Day 7 concludes Chapter 3, A Parable, and begins Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith.

Day 7 Text with annotations

Having last month considered the purpose of the Buddha’s appearance in the world, we consider why the Buddha expounds only to people of profound wisdom this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

I expound only to people of profound wisdom
This Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
Because men of little wisdom would doubt this sūtra,
And not understand it even if they heard it.
No Śrāvaka
Or Pratyekabuddha
Can understand
This sūtra.

Even you, Śāriputra,
Have understood this sūtra
Only by faith.
Needless to say,
The other Śrāvakas cannot do otherwise.
They will be able to follow this sūtra
Only because they believe my words,
Not because they have wisdom.

Śāriputra
Do not expound this sūtra
To those who are arrogant and idle,
And who think that the self exists!

Do not expound it to men of little wisdom!
They would not be able to understand it
Even if they heard it
Because they are deeply attached to the five desires.

Those who do not believe this sūtra
But slander it,
Will destroy the seeds of Buddhahood
Of all living beings of the world.

Nichiren writes in Kyō Ki Ji Koku Shō, Treatise on the Teaching, Capacity, Time and Country, concerning whether to expound to this sūtra to ignorant people:

QUESTION: How should we comprehend the statement in the chapter 3, “A Parable,” of the Lotus Sūtra, “You should not expound this sūtra to ignorant people”?

ANSWER: This applies to wise masters, who are able to discern the capacity of people, not to ordinary masters in the Latter Age of Degeneration.

We should also solely expound the Lotus Sūtra to those who slander the Dharma. This would establish the connection of a poisonous drum between the unfaithful people and the Lotus Sūtra as it is said that the sound of a drum smeared with poison kills a man who hears them. It is like the practice of Never-Despising Bodhisattva preached in the “Never-Despising Bodhisattva” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra.

If a person has the capacity of a wise man, though, we should teach him the Hinayāna sūtras first of all, then the provisional Mahayana sūtras, and finally the true Mahāyāna sūtra, the Lotus Sūtra. If a man is deemed ignorant, however, we should teach him the true Mahāyāna sūtra from the start, as it can plant the seed of Buddhahood in both believers and slanderers.

Kyō Ki Ji Koku Shō, Treatise on the Teaching, Capacity, Time and Country, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 97-98