing of the Lay organization of Nikko's School of Nichiren Buddhism, the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai and the imprisonment of their leaders during the war, and the death of their President Tsunesaburo Makiguchi. The families of Imperial Way Zen are: Soto Zen, Rinzai Zen, Green Dragon Zen, Bushido and the Japanese Martial Arts up to 1945 CE.

[Zen to the 5th] American Lay Zen from George Leonard's [Esalen] influence: the Large Group Awareness Therapy or Training sessions, Werner Erhard's EST, Landmark Forum, Landmark Education Seminars.

____ Preface: Zen Offends the Law ________________________

There is a principle which is central to the Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra: Oneness of Person and Law, known as Nimpo-ikka in Japanese.

It is eternally true that the Law and the Buddha are fused, to make life as we know it.

Since, according to Nichiren in the Ongi Kuden (The Oral Teachings, or class notes from his lectures on the Lotus Sutra, taken by Nikko), one meaning of "Myoho" is that delusion and enlightenment are fused (this is also explained in the essential teachings of the Lotus Sutra, in the Juryo or Life Span chapter) ...

This means that even for deluded mortals, there is always a condition of oneness of person and Law.

The implication of this, is that wherever there is a slander of the Law, then nearby and coincident with it, there is a slander of humanity, by the principle of the simultaneity of cause and effect.

Hence, wherever Zen is propagated widely, there will be in each and every instance, Toxic Zen Stories to tell.

What follows is one of these ...

____ Introduction ________________________________________

The Silk Road was the only route for trade and cultural exchange between the West and China for many centuries, until sea routes were established and ships were constructed that could weather the trip around the Southern tip of Africa.

From "The Silk Road" (http://www.ama.pp.fi/silk_road_chronology.htm):

. 'The region separating China from Europe and
. Western Asia is not the most hospitable in the
. world. Much of it is taken up by the Taklimakan
. desert, one of the most hostile environments on
. our planet. There is very little vegetation, and
. almost no rainfall; sandstorms are very common,
. and have claimed the lives of countless people.
. The locals have a very great respect for this
. `Land of Death'; few travelers in the past have
. had anything good to say about it. It covers a
. vast area, through which few roads pass; caravans
. throughout history have skirted its edges, from
. one isolated oasis to the next. The climate is
. harsh; in the summer the daytime temperatures are
. in the 40's, with temperatures greater than 50
. degrees Celsius measured not infrequently in the
. sub-sealevel basin of Turfan. In winter the
. temperatures dip below minus 20 degrees.
. Temperatures soar in the sun, but drop very
. rapidly at dusk. Sand storms here are very
. common, and particularly dangerous due to the
. strength of the winds and the nature of the
. surface. Unlike the Gobi desert, where there
. there are a relatively large number of oases, and
. water can be found not too far below the surface,
. the Taklimakan has much sparser resources. '
.
. 'The land surrounding the Taklimakan is
. equally hostile. To the northeast lies the Gobi
. desert, almost as harsh in climate as the
. Taklimakan itself; on the remaining three sides
. lie some of the highest mountains in the world.
. To the South are the Himalaya, Karakorum and
. Kunlun ranges, which provide an effective barrier
. separating Central Asia from the Indian sub-
. continent. Only a few icy passes cross these
. ranges, and they are some of the most difficult
. in the world; they are mostly over 5000 metres in
. altitude, and are dangerously narrow, with
. precipitous drops into deep ravines. To the north
. and west lie the Tianshan and Pamir ranges;
. though greener and less high, the passes crossing
. these have still provided more than enough
. problems for the travelers of the past.
. Approaching the area from the east, the least
. difficult entry is along the `Gansu Corridor', a
. relatively fertile strip running along the base
. of the Qilian mountains, separating the great
. Mongolian plateau and the Gobi from the Tibetan
. High Plateau. Coming from the west or south, the
. only way in is over the passes. '

Maps are located at:

http://www.silk-road.com/newsletter/january/images/a2.gif
http://www.bangorschools.net/hs/SR/travelers_files/1000li0Map.jpg

The early history of "The Silk Road"

. 'On the eastern and western sides of the
. continent, the civilisations of China and the
. West developed. The western end of the trade
. route appears to have developed earlier than the
. eastern end, principally because of the
. development of the empires in the west, and
. the easier terrain of Persia and Syria. The
. Iranian empire of Persia was in control of a
. large area of the Middle East, extending as far
. as the Indian Kingdoms to the east. Trade between
. these two neighbours was already starting to
. influence the cultures of these regions. '
.
. 'This region was taken over by Alexander the
. Great of Macedon, who finally conquered the
. Iranian empire, and colonised the area in about
. 330 B.C., superimposing the culture of the
. Greeks. Although he only ruled the area until 325
. B.C., the effect of the Greek invasion was quite
. considerable. The Greek language was brought to
. the area, and Greek mythology was introduced. The
. aesthetics of Greek sculpture were merged with
. the ideas developed from the Indian kingdoms, and
. a separate local school of art emerged. By the
. third century B.C., the area had already become a
. crossroads of Asia, where Persian, Indian and
. Greek ideas met. It is believed that the
. residents of the Hunza valley in the Karakorum
. are the direct descendents of the army of
. Alexander; this valley is now followed by the
. Karakorum Highway, on its way from Pakistan over
. to Kashgar, and indicates how close to the
. Taklimakan Alexander may have got. '
.
. 'This `crossroads' region, covering the area
. to the south of the Hindu Kush and Karakorum
. ranges, now Pakistan and Afghanistan, was overrun
. by a number of different peoples. After the
. Greeks, the tribes from Palmyra, in Syria, and
. then Parthia, to the east of the Mediterranean,
. took over the region. These peoples were less
. sophisticated than the Greeks, and adopted the
. Greek language and coin system in this region,
. introducing their own influences in the fields of
. sculpture and art. '
.
. 'Close on the heels of the Parthians came the
. Yuezhi people from the Northern borders of the
. Taklimakan. They had been driven from their
. traditional homeland by the Xiongnu tribe (who
. later became the Huns and transferred their
. attentions towards Europe), and settled in
. Northern India. Their descendents became the
. Kushan people, and in the first century A.D. they
. moved into this crossroads area, bringing their
. adopted Buddhist religion with them. Like the
. other tribes before them, they adopted much of
. the Greek system that existed in the region. The
. product of this marriage of cultures was the
. Gandhara culture, based in what is now the
. Peshawar region of northwest Pakistan. This fused
. Greek and Buddhist art into a unique form, many
. of the sculptures of Buddhist deities bearing
. strong resemblances to the Greek mythological
. figure Heracles. The Kushan people were the first
. to show Buddha in human form, as before this time
. artists had preferred symbols such as the
. footprint, stupa or tree of enlightenment, either
. out of a sense of sacrilege or simply to avoid
. persecution. '

And finally, how the Silk Road route runs its course:

