When I joined Nichiren Shoshu in 1989 I was given The Liturgy of Nichiren Shoshu booklet. Each day that I practiced I recited the silent prayer:

I pray to erase my negative karma created by my own past causes and to fulfill my wishes in this life and in the future.

And it was this focus on “my wishes” that eventually caused me to stumble and re-evaluate exactly what I thought was the purpose of a Buddhist Practice.

Recently I took up The Bodhicaryāvatāra, Śāntideva’s Guide to the Buddhist Path to Awakening. In the introduction by Kate Crosby and Andrew Skilton is an explanation of Mahāyāna Buddhism from the Bodhipathapradīpa (Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment) by Atiśa (982-1054). Atiśa’s explanation underscores just how superficial is a practice focused on “my wishes.”

Atiśa speaks of three ‘scopes,’ three aspirations which one might have when engaging in spiritual practice. The first and lowest aspiration is that of a person whose goal is purely within the realm of unenlightenment — religion for wealth, fame, or even a favorable future rebirth. This aspiration — if they were honest the aspiration of so many people — is not particularly Buddhist, although at least in its higher concern with future rebirths it is somewhat better than having no spiritual aspiration whatsoever. …

According to Atiśa the second and middling aspiration is that of one who turns his or her back on all concern with future pleasures and future rebirths (with their invariable attendant sufferings) and aims for freedom. The hallmark of this aspiration is renunciation, and the goal is enlightenment, understood as freedom from suffering and rebirth. …

In following this second middling scope the practitioner can attain freedom from rebirth, enlightenment. Such a person is called an arhat, a Worthy One. The goal is held to be a difficult one requiring intensive practice and great insight which will fuel the letting go, the deep renunciation which leads to freedom. Perhaps this was the main concern of serious Buddhist practitioners in the immediate centuries after the death of the Buddha. Yet from the Mahāyāna perspective, no matter how many of their fellows follow it, this is not the highest goal and its aspiration is not the supreme aspiration. There is something higher than simply attaining enlightenment, the state of an arhat, and that is the state of a Buddha himself. What characterizes a Buddha, the Mahāyāna urges, is not just great insight, supreme wisdom, but his (or sometimes her) immense compassion as well. Compassion for others is missing in the description of the second scope which leads to the enlightenment of the arhat. Atiśa adds that those of the third and highest scope wish in every way — even by means of their own sufferings — for the complete destruction of all the sufferings of others. In fact, so long as someone else is suffering the Mahāyāna practitioner cannot attain peace. Superior to the arhat is the bodhisattva, one who vows to attain perfect Buddhahood, the perfection of insight and compassion, for the benefit of all.

No, I’m not suggesting switching to Tibetan Buddhism. I believe that knowing the foundations of Buddhism is essential to knowing the Lotus Sūtra. As Nichiren wrote in Ichidai Shōgyō Tai-i, Outline of All the Holy Teachings of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 81:

The reason for my commentaries on the Four Teachings (Tripitaka, Common, Distinct, and Perfect) and the Four Periods (Flower Garland, Agama, Expanded, and Wisdom) is to help others learn what the Lotus Sūtra is. For one cannot correctly understand the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra without learning the pre-Lotus Sūtras, although one may study the pre-Lotus Sūtras without learning about other Sūtras.

In support of this, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai stated in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, “When attempting to spread various sūtras other than the Lotus Sūtra, the essential part of the teaching will not be lost even if a doctrinal analysis of all the teachings of the Buddha is not rendered. When attempting to spread the Lotus Sūtra, however, the essence of the teaching may be lost if a doctrinal analysis is not made.” It is preached in the Lotus Sūtra (chapter 2, “Expedients”), “Although the Buddhas expound various teachings, it is for the purpose of leading the people into the world of the One Buddha Vehicle.” “Various teachings” here refer to all the pre-Lotus Sūtras. “For the purpose of leading the people into the world of the One Buddha Vehicle” means to expound all the scriptures of Buddhism to reveal the Lotus Sūtra.