Download Nichiren Teachings and The Four Noble Truths SGI views on the

Nichiren Teachings and The Four Noble Truths
Traditional schools of Buddhism hold - as their fundamental belief - Shakyamuni’s first sermon, the
teaching of the Four Noble Truths, being:
1- the truth of suffering: dukkah,
2 - the truth of the origin of suffering
3- the truth of the cessation of suffering
4 - the truth of the path to the cessation of suffering.
The teaching of the Four Noble Truths was the first teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha. It is
accepted in Traditional Buddhism, however, as the first and the final.
Not all Mahayana sutras regard the first sermon of the Buddha as the final Buddhist teaching and
examples are “The Profound Secrets Sutra”, and - in particular - “The Lotus Sutra” , which views
the Four Noble Truths as only a preparatory teaching. The final teaching of the Buddha was the
revelation of the Dharma of the Lotus Sutra: “The Wonderful Law of Life”.
Shakyamuni’s compassion led him to gradually teach and prepare his followers. He initially started
from the elementary teaching “about sufferings”, but then over 40 further years of systematic
preaching, he finally revealed in the Lotus Sutra the ultimate truth of joy of living.
SGI views on the Four Nobel Truths
SGI Buddhism is based on Nichiren teachings of the Lotus Sutra, which revealed the final teaching
of the Buddha, being the Dharma of the Law of Lotus. In his letter, Nichiren explained that the
teaching of the Four Noble Truths is a specific or limited doctrine. In this perspective, the Four
Noble Truths express only an elementary teaching, focused merely on only one - of various
aspects of life - that of sufferings. The Four Noble Truths do not encompass the basic Buddhist
teaching of the Ten Worlds - which also have the World of Joy and Buddhahood. in his article
Desiring Happiness Ikeda explains how the Four Noble Truths were taught by Shakyamuni Buddha
specifically to his immediate disciples as an elementary and preparatory doctrine to direct them to
self-mastery:
“The four noble truths and the eightfold path were directed chiefly to those disciples who had
rejected secular life and were wholly engaged in Buddhist practice; they reflect the basic attitude and
approach that underlie Shakyamuni's early teachings, which concentrated on predominantly
negative views about life and the world so that he could awaken people first to life's harsh realities
and then to the inexpressible spiritual experience of nirvana”.
Nichiren’s Buddhism and the teaching of the Eightfold Path
The fourth of the Four Noble truths teaches that the path to emancipation is found in the Eightfold
Path to Nirvana. The Eightfold Path is a “code of conduct” of the following aspects: maintaining
right views, right thinking, speech, action, tendency, mindfulness and meditation.
However, the particular aspects of conduct (described in the Eightfold path) are in fact
manifestations of one’s Buddha nature. The totality of the Eightfold Path comprises the “effect” of
revealing one’s Buddha nature in reality.
Attaining Buddhahood in one’s present life will definitely be expressed through one’s behaviour in
daily life, manifesting thus all aspects of the Eightfold Path. For this reason, the focus in Nichiren
Buddhism is on the “cause” ( which is: revealing one’s Buddha nature). Instead of the Eightfold
Paths, Nichiren points to one “direct path to enlightenment” being chanting the Law to directly
reveal one’s Buddha nature. WND1 p 3
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The Lotus Sutra’s statement on the Four Noble Truths
Limitations of the concept of Four Noble Truths
Safwan Zabalawi
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