QUESTION: For whom was the Lotus Sūtra expounded?

ANSWER: There are two views about the eight chapters from chapter 2 on the “Expedients” to chapter 9 on the “Assurance of Future Buddhahood” of the Lotus Sūtra. If we read these chapters in the order of chapters from the beginning, we can see that the sūtra was preached first of all for Bodhisattvas, secondly for the men of Two Vehicles such as śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha, and thirdly for ordinary people. However, when we read the chapters in reverse order beginning with the 14th on the “Peaceful Practices” (at the end of the theoretical section), followed by the 13th on the “Encouragement for Upholding This Sūtra,” the 12th on the “Devadatta,” the 11th on the “Appearance of the Stupa of Treasures,” and the 10th on the “Teacher of the Dharma,” we can see that these eight chapters were expounded for encouraging people after the Buddha’s extinction. People during the lifetime of the Buddha are secondary. Of those after the Buddha’s extinction, people in one thousand years of the Age of the True Dharma and one thousand years of the Age of the Semblance Dharma are secondary. The sūtra was expounded mainly for the people in the Latter Age of Degeneration. Of those in the Latter Age of Degeneration, I, Nichiren, am the very person for whom it was expounded.

Hokke Shuyō Shō, Treatise on the Essence of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 209-210