Hachiman Also, Great Bodhisattva Hachiman. One of Japan’s main deities. Though originally a Shinto god, after the introduction of Buddhism to that country, Hachiman came to be closely associated with Buddhism. In the late twelfth century, Minamoto no Yoritomo, the founder of the Kamakura shogunate, erected a shrine to Hachiman at Tsurugaoka in Kamakura, and the worship of Hachiman as a protective deity of the warriors and the villages spread throughout Japan. Since the Heian period (794–1185), Hachiman was regarded as the deified spirit of the fifteenth sovereign, Emperor Ōjin.
hakei (Jpn) A legendary beast, resembling a tiger, that is said to eat its father.
Han Po-yü (n.d.) A man of the Former Han dynasty. His father died when he was young, and his mother raised him very strictly, often beating him with a staff. But he never cried. One day, however, his mother saw him weep when she beat him and asked the reason. Po-yü replied that he was grieved to realize that she was growing old and feeble.
Heart Sutra A short sutra containing the essence of the Wisdom sutras and briefly stating the doctrine of the non-substantiality or emptiness of all phenomena.
Heat-Free Lake Also, Anavatapta Lake. A lake said to give rise to the four rivers that nurture the soil in the four quarters of Jambudvīpa and to lie north of the Snow Mountains.
heavenly devil See devil king of the sixth heaven.
heavenly gods and benevolent deities Also, Buddhist gods, protective gods, tutelary gods, guardian gods, and so on. Gods who protect the correct Buddhist teaching and its votaries. These gods also work to protect the people and their land and bring fortune to both. “Heavenly gods and benevolent deities” is a generic term for Brahmā, Shakra, the four heavenly kings, and other deities.
heaven of the thirty-three gods The second of the six heavens in the world of desire. It is said to be located on a plateau at the top of Mount Sumeru, where it is home to thirty-three gods, including Shakra who rules over the others.
heavens of purity See five heavens of purity.
Hei no Saemon (d. 1293) Officially, Hei no Saemon-no-jō Yoritsuna. Also known as Taira no Yoritsuna. A leading official of the Hōjō regency. He served two successive regents, Hōjō Tokimune and Hōjō Sadatoki, and wielded tremendous influence as deputy chief of the Office of Military and Police Affairs (the chief being the regent himself). He played an active part in persecuting Nichiren Daishonin and his followers.
hell The realm of utmost suffering. Various kinds of hells are described in the sutras, such as the eight hot hells and the eight cold hells. Also, the first and lowest of the Ten Worlds. Viewed as a state of life, hell is a condition of extreme mental or physical suffering, characterized by an impulse of rage to destroy oneself.
hell of incessant suffering See Avīchi hell.
Hiei, Mount The mountain in Japan where Enryaku-ji, the head temple of the Tendai school, is located. In Nichiren Daishonin’s writings, it is often used to indicate Enryaku-ji itself. After the death of Dengyō, its founder, the Tendai school was greatly influenced by the esoteric teachings of the True Word school.
Himatala (n.d.) A ruler of the ancient kingdom of Tukhara in northern India about six hundred years after Shakyamuni’s death. A devout Buddhist, he defeated King Krita of Kashmir who had suppressed Buddhism.
Hinayana The teaching that aims at attaining the state of arhat. Hinayana, literally “lesser vehicle,” was originally a pejorative term used by Mahayana Buddhists, who regarded the practitioners of these teachings as preoccupied solely with achieving personal emancipation and indifferent to the salvation of others. Hinayana teachings are represented by the doctrines of the four noble truths and the twelve-linked chain of causation. They regard earthly desires as the cause of suffering and assert that suffering is eliminated only by eradicating earthly desires.
Hiranyavatī Also, Ajitavatī. A river that flows through Kushinagara in India. Shakyamuni passed away in a grove of sal trees near the west bank of this river. Some scholars regard the Ajitavatī and Hiranyavatī as different rivers.
Hōnen (1133–1212) Also known as Genkū. The founder of the Pure Land school in Japan. He first studied the Tendai doctrines but later turned to chanting the name of Amida Buddha, urging people to discard all of Shakyamuni’s teachings other than the three sutras on which the Pure Land school is based.
Hsing-man (n.d.) A priest of the Chinese T’ien-t’ai school during the T’ang dynasty and a disciple of Miao-lo. When Dengyō arrived at Mount T’ien-t’ai from Japan in 804, Hsing-man taught him the T’ien-t’ai doctrine and entrusted him with the major works of the school.
