In the Trace Gate of the Lotus Sutra, the first 14 chapters, and even before that in the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, the preface to the Lotus Sutra, we are told that it is very difficult to understand what the Buddhas realize about the reality of the equality and differences of all things. That difficulty has been used as the basis for declaring the sutra too profound to be useful. But in Chapter 18, The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing This Sutra, we learn of the great merits to be gained by the person who holds even a passing knowledge of this supreme teaching.

Nichiren addresses this in his “Shō Hokke Daimoku-shō, Treastise on Chanting the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra”:

“The Pure Land Buddhists today … [say] it is impossible to practice the Lotus Sūtra unless one possesses a high capacity to understand and it bewilders the evil ordinary people in the Latter Age of Degeneration. Are they not contradicting themselves? Grand Master Miao-lê in his Annotations to the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra asserts, ‘Most people make mistakes, without knowing how great the merits of the inexperienced practicers can be. They imagine that only the experienced practicers can have merits and slander the inexperienced. Therefore, in the ‘Merits of Rejoicing at Hearing This Sūtra’ chapter it is shown that the merits of the inexperienced practicer can be great and how great the merits of the Lotus Sūtra are.’ This passage means that the merit of the 50th person rejoicing at hearing the Lotus Sūtra transmitted one after another was preached to show that the merit of an ignorant person with little capacity in the Latter Age rejoicing even for a moment at hearing the sūtra preached is superior to the merit of sages who practice the pre-Lotus sūtras preached during the 40 or so years before the Lotus Sūtra.

Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4,
Page 7-8

It is not difficult to have faith in this sutra. Nichiren’s thinking is explained in Donald Lopez and Jacqueline Stone’s Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side:

“ ‘What other sūtra,’ Nichiren asks, ‘teaches that incalculable merit accrues to one who arouses even a single thought of willing acceptance, or to the fiftieth person who rejoices upon hearing it? Other sūtras do not claim such merit for even the first, second, third, or tenth hearer, let alone the fiftieth!’ …

“If ease of practice were to be a criterion, [Nichiren] said, no practice could be easier than spontaneously rejoicing on hearing the Lotus Sūtra. Nichiren argued that, far from excluding the ignorant, it is precisely because the Lotus Sūtra is so profound that it can save beings of any capacity whatsoever. In this connection, he often cited Zhanran’s remark: ‘The more true the teaching, the lower the capacity of the persons it can bring to liberation.’ However limited one’s capacity might be, that person is ennobled by their Lotus Sūtra practice.”

Two Buddhas, p199-200

What could be more reassuring to the person who takes faith in Lotus Sutra for the first time?

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