[T]he Lotus Sūtra seems to urge giving one’s life in its service. Bodhisattvas in the “Perseverance” chapter vow that they “will not be attached to our bodies or lives,” and the “Lifespan” chapter says that the primordial Śākyamuni Buddha will appear before those beings who “are willing to give unsparingly of their bodies and their lives.” How should such passages be understood?

Nichiren addresses this issue in a letter to a disciple, the lay nun Myōichi-ama, expressing sympathy on the death of her husband, who had held fast to his faith despite great difficulties: “Your late husband gave his life for the Lotus Sūtra. His small landholding that barely sustained him was confiscated on account of [his faith in] the Lotus Sūtra. Surely that equaled ‘giving his life.’ The youth of the Snow Mountains [described in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra] offered his body in exchange for half a verse [of a Buddhist teaching], and the bodhisattva Medicine King [Bhaiṣajyarāja] burned his arms [in offering to the Buddha]. They were saints, [and for them, such acts were] like water poured on fire. But your husband was an ordinary man, [and so for him, this sacrifice was] like paper placed in fire. When we take this into consideration, his merit must surely be the same as theirs.”