The Buddhism of the Sowing and the
Buddhism of the Harvest

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The relationship between Nichiren Daishonin’s teachings and Shakyamuni Buddha's Lotus Sutracan also be understood by an analogy that compares the relationship between the Buddha and those who receive his teachings to the development of a plant - from sowing, through maturity, to harvest.  Sowing is when the Buddha teaches the Law to an ordinary person for the first time; maturity is when that person develops his or her potential for Buddhahood; harvest is the time when he or she actually becomes a Buddha. 

According to this view, the essential teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha’s Lotus Sutra relates to the harvest, while Nam-myoho-renge-kyo ‘hidden in the depths’ of the ‘Life Span of the Thus Come One’ chapter, and expounded by Nichiren Daishonin, relates to sowing.  As he states: 

Shakyamuni’s…is the Buddhism of the harvest, and this [my teaching] is the Buddhism of sowing.  The core of his teaching is one chapter and two halves, and the core of mine is the five characters of the daimoku alone.

This is because, as Shakyamuni explains in the ‘Parable of the Phantom City’ (seventh) chapter, his Lotus Sutra is the teaching through which his disciples from the past, when he was the sixteenth and youngest son of the Buddha Great Universal Wisdom Excellence, can finally attain Buddhahood.  It follows from this that the ordinary people of the Latter Day of the Law, who did not receive that ‘seed’ from him in the past, cannot attain Buddhahood through the teachings of the Lotus Sutra.  This is the fundamental doctrinal reason why the Lotus Sutra loses its power in the Latter Day.

By contrast, Nichiren Daishonin’s teaching is called the Buddhism of sowing because it enables the ordinary people of the Latter Day of the Law, who have formed no relationship with Shakyamuni Buddha, to sow, mature and harvest their seed of Buddhahood - Nam-myoho-renge-kyo - within a single lifetime.  He states: 

Shakyamuni’s practices and the virtues he consequently attained are all contained within the five characters of Myoho-renge-kyo. If we believe in these five characters, we will naturally be granted the same benefits as Nichiren Daishonin was.

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