Superior practices and the other Bodhisattvas of the Earth are those who have severed themselves from fundamental darkness

"When Bodhisattva Superior Practices appeared from beneath the earth, the other bodhisattvas such as Maitreya, Manjushrī, Perceiver of the World’s Sounds, and Medicine King, though they had severed themselves from the first forty-one of the forty-two levels of ignorance, had not yet severed themselves from the last one, or fundamental darkness. Hence they were in effect ignorant persons, and consequently failed to understand that this bodhisattva, Superior Practices, had been summoned so that he might widely propagate Namu-myoho-renge-kyo of the “Life Span” chapter in the Latter Day of the Law."