鷲の山今日聞く法の道ならで
帰らぬ宿に行く人ぞなき
帰らぬ宿に行く人ぞなき
- Roma-ji
-
Washi no yama kyō kiku nori no michi narade kaeranu yado ni yuku hito zo naki
- English Translation
-
On Vulture Peak's height
the Law we hear today—if
not along that path,
to the lodging none return from
there is no one who can go.
- Meaning
- Save by the path of the Law preached on Vulture Peak and heard today, no one goes to the lodging from which none return.
- Commentary
-
Book Twenty Buddhist Poems 1943
Headnote: "The Discrimination of Merits chapter: 'Some dwell on the ground of non-retrogression.'"
This is the third poem in the sequence of Jien's poems on the twenty-eight chapters of the Lotus Sutra. It says that no one reaches the state from which none return to delusion except by the path of the Law preached on Vulture Peak and heard today. According to the headnote, it was composed on the meaning of "Some dwell on the ground of non-retrogression" from the Discrimination of Merits chapter of the Lotus Sutra.
It shows the conviction that hearing the Lotus Sutra is the only path to a state from which one never falls back into the world of delusion.
No author is named in the text; continuing from the preceding poem, this is a poem by Saki no Daisōjō Jien, a Tendai monk, son of Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi and younger brother of Kujō Kanezane. He served four times as head abbot of the Tendai school and wrote the historical work Gukanshō.
The Discrimination of Merits chapter tells how many living beings, on hearing that the Buddha's lifespan is immeasurably long, gained merits such as dwelling at the stage of non-retrogression. The ground of non-retrogression is the stage from which one never falls back in practice.
Washi no Yama is Vulture Peak, near Rājagṛha in the ancient Indian kingdom of Magadha, the mountain where the Buddha is said to have preached the Lotus Sutra.
The first line, "washi no yama," names Vulture Peak, where the Buddha preached the Lotus Sutra, setting down the source of the Law at the start.
The second line, "kyō kiku nori no," speaks of hearing today, in this place, the Law once preached on Vulture Peak, showing the Law carried across time and place.
The third line, "michi narade," means "if not by that path," using the negative conjunctive particle "de."
The fourth line, "kaeranu yado ni," is the lodging from which one never returns to the world of delusion, gently transposing the scripture's "ground of non-retrogression." Taking up the "lodging" of the preceding poem, it is shown as the true lodging beyond the temporary one.
The last line, "yuku hito zo naki," closes the kakari-musubi of "zo" with the attributive "naki," declaring firmly that no one arrives there by any other path.
- Author
- Jien
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
- Prev Poem
-
Omou na yo ukiyo no naka o idehatete yadoru oku ni mo yado wa arikeri
- Next Poem
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Oshinabete munashiki sora to omoishi ni fuji sakinureba murasaki no kumo