It will also be noted … that Nichiren reads ichinen sanzen primarily in terms of the mutual encompassing of the ten realms (jikkai gogu). Elsewhere in the same text, he writes, “The three thousand worlds in one thought-moment begins with the mutual encompassing of the ten realms,” that is, the nonduality and mutual inclusion of the nine realms of deluded beings and the enlightened realm of the Buddha. Nichiren specifically identified the mutual encompassing of the ten realms as the ground of the Lotus Sūtra’s two great revelations on which claims for its superiority were based: that persons of the two vehicles have the capacity to attain Buddhahood, and that the Buddha originally realized enlightenment in the inconceivably remote past yet ever since has remained constantly in the world to preach the Dharma. Nichiren saw the promise of Buddhahood given to persons of the two vehicles in the trace teaching as indicating that the nine realms of unenlightened beings encompass the Buddha realm (kukai soku bukkai), and the eternity of the Buddha’s presence set forth in the origin teaching as indicating that the Buddha realm encompasses the nine realms of deluded beings (bukkai soku kukai), both of these expressing the principle that a single thought-moment is the three thousand realms. Thus in Nichiren’s system, the “three thousand realms in one thought-moment”— represented by the mutual inclusion of the ten realms—becomes both the “deep structure” of the entire Lotus Sūtra and the ontological basis upon which the realization of Buddhahood can occur. (Page 266)