. 'The description of this route to the west as
. the `Silk Road' is somewhat misleading. Firstly,
. no single route was taken; crossing Central Asia
. several different branches developed, passing
. through different oasis settlements. The routes
. all started from the capital in Changan, headed
. up the Gansu corridor, and reached Dunhuang on
. the edge of the Taklimakan. The northern route
. then passed through Yumen Guan (Jade Gate Pass)
. and crossed the neck of the Gobi desert to Hami
. (Kumul), before following the Tianshan mountains
. round the northern fringes of the Taklimakan. It
. passed through the major oases of Turfan and Kuqa
. before arriving at Kashgar, at the foot of the
. Pamirs. The southern route branched off at
. Dunhuang, passing through the Yang Guan and
. skirting the southern edges of the desert, via
. Miran, Hetian (Khotan) and Shache (Yarkand),
. finally turning north again to meet the other
. route at Kashgar. Numerous other routes were also
. used to a lesser extent; one branched off from
. the southern route and headed through the Eastern
. end of the Taklimakan to the city of Loulan,
. before joining the Northern route at Korla.
. Kashgar became the new crossroads of Asia; from
. here the routes again divided, heading across the
. Pamirs to Samarkand and to the south of the
. Caspian Sea, or to the South, over the Karakorum
. into India; a further route split from the
. northern route after Kuqa and headed across the
. Tianshan range to eventually reach the shores of
. the Caspian Sea, via Tashkent. '
.
. 'Secondly, the Silk Road was not a trade route
. that existed solely for the purpose of trading in
. silk; many other commodities were also traded,
. from gold and ivory to exotic animals and plants.
. Of all the precious goods crossing this area,
. silk was perhaps the most remarkable for the
. people of the West. It is often thought that the
. Romans had first encountered silk in one of their
. campaigns against the Parthians in 53 B.C, and
. realised that it could not have been produced by
. this relatively unsophisticated people. They
. reputedly learnt from Parthian prisoners that it
. came from a mysterious tribe in the east, who
. they came to refer to as the silk people,
. `Seres'. In practice, it is likely that silk and
. other goods were beginning to filter into Europe
. before this time, though only in very small
. quantities. The Romans obtained samples of this
. new material, and it quickly became very popular
. in Rome, for its soft texture and attractiveness.
. The Parthians quickly realised that there was
. money to be made from trading the material, and
. sent trade missions towards the east. The Romans
. also sent their own agents out to explore the
. route, and to try to obtain silk at a lower price
. than that set by the Parthians. For this reason,
. the trade route to the East was seen by the
. Romans as a route for silk rather than the other
. goods that were traded. The name `Silk Road'
. itself does not originate from the Romans,
. however, but is a nineteenth century term, coined
. by the German scholar, von Richthofen. '
.
. 'In addition to silk, the route carried many
. other precious commodities. Caravans heading
. towards China carried gold and other precious
. metals, ivory, precious stones, and glass, which
. was not manufactured in China until the fifth
. century. In the opposite direction furs,
. ceramics, jade, bronze objects, lacquer and iron
. were carried. Many of these goods were bartered
. for others along the way, and objects often
. changed hands several times. There are no records
. of Roman traders being seen in Changan, nor
. Chinese merchants in Rome, though their goods
. were appreciated in both places. This would
. obviously have been in the interests of the
. Parthians and other middlemen, who took as large
. a profit from the change of hands as they could. '

Hence, the Silk Road made a possible, though difficult medium for the transmission of Buddhism, beginning with Theravada Buddhism in many forms (asceticism, precepts, assiduous practices, Buddhist idolatry) Then Mahayana Buddhism in all of its variations (Nirvana worship, occultism, hypnotism, dhyana-meditation).

____ Toxic Zen Story ______________________________

I have merged some timelines, which demonstrate exchanges of culture (and corruption) along the Silk Road in both directions, and which serve as a neural connection between the Inquisitions in the West and the East.

There are interesting patterns that emerge from viewing this Timeline:
__________________________________________________________


<<< Pattern #1.>>>

Every few hundred years there is a major event in the history of the Lotus Sutra, which causes Lotus Sutra Buddhism to either blossom, or go into decline.

. 480 BCE: Shakyamuni teaches the Lotus Sutra of the
. Wonderful Law . The title in Sanskrit is:
. "Saddharma-Pundarika-Sutra".
.
. 450 BCE: The First Council meets and the Buddhist
. Canon is fixed, as a set of orally transmitted
. sutras.
.
. 370 BCE: The Second Council meets and the schism
. between Hinayana and Mahayana develops.
.
. 300-200 BCE: King Ashoka unites all of India under the
. Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra. The Teachings, the
. People and the Land of India thrive.
.
. 100-20 BCE: The Lotus Sutra is finally written down in
. Sanskrit and Pali.
.
. 406 CE: Kumarajiva translates the Lotus Sutra into
. classical Chinese verse in 28 chapters. The
. Teachings, the People and the Land of China
. thrive. The title at the heading of all 28
. chapters, in Classical Chinese is: "Miao-fa- lien-
. hua-ching"
.
. 587 CE: Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai of China debates the
. teachers from the ten schools at the behest of the
. Emperor of China, and refutes them, establishing
. the Lotus Sutra as the Buddha's highest teaching
. in China, with the authority of the ruler. The
. Teachings, the People and the Land of China
. thrive.
.
. 760-780 CE: Great Teacher Miao-lo reasserts the
. supremacy of the Lotus Sutra in his many writings,
. but not through public debate. Buddhism of the
. Lotus Sutra goes into decline in China after this
. point. During this time the teachings survive.
.
. 802 CE: Great Teacher Dengyo debates the teachers from
. the six schools at the behest of the Emperor of
. Japan, and refutes them, establishing the Lotus
. Sutra as the Buddha's highest teaching in Japan,
. with the authority of the ruler. The title at the
. heading of all 28 chapters, pronounced in Japanese
. is: "Myoho-Renge-Kyo".
.
. 1272 CE: Nichiren Daishonin, during his exile to Sado
. Island, debates the teachers from the ten schools
. at Tsukahara, at the behest of Lord Rokuro Saemon,
. and refutes them, establishing the Lotus Sutra as
. the Buddha's highest teaching in Japan. He also
. predicts the First and Second Mongol Invasions.
. Sado is a remote locale, and the priests he
. debates are not the major priests of the other
. schools. Nichiren states " They were far inferior
. even to the True Word, Zen, Nembutsu, and Tendai
. priests in Kamakura, so you can imagine how the
. debate went. I overturned them as easily as a
. sharp sword cutting through a melon or a gale
. bending the grass. They not only were poorly
. versed in the Buddhist teachings but contradicted
. themselves. They confused sutras with treatises or
. commentaries with treatises. " Since Nichiren did
. not get the opportunity to debate in front of the
. ruler of the nation at Kamakura, due to
. overwhelming religious oppression, the authority
. of the ruler is never placed behind his Buddhism.
. Because of Nichiren's elucidation of the essential
. practice of chanting "Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo", his
. inscription of the Gohonzon mandala, and his
. writings in the Gosho (Writings of Nichiren
. Daishonin), the Teachings flourish, but the People
. and the Land of Japan do not.
.
. 1333 CE: Nichimoku Shonin, the 3rd High Priest of
. Nichiren Shu Komon Shu (The Fuji School at
. Taisekiji), after Nitta Yoshisada's army defeats
. the ruling Hojo clan of the Kamakura Shogunate and
. Emperor Godaigo re-establishes the imperial
. government at Kyoto, decides to remonstrate with
. the new government, which might bring on a new
. opportunity to refute the other schools of
. Buddhism in front of the ruler of the nation.
. Tragically, he is old and dies during the trip,
. with no capable successors. The Fuji School goes
. into decline. During this time the Teachings
. survive, although the People and the Land of Japan
. suffer terribly. Seven years after his death, Zen
. becomes the official school of the Shogunate at
. Kyoto.
.
. 1579 CE: The Ohmi debate. Before the Tokugawa period,
. Oda Nobunaga also demonstrated his supremacy over
. religious authority. Oda summoned the doctrinal
. debate between the Ikko sect and the Nichiren sect
. in Ohmi in 1579. He intentionally declared the
. defeat of the Nichiren sect, and forced the
. Nichiren Buddhists to stop its aggressive
. propagation. See Ooms, Tokugawa Ideology, (1985)
. Nichiin is the 13th High Priest at this time, he
. had assumed the position at the age of nine and
. was the designated successor of Nitchen, who
. became 12th High Priest at the age of thirteen.
. Clearly, preparation for the position of High
. Priest at the Fuji School was not a requirement
. during this period. The Fuji School goes into
. further decline. During this time the Teachings
. survive, although the People and the Land of Japan
. suffer terribly.
.
. 1725 CE: Nichikan Shonin, the 26th High Priest of
. Nichiren Shu Komon Shu (The Fuji School at
. Taisekiji) reforms the Fuji School and completes
. the Six-Volume Writings, containing everything
. required to refute all other Nichiren sects, and
. other sects of Buddhism in Japan. He stated, "With
. these volumes of writing, which are like the lion
. king, you need not be afraid of the various sets
. and schools in the nation even if they all come to
. this temple for debate like a pack of foxes ..."
. (Essential Writings of the Fuji School, vol. 5,
. pp. 355-56). However, public debates are illegal
. under the Tokugawa Shogunate: it is illegal to do
. propagation, or to encroach on the territory of
. another Temple (they are like controlled
. franchises). Even though he is capable of refuting
. all the other schools at the time, he is never
. given the opportunity to do that in front of the
. ruler of the nation at Edo, the seat of the
. Tokugawa Shogunate. The Fuji School dwindles down
. to near death. During this time the Teachings
. survive, although the People and the Land of Japan
. suffer terribly. Nembutsu mixed with Zen and
. Shingon is the major religion under the umbrella
. Buddhism of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
.
. 1867 CE During the Meiji Reformation, the Fuji School
. is merged with all of the other Nichiren schools
. (founded by the priests who betrayed Nikko, who
. was the designated successor of Nichiren, and the
. founder of Nichiren Shu Komon Shu, the Fuji
. School). They are merged under the original name
. of the Fuji School, Nichiren Shu Komon Shu, so
. that even the name cannot be reclaimed. The Fuji
. School of Nikko Shonin is now all but dead,
. although it will come back in limited form as
. Nichiren Shoshu in 1912. During this time the
. Teachings survive, although the People and the
. Land of Japan suffer terribly. Shinto becomes the
. state religion.
.
. 1945 CE: After refusing to merge with State Shinto,
. the founder of the Soka Gakkai (Lotus Sutra
. Buddhist lay organization) Tsunesaburo Makiguchi
. dies in prison at the Tokyo Detention
. Center.Thanks to the postwar administration of
. General Douglas MacArthur, there is no state
. religion in Japan after the war. Josei Toda,
. Makiguchi's successor emerges from prison and the
. Soka Gakkai in the next 13 years grows to 750,000
. households in Japan. Daisaku Ikeda, his successor,
. guides the Soka Gakkai to more than 10 million
. households around the world, in over 180 countries
. today. The People and the Land of Japan start to
. flourish again.

__________________________________________________________


<<< Pattern #2.>>>

. The great good is that Nichiren Daishonin was born in
. 1222 in Japan, even as the First Papal Inquisition
. is surging in Europe.
.
. That great evil was a purging of ascetic sects of
. Christianity (Cathars, Waldensians, Fraticelli -a
. splinter group of the Franciscans, the Knights
. Templar), by the accepted ascetic sects of
. Christianity (Dominicans, Franciscans).
.
. 24 years later, one of the founders of the
. Franciscans, Giovanni da Pian del Carpini, carries
. this evil with him as he travels the Silk Road to
. visit the Mongol Rulers, in an attempt to convert
. the Khan to Christianity in 1246. The Khan, a
. Buddhist, sends him packing with the admonition
. that he would convert only if the European rulers
. bowed to the Khan.
.
. Subsequently, the Mongols invade Japan in 1274 and
. 1281, fulfilling Nichiren's very specific
. prophecy.
.
. Inverting the arrow of time, we can see that the
. source of his prediction (through the process of
. evil in Europe) appears like a storm on the other
. side of the world at the time of Nichiren's birth,
. which gathered evil and swept along the Silk Road,
. to stir up the Khan's Court, and make Nichiren's
. prediction of the Mongol Invasion, which was based
. purely on the slander of the Lotus Sutra by the
. schools of Buddhism accepted by the ruler of the
. nation, come to pass within the scope of his one
. lifetime.
.
. This kind of causality demonstrates the unity of the
. three existences (past, present, future), and is
. what I like to call "pull causality".
.
. "Pull causality" , operates from a profound cause,
. whose effects are felt in the past, and which
. draws the flow of events, fanning-in to focus onto
. the causal moment. This is counter-intuitive, but
. modern views of causality in Physics, for
. instance, support this model. See the Footnote
. below.
.
. "Push causality" is more intuitive, since it moves
. through the time sequence that we can easily
. recognize. It generates a flow of events from the
. causal moment and fans-out to the world.
__________________________________________________________


<<< Pattern #3.>>>

. Nitchen, the 12th High Priest of Nichiren Shu Komon
. Shu (Nikko's Fuji School) is born in 1469 CE. He
. becomes High Priest at the age of thirteen. His
. successor, Nichin, becomes High Priest at the age
. of nine, and presides over a catastrophic debate
. with the Ikko sect in front of Oda Nobunaga at
. Ohmi in 1579 CE, which leads to the restriction
. against aggressive propagation of the Law
. (Shakubuku). Basically, any poaching of believers
. from any Temple franchise, irrespective of type,
. is considered aggressive. The next year, Oda
. destroyed the Ikko sect. Two years later, he was
. betrayed and murdered by his own supporter. This
. leads to three hundred years of oppression of the
. Nichiren Sect under Oda, Toyotomi, and the
. Tokugawas, until the Meiji Reformation in 1867 CE.
.
. At 1478 CE, around the time of Nitchen's birth and
. continuing until 1869 CE is the Spanish
. Inquisition. First knowledge of the Inquisition
. and associated practices of religious oppression
. arrive with a founder of the Jesuits, Francis
. Xavier in 1549 CE, when he founds the first Jesuit
. Monastery in Japan. The Jesuits were among the
. foot soldiers of the Spanish Inquisition. Oda used
. the Jesuits to help him burn the Enryaku-ji Temple
. (Tendai, founded by Dengyo) at Mt. Hiei, where
. they massacred all 1,600 men and women, children
. and elders. The Spanish Inquisition continued
. until 1869 CE, when the principle of religious
. toleration was incorporated into the Spanish
. constitution, just after the Meiji Reformation.
.
. Having served their purpose the Christians were
. disposed of: In 1638 CE, Tokugawa Iemitsu crushes
. a ronin and peasant revolt on the Shimabara
. peninsula, in Japan. In 1639 CE, Blaming
. Christianity for the Shimabara revolt, Tokugawa
. Iemitsu orders all daimyo to destroy Christianity
. in their clans. He issues the Final Isolation
. Edict. The Portuguese are expelled from Japan. In
. 1640 CE, Tokugawa terminates Christianity from
. Japan. All Europeans are expelled from Japan.
. Portuguese envoys from Macao are beheaded.
. Reischauer and Craig estimate that "there were
. 150,000 Japanese converts around 1582, some
. 300,000 by the end of the century, and perhaps as
. many as 500,000 in 1615". By 1650 there were no
. Christians in Japan.
.
. This is another example of "pull causality". Inverting
. the arrow of time, we can see that the source of
. the religious oppression of Nichiren Buddhism
. (through the process of evil acting in the
. Inquisition of Spain) appears like a storm on the
. other side of the world at the time of Nitchen's
. birth, which gathered evil and swept along the Sea
. Route to Asia, to embed itself in the minds of Oda
. and the daimyo Lords of Japan. This resonance was
. sustained, even after the Jesuits and their
. Christian converts were out of Japan. Until that
. oppression and the Inquisition ceased almost
. simultaneously in the late 1860s CE.
.
. As a gift of evil back from Japan to Europe, in 1636,
. at the same moment that Nichiren Buddhism is being
. crushed by the Tokugawas, with help from the
. corrupted High Priest Nissei 17th, one Christovao
. Ferreira (1580-1650), a Portuguese missionary in
. Japan who renounced his faith during the Christian
. persecutions and became a Zen priest, published a
. Zen-based pamphlet against Christianity in 1636.
. This is the first corruption of Zen to enter
. Europe, as a document in a European language.
__________________________________________________________


<<< Pattern #4.>>>

Great Good and Great Evil make their appearance together. But Evil always seems to have a sizable headstart and a seemingly insurmountable lead.

There are the following couplings of persons, Good and Evil:

. Shakyamuni Buddha precedes Devadatta, defeats him, and
. the Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra is established
. across India.
.
. Kumarajiva translates the Sanskrit/Brahmi Sutras into
. Chinese ahead of the distortions of Pu-k'ung and
. Shan-wu-wei, establishing the superiority of the
. Tripitaka, or Northern Buddhist Canon.
.
. T'ien-T'ai is preceded by Bodhidharma in China, yet he
. prevails by debating in front of the Emperor,
. establishing the Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra
. across China.
.
. Nichiren Daishonin is preceded by Dogen and the Zen
. Roshis teaching Bushido at Kamakura.
.
. Nikko and Nichimoku are preceded by the Five Senior
. Priests and the Zen Roshis at Kamakura and later,
. Kyoto. Zen becomes the official religion of Japan
. 7 years after Nichimoku's death.
.
. Nichikan is preceded by Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, Tokugawa
. Shoguns Ieyasu and Iemitsu, and Nissei the Great
. Traitor of the Fuji School.
.
. Tsunesaburo Makiguchi is preceded by the N.S.
. Priesthood, Nichikai, and Nikkyo in Japan, and
. D.T. Suzuki worldwide.
.
. Josei Toda is preceded by the N.S. Priesthood in
. Japan, Eugen Herrigel and Shunryu Suzuki
. worldwide.
.
. Daisaku Ikeda is preceded by the N.S. Priesthood and
. Nikken in Japan, and Alan Watts in America.

Note that Shakyamuni and Kumarajiva are ahead, that T'ien-T'ai is behind but catches up, and that Nichiren Daishonin and everyone after him start out far behind when they come up to bat against the evils of Zen. In spite of this, the Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra will ultimately become triumphant against that Great Evil.
__________________________________________________________


Footnote: Simultaneity of Cause and Effect.

In the Lotus Sutra, cause and effect are simultaneous. There is no settling time. The perception by a deluded mortal of time-sequenced causality completely misses the big picture, and is one of the sources of that delusion.

This simultaneity of causality has been supported by scientific experiment in quantum physics. The direction of linear causality cannot be determined by a reproducible experiment to point forwards or backwards. Indeed, no experiment can show any observable difference between the "special qualities" of any one time and any other, and that includes the current moment.

A nice visual for this can be found in Paul Davie's article in the September 2002 Scientific American on time ... see the plot of the earth's orbit over time and his description of "block time". That block time is the "place" where all causes occur and all effects are felt. The two factors of "latent effect" and "inherent cause" of the ten factors, hold the entire past, present and future in their True Aspect.

As an example of what I mean, when I walk outside at night, and my cheek is warmed by a radio-frequency photon emitted just as the universe became clear after the big bang (3 degree black body radiation) at the beginning of the current kalpa, a molecule of my cheek and a free nucleus of the superheated plasma fifteen (or so) billion years ago synchronize together to have that interaction. My cheek observes that plasma, across fifteen billion years, and both the observer cell (heated) and the observed plasma (cooled) are fundamentally changed by that synchronization. Otherwise the interaction would never occur: my cheek and the early plasma are effectively exchanging information, and are aligned in such a way as to have that exchange occur, without the world being deterministic.

This can be no other way, according to the experiments which have been run over and over in Quantum Physics, looking for any conceivable hole in Uncertainty Theory.

Buddhism explains this as the Three Existences: the Past, Present and Future are one and inseparable.
__________________________________________________________


THE TIMELINE ( SILK ROAD, INQUISITIONS, DHARMA DEBATES )
============================================================

959 BCE: King Mu (Mu Wang), West Chou king and the earliest reputed Silk Road traveler. His travel account Mu tianzi zhuan, written in the 5th-4th century BC, is the first known travel book on the Silk Road. It tells of his journey to the Tarim basin, the Pamir mountains and further into today's Iran region, where the legendary meeting with Xiwangmu was taken place. Returned via the Southern route. The book no longer exists but is referenced in Shan Hai Zin, Leizi: Mu Wang Zhuan, and Shiji.
__________________________________________________________

560 BCE (1029 BCE according to the Chinese tradition): Shakyamuni is born as Prince Siddharta of the Shakya clan.
__________________________________________________________

530 BCE: Shakyamuni is awakened under the pipal tree (later called the Bodhi Tree) at Buddhagaya. During his awakening, he recalls that he originally attained enlightenment in the beginningless past (Kuon Ganjo).
__________________________________________________________

488-480 BCE: After teaching for 42 years, Shakyamuni expounds his highest teaching, the Lotus Sutra, in which he states the purpose of his advent. This takes eight years.
__________________________________________________________

480 BCE (949 BCE according to the Chinese tradition): Shakyamuni dies at Kushinagara after his last teaching, the Nirvana Sutra. Preceding him in death are Shariputra and Maudgalyayana, his two foremost disciples.
__________________________________________________________

450 BCE: The First Council meets 30 years after the death of Shakyamuni. The followers of Shakyamuni are led by Mahakashyapa and Ananda. Ananda recites the 80,000 sutras from memory, and the sutras are organized and the Buddhist Canon is fixed. It is maintained as an oral teaching.
__________________________________________________________

370 BCE: The Second Council meets 110 years after the Buddha's death. During the Second Council the schism between the Hinayana and Mahayana teachings develops.
__________________________________________________________

138-116 BCE: Zhang Qian (Chang Ch'ien). Chinese general and envoy credited with opening the Silk Road after his mission from the Han Emperor Wudi to recruit the Yueh-chih people to form an alliance against the Xiongnu. First trip (138-125) skirted the Taklamakan desert via the northern route, passed the Pamir, then reached Ferghana. Returned via the southern route. His second trip (119-115), a mission to seek alliance with Wu-sun people, took him to Dunhuang, Loulan, Kucha, then the capital of Wu-sun kingdom in the Ili river. His missions to the west led to the formalization of trade, especially the silk trade, between China and Persia.
Map: http://www.bangorschools.net/hs/SR/zhangqian_files/HanMap.jpg
__________________________________________________________

80 BCE (or thereabouts): The Buddha's orally preserved teachings are put into written form, among them the Buddha's highest teaching, the Lotus Sutra. It is written in both Pali and Sanskrit, according to later translators.
__________________________________________________________

