Zonkaku’s Interactions with Nichiren Followers: The Doctrinal Debates over the Value of the Nembutsu and the Lotus Sūtra

Abstract

This study examines debates between Zonkaku 存覚 (1290–1373) and Nichiren followers, focusing on Zonkaku’s understanding of the relationship between nembutsu practice and the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra to clarify the characteristics of his response to Nichiren followers’ criticism against the nembutsu.

An examination of Zonkaku’s explanations of the relationship between nembutsu practice and the Lotus Sūtra shows that there are three characteristics to his interpretation. First, while Zonkaku accepts Nichiren followers’ claim that the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra and the practice of nembutsu belong to different doctrinal entities, he stresses that they share the same doctrinal quality. Second, although the Lotus Sūtra does not explicitly preach that the nembutsu is superior to the Lotus Sūtra, Zonkaku claims that the Lotus Sūtra implicitly suggests the superiority of nembutsu. Finally, he maintains that the teaching of nembutsu, like the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra, is the teaching of the one vehicle (ekayāna).

Based on Shinran’s view of the Lotus Sūtra and reflecting the social situation of his time, Zonkaku tried to demonstrate the doctrinal supreriority of the nembutsu over the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra.