[The moment of “embracing” the Lotus Sūtra as conceived in Nichiren’s thought] is a moment of intersection between the present time and the timeless realm of enlightenment, in which the Buddha, the practitioner, and the practitioner’s outer world are all identified. It is described as the “three thousand realms in one thought-moment,” which is implicit in the practitioner as the ontological basis of enlightenment, embodied in the daimoku and the object of worship, accessed in the act of faith and chanting, and manifested outwardly in the transformation of the world. This reality is both inherent in and mediated by the five characters myōhō-renge-kyō conferred by the original Śākyamuni Buddha upon the people of the Final Dharma age and is accessible in no other way. This understanding of the Lotus Sūtra as the sole vehicle of realizing Buddhahood underlies Nichiren’s mandate to uphold it “without begrudging bodily life.” It also enabled him and his followers to challenge the authority of established religious institutions and to define themselves as the unique possessors of truth. (Page 294-295)

It is important to note that Nichiren’s aspiration for achieving the Pure Land of Eagle Peak after death never replaced his conviction that, by the spread of exclusive faith in the Lotus and in accordance with the principle of risshō ankoku, the pure land could be realized in the present world. It also coexists in his thought with his teaching that enlightenment is manifested in the moment of faith and chanting. In other traditions as well, notions of directly accessible or even immanent Buddhahood did not rule out conceptions of an afterlife in a different realm but often existed alongside them: “Even though one knows Amida Buddha to be one’s own mind, one forms a relationship with Amida of the west.” However, unlike some strands of Pure Land thought directed toward Amida, Nichiren’s “Pure Land of Sacred Eagle Peak” lacks a sense of concreteness as an actual place postulated over and against the present world; it is never said to lie in a specific direction, nor does aspiring toward it involve repudiating the present world. In the few passages of Nichiren’s writings where some sort of description is offered, it is usually along the lines of “[M]aster and disciples shall together visit the Pure Land of Sacred [Eagle] Peak and behold the faces of the three Buddhas [Śākyamuni, Many-Jewels, and all the Buddhas who are Śākyamuni’s emanations],” or “If one inquires where the late Abutsu-bō is now, he is within the jeweled stūpa of the Buddha Many-Jewels on Sacred Eagle Peak.” In short, this pure land resembles the assembly in open space depicted on Nichiren’s mandala and may be thought of as an extension of that realm to encompass the faithful dead. (Page 294)