40-70 CE: Anonymous author of the Periplus of the Erythraen (=Red) Sea. A merchant handbook, written apparently by an Egyptian Greek, about trade routes through the Red Sea and involving both East Africa and India. One of the most important sources for Roman Eastern trade, compiled after the discovery of how to use the monsoon winds to make the round trip to India. Includes extensive information on ports and products.
__________________________________________________________

57 CE: A King of Kyushu (Japan) receives official seal from China.
__________________________________________________________

73-102 CE: Ban Chao (Pan Ch'ao). Chinese general restoring the Tarim basin under Han's power and maintaining whole control of the area as west as Kashgar during his career there. He sent out emissaries to the area west and beyond the Tarim basin, including the area of modern-day Iran and the Persian Gulf.
__________________________________________________________

97 CE: Gan Ying (Kan Ying). First Chinese envoy to Ta-Ts'in (the Roman Orient) sent by general Ban Chao from Kashgaria in 97 AD. Journeyed through the Pamir mountains, Parthia, and reached as far as the coast of the Persian Gulf. However he was dissuaded from continuing further west. The first known Chinese visited the Middle East as west as T'iao-chih, near the present Nedjef, Iraq.
__________________________________________________________

107 CE: A King of Kyushu (Japan) sends 160 slaves as tribute to China.
__________________________________________________________

150 CE: Jimmu, the First King, founds the Japanese State. Yamato's Civil Wars last 70-80 years .
__________________________________________________________

230 CE: Queen Himiko unifies the Japanese Nation.
__________________________________________________________

240 CE: Queen Himiko sends envoy to China and authorized the rulership.
__________________________________________________________

266 CE: Queen Toyo (Japan) sends the envoy to China.
__________________________________________________________

365 CE: Queen Jingu (Japan) invades Silla of Korea.
__________________________________________________________

399-413 CE: Faxian (Fa-hsien). First Chinese monk reaching Indian and returning with a knowledge of Buddhism. Traveled the southern route through Shenshen, Dunhuang, Khotan, and then over the Himalayas, to Gandhara, Peshawur then India. He journeyed most of the way on foot and was the first known traveler passing through the Taklamakan desert from Woo-e to Khoten. Returned to China via the sea route.
__________________________________________________________

400 CE: Koguryo of Korea defeats the Japanese navy at the Yalu River.
__________________________________________________________

401-411 CE: Tripitaka Master Kumarajiva, who was taken prisoner by General Lu Kuang and his army at the behest of Fu Chien, ruler of the Ch'in Dynasty, translated the 28 Chapter Lotus Sutra, the Buddha's highest teaching of his last 8 years, from Sanskrit into classical Chinese at Ch'ang-an. In all he translated 35 works in 294 volumes, in a mere ten years. He stated that if his tongue burned when he was cremated, that all of his translations should be discarded. It didn't and they weren't. His translation of the Lotus Sutra, is now translated into English by Burton Watson.

From "The Selection of the Time - Nichiren, disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha", the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin pp. 554-555:

. 'When both old and new translations (80) are
. taken into consideration, we find that there are
. 186 persons who have brought sutras and treatises
. from India and introduced them to China in
. translation. With the exception of one man, the
. Tripitaka Master Kumarajiva, all of these
. translators have made errors of some kind. But
. among them, Pu-k'ung is remarkable for the large
. number of his errors. It is clear that he
. deliberately set out to confuse and mislead
. others.'
.
. 'Question: How do you know that the
. translators other than Kumarajiva made errors? Do
. you mean not only to destroy the Zen, Nembutsu,
. True Word, and the others of the seven major
. schools, but to discredit all the works of the
. translators that have been introduced to China
. and Japan?'
.
. 'Answer: This is a highly confidential matter,
. and I should discuss it in detail only when I am
. face to face with the inquirer. However, I will
. make a few comments here. Kumarajiva himself
. said: "When I examine the various sutras in use
. in China, I find that all of them differ from the
. Sanskrit originals. How can I make people
. understand this? I have only one great wish. My
. body is unclean, for I have taken a wife. But my
. tongue alone is pure and could never speak false
. words concerning the teachings of Buddhism. After
. I die, make certain that I am cremated. If at
. that time my tongue is consumed by the flames,
. then you may discard all the sutras that I have
. translated." Such were the words that he spoke
. again and again from his lecture platform. As a
. result, everyone from the ruler on down to the
. common people hoped they would not die before
. Kumarajiva [so that they might see what
. happened].'
.
. 'Eventually Kumarajiva died and was cremated,
. and his impure body was completely reduced to
. ashes. Only his tongue remained, resting atop a
. blue lotus that had sprung up in the midst of the
. flames. It sent out shining rays of five-colored
. light that made the night as bright as day and in
. the daytime outshone the rays of the sun. This,
. then, is why the sutras translated by all the
. other scholars came to be held in little esteem,
. while those translated by Kumarajiva,
. particularly his translation of the Lotus Sutra,
. spread rapidly throughout China.(81)'
.
. 'Question: That tells us about the translators
. who lived at the time of Kumarajiva or before.
. But what about later translators such as Shan-wu-
. wei or Pu-k'ung?'
.
. 'Answer: Even in the case of translators who
. lived after Kumarajiva, if their tongues burned
. up when they were cremated, it means that there
. are errors in their work. The Dharma
. Characteristics school in earlier times enjoyed a
. great popularity in Japan. But the Great Teacher
. Dengyo attacked it, pointing out that, though the
. tongue of Kumarajiva was not consumed by the
. flames, those of Hsüan-tsang and Tz'u-en burned
. along with their bodies. Emperor Kammu, impressed
. by his argument, transferred his allegiance to
. the Tendai Lotus school.'
.
. 'In the third and ninth volumes of the Nirvana
. Sutra, we find the Buddha predicting that when
. his teachings are transmitted from India to other
. countries many errors will be introduced into
. them, and the chances for people to gain
. enlightenment through them will be reduced.
. Therefore, the Great Teacher Miao-lo remarks:
. "Whether or not the teachings are grasped
. correctly depends upon the persons who transmit
. them. It is not determined by the sage's original
. pronouncements."(82)'
.
. 'He is saying that no matter how the people of
. today may follow the teachings of the sutras in
. hopes of a better life in the hereafter, if the
. sutras they follow are in error, then they can
. never attain enlightenment. But that is not to be
. attributed to any fault of the Buddha.'
.
. 'In studying the teachings of Buddhism, apart
. from the distinctions between Hinayana and
. Mahayana, provisional and true, and exoteric and
. esoteric teachings, this question of the
. reliability of the sutra translation is the most
. important of all.'

Footnotes:

80. The translations made before Hsüantsang (602--664) are called "old translations." His and subsequent translations are known as "new translations."

81. The Liang Dynasty Biographies of Eminent Priests.

82. On "The Words and Phrases." "The sage" referred to here is Vasubandhu. Miaolo attributed an error in Vasubandhu's commentary on the Lotus Sutra, The Treatise on the Lotus Sutra, to the translator. In this context, the Daishonin employs Miao-lo's statement to indicate the Buddha. Thus, he says in the following paragraph, "that is not to be attributed to any fault of the Buddha."

