Generally speaking, only these two, T’ien-t’ai and Dengyō, were practicers of the Lotus Sūtra in the 1,800 years after the death of the Buddha. Grand Master Dengyō, therefore, cites in his Outstanding Principles of the Lotus Sūtra the words of the Lotus Sūtra, chapter 11 on the “Appearance of the Stupa of Treasures,” which states that lifting up Mt. Sumeru and throwing it to numerous Buddha lands is not as difficult as spreading the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration after the death of the Buddha. Interpreting this, he then declares: “Śākyamuni Buddha said that it is easy to uphold the sūtras, which are shallow in meaning, but it is difficult to uphold those sūtras profound in meaning. Therefore, it is natural for men of valor to believe in the Lotus Sūtra, which is profound in meaning, just as Grand Master T’ien-t’ai following the wishes of Śākyamuni spread the Lotus School in China in the past; and today we on Mt. Hiei, following the teaching of T’ien-t’ai, are propagating the Lotus School in Japan.”

The meaning of this interpretation is that suppose there was a short man, five feet tall, living in between the ninth small kalpa within the Kalpa of Continuance when the human life span was 100 years and decreasing, and the last fifty years of Śākyamuni Buddha’s life and 1,800 years after His death. Even if such a man can throw a gold mountain, 168,000 yojana or 6,620,000 ri in height, over the Surrounding Iron Mountains as though it were a one or two inch piece of tile thrown a few hundred yards at a speed faster than a sparrow, it would be more difficult to expound the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration the way the Buddha did during His lifetime. Only Grand Masters T’ien t’ai and Dengyō spread it in a way similar to that of the Buddha.

Senji-shō, Selecting the Right time: A Tract by Nichiren, the Buddha’s Disciple, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 215-216