[The sixth patriarch of the Tiantai school, Zhanran,] argued that only the perfect teaching of the Lotus Sūtra can plant the seed of buddhahood. From this perspective, Śākyamuni’s preaching of the Lotus Sūtra during his lifetime in India both allowed those who had received the seed of buddhahood from him in previous lifetimes to reap the harvest of enlightenment and also planted that seed in the lives of those who had not yet received it. Nichiren understood this process in terms of how it unfolded after Śākyamuni’s final nirvāṇa, and especially in his own time. Like Zhanran, but to a greater degree, he stressed that only the Lotus Sūtra plants the seed of buddhahood; all that provisional teachings can accomplish is to cultivate the capacity of persons who have already received that seed by encountering the Lotus Sūtra in prior lifetimes. Thus, in the final analysis, buddhahood always has its source in the Lotus.