transfer of the essence of the Lotus Sutra ［結要付嘱］ ( ketchō-fuzoku): Also, transmission of the essence of the Lotus Sutra. In the “Supernatural Powers” (twenty-first) chapter of the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha’s entrusting of the sutra’s teaching to Bodhisattva Superior Practices and the other Bodhisattvas of the Earth. The sutra reads: “At that time the Buddha spoke to Superior Practices and the others in the great assembly of bodhisattvas, saying: ‘The supernatural powers of the Buddhas, as you have seen, are immeasurable, boundless, inconceivable. If in the process of entrusting this sutra to others I were to employ these supernatural powers for immeasurable, boundless hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions of asamkhya kalpas to describe the benefits of the sutra, I could never finish doing so. To put it briefly, all the doctrines possessed by the Thus Come One, all the freely exercised supernatural powers of the Thus Come One, the storehouse of all the secret essentials of the Thus Come One, all the most profound matters of the Thus Come One—all these are proclaimed, revealed, and clearly expounded in this sutra. For this reason, after the Thus Come One has entered extinction, you must single-mindedly accept, uphold, read, recite, explain, preach, and transcribe it, and practice it as directed.’”
  T’ien-t’ai (538–597), in The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra, described the passage “all the doctrines possessed by the Thus Come One, all the freely exercised supernatural powers of the Thus Come One, the storehouse of all the secret essentials of the Thus Come One, all the most profound matters of the Thus Come One” as four essential phrases that summarize the Lotus Sutra, calling it the “four-phrase essence” of the sutra. In The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra, based on the same sutra passage, T’ien-t’ai formulated five major principles—name, essence, quality, function, and teaching—that endow the sutra’s title, Myoho-renge-kyo: “To put it briefly, all the doctrines possessed by the Thus Come One [name], all the freely exercised supernatural powers of the Thus Come One [function], the storehouse of all the secret essentials of the Thus Come One [essence], all the most profound matters of the Thus Come One [quality] —all these are proclaimed, revealed, and clearly expounded in this sutra [teaching].” Nichiren interpreted the same sutra passage as indicating Nam-myoho-renge-kyo of the Three Great Secret Laws. See also five major principles; Three Great Secret Laws.