Editing SG31SBE-T (section)

=== Buddhism Is Atheistic ===
'''B:''' Modern people are, of course, becoming less and less willing to accept that kind of deity. On this subject, Archbishop Brown wrote something like the following in ''God and the Capitalist'':

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“Does God wish to remove evil from this world but lack the power? Or is he able to remove it but unwilling? If he wishes to but cannot, then he is impotent, which contradicts the nature of God. If he can but will not, then he is evil, which likewise contradicts the nature of God. If he neither wishes nor is able, then he is both evil and impotent. But if he both wishes to remove evil and is able to do so—which is the only conception appropriate to God—then how can evil exist in the world?”<ref>William Montgomery Brown (1855–1937) was an American Episcopal bishop who became an outspoken socialist and communist and was deposed for heresy in 1925. Seno’o cites Brown’s critique of the Christian conception of God in God and the Capitalist, which circulated in Japanese as Kami to shihonka (神と資本家). The argument itself is a version of the classical “Epicurean paradox” concerning divine omnipotence and the existence of evil.</ref>

'''A:''' That is a painful criticism for Christianity. Before Buddhism, Brahmanism taught gods who created heaven and earth and also advocated ascetic practices of various kinds. The Buddha rejected these and, as I said before, taught the Four Noble Truths and the twelve links of dependent origination. There is another story related to this. An apostate named Sunakkhatta went around criticizing the Buddha, saying: “The Buddha possesses no superhuman teaching and no exceptional knowledge or vision. He simply teaches ideas he has thought up in his own head. And he claims that anyone who thinks according to that teaching can reach a state free from suffering.” When the Buddha heard this, he told Śāriputra that Sunakkhatta, speaking in anger, thought he was criticizing the Buddha but was actually praising him.<ref>Sunakkhatta, a Licchavi and former disciple of the Buddha, appears in the Mahāsīhanāda Sutta (Majjhima Nikāya 12) criticizing his former teacher for possessing no “superhuman states” or extraordinary knowledge and vision. Significantly for Seno’o’s argument, Sunakkhatta’s demythological reading nevertheless acknowledges that the Buddha’s teaching leads those who practice it to the destruction of suffering.</ref> For to say that “according to his teaching, anyone who thinks properly can reach a state free from suffering” is itself praise of the Buddha. As this shows, the heart of Buddhism is to see the true nature of human life correctly, think correctly, and then live correctly.

'''B:''' But isn’t it said that Saint Nichiren himself performed prayers and rites?

'''A:''' Those are merely peripheral matters. Nichiren’s real spirit is found in the ''Kaimoku-shō'', where he declared: “Let heaven abandon me if it will; let every hardship befall me; I will stake my life upon this.... I vowed that I would become the pillar of Japan, that I would become the eyes of Japan, that I would become the great ship of Japan. These vows must never be broken.”<ref>Nichiren’s Kaimoku-shō (開目抄 “Opening of the Eyes”), composed in 1272 during his exile on Sado Island, is one of his major writings. It examines the grounds for religious authority and Nichiren’s understanding of his own mission in relation to the Lotus Sutra.</ref> That was his great religious resolve. The prayer rites being performed today are a disgrace to Master Nichiren.