QUESTION: You have said that for 2,000 years during the Ages of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma, scholar-monks and the so-called four ranks of bodhisattvas who guided the people after the death of Śākyamuni Buddha built temples and pagodas for various Buddhas such as the Buddha of Infinite Life, the Great Sun Buddha, and the Medicine Master Buddha. Some of them built temples and pagodas dedicated to Śākyamuni Buddha preaching the Hinayāna, quasi-Mahāyāna, and pre-Lotus sūtras or the theoretical section (first half) of the Lotus Sūtra. None of them in the three lands of India, China, and Japan—neither a king nor his subjects, however, has ever revered the true Honzon revealed in “The Life Span of the Buddha” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, the Eternal Buddha with four bodhisattvas waiting on Him. It has startled me and I am just confused because it has never been said by anyone before. I ask you to explain it once more as I wish to hear it in detail.
ANSWER: The Lotus Sūtra consists of eight fascicles and twenty-eight chapters. Four steps of teaching (sūtras of the first four tastes) were preached before the Lotus Sūtra was, and the Nirvana Sūtra after it. These lifetime preachings of the Buddha can be bound in one sūtra. Those preached before the Lotus Sūtra, from the Flower Garland Sūtra, which was preached upon His attainment of Buddhahood at Buddhagayā, to the Great Wisdom Sūtra, comprise the preface. The Sūtra of Infinite Meaning (Muryōgi-kyō), the Lotus Sūtra, and the Sūtra of Meditation on the Universal Sage Bodhisattva (Kan Fugen Bosatsu Gyōbō-kyō), ten fascicles in all, serve as the main discourse while the Nirvana Sūtra constitutes the epilogue.
The ten fascicles of the main discourse can further be divided into three parts. The Sūtra of Infinite Meaning and the first “Introduction” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra constitute the preface. The fifteen and one-half chapters of the Lotus Sūtra from the second chapter on “Expedients” to the nineteen-line verse in the seventeenth chapter, the “Variety of Merits,” mark the main discourse. The eleven and one-half chapters of the Lotus Sūtra from the last half of the “Variety of Merits” chapter, where the four stages of faith during Śākyamuni’s lifetime are preached, to the twenty-eighth (last) chapter of the sūtra, plus the one-fascicle of the Sūtra of Meditation on the Universal Sage Bodhisattva make up the epilogue.
Furthermore, the ten fascicles of the threefold Lotus Sūtra (Sūtra of
Infinite Meaning, Lotus Sūtra, and Sūtra of Meditation on the Universal Sage Bodhisattva) can be divided into two sections, theoretical and essential, each of which contains a preface, main discourse, and epilogue. First, in the theoretical section, the Sūtra of Infinite Meaning and the first “Introduction” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra compose the preface; the eight chapters of the Lotus Sūtra from the second chapter on “Expedients” to the ninth chapter, “Assurance of Future Buddhahood” inclusive, represent the main discourse; and the five chapters from the tenth chapter, “The Teacher of the Dharma,” to the fourteenth chapter, “Peaceful Practices, comprise the epilogue.
The Lord who preached this teaching is Śākyamuni Buddha, who had attained Buddhahood for the first time in this world under the bodhi tree at Buddhagayā. He preached the truth of 1,000 aspects contained in 100 realms which had never been revealed before. It is the True Dharma which transcends all the sūtras which had been preached (pre-Lotus sūtras), are now being preached (Sūtra of Infinite Meaning), and are to be preached (such as Nirvana Sūtra). It is the innermost intention of the Buddha, which is difficult to have faith in and comprehend.
Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 149-151
