Those who have not learned the teaching of this Lotus Sūtra do not read between the lines. Encountering such passages as “They will be reborn among men and gods” in the “Devadatta” chapter, “Anyone … will be reborn in the Trāyastriṃsá Heaven or Tuṣita Heaven (in ‘The Encouragement of Universal Sage Bodhisattva’),” or “Anyone will be reborn in the Pure Land of Peace” in “The Previous Life of the Medicine King Bodhisattva,” they think that they must repeat the cycle of birth and death because they have not reached the irrevocable stage, no matter how hard they may practice the Lotus Sūtra in this defiled land, or however excellent the Lotus Sūtra may be. Such people believe that they have to wait until the time when Maitreya Bodhisattva will reappear in this world 5,670,000,000 years from now, or that they will repeatedly be reborn as human beings or animals, bearing the limitless suffering. They may also say that the practice of the Lotus Sūtra calls for the “own power” of the practicer and, therefore, is difficult to practice.

These people are those who do not know the difference between the pre-Lotus sūtras and the Lotus Sūtra. They are not only wandering blindly in their own stupidity and ignorance but also closing the Buddha-eye of all living beings.

Ichidai Shōgyō Tai-I, Outline of All the Holy Teachings of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 93-94