The Nirvana Sūtra preaches in the twenty-second fascicle, “Ever since incalculable kalpa in the past, the suffering of living beings has not ceased. The amount of bones each living being accumulated in the span of one kalpa piles up as high as Mt. Vipula near Rājagṛha, the amount of milk consumed equals the amount of water in the four oceans surrounding Mt. Sumeru, the amount of blood shed is more than the water in the four oceans, and the amount of tears shed when parents, siblings, wives, children, and relatives pass away is more than the water in the four oceans. Suppose all the plants on the earth were cut into four-inch long pieces that could be used to keep count, we would never be able to tally the number of all the parents we’ve had.”

This scriptural statement is the words of the Buddha uttered during the last moments of His life while lying under the twin śāla trees. It is therefore most important for us to keep it in mind. It states that the number of parents who gave birth and raised us since the eternal past is more than the number of counting sticks produced by cutting all the plants in all the worlds throughout the universe into four-inch pieces.

We have met numerous parents without encountering the Lotus Sūtra. Therefore, it is stated that meeting parents is easy but encountering the Lotus Sūtra is extremely difficult. Now in this life if we steadfastly uphold the difficult-to-encounter Lotus Sūtra even by going against the words of the easy-to-meet parents, we not only can become Buddhas but also lead our parents, who went against the Lotus Sūtra, into the Way of Buddhahood.

Hyōesakan-dono Gohenji, Answer to Lord Ikegami Munenaga, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 94