In Nichiren Buddhism it is understood that in the Kaimoku-shō Nichiren made five comparisons between various religious teachings in order to reveal the highest teaching. Nichiren himself does not ever use the term “five comparisons” and the fifth comparison is not as clear in Kaimoku-shō as it is in other writings. Nevertheless, Kaimoku-shō is regarded as the source of the five comparisons. …

1. Buddhism is Superior to Non-Buddhism

Of all the non-Buddhist teachers Nichiren says, “Although they are called sages, they are as ignorant as infants in that they do not know causality.” This is essentially the same critique the Buddha makes of the sixty-two false views in the Supreme Net Discourse. None of the sixty-two views takes into account the causal and interdependent nature of life. They tend to assert either a form of eternalism, wherein all or at least some beings enjoy an eternal unchanging existence, or they assert some form of annihilationism, wherein phenomena disappear without a trace, or they try to equivocate in some way. …

2. Mahāyāna is Superior to Hinayāna

Just as Buddhism is superior to non-Buddhism because it takes a greater perspective that goes beyond one lifetime or even many lifetimes to reveal the causal processes underlying even the births and deaths of the gods in the heavenly realms, Mahāyāna is superior to Hinayāna because its perspective is vast enough to see that beyond the limited goal of nirvāṇa as an escape from the cycle of birth and death it is possible for people to raise their aspirations by taking the vows of a bodhisattva and thence embarking on the path to attain buddhahood, even if it takes an incalculably long time to do so.

Another difference in perspective is that whereas the Hinayāna only teaches that there are six worlds of rebirth (realms of hell-dwellers, hungry ghosts, animals, fighting demons, humans, and gods) and nothing more besides the negation of rebirth in the six worlds known as nirvāṇa, Mahāyāna teaches that in fact there are many pure lands throughout the universe. The pure lands are realms where all the conditions are perfect for attaining buddhahood and each is presided over by its own buddha who is assisted by many bodhisattvas. With the help of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, sentient beings can be reborn in these pure lands in order to attain buddhahood. Nichiren says that the Mahāyāna:

… were expounded for criticizing adherents of the two vehicles who relied on the Hinayāna sūtras. In these Mahāyāna sūtras, the Pure Lands of the Buddhas were established in the worlds of the ten quarters in order to encourage ordinary men and bodhisattvas to be born there. This troubled adherents of the two vehicles.…

3. True Mahāyāna of the Lotus Sūtra is Superior to Provisional Mahāyāna

In the Lotus Sūtra … the Buddha reveals that the three vehicles he taught to the śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas are actually just partial aspects of the One Vehicle that leads all alike to buddhahood. The Buddha even makes a series of predictions that in future ages his major disciples and all the other members of the assembly will attain buddhahood. If it were not for the Lotus Sūtra then the major disciples who had become arhats would have no hope of attaining buddhahood. “But if the earlier sutras are more attractive [and more valuable], Śāriputra and other adherents of the two vehicles would have lost a chance to become Buddhas forever.” The other sūtras are considered provisional because they do not reveal this larger perspective that grants buddhahood even to śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas and so they are not fully inclusive of all beings. The Lotus Sūtra alone should be considered the true Mahāyāna because it makes it clear that all beings can attain buddhahood without exception. This is the reason why the Lotus Sūtra is superior to the other Mahāyāna sūtras. …

4. The Original Gate is superior to the Trace Gate

The Trace Gate consists of the first fourteen chapters of the Lotus Sūtra in which the Buddha is still seen as the historical Śākyamuni Buddha who attained awakening two thousand five hundred years ago. It is called the Trace Gate because it covers the teaching of the One Vehicle by the historical Buddha as described above, and these teachings are the traces or imprints of the teaching of the Eternal Śākyamuni Buddha. The historical life of the Buddha and his teachings is like a print made in soft wax by a seal, or like traces left in the sand by a person walking on the beach. The Trace Gate is also referred to as the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra because it is in this part of the sūtra that the Buddha teaches that in theory all people are capable of attaining buddhahood.

The Original Gate consists of the latter fourteen chapters of the Lotus Sūtra in which the Buddha is the timeless ultimate truth and an ever-present reality leading all people to their own buddhahood. The Original Gate is also referred to as the essential section of the Lotus Sūtra because it is in this part of the sūtra that the Buddha reveals the transcendent nature of buddhahood and that it is an active and present part of our lives already, we only need the faith to realize it. From this point on, buddhahood is no longer a theory, but the essential truth informing all the other teachings.

The Original Gate, therefore, surpasses the more limited view of the Trace Gate that Śākyamuni Buddha attained awakening for the first time at the age of thirty (or thirty-five according to other sources) under the Bodhi Tree forty years before the time when he taught the Lotus Sūtra. From the perspective taken in the Original Gate, Śākyamuni Buddha’s awakening occurred in a past time so remote that it is often just glossed as “eternal.” Nichiren says,

“In the Original Gate of the Lotus Sūtra, it was revealed that the Buddha had attained perfect enlightenment in the remote past, making it untenable to assert that he had attained Buddhahood for the first time in this world. “

This is important because it means that even when the Buddha was demonstrating bodhisattva conduct in previous lives he was actually not trying to attain buddhahood but was demonstrating it in a progressively more complete way until he revealed the fullness of buddhahood as Śākyamuni Buddha in India 2,500 years ago. This means that buddhahood was always present and even after the passing away of the historical Buddha, Śākyamuni Buddha as the Eternal Buddha will remain present. …

5. Buddhism of Sowing Superior to Harvest — Introspection over Doctrine

There is one final comparison that Nichiren makes in his teachings, though it is not set forth as clearly in Kaimoku-shō as it is in other writings. This is the comparison between the essential teaching of the Lotus Sūtra as a discourse given by Śākyamuni Buddha 2,500 years ago in India and the essential teaching of the Lotus Sūtra as spiritual contemplation for those in the present.

Nichiren identifies the spiritual contemplation of the essential teaching of the Lotus Sūtra with the Tiantai teaching of the “three thousand realms in a single thought-moment” … . According to Nichiren, ‘The ‘three thousand realms in a single thought-moment’ doctrine is hidden between the lines of the sixteenth chapter on The Life Span of the Tathāgata’ in the Original Gate of the Lotus Sūtra.” Nichiren identifies the three thousand realms in a single thought-moment doctrine as the seed of buddhahood. “Based on the concept of the seed of buddhahood preached in the Lotus Sūtra, Bodhisattva Vasubandhu insisted on the ‘supremacy of the seed’ in his Discourse on the Lotus Sūtra. This later became the ‘three thousand realms in a single thought-moment’ doctrine of Grand Master Tiantai.”…

The conclusion of the five comparisons is that Lotus Sūtra is the teaching that truly encompasses all time, from the remotest past, to the farthest future. In this perspective all beings are able to attain buddhahood in the fullness of time. More importantly, the perspective of the Lotus Sūtra provides assurance that buddhahood is a present actuality for all beings. Nichiren makes this point clear in A Letter to the People of Seichōji Temple (Seichōji Daishū-chū), a letter he wrote to Seichōji Temple in 1276:

The Lotus Sūtra preaches that Śākyamuni Buddha had attained buddhahood already 500 (million) dust particle kalpa in the past and that even those of the two vehicles such as Śāriputra, who are considered incapable of becoming buddhas, will inevitably attain buddhahood in the future. … It is the Lotus Sūtra that explains the past and future with precision, and upholding this sutra is the way to attain buddhahood.