The difference of the tenets of Dengyō Daishi and Nichiren is seen in the treatment of the substance of the Lotus text. The Lotus doctrine assumes ten regions, ten thus-aspects and three realms. Dengyō Daishi lays importance on the principle of the realm of trace. The realm of trace treats only the nine regions, teaching the causal states of culture and therefore considering mind and thought as important factors of training, and finally attributing all the phenomenal worlds to the mere-ideation theory. The threefold view of one mind and the 3,000 worlds immanent in one thought-instant are taught minutely. According to the Nichiren School, the Tendai is too much inclined to the theoretical side of the Truth, thereby forgetting the practical side of it. Nichiren holds that the realm of origin teaches the effective state of enlightenment and the Buddha’s person is the center of Truth; the reality of the phenomenal worlds centers in the personality of the Buddha; and all aspirants should be guided to realize the Ideal-body of the Buddha.

The Lotus text reveals the original Buddha whose principle and practice are fully explained in the original portions of the text. What [Nichiren] holds important is the Buddha’s practice, not his principle. One who understands and practices the practical aspects of that Buddha is a devotee or realizer of the Lotus, just as the bodhisattva of supreme action (Viśiṣṭacāritra) is placed in the highest position in the text. The Buddhahood (perfect enlightenment) of such an adept will be immediate in this very body. The original Buddha was like the moon in the sky and all other Buddhas of the Wreath, of the Agama, of the Vaipulya (‘developed’), the Prajna (‘wisdom’), the Gold Light (Suvarnaprabhasa), the Sukhāvatī (Pure Land) and the Great Sun (Mahāvairocana) were all moons in various waters, and mere reflections of the one central moon. It is only a fool who would try to catch a reflected moon.

Just as the personality of Nichiren constitutes the Nichiren School, the essence of which is the Lotus formula ”Homage to the Lotus of Truth,” so it is the personality of the Buddha that constitutes the Lotus doctrine. The whole Lotus text may be a drama as Professor Kern imagined, but the Buddha is not only the hero in the play. The Buddha is also the organizer or proprietor of the drama. The Truth of the Lotus text is not an impersonal dead truth; it is the ideal, the Truth blooming, fragrant and bearing fruits as the lotus, the Truth active, the Truth embodied in the Buddha, the Truth-body, the Enlightenment itself, the Enlightened and Enlightenment and Enlightener all combined. So the real Buddha of the text is not that corporeal Buddha who got enlightened under the bodhi tree, preached for the first time at the Deer Park of Benares and entered Nirvana at the Sala grove of Kuśināgara at eighty-one years of age. He is the Buddha of immeasurable ages past, ever acting as the Enlightener. By enlightening all beings he exercises benevolence to all. Out of his mercy he teaches the doctrine of expediency. He is in reality the organizer of the drama, yet he himself acts as a hero in the play, leading all the dramatic personnel, even with some of the inferior characters who in time will be able to play a role. The three Vehicles, of course, as well as Devadatta the wicked and Naga the serpent maid, all come under the Buddha’s illumination. The world of illumination of the remote Buddha is called the ‘realm of origin’ and the world of illumination by the incarnate Buddha is called the ‘realm of trace.’ I used the word ‘realm’ but it does not mean a separate division or place. It simply indicates the ‘activity of the Buddha of original position’ or ‘that of the Buddha of trace-leaving manifestation. ‘Original position’ and ‘trace-manifestation’ are the problems long discussed in the Lotus schools and all center on the Buddha’s personality, a Buddhological question. When it is applied to the Lotus text, the question at the outset will be, “Which Buddha is revealing the Truth?”

[Nichiren’s] study of ten years (1243-1253) on [Mount Hiei] convinced him that a revival of Tendai philosophy alone was the nearest approach to the Truth.

By Tendai philosophy Nichiren meant not what he found there at hand but what was taught by Dengyō Daishi himself. The original T’ien-T’ai of Chih-i was chiefly theoretical, whereas the Japanese Tendai of Dengyō Daishi was practical as well as theoretical. But after the two great masters, Jikaku and Chishō, the practical sides of Tendai were either mystic rituals or Amita faith; that seemed to them most important. The fundamental truth of the Lotus doctrine seemed to be laid aside as if it were a philosophical amusement. Nichiren could not accept this attitude and so returned in 1253 to his old monastery at Kiyozumi where he proclaimed his new doctrine that the Lotus alone could save the people of the depraved age, the essential formula being “Homage to the Text of the Lotus of the True Ideal.” It is Dharma-smriti (thought on Dharma) and not Buddha-smriti as was the Amita formula. Dharma is the ideal realized by the original Buddha. All beings are saved through homage to the Lotus of Truth, and this alone, he declared, is the true final message of the Buddha.

Since the Lotus of the Good Law was translated and expounded by Kumarajiva, it has been one of the most popular subjects of Buddhist study along with the Prajna and Nirvana texts. When the philosophy of immanence or the phenomenological doctrine was promulgated on the basis of the Lotus by Chih-i, it was generally known as the T’ien-T’ai School. It was Saichō (Dengyō Daishi, 767-822 AD) who went to China and received the doctrine from this school and on his return in 804 AD founded the Tendai school in Japan. His theoretical elucidation of the Lotus doctrine may not be much different from the original Chinese school, but his practical application of the doctrine to the national cult and synthetic treatment of all other Buddhist schools subordinate to his school seem to be the new aspects added by virtue of his genius. Besides the Lotus doctrine, he professed to teach mystic Shingon, Amita-pietism, contemplative Zen, as well as Mahayanistic Vinaya discipline. To him these were subordinate doctrines to the Lotus or at any rate concurrent systems to complete the central doctrine. However, in the course of time, there appeared among his followers some ardent specialists in each of these systems and sometimes the result was separation. In the Heian period (781-1183) the mystic rituals and ceremonial performances promoted by this school in concert with the Shingon School carried the day to satisfy the aristocratic taste of the time. There arose in time a devotional school of Amita-pietism which also flourished in the bosom of the school. Through the influence of the two streams of religious activities a great Buddhist transformation took place in the national life and thoughts of Japan during the period.