Mahayana bodhisattvas first tried to elucidate the principle of emptiness and then incorporated it in sutras, the first of which was the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra. Beyond that, they tried to express emptiness positively, as an empty place where the unifying truth (the Wonderful Dharma of One Vehicle) can be seen, in other words, in the Lotus Sutra.

The establishment of this unifying truth also teaches us to see the world and life not from a narrow, partial, or temporally limited perspective but with a holistic, eternal vision. This truth can save modern people from being increasingly maddened and captivated by the fragmentation of whole systems. In a word, it creates an image of a holistic cosmos, an integrating and unifying view of the world and of life. … [T]his is the reason for the emergence of people who had acquired this kind of view of the world and human life: they had been touched by the unifying truth and integrating cosmic reality (the reality of all things) revealed in the heart of chapter 2. The Tiantai theory of “three thousand worlds in one moment of experience” was the harbinger of this way of thinking.

During and after Shakyamuni Buddha’s time there were two types of Buddhists: shravakas—disciples who sought awakening through hearing the Buddha’s teachings—and pratyekabuddhas or self-enlightened ones—ascetics who sought awakening by individually observing the appearance of causes and conditions and the coming into existence and passing away of human life and nature. … [S]eeing the transiency and emptiness of life, many of them fell into nihilism and ended up losing the meaningfulness of life.

Then, at about the time of the beginning of the current era in the Western calendar, a group, called “bodhisattvas,” appeared who devoted themselves to practicing the truth in the actual world. They created a Buddhist reform movement, in which they criticized the earlier two vehicles as being lesser vehicles (Hinayana), while calling themselves the Great Vehicle (Mahayana). They were especially harsh on the nihilism of the followers of the two vehicles in which the possibility of becoming a buddha had been lost.

The transiency and emptiness of life that Shakyamuni Buddha taught does not end with such nihilism but leads to the infinite and absolute world that is like empty space. Through realization of such a world, the great joy and meaning of life is reborn by liberating those who suffer from clinging to the ups and downs of life. Those who try to be witnesses to this truth are the bodhisattvas of Mahayana Buddhism.

In Japanese the term bodhisattva is usually translated phonetically as bosatsu. Bodhisattva can also be translated as kakuujo, which can be taken as meaning either “a person seeking (going toward) awakening” or “a person coming from awakening.” When this word is used in contrast to the Small Vehicle monks, the shravakas, it seems to have the latter meaning. That is, a bodhisattva is an awakened one who comes into this actual world and works so that awakening will be embodied within this society. This is generally the meaning of “bodhisattva” in Mahayana Buddhism, and it is what the second group of chapters in the Lotus Sutra emphasizes.

From the perspective of historical formation we can see chapters 10-22 as a group created in order to show that … inspiration can be found in the midst of ordinary life. This part of the sutra should be recognized as a kind of third division, in contrast with the traditional two-part division.

Nichiren was one who paid special attention to this part of the sutra. For this reason he insisted on the idea of “a third teaching,” saying, “The teachings of Nichiren are the third teaching.” Tiantai Zhiyi’s idea of the third “doctrine” lies behind this. His “three kinds of doctrine” are (1) the inclusiveness or non-inclusiveness of all kinds of people, (2) the universality or nonuniversality of transformation, and (3) closeness to or distance from the Buddha. Whereas the first and second kinds of doctrine characterize the first half of the Lotus Sutra (teachings of the historical Shakyamuni), the third characterizes the latter half of the sutra (teachings of the Everlasting Original Shakyamuni). But Nichiren could see only the point stressing that Superior Practice and the other bodhisattvas who emerged from the earth were authentic disciples of the Buddha, and from that perspective he picked up and accepted the third doctrine, calling it the third teaching.”

Since we have surveyed the Lotus Sutra according to the traditional view of its division into two parts, and have already seen that there are three parts to the sutra with regard to its historical formation, we need to look at one more part and describe its distinctive teachings. This part consists of chapters 10-22, which overlap both of the traditional two divisions. …

As we have seen in the section on the historical formation of the sutra, this part of the sutra was composed as one group in accord with a consistent intention: it was done to emphasize bodhisattva practice. Bodhisattva practice means human activity in the world, which is the characteristic idea that runs continually through this group of chapters, from the beginning to the end.

In his later years, Nichiren secluded himself on Mt. Minobu and led a quiet life. He realized that it would be impossible to reform society in his own lifetime, placed his trust in the future, placed himself within a vast, infinite cosmic reality, and found peace in a state of mind that transcended this world. Yet his disciples and followers in various places carried on his mission and gave unstintingly of their lives. There have been some in premodern and modern times who, remembering Nichiren’s entrustment of the future to them, developed strong activist movements, thinking it was time to reform the world and build the country.

The birth of a new era always involves trouble. The hull of the old system cannot be removed all at once, and the new powers themselves constantly experience crises from internal division. The Hojo regime was exactly like this. Following a series of extraordinary natural disasters and cataclysms, it was faced with social instability. In addition, there twice occurred unprecedented attacks from outside of Japan: the Mongol raids of 1274 and 1281.

Yet these domestic and external troubles were different from the symptoms of a period of decline. They were the kind of troubles that occur as trials during times of constructive development. They were not the kind of troubles that cause one to despair or to give up on the world but the kind that produce the will to courageously confront and reform the world. Under these circumstances, Nichiren did not understand Buddhism to be limited to saving individual souls, but rather understood it to extend to the salvation of society as a whole. Thus his hope to reform this world colored his faith in and devotion to the Lotus Sutra.

