The heart of Nichiren Buddhism is the practice of chanting the daimoku, the sacred title of the Lotus Sutra (Nam-myoho-renge-kyo), which is believed to contain the entire dharma within itself and to lead the practitioner to Buddhahood. This reflects the fundamental belief in Nichiren Buddhism that enlightenment is available to all beings, and that one can attain Buddhahood in this lifetime.

In American popular culture, singer Tina Turner has helped bring attention to Nichiren Buddhism, crediting her chanting practice with helping her to overcome the obstacles in her life. 

Click through Deck 4 to learn more about the history and teachings of Nichiren Buddhism. 

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What is Nichiren Buddhism? The tradition is based on the teachings of the Japanese Buddhist priest Nichiren, who believed that the Lotus Sutra contained all other Buddhist teachings.

Who was Nichiren? Nichiren Daishonin believed in the unity of faith and social action, and was a fierce devotee of the Lotus Sutra. 

What do Nichiren Buddhists practice? The main practice of Nichiren Buddhism is the daimoku—chanting the sacred title of the Lotus Sutra. 

What is the daimoku (namu-myoho-renge-kyo)? The daimoku is believed to embody the fundamental nature of the cosmos. Practitioners chant it as a way to change their karma, overcoming obstacles to success or happiness.

Attaining Buddhahood in this lifetime Going against early Buddhist texts, the radical promise of the Lotus Sutra is the notion that anyone can achieve enlightenment in this lifetime. 

The infinite life span of the Buddha: Chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra, “The Life Span of the Thus Come One,” is chanted twice daily by Nichiren Buddhists during gongyo practice.

What are the ten worlds? In the Nichiren Buddhist cosmology, there are ten worlds through which beings are constantly moving.

What is the Soka Gakkai? SGI (Soka Gakkai International) is the largest, most influential sect of Nichiren Buddhism in the world today. 

What is the purpose of Nichiren discussion groups? Soka Gakkai members meet to dialogue over life’s problems, bringing a practical and communal focus to the teachings. 

Recommended Reading: 

• Dharma Talk: Living the Lotus Sutra – With Myokei Caine-Barrett, Shonin 
• How to Read the Lotus Sutra – Interview with Jacqueline Stone and Donald S. Lopez Jr. by James Shaheen 
• Absolutely, Indestructibly Happy – Interview with Tina Turner by Clark Strand 
• Dharma Discourse: The Lotus Sutra – by Tricycle 
• The Lotus of the Wonderful Law –by Andrew Cooper 

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Like many of his contemporaries, Nichiren believed that the Lotus Sutra contained all other Buddhist teachings. Unlike his peers, he also believed that the Japanese title of the sutra, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, contained all of the dharma—and that it is possible for anyone to attain Buddhahood through the practice of chanting the scripture’s name. Nichiren Buddhists recite this chant, called the daimoku, along with other recitations and prayers as part of the twice daily gongyo (“assiduous practice”) ritual.

Nichiren Buddhism arose during the Kamakura Period (1185–1333), an era marked by civil war and natural disasters in Japan, in addition to vast disparities of wealth. The suffering was so great that Japanese Buddhists came to believe that the “Latter Day of the Law”—a period of moral and intellectual decline, as foretold in the sutras—had arrived. Newer schools, including Zen, Pure Land, and Nichiren started to spread. While Pure Land favored a tariki, or faith in “other-power,” approach and Zen stressed jiriki, or “self-power,” practice of meditation, Nichiren took the middle way, empowering individual change through religious faith to empower individuals to change. “Faith in action” became the theme for his life of spiritual and political activism. 

Nichiren’s practices, such as chanting the daimoku, reflect a spirit of egalitarianism, which asserts that the dharma and enlightenment are available to everyone—be they rich or poor, educated or uneducated, lay or ordained, male or female. For many Nichiren Buddhists today, social activism and engagement is a vital part of their practice.

