The Four Faiths in the Present mean four steps of belief: Understanding by Faith in a Single Moment’s Thought, Understanding the Meaning, Disseminating it to Others, and Entering into Deep Faith.

1. Understanding by Faith in a Single Moment’s Thought

As a first step, if anyone opens the heart in faith and understands the gist of the Sutra, even for just a moment, his or her happiness and virtue will be everlasting (p. 254-255

2. Understanding the Meaning

In the next step, one becomes clearly aware of the inner meaning of the Sutra.

3. Disseminating it to Others

In the third step, one’s practice makes further progress. The practitioner upholds and copies the Lotus Sutra, not only for personal satisfaction, but also for the sake of others, expounding it to them, and having them copy it, too, or make offerings to it (p. 257).

4. Entering into Deep Faith

At the fourth step, the practitioner mentally sees clearly the figure of the Original Buddha and his Pure Land and is able to enter into the state of deep faith, thanks to the teaching of the “Duration of the Life of the Tathagata” (p. 258).

The Lotus Sutra can be seen as a book of prophetic teachings. For this reason, Nichiren called these teachings “narratives of the Buddha in the future.” These narratives of the future, however, do not merely prophesy what will happen in coming generations. Their point is that Sakyamuni teaches living beings how to perform practices in an era when he does not physically exist. Since the words of the Buddha are true, we are expected to accept them as the Truth, and we are all required to follow the teaching

Nichiren actually put into practice what the Lotus Sutra had expounded concerning its propagation in the future. His determined efforts, however, raised opposition, which led to persecutions.

[T]he Lotus Sutra can be divided into two sections: the first half (Shakumon) and the second half Honmon). Nichiren concluded that the fundamental idea of the Lotus Sutra is manifested more clearly in the latter half than the first half, Furthermore, the central idea of the second half is elaborated in Chapter Sixteen, “The Duration of the Life of the Buddha.” The account in Chapter Sixteen is actually a continuation of the latter half of the previous chapter, “Bodhisattvas from Underground,” and is continued through the first half of the next Chapter, “The Variety of Merits.”

The three parts are closely enough related to form one single chain of thought. In his Kanjin-honzon-sho, Nichiren argues that the quintessence of the teachings of the Primal Mystery lies in this chain of three parts, which he specifically calls the “one chapter and two halves.” In addition, he declares that in our present Age of Degeneration, the teaching of the “one chapter and two halves” should be propagated in the abbreviated form of five Chinese characters, the title MYO-HO-REN-GE-KYO, meaning “The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.”