A person who accurately knows the three periods of past, present, and future is called a sage. The three kings, five emperors, and three sages of Confucianism know only the present time but do not know the past and future. An unworldly man of faith other than Buddhism is said to have known eighty thousand years of the past and eighty thousand years of the future, thus he is considered to be a kind of sage. And yet because even the Two Vehicles of śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha of Hinayāna Buddhism know the logic of cause and effect of the past and the future, they are the sages superior to unworldly non-Buddhists. Bodhisattvas of Hinayāna Buddhism have passed a myriad of kalpa (aeons) of the past and Bodhisattvas of Common teaching of Mahāyāna Buddhism have passed Dōyujin kalpa (innumerable aeons). Bodhisattvas of Distinct teaching of Mahāyāna Buddhism know the past of Tagutei kalpa (countless aeons) on each stage. In the “Parable of a Magic City” chapter in the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra, Śākyamuni Buddha revealed the past of three thousand dust particle kalpa. This is the reason why the Lotus Sūtra is the unsurpassed teaching of all the teachings of the Buddha.

Shōnin Chi-sanze-ji, The Sage Knows the Three Periods, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Biography and Disciples, Volume 5, Pages 19