[T]he latter half of chapter 21 consists of verses [that] have long been popularly and lovingly recited. The chapter closes with these words:

After the extinction of the Tathagata,
Anyone who knows the sutras preached by the Buddha,
Their causes and conditions and proper order,
Will teach them truthfully in accord with their true meaning.

Just as the light of the sun and the moon
Can dispel darkness,
Such a person, working in the world,
Can dispel the gloom of living beings,

Leading innumerable bodhisattvas
Finally to dwell in the one vehicle.
Therefore, one who has wisdom,
Hearing of the blessings to be gained,

After my extinction
Should embrace this sutra.
Such a person will be determined to follow,
Without doubts, the Buddha way.

From these verses Nichiren became aware of what it means to be born in the latter days, and of his own mission. And though his heart was crushed by suffering, he enthusiastically took up his mission once again. At that time, he developed his so-called “Five Categories of Teaching”—five things that have to be taken into account for disseminating the Dharma: the teaching, the hearers, the age, the country, and the sequence of propagation.