NICHEREN PROCLAIMS HIMSELF
THE BODHISATTVA OF SUPERB ACTION

I, Nichiren, a man born in the ages of the Latter Law,
have nearly achieved the task of pioneership in propagating
the Perfect Truth, the task assigned to the Bodhisattva of
Superb Action (Vishishtachiritra) The eternal Buddhahood of
Shakyamuni, as he revealed himself in the chapter on
Life-duration, in accordance with his primeval entity, the
Buddha Prabhutaratna, who appeared in the Heavenly Shrine,
in the chapter on its appearance, and who represents
Buddhahood in the manifestation of its efficacy; the Saints
[bodhisattvas] who sprang out of the earth, as made known in
the chapter on the Issuing out of Earth -in revealing all
these three, I have done the work of the pioneer [ among
those who perpetuate the Truth]; too high an honour, indeed,
for me, a common mortal! . . .

I, Nichiren, am the one who takes the lead of the
Saints-out-of-Earth. Then may I not be one of them? If I,
Nichiren, am one of them, why may not all my disciples and
followers be their kinsmen? The Scripture says 'If one
preaches to anybody the Lotus of Truth, even just one
clause of it, he is, know ye, the messenger of the
Tathagata, the one commissioned by the Tathagata, and the
one who does the work of the Tathagata.' How, then, can I
be anybody else than this one? . . .

By all means, awaken faith by seizing this opportunity! Live
your life through as the one who embodies the Truth, and go
on without hesitation as a kinsman of Nichiren! If you are
one in faith with Nichiren, you are one of the
Saints-out-of-Earth; if you are destined to be such, how can
you doubt that you are the disciple of the Lord Shakyamuni
from all eternity? There is assurance of this in a word of
Buddha, which says: 'I have always, from eternity, been
instructing and quickening all these beings.' No attention
should be paid to the difference between men and women among
those who would propagate the Lotus of the Perfect Truth in
the days of the Latter Law. To utter the Sacred Title is,
indeed, the privilege of the Saints-out-of-Earth. . . .

When the Buddha Prabhutaratna sat in the Heavenly Shrine
side by side with the Tathagata Shakyamuni, the two Buddhas
lifted up the banner of the Lotus of the Perfect Truth, and
declared themselves to be the Commanders [in the coming
fight against vice and illusion]. How can this be a
deception? Indeed, they have thereby agreed to raise us
mortal beings to the rank of Buddha. I, Nichiren, was not
present there in the congregation, and yet there is no
reason to doubt the statements of the Scripture. Or, is it
possible that I was there? Common mortal that I am, I am not
well aware of the past, yet in the present I am unmistakably
the one who is realizing the Lotus of Truth. Then in the
future I am surely destined to participate in the communion
of the Holy Place. Inferring the past from the present and
the future, I should think that I must have been present at
the Communion in the Sky. [The present assures the future
destiny, and the future destiny is inconceivable without its
cause in the past.] The present, future, and past cannot be
isolated from one another. . . .

In this document, the truths most precious to me are written
down. Read, and read again; read into the letters and fix
them into your mind ! Thus put faith in the Supreme Being,
represented in a way unique in the whole world! Ever more
strongly I advise you to be firm in faith, and to be under
the protection of the threefold Buddhahood. March
strenuously on in the ways of practice and learning! Without
practice and learning the Buddhist religion is nullified.
Train yourself, and also instruct others ! Be convinced that
practice and learning are fruits of faith ! So long as, and
so far as, there is power in you, preach, if it be only a
phrase or a word [of the Scripture] ! Namu Myoho-renge-kyo!
Namu Myoho-renge-kyo! [Adoration to the Lotus of Perfect
Truth.]

Masaharu Anesaki, Nichiren, the Buddhist Prophet
(Cambridge, Mass., 1916), pp. 83-5;
as quoted in Wm. Theodore de Bary (ed.), Sources of
Japanese Tradition (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1958), pp