verse section of the “Life Span” chapter ［自我偈］ ( Jiga-ge): The verse section that concludes the “Life Span” (sixteenth) chapter of the Lotus Sutra. It is called Jiga-ge in Japanese because it is the verse ( ge) that begins with the phrase ”Ji ga toku butsu rai” (Since I attained Buddhahood). This section reiterates the essence of the chapter in verse form. It restates the teaching of the eternity of the Buddha’s enlightened life and explains that, though the Buddha is always in the world, he uses his death as a means to cause people to thirst for the Law. If they are so eager to see him that they would willingly give their lives to do so, he immediately appears and teaches them. He employs such means with the constant thought, expressed in the last of the verse: “How can I cause living beings / to gain entry into the unsurpassed way / and quickly acquire the body of a Buddha?”