At this early stage, Nichiren’s claims for the daimoku were still rather modest. He presents it as an alternative for “ignorant persons” unable to perform the introspective contemplation on the “three thousand realms in a single thought-moment,” which those “who have the resolve” are encouraged to pursue. As for the merits resulting from this practice, Nichiren says only that those who chant it, even without understanding its meaning, will not be pulled down by worldly evils into the lower realms of transmigration but will eventually reach the stage of nonretrogression. Not until much later in life would he declare that “all persons, whether they have wisdom or not, should alike abandon other practices and chant Namu-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō” and advocate the daimoku as the sole practice for the direct realization of Buddhahood in this very body. (Page 248)

Nichiren’s writings of this period also employ Tendai ideas of nonduality and original enlightenment to undermine the categories of Honen’s thought, such as the distinction between “self-power” (jiriki) and “Other-power” (tariki), or between this impure world (edo) and the pure land. For example:

The Lotus Sūtra establishes self-power but is not self-power. Since the “self” encompasses all beings of the ten realms, one’s own person from the outset contains the Buddha realm of both oneself and of all beings. Thus, one does not now become a Buddha for the first time. [The sūtra] also establishes Other-power but is not Other-power. Since the Buddha who is “other” is contained within us ordinary worldlings, this Buddha naturally manifests himself as identical to ourselves.

The originally enlightened Buddha of the perfect teaching abides in this world. If one abandons this land, toward what other land should one aspire? … The practitioner who believes in the Lotus and Nirvāṇa sūtras should not seek another place, for wherever one has faith in this sūtra is precisely the pure land. … For people of our day, who have not yet formed a bond with the Lotus Sūtra, to aspire to the Western Pure Land is to aspire to a land of rubble. (Page 247)

After returning to the Kiyosumidera, Nichiren set out again for the vicinity of the capital, where he studied on Mt. Hiei and at other locations. Virtually nothing is known of his studies on Mt. Hiei. During his stay there, the master of instruction (sōgakutō) was Shunpan, a leading Tendai scholar and the current patriarch of the Sugiu line of the Eshin school. Traditional accounts maintain that Nichiren received from Shunpan the transmission of the Eshin lineage, which some modern scholars have upheld. However, the few brief references to Shunpan in Nichiren’s writings convey no sense of a personal relationship. Takagi Yutaka argues that while Nichiren may have audited Shunpan’s public lectures, his common birth would have precluded his entry into a master-disciple relationship with so eminent a prelate. Moreover, his Kantō accent would have instantly marked him as native of the eastern provinces, despised as culturally backward by people of the Kyoto region. Takagi further suggests that Nichiren’s exclusion from the circles of initiates that formed around the leading masters on Mt. Hiei may have led to his habit of turning to written documents, rather than living teachers, for instruction and verification. The first of the four reliances, “Rely on the Dharma and not upon persons” (ehō fuenin), would be his lifelong motto. Nonetheless, it is noteworthy that Shunpan was among those ranking Tendai prelates who vigorously opposed Hōnen’s teaching. Even if Nichiren’s only exposure to Shunpan were through public lectures, what he heard may have confirmed him in his objections to the exclusive nenbutsu. (Page 244-245)

Nichiren’s teaching of exclusive commitment to the Lotus Sūtra in the Final Dharma age undergoes development from two perspectives. While it would be misleading to suggest that these exist as distinct categories in his thought, they may perhaps be thought of as two interconnected soteric modalities. The first is Nichiren’s emphasis on the importance of readiness to give one’s life for the Lotus Sūtra. Since, in Nichiren’s thought, only the Lotus leads to salvation, its devotees, out of compassion, must confront nonbelievers in the sūtra and strictly point out their errors. By enduring the abuse such efforts are likely to call forth, one’s past evil karma can be lessened or eradicated. To incur persecution for the Lotus Sūtra’s sake demonstrates the authenticity of one’s faith; to give one’s life for it is to guarantee one’s future Buddhahood. Nichiren developed this soteriology through his own reading of the Lotus and other sūtras and commentaries over the course of two exiles, various attempts on his life, and other ordeals he and his followers confronted in the course of his turbulent career.

Second, Nichiren taught that in the Final Dharma age, by arousing the mind of faith in the sūtra and chanting its title or daimoku in the phrase “Namu-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō,” one can realize Buddhahood with this very body. In this act, the identity of the Buddha and the ordinary worldling is manifested, and the place of practice becomes the Buddha land. This modality has obvious continuities with the esoteric Tendai tradition from which Nichiren had emerged.

Of these two soteric modalities, the first—attaining Buddhahood by meeting persecution for the sūtra’s sake—stands out more prominently in the body of Nichiren’s writings. It is the “outward face,” so to speak, of his religion and represents his response to immediate circumstances as he and his followers began to meet opposition from the bakufu and to wrestle with the doubts such persecution engendered. After Nichiren’s death, the ethos of “not begrudging bodily life” for the practice and propagation of the Lotus Sūtra proved instrumental in enabling his fledgling community to emerge as an independent sect and to define and maintain its identity vis-ā-vis older and more established institutions. It is in many ways definitive of his tradition, and no comprehensive account of his thought could ignore it. Informing it, however, is the second or “inner” soteric modality, that of realizing Buddhahood in the moment of chanting the daimoku. This is what ties Nichiren to the nonlinear model of salvation that characterizes much of medieval Japanese Buddhism. (Page 241-242)