Within Nichiren Shōshū, the Lotus Sutra is revered as the supreme and complete teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha, the one scripture that fully reveals the Buddha’s true intention. It is regarded as the only sutra capable of leading beings to enlightenment in the present degenerate age, and as the text that discloses both the eternal nature of the Buddha and the universal potential for Buddhahood inherent in all life. Particular emphasis is placed on passages such as the “Life Span of the Tathagata” chapter, which is read as revealing the Buddha’s timeless existence and the depth of the Dharma he expounded.

The heart of practice is not the intellectual study of the entire scripture, but the chanting of its title, Nam‑myōhō‑renge‑kyō, known as the daimoku. This phrase is understood to embody the essence of the Lotus Sutra in its entirety, so that voicing it is seen as directly accessing the enlightenment realized by the Buddha. Through this chanting, practitioners seek to awaken and activate the Buddha nature that is believed to reside within themselves and all phenomena, transforming their lives and moving toward both happiness and ultimate enlightenment.

Nichiren Shōshū also grounds its core doctrinal framework, the Three Great Secret Laws, in the Lotus Sutra. These are the object of worship (the Gohonzon mandala inscribed with Nam‑myōhō‑renge‑kyō), the invocation (the daimoku itself), and the sanctuary of practice. The Gohonzon is viewed as a concrete mandala representation of the Lotus Sutra’s central teaching and the embodiment of the Law to which practitioners direct their chanting. In this way, the sutra is not merely a revered text but the living foundation of faith, practice, and realization.

Furthermore, the tradition interprets the Lotus Sutra as prophetically pointing to Nichiren as the Buddha of the Latter Day of the Law, the one who embodied its essence and established the correct practice for this age. His inscription of the Gohonzon and his clarification of daimoku chanting are seen as the concrete fulfillment of the sutra’s intent. Thus, for Nichiren Shōshū, the Lotus Sutra functions simultaneously as ultimate scripture, distilled mantra, sacred mandala, and the scriptural basis for the appearance of the True Buddha in the present era.