Nichiren sometimes alludes to the eight phases of Śākyamuni Buddha’s life. This is a way of summing up the story of the Buddha in the following eight events:

1. Descent from the Tushita Heaven — Before his last earthly rebirth, the future Buddha lived in the Heaven of Contentment (Skt. Tuṣita) awaiting the right time, place and family for his final rebirth.
2. Entering Queen Māyā’s womb — When the right conditions arose Queen Māyā of Kapilavastu had a most singular dream. She dreamed that a six-tusked white elephant holding a white lotus flower in its trunk circled around her three times and then entered into her womb. At that moment Queen Māyā conceived the bodhisattva.
3. Emerging from Queen Māyā’s womb—Queen Māyā gave birth to him painlessly while standing up and holding onto a sal tree branch while visiting the Lumbini Garden near Kapilavastu. The legend states that immediately upon entering the world, the young Prince Siddhārtha took seven steps and made the following statement: “I am born for awakening for the good of the world; this is my last birth in the world of phenomena.” (Asvaghosa’s Buddhacarita, part Il, p. 4)
4. Leaving home— After witnessing an old man, a sick man, a funeral procession, and a religious mendicant, Prince Siddhārtha left his family (his father King Suddhodana, his wife Yaśodharā, and his son Rahula) and became an forest ascetic.
5. Overcoming Māra — After turning away from asceticism, the bodhisattva sat beneath the Bodhi Tree at Bodhgaya and overcame temptations and distractions of the demon Māra.
6. Attaining the Way—As the morning star (Venus?) rose in the morning sky, the bodhisattva attained buddhahood and henceforth became known as Śākyamuni Buddha.
7. Turning the Wheel of the Dharma —Starting at the Deer Park near the city of Vārāṇasi, the Buddha began to teach the Dharma and continued to do so for fifty years.
8. Entering final nirvāṇa —At the age of eighty, the Buddha passed away beneath the twin sal trees near the city of Kuśinagara.