“The Life Span of the Buddha” chapter says: “Having taken poison, some had lost their senses while others had not. … Seeing this excellent medicine with color and scent both good, those who had not lost their senses took it and recovered from their illness.” This refers to those who received the seed of Buddhahood in the eternal past as preached in “The Life Span of the Buddha,” those who had the opportunity to establish a connection with Buddhist dharma at the time of Great Universal Wisdom Buddha as revealed in the seventh chapter on “The Parable of a Magic City,” and all those bodhisattvas, Two Vehicles (Śrāvakas and Pratyekabuddha), men and gods who received the teaching of the Buddha in the pre-Lotus sūtraas well as the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra attain Buddhahood in the preaching of the essential section. It is said in the same chapter:

‘The remainder who had lost their senses were happy to see their father come back and requested him to cure their illness, but they refused to take the medicine their father offered them. Why did they not take it? It was because they had been affected by poison, causing them to lose their senses and think this excellent medicine, in both color and scent, not good at all. …

“Now I have to devise an expedient means so that they may take this medicine,” thought the father. “Now I will leave this excellent medicine here with you. You should take it without worrying about its effectiveness,” instructed the father to his children and he again went abroad. Then he sent a messenger back to his children, telling them that their father had passed away.’

The seventeenth chapter, “Variety of the Merits,” in the essential section of the Lotus Sūtra states, “In the evil age of the latter dharma…,” indicating that the teaching was for the Latter Age of Degeneration.

Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Venerable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 156.

I’m both fascinated and chagrined by this revelation that as a member of the Latter Age of Degeneration I’m not among the three groups that did not lose their mind:

• those who received the seed of Buddhahood in the eternal past as preached in “The Life Span of the Buddha,”
• those who had the opportunity to establish a connection with Buddhist dharma at the time of Great Universal Wisdom Buddha as revealed in the seventh chapter on “The Parable of a Magic City,”
• and all those bodhisattvas, Two Vehicles (Śrāvakas and Pratyekabuddha), men and gods who received the teaching of the Buddha in the pre-Lotus sūtras as well as the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra attain Buddhahood in the preaching of the essential section.

But I suppose imagining myself as having been exposed to the Lotus Sūtra in life after life since the remotest past begs the question of why exactly it never took. How dumb or perverted would I need to be for it to take literally forever for me to realize Na Mu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo?