Lady Vaidehi, mother of King Ajātaśatru in ancient India, read the Sūtra of Meditation on the Buddha of Infinite Life and reached the higher spiritual state of Recognizing the Immutable Reality of All Existences. Nevertheless, as the Buddha declared in the Lotus Sūtra that he would now “honestly discard the expedients,” Lady Vaidehi was forced to return to her original status as an ordinary woman unless she put faith in the Lotus Sūtra. Therefore, even a person of great virtue is worthless without the Lotus Sūtra and even a person of extreme evil is not necessarily doomed. This is because if the one vehicle teaching of the Lotus Sūtra is practiced, anyone can attain Buddhahood just as Devadatta did. This is solely because the phrase in the Lotus Sūtra, “not even one will fail to attain Buddhahood,” was not spoken in vain.

Sennichi-ama Gohenji, A Reply to Sennichi-ama, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 160