Although Nichiren’s thinking during this early period thus remained largely within the framework of Taimitsu, some of the beginnings of his distinctive teaching are nevertheless in evidence. Around this time, Nichiren began recommending to his disciples a practice that has since become almost uniquely associated with his tradition: chanting the daimoku or title of the Lotus Sūtra, in the formula “Namu-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō.” Myōhōrenge-kyō is the Sino-Japanese pronunciation for Miao-fa-lien-hua Ching, the title of the Chinese translation of the Saddharma-pundanka-sūtra made by Kumārajīva in 406 and regarded as authoritative throughout East Asia. “Namu,” a transliteration of the Sanskrit namo- (from namas), is an expression of devotion, veneration, praise, or the taking of refuge. Nichiren himself did not invent this practice. Use of the phrase “Namu-myōhōrenge-kyō” to express devotion to the Dharma is attested as early as the ninth century. Throughout the late Heian period, single phrases expressing faith in the Lotus were chanted—though not nearly as widely— in the same manner as the nenbutsu. These expressions were not unified but included such variants as “Namu- myōhō-renge-kyō,” “Namu-ichijōmyōden” (Namu to the wonderful scripture of the one vehicle), and so forth.42 Nichiren, however, was the first to define the daimoku as an exclusive practice and to provide it with a doctrinal foundation. His emphasis on the daimoku as an exclusive practice no doubt reflects the influence of Hōnen’s exclusive nenbutsu teaching, as others have pointed out. But the doctrinal basis he provided for it has deep roots in Taimitsu and also reflects his own distinctive synthesis. (Page 247-248)

At this early stage, Nichiren’s claims for the daimoku were still rather modest. He presents it as an alternative for “ignorant persons” unable to perform the introspective contemplation on the “three thousand realms in a single thought-moment,” which those “who have the resolve” are encouraged to pursue. As for the merits resulting from this practice, Nichiren says only that those who chant it, even without understanding its meaning, will not be pulled down by worldly evils into the lower realms of transmigration but will eventually reach the stage of nonretrogression. Not until much later in life would he declare that “all persons, whether they have wisdom or not, should alike abandon other practices and chant Namu-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō” and advocate the daimoku as the sole practice for the direct realization of Buddhahood in this very body. (Page 248)

Nichiren’s writings of this period also employ Tendai ideas of nonduality and original enlightenment to undermine the categories of Honen’s thought, such as the distinction between “self-power” (jiriki) and “Other-power” (tariki), or between this impure world (edo) and the pure land. For example:

The Lotus Sūtra establishes self-power but is not self-power. Since the “self” encompasses all beings of the ten realms, one’s own person from the outset contains the Buddha realm of both oneself and of all beings. Thus, one does not now become a Buddha for the first time. [The sūtra] also establishes Other-power but is not Other-power. Since the Buddha who is “other” is contained within us ordinary worldlings, this Buddha naturally manifests himself as identical to ourselves.

The originally enlightened Buddha of the perfect teaching abides in this world. If one abandons this land, toward what other land should one aspire? … The practitioner who believes in the Lotus and Nirvāṇa sūtras should not seek another place, for wherever one has faith in this sūtra is precisely the pure land. … For people of our day, who have not yet formed a bond with the Lotus Sūtra, to aspire to the Western Pure Land is to aspire to a land of rubble. (Page 247)