Each of my disciples and followers, therefore, should expect, upon listening to the preaching of the Lotus Sūtra, to meet persecutions by these three kinds of enemies in the Latter Age of Degeneration after the lifetime of the Buddha. Nevertheless, some disciples of mine, who had listened to the preaching of this sūtra, were taken aback and gave up their faith in alarm upon encountering persecutions, whether major or minor. Is this not what I have told you? Is this not what I taught you day and night by citing a passage from the Lotus Sūtra: “Those who propagated the Lotus Sūtra were persecuted even during the lifetime of the Buddha. How much more they would be after the death of the Buddha!”? You should not be alarmed at seeing me or hearing about my being chased out of my house, wounded, and twice sentenced to banishment to remote provinces.

Nyosetsu Shugyō-shō, True Way of Practicing the Teaching of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 82