It is the “wide” practice to uphold, read, recite, and defend with delight the total of the Lotus Sūtra consisting of 28 chapters in 8 fascicles. It is the “abbreviated” practice to uphold and keep the important chapters such as the “Expedients” and “The Life Span of the Buddha” of the Lotus Sūtra. It is the “essential” practice to chant only the four-phrase verse of “The Divine Powers” chapter or the daimoku or to protect those who do so. Of these three kinds of practices to chant only the daimoku devotedly is the essence of the essential.
Hokke Daimoku Shō, Treatise on the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra