HISTORY OF BUDDHISM : 4. THE SUCCESSORS OF SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA WHO EMBODIED THE LOTUS SUTRA Kindle Edition

I, Marcellin Zirignon, the Bodhisattva Boundless Practices (Muhengyô in Japanese; Ananta-carita in Sanskrit), became a Buddha in January 1993, when I was not yet 23 years old, following six months of intense Gongyo practice crowning nearly a quarter-century of bodhisattvic practices. In my previous sutras, my didactic approach fell within the framework of the actions of a provisional Buddha; from now on, I shall act under my true identity: that of a true Buddha, a remote Buddha, a Thus-Come-One who attained Buddhahood in a distant past called Gôdô-Gôdô (immemorial past, in the Bhete language, an ethnic community from the central-west of Côte d’Ivoire). In doing so, I realize hosshaku kenpon; in other words, I discard my provisional identity (shaku) to embrace my true identity (hon or pon). My teachings may appear shallow. However, in reality, within the Buddhist noosphere, they rank third after those of Shakyamuni and the Daishonin. In this troubled era of Sokatic Mappo, outside of them, no attainment of Buddhahood is possible. Like the Buddha Shakyamuni in the verse section of the Juryo chapter, I wish through this sutra to ensure that all of humanity attains Buddhahood instantaneously, and with this lifetime.In the Great Collection Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha predicted the history of Buddhism through five major periods, marking the rise and fall of his Dharma before its complete spread during Mappo. In the first part of my work (Volume 3), I addressed those successors who marginalized the Lotus Sutra—most notably Nagarjuna and the scholars of Nalanda, the world's oldest university and a beacon of humanity for 800 years.In this second part, I present the successors who chose the Lotus Sutra as their compass for humanity. I list them in chronological order: Nanhyue, Tiantai, Zhang ‘an, Miaole, Dengyo, Nichiren Daishonin, Nikko Shonin, Nichikan Shonin, the three founding presidents—Makiguchi, Toda, and Ikeda—and finally, Marcellin Zirignon, the Buddha Muhengyo, the Buddha of Unlimited Practices. Read more