After this point in history the Buddha's highest teaching (Lotus Sutra) had passed from India to China, and the prediction of Shakyamuni was that Buddhism would go into decline in India, and become corrupted.
__________________________________________________________

421 CE: King San (Nintoku) of Japan sends his envoy to China.
__________________________________________________________

478 CE: King Yuryaku (Japan) sends his envoy to China, with a memorial.
__________________________________________________________

500-600 CE: It is uncertain when Jews first settled in China. Some scholars have dated the transmission of Judaism into China as early as the 6th century of the Christian era. The earliest existing evidence of a Jewish presence is a letter written in the 8th century in Persian Hebrew by a Jewish merchant in China. The 9th century was a turbulent period for outsiders in China. A rebellion in 878/9 in Canton led to the massacre of some 120,000 Jews, Christians, Muslims and other foreigners. This atrocity did not force the Jews out of China; they continued to trade with the Chinese and established a small Jewish community in Kaifung during the 9th and 10th centuries. The permanence of the Jewish presence was confirmed by the construction of a synagogue in Kaifung in 1163.

It is clear at this point, that Jewish merchants are traveling the Silk Road from, trading all the way from Europe to China. This gives them access to Eastern goods which are completely unavailable in the West, like silk (which the Chinese protected the secret of making), gemstones not found in the West and jade.
__________________________________________________________

518-521 CE: Song Yun (Sung Yun)/Huisheng. Sung Yun of Dunhuang went with a monk Huisheng on a mission sent by the Empress Dowager to obtain the Buddhist scriptures in India in 518. Traveled through the Taklamakan desert via the southern route passing Shanshan, Charkhlik, Khotan, then further west into the Hindu Kush, Kabul, Peshawar. The most interesting account is their visit to the Ephthalites (the White Hun) kingdom, who centered in eastern Afghanistan and controlled much of the Central Asia during the 5th and 6th centuries. Both wrote a travel account but none remained.
__________________________________________________________

520 CE: Approximate time of the Indian Buddhist monk Bodhidharma's journey to China, where he joins the Shaolin monastery and begins the Ch'uan Buddhist lineage (later known in Japan as "Zen").

Under Prajnatara (Perfect Wisdom Shining Star) of India, there was a disciple named Bodhidharma (Buddha Law). Under these grandiose names, they studied the Buddha's teachings, after Buddhism had traveled East to China. The Buddha foretold that Buddhism would fall into a Hellish path in India, after the Buddha's highest teachings had moved on.

From the Encyclopedia Britannica:

. A native of Conjeeveram, near Madras,
. Bodhidharma in 520[CE] traveled to Kuang (modern
. Canton), China. He was granted an interview with
. the Liang emperor Wu-ti, noted for his good works.
. To the emperor's dismay, he stated that merit
. applying to salvation could not be accumulated
. through good deeds. Soon afterward he went to a
. monastery in Lo-yang, China, where he is said to
. have spent nine years looking at a cave wall, a
. legend that some scholars believe refers simply to
. a lengthy period of deep meditation.
.
. Considered the 28th Indian patriarch in a
. direct line from Gautama Buddha, Bodhidharma is
. regarded by the Ch'an as their first patriarch.
. Because he taught meditation as a return to the
. Buddha's spiritual precepts, his school was known
. as the Dhyana (meditation) sect. The word was
. converted in the Chinese to Ch'an and in the
. Japanese to Zen.
.
. The accounts of his life are largely
. legendary. According to one such story, he cut off
. his eyelids in a fit of anger after falling asleep
. in meditation. On falling to the ground his
. eyelids grew up as the first tea plant. The legend
. serves as a traditional basis for the drinking of
. tea by Zen monks in order to keep awake during
. meditation.

As Bodhidharma (also called Da Mo, or Ta Mo in China, and Daruma in Japan) believed in dhyana or meditation upon the nothingness at the heart of life, and as the Lotus Sutra had been translated into Chinese by Kumarajiva who traveled from India a century earlier and had served the Liang Dynasty well, the lesser and distorted teaching of dhyana/ch'an/zen was rejected by practitioners of the highest teaching, and because of that Bodhidharma was banished from Imperial territory.

As an icchantika, or incorrigible disbeliever in the Lotus Sutra, he could not be allowed to spread his teachings in the Emperor's domain (they wished to live happily, you see). But by banishing him, they did not act as bodhisattvas, to thoroughly correct his errors and not let him slip away to corrupt others, and thusly fall into the hell of incessant sufferings (Aviichi Hell) for countless lifetimes. Out of this single uncompassionate act, much of the suffering of the world has come.

After he was banished, Bodhidharma went to the Shaolin Monastery at Loyang, West of Kaifeng in the Henan (Honan) Province of Western China, where the Huang He (Yangtze or Yellow River) tumbles out of the break between Zhongtiao Shan (2367m) on the North and Quanbao Shan (2094m) on the South, to flood the rest of China. At the Shaolin Monastery, he widely disseminated his distorted views of Buddhism, corrupting first the Shaolin Monks and ultimately the rest of the world.

Bodhidharma's school was known as Dhyana (from the Mahayana source), or as Ch'an in China, and eventually as Zen in Japan. It comes to flower in many different forms, in many different places down through the ages.

Bodhidharma's very existence is denied by the Zen community, rendering the life of their founder as itself a void. This allows no one to be responsible, and the Zen community to walk away from the train wreck. So let's assume that the history is true, and hold Bodhidharma and Zen accountable, just this once. There was surely a founder who brought Dhyana from India, however many names he is called.

Footnotes on Wu-Ti:

Concerning Emperor Wu: from "The Selection of the Time - Nichiren, disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha", Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 544:

. 'Those concerned about their next life would
. do better to be common people in this, the Latter
. Day of the Law, than be mighty rulers during the
. two thousand years of the Former and Middle Days
. of the Law. Why won't people believe this? Rather
. than be the chief priest of the Tendai school, it
. is better to be a leper who chants Nam-myoho-
. renge-kyo! As Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty said
. in his vow, "I would rather be Devadatta and sink
. into the hell of incessant suffering than be the
. non-Buddhist sage Udraka Ramaputra."'

This reference is to a document in which Emperor Wu (464--549), the first ruler of the Liang dynasty, pledged not to follow the way of Taoism. It actually says that he would rather sink into the evil paths for a long period of time for going against Buddhism (yet nevertheless forming a bond with it) than be reborn in heaven by embracing the non-Buddhist teachings. This story appears in The Annotations on "Great Concentration and Insight." Udraka Ramaputra was a hermit and master of yogic meditation, the second teacher under whom Shakyamuni practiced. He is said to have been reborn in the highest of the four realms in the world of formlessness.

From the Encyclopedia Britannica:

. Wu-Ti: Born 464 , China. Died 549 , China
.
. Pinyin Wudi (posthumous name, or shih), personal
. name (hsing-ming) Hsiao Yen , temple name (miao-
. hao) (nan-liang) Kao-tsu founder and first emperor
. of the Southern Liang dynasty (502–557), which
. briefly held sway over South China. A great patron
. of Buddhism , he helped establish that religion in
. the south of China.
.
. Wu-ti was a relative of the emperor of the
. Southern Ch'i dynasty (479–502), one of the
. numerous dynasties that existed in South China in
. the turbulent period between the Han (206 BC–AD
. 220) and T'ang (618–907) dynasties. He led a
. successful revolt against the Southern Ch'i after
. his elder brother was put to death by the emperor.
. He proclaimed himself first emperor of the Liang
. dynasty in 502, and his reign proved to be longer
. and more stable than that of any other southern
. emperor in this period.
.
. A devout believer, Wu-ti diligently promoted
. Buddhism, preparing the first Chinese Tripitaka,
. or collection of all Buddhist scripts. In 527 and
. again in 529 he renounced the world and entered a
. monastery. He was persuaded to reassume office
. only with great difficulty. In 549 the capital was
. captured by a "barbarian" general, and Wu-ti died
. of starvation in a monastery.
__________________________________________________________

530-535 CE: Bodhidharma completes his cave meditations and begins to spread Zen to the Shaolin monks and then the world.

