Now Nichiren shifts the lesson to the fact that the Lotus Sutra teachings have been known and even admired and documented ion commentaries and scholarship throughout the history of Buddhism. However, though it was recognized and lauded by great sages, the practice of daily engagement with Buddhism continued to be based on earlier precepts and ideas of early teachings without recognizing the unique method of immediate realization as taught in the Lotus. This is due to the Time, the evolution of thinking and capacity for understanding, had not yet matured in the common people or the sages. The Lotus was known scholastically but not as the preeminent mode of practice.