Hsüan-tsang (602–664) A Chinese priest of the T’ang dynasty and a translator of Buddhist scriptures. He left for India in 629, where he studied the Consciousness-Only doctrine and other Buddhist teachings. In 645 he returned to China with numerous Sanskrit texts, many of which he later translated. His extensive travels are described in The Record of the Western Regions. Both he and his disciple Tz’u-en are regarded as the founders of the Dharma Characteristics school.
Hsüan-tsung (685–762) The sixth emperor of the T’ang dynasty. During his reign (712–756), the dynasty reached the height of its prosperity. However, he became infatuated with the beautiful concubine Yang Kuei-fei and began to neglect affairs of government. In 755, a rebellion broke out, headed by the military leader An Lu-shan, and the rebels ultimately captured the capital, forcing the emperor and his court to flee.
Hui-k’o (487–593) The second patriarch of the Chinese Zen school.
Hui-kuan (368–438) A Chinese priest during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period. He became a disciple of Kumārajīva and joined in the master’s translation work. It is said that, after Kumārajīva’s death, he assisted Buddhabhadra with his translation of the Flower Garland Sutra. He also revised the two existing Chinese translations of the Nirvana Sutra and produced what is called the southern version of the sutra.
Hui-kuang (468–537) The founder of the Fourfold Rules of Discipline school, or the Ssu-fen-lü (Jpn Shibunritsu) school, in China. He studied the vinaya, or rules of monastic discipline. He joined in the translation work with Bodhiruchi and Ratnamati, and wrote a commentary on The Treatise on the Ten Stages Sutra.
Hui-k’uang (534–613) A priest in China who was famed for his strict observance of the precepts and deep knowledge of Buddhism.
Hui-kuo (746–805) A Chinese T’ang-dynasty priest and the seventh patriarch of esoteric Buddhism. Hui-kuo was one of Pu-k’ung’s six major disciples. He transferred the esoteric teachings to Kōbō, the founder of the Japanese True Word school.
Hui-neng (638–713) A disciple of the fifth patriarch of Chinese Zen, Hung-jen, and the founder of the Southern school. After Hung-jen’s death, Chinese Zen split into two branches—the Southern school headed by Hui-neng and the Northern school headed by Shen-hsiu. Hui-neng’s words were recorded as The Platform Sutra.
Hui-tsung (1082–1135) The eighth emperor of the Northern Sung dynasty in China. He ascended the throne in 1100 but took little interest in ruling, devoting his time to calligraphy and painting. He was a follower of Taoism and suppressed Buddhism.
Hui-yüan (1) (523–592) A Chinese priest of the Treatise on the Ten Stages Sutra school, or the Ti-lun (Jpn Jiron) school. He remonstrated with Emperor Wu of the Northern Chou dynasty when the latter threatened to abolish Buddhism. (2) (n.d.) A Chinese priest of the Flower Garland school from the late seventh century through the mid-eighth century during the T’ang dynasty. He became a disciple of Fa-tsang, the third patriarch of the Flower Garland school, and was well versed in the doctrines of the school.
hundred worlds and thousand factors “Hundred worlds” means the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds—the principle that each of the Ten Worlds possesses all ten within itself. Each of the hundred worlds in turn encompasses the ten factors, thus constituting a “thousand factors.” In contrast to the three thousand realms in a single moment of life, which includes all things in the universe, both sentient and insentient, the “hundred worlds and thousand factors” applies only to sentient beings.
hungry spirits Also, hungry ghosts. The spirits of the dead who, as described in the Buddhist scriptures, are suffering from hunger as karmic retribution for their greed and selfishness while alive. The realm of hungry spirits is one of the three evil paths and of the four evil paths. The realm of hungry spirits is also regarded as a state in which one is tormented physically or spiritually by relentless craving. Hungry spirits are often referred to by their Sanskrit name, preta.
Hung Yen (d. 660 b.c.e.) A retainer of Duke Yi (r. 668–660 b.c.e.) of the Chinese state of Wei. While Hung Yen was away on a journey, an enemy attacked the state of Wei, killed Duke Yi, and devoured his body, leaving only the duke’s liver. Returning, Hung Yen beheld the disastrous scene and wept. He then slit open his own stomach and inserted the liver to save his lord from dishonor, and died. To the Chinese, the liver was the source of vitality.