Just as the waters of a thousand rivers, entering the ocean, all mingle with each other and acquire one and the same flavour in spite of their individual differences, so all entities, when once brought together in the great ocean of Buddha’s Truth, and perceived by the eye of Buddha’s intellect, are instantly fused into one, and show themselves identical with that very intellect itself — the great intellect of the Buddha of Original Enlightenment. In this way Sakyamuni showed that the Mandala, or Chief Object of Worship, was his own body. But his idea, in all its truth and fullness, does not stop here. He went further, and taught that the body of any ordinary person, nay of any living creature, may be the object of worship, since it is identical with the body of Buddha himself, “What is the real substance of the [Lotus Sutra]?” asks Nichiren. “It is nothing else than a human being, who, born of human parents, believes in this [Lotus Sutra].”