While it is impossible in a short space to do full justice to Nichiren’s concept of the daimoku, two aspects of it will be outlined here: the daimoku as perfectly inclusive, and the daimoku as the seed of Buddhahood.

The daimoku, which Nichiren equates with the one vehicle, is all-encompassing, a claim he develops from several interrelated perspectives, beginning with his early writings. For example, in the Hokke daimoku shō, the daimoku is said to contain all teachings:

“The teachings of the seven Buddhas and the thousand Buddhas of the past, and of all the Buddhas since long kalpas ago, as well as the sūtras preached by the Buddhas of the present throughout the ten directions, are all followers of the single character kyō [sūtra] of the Lotus Sūtra. … Within this single character kyō [of myōhō-renge-kyō] are contained all the sūtras in the dharma realms of the ten directions.”

In a yet more encompassing sense, the daimoku contains, or rather is, the entirety of the dharma realm. Another passage of the same text reads:

“The five characters myōhō-renge-kyō … contain all sentient beings of the nine realms and also the Buddha realm. And because they contain [all beings of] the ten realms, they also contain the lands of the ten realms, which are those beings’ dependent recompense.”

Or in greater detail, from an earlier, 1260 writing:

“The doctrines of three thousand realms in one thought-moment and the Buddha’s enlightenment in the distant past, the core of the ‘Skillful Means’ and ‘Fathoming the Lifespan’ chapters, are contained within the two characters myōhō [Wonderful Dharma]. … All Buddhas and bodhisattvas, the causes and effects of the ten [dharma] realms, the grasses and trees, rocks and tiles throughout the ten directions— there is nothing that is not included in these two characters. … Therefore, the merit of chanting the five characters myōhō-renge-kyō is vast.”

Here the daimoku is equated with three thousand realms in one thought moment, the entirety of all that is. This identification can be found in some of Nichiren’s earliest writings. (Page 267-268)