[In Saichō’s Shijōshiki (Regulations in Four Articles) submitted in 819, he writes:]

I have pondered upon how the Lotus Sūtra calls the bodhisattva the nation’s treasure and how the Mahāyāna sūtras preach the Mahāyāna practice of benefiting others. If we do not employ Mahāyāna sūtras to prevent the seven calamities which affect the world, then what shall we use? If the great disasters to come are not vanquished by the bodhisattva monks, then how will they be forestalled? The virtue of benefiting others and the power of great compassion is that which the Buddhas extol and that in which gods and men rejoice. The hundred monks (who chant the) Jen wang ching draw upon the power of wisdom (hannya). The eight worthies who practice The Sūtra Used in Asking for Rain (Ch’ing yü Ching) follow the Mahāyāna precepts. If the bodhisattva is not the treasure of the nation or the benefactor of the nation, then who is? In Buddhism he is called a bodhisattva; in the secular world he is called a gentleman. These precepts are broad and extensive; they have the same import for layman and monk (shinzoku ikkan).

Two types of bodhisattva are mentioned in the Lotus Sūtra. The bodhisattva Mañjuśrī and the bodhisattva Maitreya are both bodhisattva monks. Bhadrapāla and the five hundred bodhisattvas are lay bodhisattvas. The Lotus Sūtra fully presents both types of men but considers them to be one group. It distinguishes them from Hinayāna monks and considers them to be Mahāyāna practitioners. However, this type of bodhisattva has not yet appeared in Japan. I humbly ask His Majesty to establish this Great Way and transmit the Mahāyāna precepts beginning from this year in the Konin era and continuing forever, and thus benefit (the people and the nation).