QUESTION: Your disciples lack even a basic understanding and yet they collectively cry out Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō. What stage is this equal to?
ANSWER: These people are not surpassed by those at the highest stage of the four flavors and three teachings; also they are stronger than those who practice the perfect teachings prior to the Lotus Sūtra; moreover, they excel beyond the patriarchs of the Shingon and other schools including Śubhākarasiṃha, Chihyen, Tz’ŭ-ên, Chi-tsang, Tao-hsüan, Bodhidharma, Shan-tao and others by a hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand-fold! Therefore, I entreat all those who live in this country: please do not show disrespect to my disciples.
If you look into their past you will find that they are great bodhisattvas who have made offerings for 80 trillion kalpa (aeons) to Buddhas as numerous as the sands of the Hiraṇyavati or Ganges Rivers. Or if we speak of the future, they will surpass those who have made offerings for 80 years and will be able to achieve the merits of the 50th person (in succession who hears the Wonderful Dharma, who is spoken of in chapter 18 of the Lotus Sūtra). They are like a baby emperor bound up in swaddling clothes, or a great dragon that has just been born. Do not disdain them! Do not despise them!
Shishin Gohon-shō, The Four Depths of Faith and Five Stages of Practice, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 107