Now we are at the beginning of the Latter Age of Degeneration, when Hinayāna teachings strike down Mahāyāna teachings, provisional teachings destroy true teachings, east is taken for west and west for east, and heaven and earth are upside down. Under these circumstances the four ranks of bodhisattva-teachers who preach the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra remain in hiding. Gods desert the land which they are supposed to protect. Then for the first time those bodhisattvas from underground appear in this world attempting to encourage ignorant people to take the five characters of myō, hō, ren, ge, and kyō, the excellent medicine of the Latter Age. Many ignorant people would fall into hell by slandering the five characters, but they would be saved eventually. This is what is meant by Miao-lê in his Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra: “Slanderers of the True Dharma will fall into hell but they will inevitably be saved by virtue of having heard the True Dharma.”

Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Verable One, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 162