According to Buddhist scriptures, the world goes through four kalpa (periods of construction, continuance, destruction, and emptiness), each of which consists of 20 small kalpa. In the period of continuance, the average human longevity increases by a year per century from 10 years until it reaches the maximum human longevity of 84,000 years. Thereafter the human life grows shorter by a year per century until it reaches the minimum average human life span of 10 years. Now, Śākyamuni Buddha was born to this world during the ninth small kalpa, within the kalpa of continuance, when the human life span was decreasing to 100 years. The fifty years of Śākyamuni’s appearance in this world, the 2,000-year period of Ages of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma, and the 10,000 years of the Latter Age of Degeneration are all included in this period, during which human longevity decreases from 100 years to the minimum of 10 years. It includes two periods in which the Lotus Sūtra flourishes: the last eight years of Śākyamuni Buddha and the first 500 years of the Latter Age of Degeneration after His extinction. Grand Masters T’ien-t’ai, Miao-lê and Dengyō missed the preaching of the Lotus Sūtra by the Buddha, nor were they able to be born in the Latter Age after His death. Regretting their misfortune for being born in between the two occasions, those grand masters made the statements cited above, wishing to have been born in the Latter Age.

This is like Hermit Asita’s lament. Seeing the birth of Prince Siddhartha, the Indian hermit deplored: “Being over ninety years old, I will not be able to live long enough to see the Prince attain Buddhahood in this world. Since I will be reborn in the realm of non-form, I will not be able to attend Śākyamuni’s preachings for fifty years in this world. Nor will I be able to be reborn after His death in the Age of the True Dharma, the Semblance Dharma, or the Latter Age of Degeneration.”

Those who have aspiration for enlightenment should be glad to see and hear these comments. Those who care for future lives should rather be born as common people today in the Latter Age than great kings during the 2,000-year period after the death of Śākyamuni Buddha, the Age of the True Dharma and that of the Semblance Dharma. How could they not believe in this? They should rather be suffering from leprosy in the Latter Age reciting “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō (Homage to the Lotus Sūtra )” than to be the revered chief abbot of the Enryakuji Temple, grand temple of the Tendai School of Buddhism, during the Age of the Semblance Dharma. Emperor Wu of Liang in ancient China prayed: “I would rather be Devadatta, who sank to the worst Hell of Incessant Suffering but who eventually was able to attain Buddhahood through the Lotus Sūtra, than be Hermit Udraka-rāmaputra, who was able to be born in heaven but never succeeded in attaining Buddhahood.”

Senji-shō, Selecting the Right time: A Tract by Nichiren, the Buddha’s Disciple, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 195-196