The Three Great Secret Dharmas
Since Nichiren deemed the world to be in a degenerate age where most teachings were ineffective, he held that people required a simple and effective method to attain Buddhahood. According to Nichiren, the way to Buddhahood was through the Three Great Secret Dharmas (sandai hihō 三大秘法): the invocation of the Lotus Sutra's title (daimoku), the object of worship (honzon), and the ordination platform or place of worship (kaidan). Nichiren held that these three Dharmas are the concrete manifestations of "the actualization of ichinen sanzen" (ji no ichinen sanzen) specific to the Age of Dharma Decline.
A work attributed to Nichiren named the Sandai hi hō honjōji (三大秘法稟承事, Transmission of the Three Great Secret Dharmas) states that Nichiren discovered the three Dharmas in the 16th chapter of the Lotus Sutra, and that as the leader of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth, he secretly received them from the original Buddha (honbutsu) who resides in the originally existing Land of Tranquil Light. Several modern scholars have questioned the authenticity of this text however.
According to Nichiren, practicing the Three Secret Dharmas results in the "Three Proofs" which verify their validity. The first proof is "documentary," whether the religion's fundamental texts, here the writings of Nichiren, make a lucid case for the eminence of the religion. "Theoretical proof" is an intellectual standard of whether a religion's teachings reasonably clarify the mysteries of life and death. "Actual proof," deemed the most important by Nichiren, demonstrates the validity of the teaching through the actual improvements and experiences which manifest in the daily life of practitioners.
Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, the daimoku ("the title" of the Lotus Sutra preceded by "Namu", meaning "homage to"), is both the essence of the Lotus Sutra's Dharma and the means to discover that truth, i.e. the interconnected unity of self, others and environment with Buddhahood itself. Nichiren sees this as the only truly effective practice, the superior Buddhist practice for this time. Thus, according to Nichiren, "it is better to be a leper who chants Nam(u) Myōhō Renge Kyō than be a chief abbot of the Tendai school." For Nichiren, the daimoku is "the heart of the eighty thousand sacred teachings and the eye of all buddhas," and contains the entire Buddhadharma.
Nichiren was influenced by Zhiyi, who argued in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra (Fahua xuanyi 法華玄義) that the title of the sutra contains the meaning of the entire sutra (which itself contains the whole of Buddhism). Stone writes, "for Nichiren, the daimoku, as the embodiment of ichinen sanzen, encompasses all phenomena, including all beings and their environments in the ten realms of existence." This non-dual reality is contained in the term Myōhō (Miao in Chinese).
Furthermore, the daimoku is also said to contain the Buddha's enlightenment and all his spiritual powers. As he writes in the Kanjin honzon shō: "Śākyamuni’s causal practices and their resulting virtues are all contained within the five characters Myōhō Renge Kyō. When we embrace these five characters, he will naturally transfer to us the merit of his causes and effects." He also writes:For those who are incapable of understanding the truth of ichinen sanzen, Lord Śākyamuni Buddha, with His great compassion, wraps this jewel in the five characters of myō, hō, ren, ge, and kyō and hangs it around the neck of the ignorant in the Latter Age of Degeneration.Like other Tendai figures of his time, Nichiren held that the Lotus Sutra taught the unity of the cause (skillful means) and the effect (Buddhahood). Nichiren held that the term Renge (Dharma Flower) represents how the cause and the effect (practice and Buddhahood) are one. This is symbolized by the lotus flower because its blossoms and seed pods grow at the same time.
Thus, the chanting of the daimoku allowed one to access all the merit of the Buddha's practices. It links a practitioner to the Buddha's wisdom which sees all of reality as a single whole and thus allows one to attain the "realization of buddhahood with this very body."
