The first of the ten signs, the buddhas extending their tongues to the heavens of Brahmā, is culturally bound and may not resonate with modern readers. In the context of the sūtra’s compilation, a long and wide tongue was considered one of a buddha’s distinguishing physical marks, a sign that he never lies, and the buddhas’ act of extending their tongues was intended to verify the Lotus Sūtra’s truth. Nichiren often mentioned this act as underscoring the significance of the transmission that Śākyamuni was now about to make: “Having summoned these people [i.e., the four bodhisattvas who lead the bodhisattvas of the earth], Śākyamuni Buddha entrusted to them the five characters Myōhō-renge-kyō. This was no ordinary transmission, for the Buddha first manifested ten transcendent powers. When Śākyamuni extended his wide and long tongue to the upper limit of the world of form, all the other buddhas did likewise, their tongues reaching into the air above four million nayutas of worlds and filling the sky like billions of crimson rainbows arched together — an altogether awesome display.” Elsewhere, Nichiren would note that the Buddha sitting side by side with another buddha (in Chapter Eleven) and buddhas extending their tongues to the heavens of Brahmā appear in no other Buddhist sūtra, Hinayāna or Mahāyāna, further proof of the unique truth of the Lotus Sūtra.

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