-Lotus Sutra, Chapter 16, The Life Span of the Tathagata”Good men, the Thus Come One observes how among living beings there are those who delight in a little Law, meager in virtue and heavy with defilement. For such persons I describe how in my youth I left my household and attained anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. But in truth the time since I attained Buddhahood is extremely long, as I have told you. It is simply that I use this expedient means to teach and convert living beings and cause them to enter the Buddha way. That is why I speak in this manner.
"Good men, the scriptures expounded by the Thus Come One are all for the purpose of saving and emancipating living beings. Sometimes I speak of myself, sometimes of others: sometimes I present myself, sometimes others; sometimes I show my own actions, sometimes those of others. All that I preach is true and not false.
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"Because living beings have different natures, different desires, different actions, and different ways of thinking and making distinctions, and because I want to enable them to put down good roots, I employ a variety of causes and conditions, similes, parables, and phrases and preach different doctrines. This, the Buddha's work, I have never for a moment neglected.
"Thus, since I attained Buddhahood, an extremely long period of time has passed. My life span is an immeasurable number of asamkhya kalpas, and during that time I have constantly abided here without ever entering extinction. Good men, originally I practiced the bodhisattva way, and the life span that I acquired then has yet to come to an end but will last twice the number of years that have already passed. Now, however, although in fact I do not actually enter extinction, I announce that I am going to adopt the course of extinction. This is an expedient means which the Thus Come One uses to teach and convert living beings.
Before Gaya, during His ascetic practice, He was starving Himself, not drinking, not eating, taking a few breaths, meditating in a cave, one would hardly call this the Middle-Way being expressed openly. Before that His Path was not as arduous as when He reached His breaking point and accepted a bowl of rice from a woman and went on the Middle-Way. Before He was still seeming to be a learner, asking a lot of questions from various hermits and Sages, meditating, but also outdoing His Teachers and the other students, moving on from place to place because He had learned “all that He had to learn” from the various places He had traveled to to find information on Spiritual life. He outdid His Teachers until He embarked on a complete lonesome journey, and those ascetics that followed Him also engaged in difficult bodily practice that is generally not sponsored in Buddhism today. But in all of that there was a purpose.
But when He sat down at Gaya, He put it all together, He Transcended it all and found The Mystic Law of Supreme Perfect Enlightenment, and of Myoho Renge Kyo Awaken in Him. He came to Enlightenment again in that life, but that is only told to those who delight in the little Law. In reality, the Lotus Sutra and Gautama say that He was already Enlightened. So here is my question. What is the difference before and after Gaya for Buddha, if He was already Enlightened, and what are the next steps after Gaya? Does one continue to see just how blue the blue sky can be until they can see into other planets? Though they may pick up what those planets look like by their Omniscience?
At what age did Nichiren acheive an open Enlightenment? Was there such a moment? Is there such a thing written in His letters? What did Nichiren write about this subject? I read the Lotus Sutra a lot and I return every now and then to certain letters, and I remember that Nichiren said He was a Buddha, but in a certain letter He was saying that He still hopes to attain Buddhahood. So these are deep questions I am pondering. A Nichiren or Lotus Sutra Mahayana respecting perspective would be appreciated. If anyone has anything to add to this topic or any answers to any of my questions I would appreciate that. Thank you.
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.