Written by Nichiren

Chapter15(All sutras were begun from an enlightenment unmeasurable time ago)

Numberless major world system dust particle kalpas in the past the Thus Come One Shakyamuni, who was then an ordinary mortal, came to realize that his body was made up of the elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space, and having done so, he immediately attained enlightenment. After that, in order to instruct and convert others he appeared in the world again and again, in age after age going through the process of acquiring the way and in place after place manifesting the eight phases of a Buddha’s existence. Later he was born in the palace of a king, gained enlightenment under the bodhi tree, and made it appear to living beings that he had attained Buddhahood for the first time. In the forty and more years following, he set forth various expedient teachings in order to lead and guide living beings.

After that, he thrust aside the various sutra teachings that he had used as an expedient means and preached the correct and straightforward doctrine of the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law, revealing the truth of the seeds of the five wisdom Thus Come Ones. He included within it the various sutras preached as an expedient means in the preceding forty-two years, rolling them all together and fashioning the one Buddha vehicle, calling it the Law that embraces all people in one, the Law that embodies the enlightenment of the individual. He created an honest and truthful document that others could not tamper with, and affixed to it his own seal of verification.

When Shakyamuni Buddha was preparing to transmit this document handed down from the Buddhas of the three existences, he patted the heads of the numerous bodhisattvas who had filled the air above three thousand three hundred ten thousand million nayutas of lands, and then, indicating the time he had in mind, he exhorted them to expound this Law specifically for the sake of us today, the living beings of this Latter Day of the Law, and to use the above document of the Buddha and bestow the Law without fail upon us. Three times he spoke, carefully repeating the same words over. And when he had done so, the numerous bodhisattvas all without exception bent their bodies, bowed their heads and, repeating the same words three times over, each promised without fail to honor the Buddha’s instructions. With this the Buddha, his mind now at ease, returned to his royal city of original enlightenment.

Following the ceremony of preaching the Law of the Buddhas of the three existences and their manner of setting forth the Law, this transfer document indicates in the same words the period to which the Law should be transmitted, the Latter Day of the Law. That is, it is indicated that in the last five-hundred-year period this Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law should be the sole means for attaining Buddhahood. This is clearly indicated in this document that was handed down from the Buddhas of the three existences.