Ultimately, his spew will reach every corner of the earth, every culture, and undermine every society ... a far-reaching volcano of distortion of the Buddha's teachings and a slander to the highest teaching of the Buddha and reason for his advent: the Lotus Sutra.

And, also, constituting the worst case of identity theft in history, by not naming his filth Bodhidharma-ism and instead, redefining Buddhism.
__________________________________________________________

535 CE: In a physical companion to Bodhidharma's spiritual volcano, Krakatoa's parent volcano erupts in the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history. The earth simply opened up for over a mile across and spewed out an endless column of ash up to 30 miles high for weeks, filling the upper atmosphere with ash and cutting off the light of the sun.

It was the cause of world wide disruption for years, where the sun shone faintly for only a handful of hours a day. It brought on the plagues across Europe and the Middle East. It cause famine everywhere. China became a single empire, and Japan became an island kingdom. The Yemeni people migrated to Mecca and Medina in search of food, which set the stage for Mohammed and Islam. The Turks defeated their masters, the Avars, who migrated to Europe and brought down the Holy Roman Empire.

Basically, it brought on the Dark Ages.

It was the simultaneous physical counterpart to the earth-shaking spiritual evil influence of Zen on the world.
__________________________________________________________

538 CE: Buddhism makes first contact with Japan, though it would not become solidly entrenched, for another 700 years.
__________________________________________________________

587 CE: Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai of China debates the teachers from the ten schools at the behest of the Emperor of China, and refutes them, establishing the Lotus Sutra as the Buddha's highest teaching.

From "The Bodies and Minds of Ordinary Beings" - Writings of Nichiren Daishonin pp 1129-1130:

. 'As the Buddhist teachings spread more widely
. and one doctrine after another was introduced
. from India, some persons who had earlier seemed
. discerning now appeared, in the light of more
. recently introduced sutras and treatises, to have
. been foolish. There were also some who had
. earlier been thought foolish, but who were now
. seen to have been wise. In the end, ten different
. schools (2) developed, and a thousand or ten
. thousand different interpretations were
. propounded. Ignorant people did not know which to
. adhere to, while the attachment to their own
. views of those thought to be wise was extreme.'
.
. 'In the end, however, there was one opinion
. that all agreed upon. It was, in short, that of
. all the teachings set forth in the course of the
. Buddha's lifetime the Flower Garland Sutra ranked
. first, the Nirvana Sutra, second, and the Lotus
. Sutra, third. No one from the ruler on down to
. the common people disputed this interpretation,
. because it was shared by the Dharma Teacher Fa-
. yün, the Dharma Teacher Chihtsang, and the other
. leaders of the ten schools, who were all looked
. up to as great sages.'
.
. 'Then, in the time of the Ch'en and Su
. dynasties during the Middle Day of the Law, there
. appeared a young priest named Chih-i, who was
. later to be known as the Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai
. Chih-che. Although he taught many doctrines, his
. teachings ultimately centered upon this single
. issue of the relative superiority of the Lotus,
. Nirvana, and Flower Garland sutras.'
.
. 'The Dharma Teacher Chih-i declared that the
. teachers of Buddhism had these three works ranked
. upside down. The ruler of the Ch'en dynasty, in
. order to determine the truth of the matter,
. thereupon summoned a group of more than a hundred
. men, including the Administrator of Priests
. Huiheng, the Supervisor of Priests Huik'uang, the
. Dharma Teacher Hui-jung, and the Dharma Teacher
. Fa-sui, (3) all among the most eminent leaders of
. the ten schools of the north and south, and had
. them confront Chih-i in debate.'
.
. 'The Dharma Teacher Chih-i said: "The Lotus
. Sutra itself says, 'among the sutras, it holds
. the highest place.'(4) It also says, 'Among the
. sutras I [Shakyamuni] have preached, now preach,
. and will preach, this Lotus Sutra is the most
. difficult to believe and the most difficult to
. understand.'(5) The Immeasurable Meanings Sutra
. makes clear that the sutras the Buddha already
. 'has preached' here refer to 'the teaching of
. great wisdom and the Flower Garland teaching of
. the ocean-imprint meditation' and so forth. And
. with regard to the sutras he 'will preach,' the
. Nirvana Sutra says, '. . . from the prajna-
. paramita (the teachings of the perfection of
. wisdom) he brought forth the Nirvana Sutra.'
. These scriptural passages show that the Lotus
. Sutra is superior to the Flower Garland and
. Nirvana sutras; they make it abundantly clear,
. clear as could possibly be. You should understand
. accordingly."'
.
. 'Rebuked in this manner, some of his opponents
. simply shut their mouths, others spewed out
. abuse, while still others turned pale. The Ch'en
. ruler then rose from his seat and bowed three
. times, and all the hundred officials pressed
. their palms together in reverence. Powerless to
. prevail, the leaders of the other schools
. conceded defeat. Thus it was established that the
. Lotus Sutra holds the highest place among the
. teachings of the Buddha's lifetime.'

Footnotes:

2. Three schools of southern China and seven schools of northern China.

3. Hui-heng (515--589), Hui-k'uang (534--613), and Hui-jung (d. 586) were priests of the Northern and Southern Dynasties period. Hui-heng was appointed general administrator of priests in 586. His debate with the Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai is mentioned in The Continued Biographies of Eminent Priests. According to the work, Hui-k'uang was instrumental in propagating the teachings of The Summary of the Mahayana and The Treatise on the Consciousness-Only Doctrine translated by Paramartha. Hui-jung was a disciple of Fayün, who was revered as one of the three great teachers of the Liang dynasty. Fa-sui (n.d.) was a priest of Ting-lin-ssu temple, who lived during the Ch'en and the Sui dynasties. According to The Biography of the Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai Chih-che of the Sui Dynasty, when T'ien-t'ai lectured on the title of the Lotus Sutra at Wa-kuan-ssu temple in Chin-ling, the capital of the Ch'en, Fa-sui attended it in his capacity as the chief priest of Ting-lin-ssu and, deeply affected by T'ien-t'ai's doctrine, became his follower on the spot.

4. Lotus Sutra, chap. 14.

5. Ibid., chap. 10.

The ten schools refuted at this time were described by T'ien-t'ai as the "three schools of the South and the seven schools of the North". From the Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism:

