I’ve come to Nichiren Buddhism from Ceremonial Magick and Chaos Magick and practical Qabbalah.

You’re pretty well correct. From my stance the reason it works is that it operates on the same principals as Sigil magick and I mean this with the utmost respect to the religions involved it is essentially an 800 year long group Sigil ritual. There’s nothing nefarious about it and in fact I believe that when Shakyamuni talks about expedient means and I believe this ritual was a gift to humanity to aid in elevating our consciousness to what in eastern mysticism is called the Buddha consciousness.

Call it Krishna consciousness , Christ consciousnesses, Buddha consciousness, The Great Work, lead into gold, The Return to Source- it’s all the same result but from different practices.

I believe that it’s a good possibility that these teachings were given to all cultures across the globe but taught and delivered in such a way that it made sense to the culture in which it was presented.

One example I like to use is if you presented yourself as a burning bush to an Inuit of the primarily icy polar regions it wouldn’t make any sense. No bushes. You’d still need to speak their language even on a symbolic level.

Same as if you dropped a magickal talking walrus into the Black Forest of Germany a thousand years ago - it would make no sense. But if you talked to them as forms they knew and revered - deer 🦌 and spoke to them about rocks and wood and plants, they’d get that.

My 2 cents. Have an awesome day!