[I]n interpreting the parable of the burning house, the Buddha says to Śāriputra: “Now this triple world is my property and the sentient beings in it are my children. There are now many dangers here and I am the only one who can protect them.” Nichiren interpreted this passage as expressing Śākyamuni Buddha’s three virtues of sovereign, teacher, and parent, which are mentioned briefly in a commentary on the Nirvāṇa Sūtra by Zhiyi’s disciple Guanding (561-632). Nichiren asserted repeatedly that only Śākyamuni Buddha of the Lotus Sūtra possesses these virtues with respect to all beings of the present, Sahā world: He protects them, like a powerful ruler; he guides them, like an enlightened teacher; and he extends compassionate affection to them, like a benevolent parent. In contrast, other buddhas, such as Mahāvairocana (J. Dainichi), Bhaiṣajyaguru (Yakushi), or Amitābha (Amida), have no such connection to this world-sphere: “The buddha Amitābha is not our sovereign, not our parent, and not our teacher.” This reading enabled Nichiren to depict the devotion to the buddha Amitābha, so popular in his day, as the unfilial act of honoring a stranger above one’s own parent, or as even a form of treason, such as venerating the ruler of China or Korea over the ruler of Japan.