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  • The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin I/II
    • Volume I
    • Volume II
  • The Lotus Sutra and Its Opening and Closing Sutras
  • The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings
  • The Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism

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one-eyed turtle | Dictionary of Buddhism | Nichiren Buddhism Library
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  • Ōama

    [大尼] (n.d.)

  • Ōbaku school

    [黄檗宗] ( Ōbaku-shū)

  • Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind, The

    [観心本尊抄] ( Kanjin-no-honzon-shō)

  • object of devotion of the essential teaching

    [本門の本尊] ( hommon-no-honzon)

  • observation of the mind

    [観心] ( kanjin)

  • ocean-imprint meditation

    [海印三昧] ( kaiin-zammai)

  • Ocean of Meditation on the Buddha Sutra

    [観仏三昧海経] (Chin Kuan-fo-san-mei-hai-ching;  Kambutsu-sammai-kai-kyō)

  • offering

    [供養] ( kuyō)

  • Ōhara Discourse

    [大原問答・大原談義] ( Ōhara-mondō or Ōhara-dangi)

  • old translations

    [旧訳] ( kuyaku)

  • om

    [唵] (;  on)

  • Omosu Seminary

    [重須談所] ( Omosu-dansho)

  • once-returner

    [斯陀含・一来] ( sakridāgāmin; Pali sakadāgāmin;  shidagon or ichirai)

  • On Chanting the Daimoku of the Lotus Sutra

    [唱法華題目抄] ( Shōhokke-daimoku-shō)

  • one Buddha vehicle

    [一仏乗] ( ichi-butsujō)

  • one chapter and two halves

    [一品二半] ( ippon-nihan)

  • one-eyed turtle

    [一眼の亀] ( ichigen-no-kame)

  • one great reason

    [一大事] ( ichidaiji)

  • One Hundred Records of the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai, The

    [国清百録] (Chin Kuo-ch’ing-pai-lu;  Kokusei-hyakuroku)

  • One-Hundred-Verse Treatise, The

    [百論] (Chin Pai-lun;  Hyaku-ron)

  • oneness of body and mind

    [色心不二] ( shikishin-funi)

  • oneness of delusion and enlightenment

    [迷悟不二・迷悟一体] ( meigo-funi or meigo-ittai)

  • oneness of good and evil

    [善悪不二] ( zen’aku-funi)

  • oneness of life and its environment

    [依正不二] ( eshō-funi)

  • oneness of living beings and Buddhas

    [生仏不二・生仏一如] ( shōbutsu-funi or shōbutsu-ichinyo)

  • oneness of the Person and the Law

    [人法一箇] ( nimpō-ikka)

  • On Establishing the Correct Teaching for the Peace of the Land

    [立正安国論] ( Risshō-ankoku-ron)

  • one vehicle

    [一乗] ( ekayāna;  ichijō)

  • one vehicle teaching

    [一乗法] ( ichijō-hō)

  • One Who Can Endure

    [能忍] ( nōnin)

  • Ōnichi-nyo

    [王日女] (n.d.)

  • Onjō-ji

    [園城寺]

  • On Refuting the Five Priests

    [五人所破抄] ( Gonin-shoha-shō)

  • On Repaying Debts of Gratitude

    [報恩抄] ( Hō’on-shō)

  • On Taking the Essence of the Lotus Sutra

    [法華取要抄] ( Hokke-shuyō-shō)

  • On the Formalities

    [化儀抄] ( Kegi-shō)

  • On the Four Stages of Faith and the Five Stages of Practice

    [四信五品抄] ( Shishin-gohon-shō)

  • On the Peaceful Practices of the Lotus Sutra

    [法華経安楽行義] (Chin Fa-hua-ching-an-lo-hsing-i;  Hokekyō-anrakugyō-gi)

  • Opening of the Eyes, The

    [開目抄] ( Kaimokū-sho)

  • opening the near and revealing the distant

    [開近顕遠] ( kaigon-kennon)

  • opening the provisional and revealing the true

    [開権顕実] ( kaigon-kenjitsu)

