HISTORY OF BUDDHISM: 3.The Buddha’s epigones who turned their backs on the Lotus Sutra Kindle Edition

I, Marcellin Zirignon, Bodhisattva Boundless Practices (Muhengyô in Japanese; Ananta-carita in Sanskrit), became 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 Bhété 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 Shakyamuni Buddha in the verse section of the Juryo chapter, I wish through this sutra to ensure that all of humanity attains immediate-and-instantaneous Buddhahood.Shakyamuni Buddha, in his teachings, particularly in the Great Collection Sutra, predicted the course of Buddhist history after his ennirvanement (entry into nirvana). These predictions, called the five great periods in the history of the spread of Buddhism, are analyzed in terms of the rise of his dharma and its decline, before the complete buddhization (full colonization of the world by Buddhism) of Jambudvipa (our continent) during the mappo eraFrom the first council known as Rajagriha, held within three months of the Tathagata’s funeral, the first divisions between his disciples and successors appeared. Over the centuries, in India, China, Japan, and many other countries, these divisions gave rise to several schools, each as antagonistic as the other in their interpretation of the Buddha's dharma. Anything that confirms the Lord of Teachings' prediction that his teachings are doomed to perish, in the much-feared era of Mappo, the fifth of the five aforementioned periods, an age we have been experiencing since 1052 (the seventh year of the Eishyo era). Read more