Nichiren’s idea of the transmission of the Lotus Sūtra is also twofold in another sense. On the one hand, the transmission unfolds through a line of teachers in historical time. Nichiren saw himself as heir to a lineage that passed from Śākyamuni Buddha, to Zhiyi, to Saichō, and then to himself — the “four teachers in three countries,” as he put it. The Nichiren tradition terms this the “outer transmission,” passing over the centuries from Śākyamuni Buddha down to Nichiren and his followers. At the same time, however, it speaks of an “inner transmission” received directly from the primordial buddha, namely, the daimoku itself. Nichiren said that teachers such as Zhiyi and Saichō had known inwardly of Namu Myōhō-renge-kyō but had not spoken of it openly because the time for its dissemination had not yet come.