In the ninth fascicle of his Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, Grand Master Miao-lê declares: “Before the eternal life of the Buddha Śākyamuni was revealed in ‘The Life Span of the Buddha’ chapter, the permanence of the three bodies of the Buddha had not been revealed. When the permanence of the Buddha’s lifetime was revealed in this chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, the unified threefold body in both the essential and theoretical sections of this sūtra was clarified.” In his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 9, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai preaches: “The three bodies of the Buddha have always been fused into one throughout the past, present and future lives. However, this was kept in secrecy and not revealed in the pre-Lotus sūtras.”

Hasshū Imoku-shō, A Treatise on the Differences of the Lotus Sect from Eight Other Sects, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 16