Śākyamuni Buddha is our parent and all the holy teachings taught by Him in His lifetime is the teaching taught by our parents in order to lead us. There are numerous sūtras of His lifetime teachings in the realm of heaven, in the Palace of the Dragon King, and in India. But only 5,000 or 7,000 fascicles of them have been transmitted to China and Japan. It is difficult for us to say on our own which of these numerous sūtras was expounded first or last and which is superior or inferior. Because no person of wisdom in the Latter Age of Degeneration amounts to the commentators, grand masters or noble priests of earlier times, it is wise to follow the judgments of the great predecessors. There are many of them such as the Five Teachings and the Four Teachings of the Kegon (Hua-yen) School, the Three Periods, the Two Storehouses and the Three Preachings by Śākyamuni Buddha established by the Hossō ( Fa-hsiang) and Sanron (San-lun) Schools. However, Śākyamuni Buddha already showed the order and comparative superiority of each of His holy teachings. That is, he states in chapter 2 “Expedients” of the Lotus Sūtra, “The World-Honored One will expound the true teaching after a long period of expounding expedient teachings.” According to this statement, the teachings of the Buddha can be roughly divided into provisional sūtras preached before the Lotus Sūtra and the True Teaching of the Lotus Sūtra. This is like the Joei Code which stipulates that when parents revoke an earlier decision to bestow their property to their children the later verdict takes precedence over the earlier. Or rather, I wonder if the way of the ordinance may be taken from the teachings by the Buddha. Whether we are pious or impious to our parent, Śākyamuni Buddha, depends on whether we believe in the provisional pre-Lotus sūtras, which is the earlier verdict, or the True Dharma, the Lotus Sūtra, which is the later verdict.

Hōmon Mōsaru-beki-yō no Koto, The Way to Refute the Evil Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Biography and Desciples, Volume 5, Page 141