As we saw in the previous chapter, vital transmission is not a simple passing of the baton, as we see in companies when one department head leaves his post to be replaced by another.

This is the relationship of master to disciple, through which the master (the Buddha) transmits not only doctrine to his disciple, but also all the arcana of ritual, as well as his own way of life, which the disciple imbibes body and soul.

As Nichiren Daishōnin chose only Nikkō Shōnin to succeed him, it is only natural that Nikkō Shōnin should have perpetuated Nichiren Daishōnin's teaching through his current, which has now become the Nichiren Shōshū.

The other currents therefore have no place. Yet their founders, determined to survive in spite of everything, flounder and struggle like fish out of water. However, being completely removed from the true doctrine of Nichiren Daishōnin, they propose what we still see today, i.e. anything goes.

But what is this true doctrine of Nichiren Daishōnin, this doctrine of his own that no one other than Nikkō Shōnin and his successors understood?

Nichiren Daishōnin defines it most clearly in the Letter to Jōnin (Jōnin shō - 常忍抄), written on October 1, 1278.

"On the whole, you should bear in mind the following. By contrasting the Lotus Sutra with earlier teachings and assessing their relative superiority and depth, the comparison between teachings still within a certain dimension and those extending beyond can be made on three levels. Nichiren's teaching represents the third doctrine. While the first and second doctrines have been evoked in the world in a vague, dream-like manner, the third has never been mentioned. Although Tendai, Miao-lè and Dengyō explained it to some extent, they did not fully clarify it. In the end, they left it for the present moment, the End of Dharma. This is the era known as the Fifth Five-Hundred-Year Period".

It couldn't be clearer. And yet none of the so-called Nichirenist currents take this precious information into account, relegating Nichiren Daishōnin's teaching to a kind of "sub-Tendai", which confirms the importance of vital transmission, because only Nikkō Shōnin and his successors have understood, commented on and brought to life the true doctrine of Nichiren Daishōnin, the famous "third doctrine".

But what is the third doctrine?

With regard to this third doctrine, Nichiren's disciples, other than Nikkō Shōnin, have generally confused the Three kinds of aspects of Tendai teaching, which we have already studied in chapter 14, with the three doctrines proposed by Nichiren Daishōnin. Indeed, they think that the first Tendai teaching, "the Aspect of merging or not merging with nature and the roots", is the first Nichiren Daishōnin doctrine, that the second Tendai teaching, "the continuous or non-continuous Aspect of the teaching", is the second Nichiren Daishōnin doctrine and that the third Tendai teaching, "the distant-near and not distant-near Aspect of master and disciples", is the third Nichiren Daishōnin doctrine.

However, this is not the case.

The first thing to know is that Nichiren Daishōnin's "three doctrines" are in fact the last three comparisons he makes in the Eye-opening Treatise: the comparison between the circumstantial sutras and the Lotus Sutra (1st doctrine), the comparison between the ephemeral doctrine and the original doctrine of the Lotus Sutra (2nd doctrine) and the comparison between the original doctrine at the level of phrases, which turns out to reveal the benefit of harvesting, and the depth of phrases, which reveals the benefit of sowing the same original doctrine of the Lotus Sutra (3rd doctrine).

In the excerpt from the Letter to Jōnin quoted above, attention should be paid to the two expressions "the teachings that are still within a certain dimension", which could be more synthetically re-translated as "dimensional teachings", raising the idea that these teachings are situated within a certain, specific, limited dimension, and "those that extend beyond", which could also be synthesized as "transcendental teachings", a term suggesting that the teachings in question have a wider scope and reach deeper dimensions than the previous ones.

In this instance, Nichikan Shōnin, the 26th High Priest of the Nichiren Shōshū, commenting on the three doctrines of Nichiren Daishōnin wrote in his exegesis of the Treatise on the Object of Veneration:

"To explain simply, I will say that firstly, the earlier teachings (of the Lotus) still remain within a certain dimension, while the ephemeral doctrine (of the Lotus) extends beyond. Such is the doctrine of the comparison between the circumstantial and the true; secondly, the ephemeral doctrine still remains in a certain dimension, while the original doctrine extends beyond it. Such is the doctrine of comparison between the ephemeral and the original; thirdly, the benefit of harvesting still remains in a certain dimension, while the benefit of sowing extends beyond it. This is the doctrine of the comparison between harvesting and sowing. This is what we call "the three doctrinal aspects of sowing". (...) If we look at the Three Aspects of Tendai's Teaching, we see that its first two aspects correspond to the first doctrinal aspect of our school, while Tendai's third doctrinal aspect, "The Distant-Near and Not Distant-Near Aspect of Master and Disciples", corresponds to the second doctrinal aspect of our school. If we add the comparison between harvesting and sowing, we obtain the three doctrinal aspects of our school. (...) Those of the various currents are unaware of this logic and simply interpret the third doctrine of Tendai as being the third doctrine of our Founder Nichiren".

