The guest said:
These disasters that befall the empire, these calamities of the nation - I am not the only one pained by them; the whole populace is weighed down with sorrow. Now I have been privileged to enter your home and to listen to these enlightening words of yours. You speak of the gods and sages taking leave and of disasters and calamities arising side by side - upon what sutras do you base your views? Could you describe for me the passages of proof?
The host replied:
There are numerous passages that could be cited and a wide variety of proofs. For example, in the Konkomyo Sutra we read: "The Four Heavenly Kings said to the Buddha, ‘Though this sutra exists in the nation, the rulers have never allowed it to be propagated. In their hearts they turn away from it, and they take no pleasure in hearing its teachings. They do not serve it, respect it, or sing its praises. Nor are they willing to respect ... or give material support to the four kinds of Buddhist who embrace the sutra. In the end, they have made it impossible for us and the countless other heavenly beings who are our followers to hear the teachings of this profound and wonderful Dharma. They have deprived us of the sweet dew of its words and cut us off from the flow of the True Law, so that our majesty and strength are drained away. Thus the number of beings who occupy the four evil paths increases and the number who enjoy the human and heavenly states decreases. People fall into the river of birth and death and turn their backs on the road to nirvana.
"World-Honored One, we, the Four Heavenly Kings, as well as our various followers and the yakshas and other beings, observing this state of affairs, have decided to abandon this nation, for we have no more heart to protect it. And it is not we alone who cast aside these rulers. All the great benevolent deities who guard and watch over the countless different regions of the country will also invariably reject them. And once we and the others have abandoned and deserted this country and the rulers will fall from power. Not a single person in the entire population will possess a heart of goodness; there will be nothing but binding and enslaving, killing and injuring, anger and contention. Men will slander each other or fawn upon one another, and the laws will be twisted until even the innocent are made to suffer. Pestilence will become rampant, comets will appear again and again, two suns will come forth side by side and eclipses will occur with unaccustomed frequency. Black arcs and white arcs will span the sky as harbingers of ill fortune, stars will fall, the earth will shake, and noises will issue from the wells. Torrential rains and violent winds will come out of season, there will be constant famine, and grains and fruits will not ripen. Marauders from many other regions will invade and plunder the nation, the people will suffer all manner of pain and affliction, and there will be no place where one may live in safety.
The Daijuku Sutra says: "When the principles of Buddhism truly become obscured and lost, then people will all let their beards, hair and fingernails grow long, and the laws of the world will be forgotten and ignored. At this time, loud noises will sound in the air and the earth will shake; everything in the world will begin to move as though it were a waterwheel. City walls will split and tumble, and all houses and dwellings will collapse. Roots, branches, leaves, petals and fruits will lose their medicinal properties. With the exception of the five highest heavens in the world of form, all the regions of the worlds of form and desire will become deprived of the seven flavors and the three essences that nourish life and human society, until nothing remains alive any more. All the good discourses that lead men to emancipation will at this time disappear. The flowers and fruits that grow in the earth will become few and will lose their flavor and sweetness. The wells, springs and ponds will all go dry, the land everywhere will turn brackish and will crack open and warp into hillocks and gullies. All the mountains will be swept by fire and the heavenly dragons will no longer send down rain. The crops will all wither and die, all living creatures will perish, and even the grass will cease to grow any more. Dust will rain down until all is darkness and the sun and the moon no longer shed their light.
All the four directions will be afflicted by drought, and evil omens will appear again and again. The ten kinds of evil behavior will increase greatly, particularly greed, anger and stupidity, and people will think no more of their fathers and mothers than does the roe deer. Living beings will decline in numbers, in longevity, physical power and enjoyment. They will become estranged from the pleasures of human and heavenly existence and all will fall into the evil states of existence. The wicked rulers and monks who perform these ten kinds of evil behavior will destroy the True Law of the Buddha and make it impossible for sentient beings to be born in the human and heavenly states of existence. At that time the various benevolent deities and heavenly rulers, who would ordinarily take pity on living beings, will abandon this nation of confusion and evil and all will make their way to other regions.
The Ninno Sutra states: "When a nation becomes disordered, it is the spirits which first show signs of rampantcy. Because these spirits become rampant, all the people of the nation become disordered. Invaders come to plunder the country and the common people face annihilation. The ruler, the high ministers, the heir apparent and the other princes and government officials all quarrel with each other over right and wrong. Heaven and earth manifest prodigies and strange occurrences; the twenty-eight constellations, the stars, the sun and the moon appear at irregular times and in irregular positions, and numerous outlaws rise up."
The same sutra also states: "When I look at the three ages of past, present and future with the five types of vision, I see that all the rulers of nations were able to attain the position of emperor or king because in past existences they served five hundred Buddhas. And this is the reason that all the various sages and arhats are born in their nations and are assisting them to gain great advantage. But if a time should come when the good fortune of these rulers runs out, then all the sages will abandon them and depart. And once the sages have departed, then the seven disasters are certain to arise."
