^299:3 Nichiren was, however, fully aware of the chronological difficulties connected with the acceptance of the Hokekyo as a genuine Sutra actually preached by S'akyamuni himself. In a passage quoted in "Seigoroku" (p. 645), after enumerating the early patriarchs of the Northern Buddhism, he adds that during their terms of office there is not to be found even the name of a single Mahayana Sutra (sho-Daijo Kyo wa myoji mo nashi), and on the following page there is another passage in which he describes the astonishment and perplexity of the Hinayana doctors when As'vaghosha and Nagarjuna began to propound their Mahayana doctrines. Nichiren's thought was that the Hokekyo, as a kind of Apocalypse, was far too advanced for the immediate disciples of S'akyamuni, and that for this reason it lay fallow for several centuries, gradually winning recognition for itself as the spiritual intelligence of the Buddhist communities increased.

^301:1 We must remember that Nichiren, in common with all northern Buddhists until quite recent times, placed S'akyamuni's birth B.C. 1027, and his death, consequently, about B.C. 947. The true date places the end of the first age in the first Christian century, and squares very well with what we know of the beginnings of Gnosticism, as well as of the Mahayana. Nichiren speaks of the pre-Mahayana Sutras as ni zen ("before the rain"), an expression which somehow seems to be an echo, as it were, of phrases like "Pentecostal showers."

^301:2 See "S.B.E.," vol. xxi., and my "Wheat among the Tares" (Macmillan, 1908).

^301:3 It is significant that this period of the Imago Law should coincide so strangely with the testimony of the Buddhist Stupas in India. See Dahlmann's "Indische Fahrten," vol. ii. capp. 22-27.

^302:1 Similarly, the Thibetan history of Buddhism published by Sarat Chandra Das (Calcutta, 1908) speaks of the conversion of India as due to S'akyamuni; of Udyana, to Vajrapani; Bactria, to the frightful manifestations of the Bodhisattva; of China, to Monjughosha; of Thibet, to Avalokites'vara; ("Pag. Sam. Jon. Zang," part ii., Table of Contents, chap. i.) See also "Une Bibliotheque Medievale retrouvee a Kansou," in Bulletin Ecole Franc. de l'Extreme Orient, viii. 3, 4 (Hanoi, 1908).

^302:2 See, for instance, "Sacred Books of the East," vol. xxi. p. 273.

^302:3 Nichiren divided the "Saddharma pundarika" into two parts. The first thirteen chapters he calls the Shakumon, or Preliminary part. This part was understood by the Tendai doctors. The second part, Hommon, or the Real Section, was not understood until its meaning was revealed to and through Nichiren. See chapter on Nichiren in "Bukkyo, Kakuha Koyo," vol. v.