On the Eighteen Perfections Chapter10

Question: With regard to this Law of the natural enlightenment that is bright in and of itself, in the period following the passing of the Buddha, when is the proper time to propagate it?

Answer: It should be widely disseminated in the Middle Day of the Law.

Question: And what title and description would you give to the Law that is to be propagated in the Latter Day of the Law?

Answer: The answer to this is made clear in the secret Law handed down to Nichiren himself and kept in his mind. It is none other than Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

Question: What passages can be cited to prove this?

Answer: The “Supernatural Powers” chapter states: “At that time the Buddha spoke to Superior Practices and the others in the great assembly of bodhisattvas, saying: ‘To put it briefly, [all the doctrines possessed by the Thus Come One, all the freely exercised supernatural powers of the Thus Come One, the storehouse of all the secret essentials of the Thus Come One, all the most profound matters of the Thus Come One]—all these are proclaimed, revealed, and clearly expounded in this sutra.’” The Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai says: “The passage that begins ‘At that time the Buddha spoke to Superior Practices’ constitutes the third [of the three divisions of the prose section of the chapter describing] the transfer of the essence of the Lotus Sutra.”³⁹

And he also says: “The essence of all the essential passages in the Lotus Sutra is the four matters [represented by the four phrases].⁴⁰ [In other words], the entire Lotus Sutra is summed up in these four phrases. These four, which represent the essence of the sutra, are being transmitted to Superior Practices and the others.”⁴¹

Question: The passage you have just cited deals with the transmission to Bodhisattva Superior Practices and the others. Why, then, do you speak about “the secret Law handed down to Nichiren himself and kept in his mind”?

Answer: I, Nichiren, am leading the way in propagating the secret Law that Bodhisattva Superior Practices has been entrusted to disseminate. Does this not mean that the transmission concerns myself? I am acting as one of the local deputies for Bodhisattva Superior Practices.