QUESTION CLOSELY: You are more self-conceited than Mahādeva of ancient India, who caused the first great schism in the community of Buddhist monks and nuns, or Shizen Biku, a disciple of the Buddha who believed himself to be an arhat and ended up in the Hell of Incessant Suffering. What do you say about this?

ANSWER: The grave sin you have committed in accusing me, Nichiren, is more serious than what was committed by Devadatta, who fell in hell alive, or by Vimalamitra, the Hinayāna master who died a mad man for slandering Mahāyāna Buddhism.

My words may sound self-conceited, but they were solely to show the infallibility of the Buddha’s prediction. Suppose they were self-conceited, then whom can you name among all the people in Japan, except me, Nichiren, to be the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra? In order to slander me, Nichiren, you are saying that the Buddha’s prediction is false. Is it not you who are very wicked?

Kembutsu Mirai-ki, Testimony to the Prediction of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 175