Japanese Buddhism Enlightened against Mongol Invasion
Probably I have to add some explanation to a certain incident in the following presentation:
"Development of Underlying Spiritual Events of Mankind:
GOD
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Abraham (around 1900 B.C.)
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Moses (around 1200 B.C.)
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JUDAISM (around 500 B.C.)
Brahmanism Enlightened (around 500 B.C.)
Buddha (around 500 B.C.)
Confucius (around 500 B.C.)
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CHRISTIANITY (around A.D. 100)
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ISLAM (around 700)
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Japanese Buddhism Enlightened (around 1300)
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American Denominations Expanded (around 1900)
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The 21st Century: The Present Day"
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Among the above stated incidents, the least known one must be "Japanese Buddhism Enlightened (around 1300)."
Today, there is one specific political party in Japan which has joined and formed a coalition cabinet with the Liberal Democratic Party.
The party is called "New Komeito" which is often regarded as a religious party and thus considered by many to be controversial or unconstitutional in the worst sense.
The supporters of this party mostly belong to a quasi-religious body called "Soka Gakkai." Most members of Soka Gakkai believe in teaching of one of prominent Buddhist priests who emerged around 1300 or the 13th or 14th century in Japan.
Nonetheless, "Japanese Buddhism Enlightened (around 1300)" was not carried out by a single prominent monk; there were some other great Buddhist monks in the era when the first samurai regime was established in Japan.
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The advents of those enlightened monks had really changed the state and practices of Buddhism in Japan. The religion had truly come to become Japanese.
The era is also remembered today for Mongol invasion attempts against Japan, specifically in 1274 and 1281.
The Mongol Empire or the Yuan dynasty (so called as they also occupied China), which conquered almost all the nations in Asia from Korea to China, North India, Persia, the Arab land, Russia, and Turk while invading East Europe, failed in invading Japan and got defeated by samurais who were luckily helped by a typhoon or a mighty summer tempest each time Mongolian fleets attacked Japanese coast lines.
(This summer tempest or typhoon is later called "Kamikaze," literally meaning the God Wind.
Additionally, Marco Polo visited the Yuan dynasty and later wrote about Japan as a kind of miracle countries full of gold in his travel record which eventually drove Christopher Columbus to the famous adventurous voyage heading for Japan but actually leading to the discovery of America. In this context, if samurais physically and Buddhist monks spiritually had not defeated Mongolian invasion and aroused special interest in Marco Polo, Columbus might not have discovered the new world America.)
Facing a national crisis brought by the mightiest bellicose empire in the human history, the Mongol Empire, Japanese needed spiritual leaders. And spiritual work among people as well as monks got activated. It led to emergence of new denominations and reinforcement of conventional denominations of Japanese Buddhism.
It changed the Japanese spiritual world. Just like samurais who defeated the world-strongest invading troops and got confidence, the Buddhism monks achieved the world-class and historic enlightenment.
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Though I do not belong to any religious denomination or sect or political party, I respect freedom of people to use such organizations.
But, my advice is that you should not let anyone interfere with your direct relation with God.
The issue is rather whether we are now facing the strongest enemy, such as the Mongol Empire in the 13th century, and what faith we need to stand fast against it.
"The Stone Which the Builders Rejected as Worthless Turned out to be the Most Important of All"