  • opening the three vehicles and revealing the one vehicle

    [開三顕一] ( kaisan-ken’ichi)

  • opposite shore

    [彼岸] ( higan)

  • ordinary person

    [凡夫] ( prithag-jana or bāla;  bompu or bombu)

  • ordination platform

    [戒壇] ( kaidan)

  • original Buddha

    [本仏] ( hombutsu)

  • original enlightenment

    [本覚] ( hongaku)

  • original vows

    [本願] ( pūrvapranidhāna;  hongan)

  • Ornament of Mahayana Sutras, The

    [大乗荘厳経論] ( Mahāyāna-sūtrālamkāra; Chin Ta-ch’eng-chuang-yen-ching-lun;  Daijō-shōgonkyō-ron)

  • Ōta Jōmyō

    [大田乗明] (1222–1283)

  • other shore

    [彼岸] ( higan)

  • Oto

    [乙] (n.d.)

  • outflows

    [漏] ( āsrava;  ro)

  • Outside-the-Mountain school

    [山外派] (Chin Shan-wai-p’ai;  Sangai-ha)

  • Outstanding Principles of the Lotus Sutra, The

    [法華秀句] ( Hokke-shūku)

  • Ōwa Debate

    [応和の宗論] ( Ōwa-no-shūron)

  • ox-headed demons

    [牛頭] ( goshīrsha;  gozu)

  • ox-head sandalwood

    [牛頭栴檀] ( goshīrsha-chandana;  gozu-sendan)

  • ox-head sandalwood

    [牛頭栴檀] ( goshīrsha-chandana;  gozu-sendan)

one-eyed turtle [一眼の亀] ( ichigen-no-kame): A reference in the “King Wonderful Adornment” (twenty-seventh) chapter of the Lotus Sutra, which says that encountering a Buddha’s teaching is as rare as a one-eyed turtle finding a floating sandalwood log with a hollow in it to hold him. The Nirvana Sutra uses the same image to express the rarity of being born human and encountering a Buddha’s teaching. The story behind this reference is found in the parable of the blind turtle in the Miscellaneous Āgama Sutra. A blind turtle, whose life span is immeasurable kalpas, lives at the bottom of the sea. Once every one hundred years he rises to the surface. There is only one log floating in the sea with a suitable hollow in it. Since the turtle is blind and the log is tossed about by the wind and waves, the likelihood of the turtle reaching the log is extremely remote. It is even rarer, says Shakyamuni, to be born a human being; having been born human, one should use the opportunity to master the four noble truths and attain emancipation.
  A much more elaborate version of this story appears in Nichiren’s letter The One-eyed Turtle and the Floating Log, where he uses it to describe the difficulty of encountering the Lotus Sutra and of encountering the daimoku, or essence, of the Lotus Sutra. The turtle in this case is described as one-eyed and limbless. His belly is as hot as heated iron, and his back as cold as the Snow Mountains. There is a sacred red sandalwood tree that can cool his belly. Day and night the turtle yearns to find a hollowed-out sandalwood log so that he can cool his belly in its hollow while warming his back in the sun. However, he can rise to the surface only once in a thousand years, and even if he should happen to find a floating log at that time, it may not necessarily be red sandalwood. Even if he finds a red sandalwood log, it rarely has a hollow in it, and even if it does, the hollow is rarely of the right size to accommodate him. And even if he should be fortunate enough to find the perfect log, because he is lacking one eye, he has trouble moving in the proper direction. Here Nichiren interprets the sea as the sufferings of birth and death, and the turtle as humankind. His lack of limbs indicates lack of good fortune from previous lifetimes, the heat of his belly signifies the eight hot hells, and the cold of his back, the eight cold hells. Having one eye indicates the distorted perception that sees inferior teachings as superior, and vice versa. The ability to surface only once every thousand years indicates how difficult it is to emerge from the lower worlds of existence and be born human, especially to be born in an age when a Buddha has been present. The floating logs other than red sandalwood are the provisional teachings that are comparatively easy to encounter, and the red sandalwood is the Lotus Sutra. The proper-sized hollow in the log is the daimoku of that sutra, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.


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