In the first half of the Lotus Sutra, the “imprinted gate” (Japanese, shakumon), the theoretical teaching of the One Vehicle is taught. This teaching is called theoretical because it teaches that “in theory” all people can become buddhas because all along the Buddha was teaching the One Vehicle that leads to buddhahood. The provisional bodhisattvas, like Maitreya Bodhisattva and Accumulated Wisdom Bodhisattva, represent this principle by providing a model of gradual cultivation to attain buddhahood. For them, bodhisattva practice must precede buddhahood as its cause.

The latter half of the Lotus Sutra, the “original gate,” is the essential teaching of the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha. The essential teaching reveals that buddhahood has no beginning or end: the cause of buddhahood, bodhisattva practice, is actually simultaneous with the effect, buddhahood in the eternal enlightenment of Shakyamuni Buddha. One enters into this unity of practice and enlightenment through faith in the living actuality of buddhahood already present in the figure of the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha. This is his teaching, and only his original disciples, the Bodhisattvas of the Earth, are entrusted to propagate such a teaching during the critical time of the Latter Age of the Dharma.