. 'Three Schools of the South and Seven Schools
. of the North: (Jpn nansan-hokushichi): Also,
. three schools of southern China and seven schools
. of northern China. Though generally referred to
. as schools, they are actually the ten principal
. systems of classification of the Buddhist sutras
. set forth by various Buddhist teachers in China,
. during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period
. (439-589). Hence there are no specific names for
. the respective schools. T'ien-t'ai (538-597)
. employed this generic designation and outlined
. these systems in his Profound Meaning of the
. Lotus Sutra.'
.
. 'All three southern schools classified the
. Buddhist sutras into three categories-the sudden
. teaching, the gradual teaching, and the
. indeterminate teaching. The sudden teaching as
. defined by these schools corresponds to the
. Flower Garland Sutra; the gradual teaching, to
. the Agama sutras, Correct and Equal sutras,
. Wisdom sutras, Lotus Sutra, and Nirvana Sutra;
. and the indeterminate teaching, to the Shrimala
. and Golden Light sutras. The difference among the
. three southern schools ties in their arrangement
. of the sutras included in the gradual teaching.
. One school subdivides the gradual teaching into
. three divisions: the teaching of the reality of
. things (Agama sutras), the teaching of the non-
. substantiality of things (Correct and Equal
. sutras, Wisdom sutras, and Lotus Sutra), and the
. teaching of the eternity of the Buddha nature
. (Nirvana Sutra). Another of the three schools
. places the Lotus Sutra in an additional category
. by itself called the teaching uniting all
. teachings in the one vehicle, thus making four
. divisions within the gradual teaching. A third
. school adds a fifth division to the gradual
. teaching, establishing a separate category for
. the Vimalakirti Sutra, the Brahma Excellent
. Thought Sutra, and other sutras. This is called
. the division of the teaching extolling the
. bodhisattva practice.'
.
. 'The classifications by the seven northern
. schools are as follows: (1) A division of the
. Buddhist sutras into five categories called the
. teaching of human and heavenly beings (ethical
. teachings), the teaching of the reality of
. things, the teaching of the non-substantiality of
. things, the teaching uniting all teachings in the
. one vehicle, and the teaching of the eternity of
. the Buddha nature. (2) A twofold classification
. established by Bodhiruchi dividing Buddhism into
. the incomplete word teaching (Hinayana or Agama
. sutras) and the complete word teaching
. (Mahayana). (3) A classification established by
. Hui-kuang, arranging the Buddhist teachings into
. four doctrines: causes and conditions (the
. doctrine of abhidharma works), temporary name
. (the doctrine of The Treatise so the
. Establishment of Truth), denial of the reality of
. things (the doctrine of the Great Perfection of
. Wisdom Sutra and of the three treatises ---
. Treatise on the Middle Way, The Treatise on the
. Twelve Gates, and The One-Hundred- Verse
. Treatise), and the eternity of the Buddha nature
. (the doctrine of the Nirvana Sutra and the Flower
. Garland Sutra). (4) A five-division system,
. identical to Hui-kuang's, except that the Flower
. Garland Sutra occupies an additional category of
. its own called the doctrine of the phenomenal
. world. (5) A classification into six doctrines,
. which adds to Hui-kuang's four-division system
. the two categories of the true teaching (Lotus
. Sutra) and the perfect teaching (Great Collection
. Sutra) (6) A division of Mahayana into two types:
. one that holds phenomena to be real, and the
. other that views them as non-substantial. (7) The
. one voice teaching, which maintains that the
. Buddha expounds only the one Buddha vehicle and
. there is no other teaching but this one Buddha
. vehicle that represents all his lifetime
. teachings.'
.
. 'T'ien-t'ai refuted these systems of
. classification and, refining and integrating all
. existing systems, formulated the classification
. of the "five periods and eight teachings" to
. assert the superiority of the Lotus Sutra over
. all other sutras.'
.
. 'Five Periods (Jpn go-ji): Also, five periods
. of preaching or five periods of teachings. A
. classification by T'ien-t'ai (538-597) of
. Shakyamuni Buddha's teachings according to the
. order in which he believed they had been
. expounded. They are as follows: (1) The Flower
. Garland period, or the period of the Flower
. Garland Sutra, which according to T'ien-t'ai was
. the first teaching Shakyamuni expounded after his
. enlightenment. The Flower Garland teaching
. represents a very high level of teaching, second
. only to the teachings of the Lotus and Nirvana
. period. With this teaching, the Buddha awakens
. his listeners to the greatness of Buddhism,
. though it was too profound for them to grasp. The
. Flower Garland period is also referred to as the
. Flower Ornament period or the Avatamsaka period.
. The Avatarnsaka Sutra is the Sanskrit title of
. the Flower Garland Sutra. (2) The Agama period,
. or the period of the Agama sutras. Perceiving
. that his disciples' capacity was not yet ready
. for the Flower Garland teaching, Shakyamuni next
. expounded the Agama teachings as a means to
. develop their capacity. These teachings reveal
. the four noble truths-the truth of suffering, the
. truth of the origin of suffering, the truth of
. the cessation of suffering, and the truth of the
. path to the cessation of suffering-that free
. people from the six paths and correspond to the
. Hinayana teachings. The Agama period is also
. called the Deer Park period, or the period of the
. sermon in Deer Park, because the Buddha preached
. the Agama teachings at Deer Park. (3) The Correct
. and Equal period, or the period of the
. introductory Mahayana sutras. In this period,
. Shakyamuni refuted his disciples' attachment to
. Hinayana doctrines and directed them toward
. provisional Mahayana with such teachings as the
. Amida, Mahavairochana, and Vimalakirti sutras.
. The Correct and Equal period is also referred to
. as the Vaipulya period or the Extended period.
. The Sanskrit word vaipulya means largeness or
. spaciousness. (4) The Wisdom period, or the
. period of the Wisdom sutras. In this period,
. Shakyamuni expounded a higher level of
. provisional Mahayana and refuted his disciples'
. attachment to the distinction between Hinayana
. and Mahayana by teaching the doctrine of non-
. substantiality. The Wisdom period is also
. referred to as the Prajna period because in this
. period the Prajna-paramita, or Perfection of
. Wisdom, sutras were preached. (5) The Lotus and
. Nirvana period, or period of the Lotus and
. Nirvana sutras, in which Shakyamuni taught
. directly from the standpoint of his
. enlightenment, fully revealing the truth. In this
. eight-year interval, he expounded the Lotus Sutra
. and the Nirvana Sutra, the latter a restatement
. of the teachings in the Lotus Sutra.'
.
. 'According to T'ien-t'ai, the Flower Garland
. period lasted for twenty-one days, the Agama
. period for twelve years, the Correct and Equal
. period for eight or sixteen years, the Wisdom
. period for twenty-two or fourteen years, and the
. Lotus and Nirvana period for eight years. In fact
. there is no way to verify the historical accuracy
. of these figures or, for that matter, of the
. order of the five periods. The five periods could
. perhaps best be described as T'ien-t'ai's account
. of the process by which Shakyamuni led his
. disciples to an understanding of his ultimate
. teaching.'
.
. 'Five Periods and Eight Teachings (Jpn goji-
. hakkyo): A system of classification of the
. Buddhist teachings set forth by T'ien-t'ai (53 8-
. 597) in The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra
. to demonstrate the superiority of the Lotus Sutra
. over all the other sutras. The five periods is a
. classification of Shakyamuni Buddha's sutras
. according to the order in which they were
. expounded and consists of the Flower Garland,
. Agama, Correct and Equal, Wisdom, and Lotus and
. Nirvana periods. The eight teachings is an
. organization of the Buddha's teachings by content
. and method of presentation. It consists of two
. sub-classifications -- the four teachings of
. doctrine and the four teachings of method. The
. four teachings of doctrine, a classification by
. content, are the Tripitaka teaching, the
. connecting teaching, the specific teaching, and
. the perfect teaching. The four teachings of
. method, a classification by method of teaching,
. are the sudden teaching, the gradual teaching,
. the secret teaching, and the indeterminate
. teaching. '

Hence during T'ien-t'ai's debate, he refuted all of these schools, whose leading teachers had to concede defeat to the ruler: That the Lotus Sutra is the highest teaching of Shakyamuni.
__________________________________________________________

end of part 1, continued in part 2 of 4 ...

. The full 28 Chapters of the Lotus Sutra,
. Nichiren Daishonin's Gosho volumes I and II,
. the Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings
. (Gosho Zenshu, including the Ongi Kuden) and the
. SGI Dictionary of Buddhism are located at:
.
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/
.
. To find an SGI Community Center:
.
http://www.sgi-usa.org/sgilocations/

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.