After Nichiren’s death, the school of Buddhism he founded experienced a period of fragmentation as his followers struggled to codify the teachings he had left behind. This process led to the founding of 37 different schools of Nichiren Buddhism. The largest of these groups include Nichiren Shu, Soka Gakkai International (SGI), and Nichiren Shoshu. Nichiren Shu is the oldest of the three. It contains several smaller Nichiren orders, and its main temple, Kuon-ji, is located near Nichiren’s burial site on Mount Minobu in Japan. SGI, a lay organization, is the most influential, boasting more than 12 million members. SGI was originally a branch of Nichiren Shoshu, which holds the belief that Nichiren is a divine figure (as opposed to the Nichiren Shu view that he was just a priest). In the late 20th century Nichiren Shoshu and SGI came into conflict over authority and doctrinal differences, culminating in 1991, when Nichiren Shoshu excommunicated SGI.

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Nichiren began his career as a Tendai monk on Mt. Hiei. The Tendai tradition holds a comprehensive view of Buddhist doctrine and practice. Therefore Nichiren was able to study all schools of Japanese Buddhism as a young man. In 1253 he declared that only the Lotus contained the complete and perfect teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha. This set Nichiren at odds with the religious and secular powers of his day. In 1260, as a result of his public criticisms of the Pure Land movement, one of the most popular forms of Japanese Buddhism, he was attacked and nearly assassinated— the first of multiple attempts. In 1271 he escaped execution at the last moment when a meteor flashed above the executioner’s head and his captors fled in panic.

Nichiren was persecuted and his teachings were suppressed throughout most of the remainder of his life. His final years were spent in poverty and exile on Mount Minobu, in southcentral Japan, where he wrote a number of his most famous treatises and letters. Many of the latter were addressed to peasants and farmers as a gesture of thanks for food or articles of clothing and contain some of his most profound teachings. It was Nichiren’s concern for the well-being of ordinary people and his belief in their inherent capacity for Buddhahood that most characterize his approach to Buddhism.

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As a ritual, gongyo is the reenactment of a portion of the Lotus Sutra called “The Ceremony in the Air.” As in many other Buddhist sutras, the setting for the Lotus Sutra is Vulture Peak, a mountain near the ancient city of Rajgir, in northern India. But eleven chapters into the sutra, the scene shifts to the heavens above that peak, as Shakyamuni Buddha and the assembled bodhisattvas rise high into the air, literally transcending the earthly plane. From that exalted position, Shakyamuni expounds the teachings of the rest of the sutra, after which the assembly returns to the ground.

Gongyo is a daily process whereby Nichiren Buddhists elevate their life condition, gaining both a transcendent perspective on their lives and the energy and inspiration to apply that perspective to the practical challenges they face day to day. Those who practice gongyo say it creates a dynamic rhythm in their lives: they begin each day with energy and enthusiasm and then reflect each evening on where they stand with their desires and goals, renewing the vow to attain the happiness of Buddhahood in this lifetime—no matter what the obstacles.

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In Nichiren Buddhism, karma is fundamentally self-empowering—even so-called “bad” karma—because it motivates and energizes the practitioner to overcome hardships, break old patterns of thought and behavior, and surmount obstacles. The interaction of cause and effect is not a web that ensnares us but a net that connects us to everything else in the universe. Because of that net, whatever good we do here and now will affect everyone everywhere. By chanting Namu-myoho-renge-kyo and taking constructive action in the present, Nichiren Buddhists send vibrations along the intersecting strings of the net until their influence is felt everywhere. As Nichiren wrote:

When one carries out the single practice of exercising faith in the Lotus Sutra, there are no blessings that fail to come to one, and no good karma that does not begin to work on one’s behalf. It is like the case of a fishing net: though the net is composed of innumerable small meshes, when one pulls on the main cord of the net, there are no meshes that do not move.

In Nichiren’s analogy, chanting the daimoku is that central cord. By taking positive action—creating good causes—now, Nichiren Buddhists establish the basis for an indestructible happiness throughout the ten worlds, and in every lifetime to come.

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The insistence on the attainability of Buddhahood by ordinary people facing the ordinary struggles and challenges of life is the hallmark of Nichiren Buddhism. From the beginning, Nichiren offered an inherently egalitarian approach to Buddhism that favored the experiences of laypeople. Claiming the right to Buddhahood was, and still is, an act of radical self-empowerment.

