Nichiren’s writings as a whole … present a spectrum of concepts of the Buddha, drawing on the implications, not only of the Dharma body, but of the recompense and manifested bodies as well. Nichiren’s Buddha is at once both immanent and transcendent. He is “our blood and flesh”; his practices and resulting virtues are “our bones and marrow.” Yet at the same time, he is “parent, teacher, and sovereign” to all beings of this, the Sahā world. In this connection, Nichiren also stressed that Śākyamuni was only the Buddha who, out of compassion for its beings, had actually appeared in this world—a frequent point in Nichiren’s criticism of devotion to Amida. (Page 274)