In short, every one who nourishes him, the man who is living for the sake of the Truth, is father or mother, and is thus contributing to the Buddhist cause. In this way his sense of personal indebtedness was always combined with the consciousness of his high mission; there was nothing in his life that did not present itself in these two aspects — the immediate benefits, and the eternal cause; all practised in the communion of the believers.

It is by mankind, in all kinds of existence, that the ideal perfection is to be achieved, and therefore the stage of its realization is this world, the abode of mankind. The Buddhist ideal of enlightenment is man’s awaking to the fundamental unity of his present existence with the primeval Buddhahood; while the key to make this world a hell or to transform it into a heaven is in our own hands. The use of the key consists in first calling forth the primeval Buddhahood in the innermost recess of our own soul, and in viewing this actual world as a heaven. This transfiguration means not merely imagining that earth is heaven, but living in conformity with the assumption, under the guidance of the enlightened mind. This ideal was realized by Buddha when he preached the Lotus of Truth on Vulture Peak, and the scene of the revelation was transfigured into a paradise. Nichiren had no doubt about the Scripture narrative, and now, in Minobu, he was himself experiencing such a transfiguration of his own abode.

Nichiren’s fervor never declined, but in his quiet life as a recluse his mind was occupied, perhaps exclusively, with enthusiasm for his ideal. His method was no longer confined to vehement warnings to the nation, and fiery attacks upon other Buddhists; he reflected calmly, and examined again and again the meaning of the ideal Kingdom of Buddha as the basis of the Buddhist Catholic Church of which his proposed Holy See should be the centre. He was always firm in the conviction that the Holy See was to be established in Japan, the land where the savior of the Latter Days was destined to appear, and where he, the man, was actually born and was doing the savior’s work. Yet, on the other hand, his work was not merely for the sake of a small country, composed of many islands. Just as he recognized in his own life two aspects, the actual and mortal, on the one side, and the ideal and eternal, on the other, so he saw in Japan a similar twofold significance, one, the physically limited, and the other, to be realized through transformation according to his high ideal. In this latter sense, Japan meant for him the whole world. He said once: ‘The great master Myoraku says in his commentary on the Scrip ture, “The children benefit the world by propagating the Truth of the Father.” “The children” means here the Saints-out-of-earth; “the Father” is the Lord Sakyamuni; “the world,” Japan; “benefit” means the attainment of Buddhahood; and “Truth,” the Adoration of the Lotus of Truth. Even now, this is not otherwise because “the Father” means Nichiren; “the children,” Nichiren’s disciples and followers; “the world,” Japan; “benefit,” the life (of these men) laboring to perpetuate (the Truth) and hasten the attainment of Buddhahood; and “Truth” means the Sacred Title handed down to us from Visistacaritra.’

As we have had repeated occasion to note, Nichiren associated every step of his life with some feature of the Scripture, and especially regarded his life in Sado as the chief part, the climax, of his life. Now the last stage was to be inaugurated, and dedicated to the consummation of his mission and to the perpetuation of his religion, just as the last twelve chapters of the Scripture made up the consummation of the Truth. He had proclaimed the Sacred Title at the outset of his ministry; he had furnished the object of worship and spiritual introspection by the graphic representation of the Supreme Being; one thing alone remained — to prepare for, or establish, the central seat of his religion. These three instruments of his propaganda were called the ” Three Mysteries.” Although there are some allusions to them in his writings before this time, Nichiren proclaimed this trinity for the first time in the first essay written after his retirement. This treatise is dated the twenty-fourth of the fifth month (June 24) — just a week after his arrival at Minobu. The great plan which he had long been meditating, and the motive which led him to retire from the present world, and to work for the future, was the establishment of the “Kaidan,” or the Holy See of the Catholic Church of Buddhism.

Every one who realizes the truth of the fundamental unity is a Buddha, and every one who lives in accordance with this enlightenment and works to propagate the Lotus of Truth is the messenger of the primeval Tathagata. To such a man, all that surrounds him preaches the truth, and the place of his abode is a paradise.

Where there lives a true Buddhist, there is manifest in his spirit and life, the Mandala, the cycle embodying the cosmic truth. Where the Truth is manifest, there, is realized the eternal light of Buddhahood, and therefore the place is a paradise.

What [Nichiren] meant was this: Buddhahood, or Truth, is eternal. It can be, and ought to be, made a fact in our own life. Nichiren is the man sent to lead all to that life, and he is now assisted by his followers, who are, therefore, the Saints prophesied in the Scripture. The attainment of Buddhahood is not a matter of individuals or of the aggregate of individuals, it is the embodiment of the all-embracing communion of all beings in the organic unity of Buddhahood which is inherent in them all. This realization is the Kingdom of Buddha, the establishment of the Land of Treasures, as Nichiren had declared in his Rissho Ankoku Ron and explained on many occasions. Now this Kingdom of Buddha is, properly speaking, immanent in the soul of every one, but it can only be realized in the spiritual and moral community of those who are united in the Adoration of the Lotus, and in the worship of the Supreme Being as revealed by Nichiren.

This was his great remorse, caused by the sense of his own sinfulness as well as by concern for his countrymen. His curse was not a product of mere self-righteousness nor of mere hatred of others, but an expression of his deep regret for his country and of his own ideal. There was always, for him, a link between the present danger and the future destiny, between the nation’s curse and his own expiation; and this connection was a result of his view of the inseparable tie uniting the individual to the community in which he lives.

Thus, all those who live in communion, united by the Adoration of the Lotus of Truth, are fellows of the universal and eternal fraternity. Within the communion, however, there are relations of parents and children, of master and disciples — the aspects of human life which remain through eternity, as in the case of the primeval Buddha and his disciples, and similarly in that of the prophet and his followers. Yet this relation does not mean mere subordination on the part of the disciples, but gratitude, and its fruit, the perpetuation of the truth transmitted and committed to them.

Then the store of truths (Buddha’s teachings), eighty-four thousand in the number of its gateways, is nothing but the record and diary of our own life. Everybody reads and embraces this store of truths in his own soul. Illusion occurs when we seek the Buddha, the Truth, and the Paradise outside of our own self. One who has realized this soul is called the Tathagata. When this state is once attained, (we realize that) the cosmos in ten directions is our own body, our own soul, and our manifestation, because the Tathagata is our own body and soul.