Kishimojin Interview - One of the Heavenly Deities Protectors

Today I want to talk about Kishimojin. Out of all the heavenly deities on the Gohonzon, she calls me. I think maybe because I was raised by a single mother, no father, and so know first hand the strength of a mother who cares for her child.

The SGI definition: "A demoness said to be a daughter of a yaksha demon in Rājagriha. She had five hundred children (one thousand or ten thousand by other accounts). According to the Mother of Demon Children Sutra and The Monastic Rules on Various Matters, she killed other people’s babies to feed her own children. Terrified and grieving, the people begged Shakyamuni Buddha for help. The Buddha then hid Priyankara (also known as Piyankara or Pingala), the youngest son of Mother of Demon Children. She sought him desperately for seven days, but to no avail. In despair, she finally asked the Buddha where he was. Shakyamuni rebuked her for her cruel and evil conduct and made her vow never to kill another child. Then he returned her son to her. According to The Record of Southern Countries, I-ching’s record of his travels to India and Southeast Asia in the late seventh century, Mother of Demon Children was revered in India as a goddess who could bestow the blessings of childbirth and easy delivery. Worship of her became popular in Japan in the Kamakura period (1185–1333). In the “Dhāranī” (twenty-sixth) chapter of the Lotus Sutra, she pledges before the Buddha to safeguard the votaries of the sutra."

Kishimojin, (known in India as Hārītī) is a former demon mother who converted to Buddhism after the Buddha hid one of her many children to teach her the pain of loss. Along with her ten daughters—the Ten Rākṣasīs or Jūrasetsunyo—she took a solemn vow in the Lotus Sutra to protect children, pregnant women, and those who practice and uphold the Buddhist teachings.

In Nichiren's writings, he refers to Kishimojin a few times, and in all of them he mention's her ten demon daughter; in one instance he refers to the ten rāksasis as “the mothers of all demons in the four continents,” and Kishimojin as “the mother of the ten rāksasis,” thus suggesting her power.

In other teachings, Kishimojin is often worshipped independently of the Lotus Sūtra, for example, in esoteric prayer rites to quell disasters and increase good fortune. After Nichiren’s time, as his tradition spread during Japan’s later medieval period and drew followers from a range of social groups, its protector deities diversified, and statues and paintings of Kishimojin began to be enshrined as independent images at some Nichiren temples. Represented in both fierce and gentle forms, Kishimojin was revered as a guardian of Lotus devotees, a destroyer of false views, and a grantor of prayers for this-worldly benefits, such as healing, safe childbirth, and the protection of children. Devotion to Kishimojin within the Nichiren tradition reached its height in Japan’s early modern period (roughly, seventeenth through nineteenth centuries) and drew both on her specific associations with the Lotus Sūtra as well as broader traditions of Kishimojin worship.

That's my knowledge on Kishimojin.

As many of you know, I have cancer again. I'm glad Kishimojin and her ten daughters are in this with me.

Here's a fun video I made imagining a non-Budhist reporter doing the interview. Could happen.


~~ Eso Terry

The Lotus Sutra

The Lotus Sutra is one of the most important sutras in Mahayana Buddhism and was likely written down between 100 B.C. and 200 A.D. Already well known in India, the sutra became more famous and influential when it was translated into Chinese by Kumarajiva in the year 406. After Chih-i founded the T’ien-T’ai School in China, based on the teaching expounded by this sutra in the sixth century, it was considered one of the canonical sutras of Chinese Buddhism. After the T’ien-T’ai School of China was introduced to Japan by Saicho and became the Tendai Sect, the Lotus Sutra became loved as literature among the people.

The sutra is named the Lotus Sutra because the lotus symbolized the oneness of cause and effect, specifically the cause of aspiring to enlightenment (Buddhahood) and the effect of attaining it, since the lotus is a flower that blooms and seeds at the same time. It also symbolizes the purity of Buddhahood, blooming in the midst of our ordinary lives just as the lotus blossoms in muddy pond water.

The Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Sutra is that all living beings, whether they realize it or not, have the capacity to become enlightened. Everyone, without exception, can unlock the perfect wisdom and great compassion that reside in the depths of life. The Lotus Sutra also teaches that the life of a Buddha transcends our ordinary way of thinking and is beyond birth and death.

Shakyamuni Buddha himself is in actuality the Eternal Buddha who is always present in our lives, leading us to the realization of our own innate Buddhahood.

Kosen-Rufu

Kōsen-rufu (広宣流布), a phrase found in the Japanese translation of the Buddhist scripture Lotus Sutra, is informally defined to as "world peace through individual happiness." It refers to the future widespread dissemination of the Lotus Sutra.

The term derives from Lotus Sutra's 22nd chapter: "Propagate this chapter widely throughout the Jambudvīpa in the last 500-year period after my death." Nichiren (1222–1282), the founder of Nichiren Buddhism, took this statement to indicate that the Lotus Sutra is the Law to be declared and widely spread during the Latter Age.

Kōsen means to "widely declare." "Widely" implies speaking out to the world, to an ever-greater number and ever-broader spectrum of people. "Declare" means to proclaim one's ideals, principles and philosophy. The ru (flow) of rufu means "a current like that of a great river," and fu (cloth) means "to spread out like a bolt of cloth." This requires an active and engaged approach of shakubuku, propagation of the Dharma, rather than peaceful retreat or meditative solitude.

Kosen-rufu as peacemaking

Literally, kōsen-rufu means to declare and spread widely the teachings of the Buddha; however, the term "kosen rufu" has come to connote "world peace" based on the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren teachings. The Soka Gakkai is a Nichiren-inspired religious movement headquartered in Japan that has incorporated peace activities its religious practice. 

According to the Soka Gakkai, Nichiren stressed the ideal of achieving kōsen-rufu in Buddhist practice because he felt that the quests for personal enlightenment and the peace and well-being of the entire society were inseparable.