If a person slaps you this will stimulate your animality world and you would react and slap him back with anger. Likewise in day-to-day life we find all the direct stimuli needed to stimulate all the worlds other than the Buddha world.

The only possible direct stimulus to get your Buddha world to the surface is a living Buddha. That is why in the days of the Buddha, it was easy to attain enlightenment (Sowan, Sakadagami, Anagam, Arahath) in his presence (Ahi Bhikku).

In the latter day of the law, which is 2500 years after the Buddha, there are no direct stimuli to tap and enhance the Buddha world other than the Lotus Sutra and the Gohonzon.

All animate and inanimate objects have the ten worlds and they continuously change every fraction of a second according to the situation or according to external stimuli.

For example, I could write an anonymous letter against a person on a paper. When I read this paper and while it is in my hand this paper is in "the rapture world" because it gives temporary happiness to me because I enjoy hurting that particular person.

When it goes to the hand of the person concerned he will be in the "hell world" and then that paper will also be in the "hell world". If this paper reaches one of his close relatives, that person will be in the "Bodhisattva world" where he feels compassion towards the person. Now the paper is in the "Bodhisattva world".

If this paper reaches a person who has seen me writing it, he would feel like blackmailing me for money. So, the same paper will be in the "hunger world" now. We, living beings, can change the world of inanimate objects according to our wish and these worlds could continue changing. We could also give a permanent world to an inanimate object.

Supposing I want to paint a face of a good friend of mine who has had a great deal of suffering in her life, illustrating the suffering in her face. While doing so, I too would be in the "hell world" thinking of her suffering and then that picture and anybody who looks at it will also feel sorrow and be in the hell world. That means the picture will be in the "hell world" permanently.

For more information on the ten worlds and their interactions please refer chapter 8 "Mind".

In the practice of the Lotus Sutra the object of worship is a piece of paper on which the representative of Shakyamuni Buddha, Nichiren Daishonin, has inscribed the state of Buddha’s mind or Buddha’s 3000 worlds. He signed at the bottom of the paper as the representative of the Buddha and proclaimed that in the “latter day of the law” this signed document would be as powerful as the Buddha and that this would be the external stimulus to tap the inert Buddha world and bring it to the surface of our mind. In the center of the Gohonzon "Nam Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo"  is written as the universal law.

Daishonin’s mind was in the Buddha world when he inscribed the Gohonzon and so the Buddha world is embedded in the Gohonzon as in the example given above, where I paint the sad face of my friend and gave it the hell world.

Unlike in the given example, when we identify the hell world, when we first see the Gohonzon, we will not understand what it is nor will we feel any difference other than that of seeing the script. This is because we have never experienced the Buddha world during our lifetime, but later, when we practice, we will be convinced of the energy within the Gohonzon or the object of worship.

Daishonin was born 750 years ago in Japan and inscribed the object of worship or the Gohonzon on a paper as a signed document. He would have known that the most valuable object in the "latter day of the law" would be a signed paper. All certificates, deeds, agreements and money are all signed papers. Documents are very powerful tools in this era. Daishonin would have foreseen this and inscribed the object of worship to suit the "latter day of the law".

Just having the Gohonzon or this script, which represents Buddha world, has no value unless you chant in its presence.

You have to believe in the Gohonzon and chant with faith. Only then will the Gohonzon get activated.

There is no Buddhist practice without the Triple Gem (Buddha, dharma, sanga)
1 Buddha the Gohonozon
2, Dharma is the Lotus Sutra.
3,Sanga is the congregation of the members who follow the practice of Lotus Sutra, this term covers layman and priests.


The Gohonzon in depth

The Gohonzon inscribed by Daishonin consists of different "Mandalas". Gohonzon represent the "Ceremony of Air". The atmosphere of the "Ceremony of Air" is created in front of you when you chant "Nam Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo" bearing in mind that the Buddha is a saviour.
"Nam Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo" is the supreme law at the center of the Gohonzon. This represents the treasure tower. The Different Mandalas are as follows