One can imagine how identification with the task of the bodhisattvas of the earth must have inspired and sustained those followers of Nichiren, in his own lifetime and later, who upheld their faith in the face of opposition. Its implication, that one has been born into this world to aid in a vast salvific task, could invest even the most ordinary life with immense meaning. This dimension of Nichiren’s teaching helps explain its ongoing attraction in the contemporary world. However humble one’s place in society or how limited one’s personal resources or abilities, to be a follower of Nichiren was to stand in the vanguard of history as someone who, having embraced the sole teaching leading to buddhahood in the present age, shoulders the responsibility to preserve and transmit it.