The following picture emerges:

Nichiren Daishōnin, for his part, writes in The Ten Worlds of Dharmas:

"When one examines the entirety of the holy teachings given (by the Buddha) during his lifetime according to the meaning of contemplating the heart of the original doctrine of the Lotus Sutra, it appears as clear as taking an anraka and presenting it in the palm of one's hand. Why? Because when the great teaching of the ephemeral doctrine occurs, the great teachings of the previous sutras disappear, when the great teaching of the original doctrine occurs, the great teaching of the ephemeral doctrine and those of the previous sutras disappear, and when the great teaching of the contemplation of the heart occurs, the great teachings of the original doctrine, the ephemeral doctrine and those of the previous sutras all disappear. Thus, from the superficial to the profound, illusion is gradually transformed”.

(I digress to explain that the word "Anraka" refers to a fruit, whose name is the phonetic transcription of the Sanskrit word āmra. It is also called āmra or anmora, in reference to the mango tree. In the Yán xióng yīnyì (延雄音義), the fruit is used as both food and medicine, as it says: "The fruit is like a nut, its taste is sweet and sour, and it can be used for medicinal purposes.")

Nichiren Daishōnin shows here the great teaching of heart contemplation by dividing the sacred teachings given by the Buddha during his lifetime into "Dimensional Teachings" and "Transcendental Teachings", starting from the superficial and arriving at the profound.

Regarding the expression "heart contemplation" used here, Nichikan Shōnin states in his Exegesis of the Treatise on the Honzon of Heart Observation:

"The doctrine of sowing to the deep of sentences is called 'contemplation of the heart'".

He adds:

"The Lotus Sutra of contemplation of the heart is none other than the Lotus Sutra of seeding deep in sentences".

Nichiren Daishōnin used several methods to demonstrate where his doctrine, the "third doctrine", stood and what its value was. In all cases, it appeared to represent the ultimate goal of all Buddhism. To do this, he used, for example, the "five series of comparisons" in the Treatise on Opening the Eyes, which we've already seen, the "five levels of three degrees" in the Treatise on the Honzon of Heart Observation, which we'll see later, and the "four adoptions and rejections" we have here in the Treatise on The Ten Worlds of Dharmas.

The significance of the four adoptions and rejections of the Treatise on The Ten Worlds of Dharmas is that "the great teaching of contemplation of the heart" is none other than the third doctrine of Nichiren Daishōnin. In this sense, Nichikan Shonin writes in his Treatise on The Three Secret Transmissions:

"The sutras taught throughout the Buddha's life are of four kinds: anterior (to the Lotus Sutra), the ephemeral doctrine, the original doctrine and the profound of phrases. There is a secret transmission for the three vehicles concerning these four types. Indeed, as the earlier sutras do not yet reveal One Thought Three Thousand, they remain within a certain dimension. In contrast, the ephemeral doctrine reveals One Thought Three Thousand. This is why it extends beyond. Such is the first doctrine (of Nichiren Daishōnin), the comparison between the circumstantial and the true. Secondly, although the ephemeral doctrine reveals One Thought Three Thousand, (the Buddha having not yet) abandoned its ephemeral aspect to reveal its true nature, this is not the true doctrine of One Thought Three Thousand. This is why it still remains in a certain dimension. In contrast, the original doctrine reveals the true doctrine of One Thought Three Thousand through the mutual presence of ten worlds, a hundred worlds and a thousand Thus. It therefore extends beyond. Such is the second doctrine (of Nichiren Daishōnin), the comparison between the ephemeral doctrine and the original doctrine (of the Lotus). Finally, although the original doctrine at the level of phrases reveals the benefit of the harvest and the true doctrine of One Thought Three Thousand, this is still only the theoretical doctrinal aspect, in other words the ephemeral within the original. So it's only the principle of One Thought Three Thousand, and that's why it's still in a certain dimension. Only the unique original doctrine of seeding in the depths of sentences extends beyond. It is the third doctrine (of Nichiren Daishōnin), the comparison between harvesting and sowing. If scholars were to learn this, the merits and demerits of the Buddha's 50 years of preaching and the original intent of our Founder Nichiren's some forty writings would become as clear to them as a piece of fruit placed on the palms of their hands."

This is the meaning of Nichiren Daishōnin's third doctrine.

In the first part of this chapter, we studied the true doctrine of Nichiren Daishōnin, a doctrine found nowhere else and which he himself called "the third doctrine", which represents the purpose of all Buddhism. This third doctrine is the benefit of sowing.

Like a fertile field that needs to be sown, the spiritual field of ordinary beings can only be sown by the Buddha teaching the Lotus Sutra. Once this blessing of sowing has occurred, the blessing of ripening must follow and, finally, the blessing of harvesting, which is the attainment of Buddhahood.