Nichiren Buddhism promises that one can attain Buddhahood in this lifetime. But what does it mean to attain Buddhahood or enlightenment?

Shakyamuni, the historical founder of Buddhism, became known in his time as the Buddha because of his ability to understand people’s sufferings, to show them that they possessed the inner resources to overcome their problems and to awaken them to a greater vision of themselves and their possibilities. His towering character was a profound inspiration to all. Over time, however, the ideal of Buddhahood shown in Shakyamuni’s living example became increasingly abstract and distant. An apparently unbridgeable gap developed between the Buddha and ordinary people as the Buddha came to be seen as an otherworldly being.

While the aim of Shakyamuni’s teaching was, in the words of the Lotus Sutra, to “make all beings equal to me,” in some schools of Buddhism he became regarded as a unique being, and the goal of religious practice became the attainment of stages of enlightenment less complete than that of Buddhahood. For others, Buddhahood came to be viewed as an extremely distant goal requiring many lifetimes of effort, something not within the capabilities of all people.