“The Kongō-takara-tō-mei[58] proclaims:—‘All living beings in the Six States of Existence[59] shall be delivered from the bonds of attachment; their minds and their bodies alike shall be freed from desire; and they shall obtain the Supreme Enlightenment.’”
“The Sûtra says:—‘Changing the hearts of all beings, I cause them to enter upon the Way of Buddhahood.’”[60]
Yet the supreme conquest can be achieved only by self-effort:—
“Through the destruction of the Three Poisons[61] one may rise above the Three States of Existence.”
The Three Existences signify time past, present, and future. To rise above—(more literally, to “emerge from”)—the Three Existences means therefore to pass beyond Space and Time,—to become one with the Infinite. The conquest of Time is indeed possible only for a Buddha; but all shall become Buddhas. Even a woman, while yet a woman, may reach Buddhahood, as this Nichiren text bears witness, inscribed above the grave of a girl:—
Kai yo ken pi ryō-nyō jō butsu.
“All beheld from afar the Dragon Maiden become a Buddha.”
The reference is to the beautiful legend of Sâgara, the daughter of the Nâga-king, in the Myō-hō-rengé-kyō.[62]