The Yakushi Sutra states: "If disasters and calamities should befall members of the ruling kshatriya class and anointed kings, such disasters will be as follows: the calamity of disease and pestilence among the populace, the calamity of invasion and plunder from foreign lands, the calamity of revolt within one's own domain; the calamity of irregularities and strange occurrences among the stars and constellations, the calamity of eclipses of the sun and moon, the calamity of unseasonable wind and rain; and the calamity of rain that fails to fall even when the season for it has come and gone. In the Ninno sutra, the Buddha addresses King Prasenajit in these words: “Great King, the region where my teachings now hold sway consists of a hundred billion Sumeru worlds with a hundred billion suns and moons. Each of these Sumeru worlds comprises four great continents. In the empire of the south, which is Jambudvipa, there are sixteen great nations, five hundred medium-sized nations, and ten thousand small nations. In these nations, there are seven types of fearful calamities that may occur. All the rulers of these nations agree that these are indeed calamities. What, then, are these calamities? When the sun and moon depart from their regular courses, when the seasons come in the wrong order, when a red sun or a black sun appears, when two, three, four or five suns appear at the same time, when the sun is eclipsed and loses its light, or when one, two, three, four or five coronas appear around the sun, this is the first calamity. When the twenty-eight constellations do not move in their regular courses, when the Metal Star, the Broom Star, the Wheel Star, the Demon Star , the Fire Star, the Water Star, the Wind Star, the Ladle Star, the Southern Dipper, the Northern Dipper, the great stars of the Five Garrisons, and all the many stars that govern the ruler, the three high ministers and the hundred other, officials - when each of these stars manifests some peculiar behavior, this is the second calamity.
When huge fires consume the nation and the people are all burned to death, or when there are outbreaks of demon fire, dragon fire, heavenly fire, mountain god fire, human fire, tree fire or bandit fire - when these prodigies appear, this is the third calamity. When huge floods drown the population, when the seasons come out of order and there is rain in winter, snow in summer, thunder and lightning in the winter season and ice, frost and hail in the sixth month, when red, black or green rain falls, when mountains of dirt and stones come raining down, or when it rains dust, sand or gravel, when the rivers and streams run backward, when mountains are afloat and boulders are washed away - when freakish happenings of this kind occur, this is the fourth calamity.
When huge winds blow the people to their death and the lands, the mountains and rivers and the trees and forests are all at one time wiped out, when great winds come out of season or when black winds, re winds, green winds, heavenly winds, earthly winds, fire winds, and water winds blow - when prodigies of this kind occur, this is the fifth calamity. When heaven and earth and the whole country are stricken by terrible heat so that the air seems to be on fire, when the hundred plants wither and the five grains fail to ripen, when the prodigies of this kind occur, this is the sixth calamity.
When enemies rise up on all four sides and invade the nation, when rebels appear both within the ruler’s family and without, when there are fire bandits, water bandits, wind bandits and demon bandits and the population is subjected to devastation and disorder, and fighting and plundering break out everywhere - when prodigies of this type occur, this is the seventh calamity.
The Daijuku Sutra says, “Though the ruler of a state may have for countless existences in the past practiced the giving of alms, observed the precepts and abided by the principles of wisdom, if he sees that my law, the Dharma of the Buddha, is in danger of perishing and stands idly by without doing anything to protect it, then all the inestimable store of good causes that he has accumulated through the practices just mentioned will be entirely wiped out, and his country will become the scene of three inauspicious occurrences. The first is high grain prices, the second is warfare, and the third is pestilence. All the benevolent deities will abandon the country, and although the king may issue commands, the people will not obey them. The country will constantly be invaded and vexed by neighboring nations Violent fires will rage out of control, evil winds and rains will abound, the waters will swell and overflow, and the inhabitants will be blown about by winds or swept away by floods. The paternal and maternal relatives of the ruler will join in plotting revolt. Before long, the ruler will fall gravely ill, and after his life has come to an end, he will reborn in one of the major hells. And same fate will befall the ruler’s consort, his heir, the high ministers of the state, the lords of cities, the village heads and generals, the magistrates of districts, and the government officials.”
The passages I have quoted form these four sutras are perfectly clear - what person in ten thousand could possibly doubt their meaning? And yet the blind and the deluded trust to heretical doctrines and fail to recognize the correct teachings. Therefore, throughout the empire these days people are inclined to turn away from the Buddhas and the sutras and no longer endeavor to protect them. In turn, the benevolent deities and sages abandon the nation and leave their accustomed places. As a result, demons, and followers of heretical doctrines create disaster and inflict calamity upon the populace.
Rissho Ankoku Ron-Third Question