Both Dōgen and Nichiren held that, in the very act of practice, one simultaneously attains, not the stage of non-regression, but buddhahood itself. Nichiren wrote, “ ‘To attain’ [in the phrase “attain Buddhahood”] means ‘to open,’ ” reflecting his belief that Buddhahood is not something one “attains” at all, but is inherent in all sentient and non-sentient beings. At the same time, both he and Dōgen vigorously denied the view of Buddhahood as a final accomplishment rendering further practice unnecessary. Dōgen therefore urged continued exertion in zazen, and Nichiren, in chanting the daimoku, until the last moment of one’s life. In this sense, it can be argued that neither one wholly abandoned the view of enlightenment-as-process; however, both saw this process not as linear progress toward a final goal, but as “practice based on enlightenment.” For these two men, “common mortal” and “Buddha” were not the beginning and end, respectively, of a long journey. Both states, they believed, could coexist in a single individual. Their teachings thus represent a closure of the gulf that in earlier doctrines had gaped so forbiddingly between the ordinary person and ultimate truth.

Thus the supreme state of Buddhahood, previously thought to require aeons of effort to attain, comes in the Kamakura period to be viewed as obtainable “in one’s present form.” All three single practices represent attempts to allow common mortals direct access to the ultimate without the intervening process of systematically eradicating bad karma. This concept of direct attainment may be seen as illuminating yet another aspect of universality: Wherever one undertakes the Buddhist practice, the goal of his striving is immediately at hand.