It is not hard to find reasons for this. Observing the trends and the troubles of the new age in Kamakura, Nichiren wrote his Establishment of True Dharma for the Protection of the Country and presented it to the government. In this treatise he proclaims the unification of Buddhism based on the Lotus Sutra and gives full force to social salvation by calling for Buddhism to be united, emphasizing that the nation could only be made secure if governed by politics based on the idea of a unified Buddhism.

He focused his criticism in this work on Honen’s Pure Land chanting of Amida Buddha’s name. Honen’s concentration on retaining the nembutsu as his focus of devotion, and rejecting everything else, was contrary to the unification of Buddhism that Nichiren sought. Nichiren also objected to the Pure Land nembutsu as an escape from the actual world. But Nichiren invited oppression upon himself by making such criticisms of Pure Land Buddhism. In 1261, at the age of forty, he was exiled to Izu Island for about two years, and in 1271 he was exiled for about three years to Sado Island. During this time he was subjected to frequent persecution, beginning his career filled with suffering. …

Yoshiro Tamura, "Introduction to the Lotus Sutra", p123-124

As the Heian period came to a close, there was great social upheaval and strong symptoms of the evil and pollution of the end days. By the seventh year of Eisho (1052), even some ordinary people were announcing the coming of the final, degenerate period of the Dharma. The age and the society proved to be finite and relative, and people were forced to realize that human beings have an evil nature and are death-bound. Faced with this kind of reality, people could not remain steeped in the world of absolutistic monism. This is why Honen (1133-1212) who kept his eyes on the real world and sought its salvation, adopted the Pure Land theory of relativistic dualism and relied upon it rather than upon the absolutistic monism of the Tendai doctrine of original enlightenment. For him there was a polarization between Buddha and ordinary human beings and between the pure land and the sahā world. He encouraged people to reject life in the sahā world, in favor of being reborn in the pure land of the next life.

Shinran (1173—1262), Dogen (1200—1253), and Nichiren (1222-1282) also came into reality out of Mt. Hiei’s hall of truth. Yet their attitudes toward the actual world were quite different from Honen’s. While Honen was mostly devoted to giving up on this life and longed for the pure land of the next life, Shinran, Dogen, and Nichiren struggled positively within the actual world. Their activities and writings came right after the Jokyu turbulence of 1221 and were related to it.

The Jokyu turbulence was the last attempt by the former dynasty to regain political power, which ended in total failure. This was the decisive event that transferred political power from the former dynasty to the newly emerging samurai warrior class. It was a kind of preparation for a period wherein the samurai would build a new order. Shinran, Dogen, and Nichiren were active in the midst of this trend. This was especially true of Nichiren, who had his home base in Kamakura, the center for the newly emerging samurai regime, and felt the new winds directly.

[W]hereas in Christianity arguments concerning the problem of evil focus on the relation of God and evil, in Tiantai it is the relation of Buddha and evil that is discussed. There arose a theory that there is evil in the Buddha, which proved controversial in later years. The idea that there is evil in the Buddha developed from the idea of the mutual inclusion of the ten worlds. In the idea often worlds, the world of the Buddha, as the world of supreme good, is located at the highest level, and the world of supreme evil, hell, is located at the lowest level. Human beings are in a middle position, caught between good and evil. Humans are intermediate beings, as emphasized in Western philosophy. But Tiantai insists that each of the ten worlds includes all of the others. Thus the world of the Buddha includes the supreme evil of hell. From this came the idea that there is evil in the Buddha, called “the theory of inherent evil.”

We can see the theoretical development of this idea in Tiantai’s The Profound Meaning of the Guanyin Chapter, according to which the Buddha does not intentionally do evil (cultivated evil) but includes evil in his nature (inherent evil). Here is, accordingly, the possibility of redeeming evil. Those who do not know evil are not qualified to redeem it. If we turn this theory of inherent evil around, it becomes possible to say that there is good, inherent good, in hell. From the idea of the mutual inclusion of the ten worlds, it follows that hell includes the supreme good of the Buddha’s world. Thus Tiantai taught the idea that there is good naturally even in hell. In this way, Tiantai recognized that hell would someday be awakened to the good, thus being redeemed and brought up into the Buddha’s world.

Put succinctly, evil and good are not permanently fixed in extreme contrast with each other. In this sense, the theory is authentically nondual. Stated positively, good and evil have things in common. The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra says, “The nature and form of evil is really the nature and character of good. There is good because there is evil and there is no good apart from evil. … Evil is the origin of good. If there is no evil there can be no good. … Evil goes together with good. But this is neither evil nor good. … Good goes together with evil. But this is neither good nor evil.”

According to the ideas of nongood and nonevil and the nonduality of good and evil, the redemption of evil is possible. Based on this, moreover, the existence of evil comes to be positively affirmed as a source of good. The existence of evil enhances the quest for the good and elevates the good itself. In this sense, without evil there is no good. This prevents human beings who are caught between good and evil from having split personalities or falling into despair.

Tiantai’s theory that the Buddha includes evil in his nature or that the existence of evil is a source of good may give rise to an optimistic impression in which evil is treated lightly. There may be a danger of falling into decadence by affirming permission to do evil as one likes. In fact, later there were some who were severely criticized for understanding it in this way and putting this idea into practice. But the original intention was to try to find a possibility for salvation by looking directly at the reality of evil and hell, and grieving over it. This is neither to monistically affirm evil by seeing good and evil as having the same roots nor to deny the existence of evil.

To conclude, it is not the case that in this world there is only good and no evil. Rather, we can see the vitality of eternal life in the midst of the battle for good over evil. Through this theory of good and evil we can understand Tiantai’s general view of the world and human life. We can feel the vitality of life and find its meaning in a life woven of the warp and woof of happiness and sorrow, joy and suffering, good and evil. This is why Tiantai developed views of the absolute and of eternity.