For this reason, Nichiren Buddhists rarely speak of enlightenment in abstract terms. Buddhahood is often described as a state of unshakable faith or conviction—a confidence that through chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, the Japanese title of the Lotus Sutra, they can activate the fundamental power inherent in the structure of the universe itself and set that power, often described as “life force,” into motion to transform their lives.

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In the parable, the Buddha is the skilled physician and all living beings are his children. The poison is delusion, and the teachings of the Lotus Sutra provide the antidote. The disciples will embrace the teachings fully only when they take responsibility for their own spiritual lives. The message is clear: faith is essential, but faith alone is not enough. Living beings can never attain Buddhahood without making vigorous efforts of their own.

In Nichiren Buddhism this concept becomes the mandate to “have faith . . . and take action”—a robust, hands-on approach to the spiritual life. Nichiren Buddhists chant twice daily with the faith that their inherent Buddhahood will allow them to overcome any obstacle, but they never rest on the assumption that this will happen on its own. Faith inspires action, and action deepens faith. These actions may be of a very practical nature—seeking higher education, for example, or applying for a better job—or they may involve confronting and overcoming difficult obstacles as in the case of those struggling against injustice, prejudice, or oppression.

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The ten worlds were originally thought to be separate physical realms, each with its own class of beings. However, according to the Tendai philosophy that Nichiren draws upon, all ten worlds are mutually inclusive, each realm potentially containing all the others. In practice, this means that the ten worlds are really ten different life conditions that an individual might experience at any given time.

A core teaching of Nichiren Buddhism is the “mutual possession” of the ten worlds. In practice, this means that the karma of each lifetime (indeed of each moment) is fluid rather than fixed. Human beings are not at the mercy of conditions or their surroundings but can transform any moment by chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, the Japanese title of the Lotus Sutra. The realm of demigods, for instance, in which everything is seen as a potential threat, can give way to the realm of the bodhisattva through altruistic action toward others. It is therefore possible to manifest any of the ten worlds, including Buddhahood, at any time. 

Buddhahood is never viewed by Nichiren Buddhists as a state removed from ordinary life. In this realm one strives with even greater energy and conviction to transform difficult situations, creating peace among human beings and maintaining harmony with the natural world.

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While studying the Lotus Sutra in prison, Makiguchi’s disciple Josei Toda experienced a radical conversion experience, after which he reinterpreted the teachings of Nichiren Buddhism to bring them in line with the needs of modern people. The Soka Gakkai grew rapidly under his leadership after World War II, quickly becoming the largest lay Buddhist movement in Japan. The society retained its interest in education but quickly expanded its mission to include championing the rights of the poor, the sick, and the disenfranchised and, most significantly, opposing the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Daisaku Ikeda assumed leadership of the Soka Gakkai after Toda’s death in 1958. Honoring the final wishes of his mentor that he disseminate the teachings of Nichiren Buddhism throughout the world, Ikeda founded Soka Gakkai International (SGI) in 1960. Since then, the movement has developed a strong secular identity that has allowed it to spread easily outside Japan. With some 12 million members in 192 countries and territories, the SGI is the world’s largest lay Buddhist movement. In some Western countries—Brazil and Italy, for example—it is the predominant form of Buddhist practice. Conflict with Nichiren Shoshu led to the excommunication of Soka Gakkai in 1991.

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The solution was a group discussion format that quickly became the standard for Soka Gakkai meetings throughout Japan. As conceived by Makiguchi, the purpose of such meetings was to encourage individuals to talk openly about how to create positive value in their lives. Later, Makiguchi’s successor, Josei Toda, made the discussion meeting the driving force of the Soka Gakkai. Participants learned how to apply the teachings of Nichiren Buddhism to issues like health and family finances, acknowledging their struggles and reporting their successes as a way of encouraging other members to make positive changes in their lives.

Then as now, most discussion meetings take place in members’ homes. The goal is to support respectful, supportive dialogue between members of equal status. “The spirit of engaging others in dialogue on equal terms is the essence of Buddhism,” writes Daisaku Ikeda, Soka Gakkai International’s current president. The egalitarian flavor of such meetings, combined with their focus on practical application of the teachings of Buddhism, has driven the spread of Nichiren Buddhism in recent decades as it has taken root in other cultures throughout the world.

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