Furthermore, Nichiren saw this practice as going beyong the self-power versus other-power dichotomy used by Pure Land Buddhism:The Lotus Sutra establishes self-power but is not self-power. Since the "self" encompasses all beings of the ten realms, one’s own person from the outset contains the Buddha realm of both oneself and of all be- ings. Thus one does not now become a Buddha for the first time. [The sutra] also establishes other-power but is not other-power. Since the Buddha who is "other" is contained within us ordinary worldlings, this Buddha naturally manifests himself as identical to ourselves.For Nichiren, Buddhahood is immanently accessible through the daimoku. Nichiren also saw the daimoku as granting worldly benefits, such as healing and protection from harm. He taught that by relying on the daimoku, one would achieve a state of inner freedom, writing: "Recognize suffering as suffering, enjoy pleasures for what they are, and whether in suffering or joy, keep chanting Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō... Then you will know the joy of the Dharma for yourself."
The chanting of the daimoku is to be done while contemplating the daimandara 大曼荼羅 ("great mandala") or gohonzon 御本尊 ("revered object of worship"). Japanese Buddhists often had a personal shrine with an object of worship (honzon), which could be a painting, mandala or statue. These objects were often held to embody the powers of the Buddhas. Nichiren created a unique honzon style in the form of a calligraphic mandala (in Chinese characters and two Siddham glyphs) representing the entire cosmos, specifically centered around the Lotus Sutra's ceremony in the air above Vulture Peak.
Nichiren inscribed many of these mandalas as personal honzons for his followers. More than 120 of them survive in Nichiren's own hand with his signature. Nichiren drew on earlier visual representations of the Lotus Sutra and was also influenced by contemporary figures like Myōe and Shinran who also created calligraphic honzon for their disciples. Since these did not require expert painters or expensive materials to make, they could be made in larger numbers for wide dissemination.
Nichiren's gohonzons contain the daimoku written vertically in the center. It is flanked by the names of Śākyamuni and Prabhūtaratna Buddha, as well as the names of various bodhisattvas (especially prominent being the Four Bodhisattvas of the Earth), deities, and other beings. These figures also represent ichinen sanzen, the mutual inclusion of the ten realms. Thus, the great mandala embodies the entire cosmos and its interfusion with Buddhahood. In other words, the gohonzon symbolizes the non-duality between our world and the sacred realm of the original Buddha of the Lotus Sutra, where the sutra is being taught eternally.
According to Stone, the logic of this mandala is influenced by Esoteric Buddhist yogas, in which the yogi visualizes their unity with the Buddha realm. However, for Nichiren, the unity of oneself and the Buddha is not achieved through yogic means, but mainly through faith. As Stone explains, "by chanting the daimoku, the devotee "enters" the mandala, the realm of the original Buddha’s awakening, and participates in the enlightened reality that it depicts."
Nichiren discusses the ordination platform (kaidan 戒壇) or place of worship, less frequently than the other great secret Dharmas for the mappō era. Teachings on it can be found in the Sandai hi hō honjōji, a work of questionable authenticity. Traditionally, a kaidan is a place where the Buddhist precepts are transmitted to novices. However, Nichiren held that the merit of the precepts was already contained within the daimoku, and that embracing the Lotus Sutra was the only true precept in the Final Dharma Age. Nichiren's intentions for the establishment of an "ordination platform of the origin teaching" (honmon no kaidan 本門の戒壇) is thus far from clear, though he seems to have held that it would supersede the Tendai ordination platform on Mount Hiei. The Sandai hi hō honjōji teaches that it will be built as great Dharma center for all the people of the world once the Emperor and his government all embraced the Lotus Sutra.
Nichiren left the fulfillment of the kaidan to his successors and its interpretation has been a matter of heated debate. Some state that it refers to the construction of a physical ordination platform sanctioned by the Emperor; others contend that the ordination platform is the community of believers (sangha) or, simply, the place where practitioners of the Lotus Sutra live and make collective efforts to realize the ideal of establishing the true Dharma in order to establish peace to the land (risshō ankoku). The latter metaphorical interpretation is based on the Lotus Sūtra itself which states that "the place of enlightenment" is any place where one upholds the sutra. The latter conception reflects Nichiren's understanding that Buddhist practice must be grounded in a concrete place and must be engaged with the real world outside of temples and hermitages. It has also been interpreted as promoting engagement with the secular world as well as working to improve society.
