Daimoku

Nichiren

Nichiren's emphasis on daimoku as an exclusive practice paralleled (and may have been influenced by) the development of Hōnen's exclusive nembutsu. Although Tendai and other Buddhist traditions included recitation-based practices (usually based on nembutsu, mantras or whole sutras, like the Heart Sutra or Amitabha Sutra), Nichiren elevated the chanting of the daimoku to an exclusive and universal method of attaining enlightenment. Nichiren claimed that the daimoku was the only method to happiness and salvation suited for the age of Dharma decline, while other practices were useless. As such, mixing the daimoku with other practices (as the Buddhists of the Heian period had done) was seen by Nichiren as being “like mixing rice with excrement.” This exclusive stance has been seen as intolerant and radical by some modern scholars, but it was actually a common feature of Kamakura Buddhism, and can be seen in Hōnen for example. What was unique to Nichiren however was the direct confrontational stance which he took against other sects (which was the basis for the sect's shakubukuproselytism).