The sūtras preached by the Buddha can be divided into five flavors. The people born during the lifetime of the Buddha had some rewards for virtuous acts in their previous lives, though not as much as those born in the Kalpa of Construction. Hence their authority and power increased upon tasting any of the five flavors of sūtras. After the passing of the Buddha, however, as time passed through 2000 years of the Ages of the True Dharma and the Semblance Dharma into the Latter Age of Degeneration, heavenly beings, gods, asura demons, and great dragons of the former period grew older, tired in body and weak in mind. The newly born heavenly beings, men, and asura demons in the Latter Age of Degeneration are either with little reward from the virtuous acts in their previous lives, or evil gods and wicked men, who cannot do any good even if they taste the four tastes (those of milk, cream, curdled milk, and butter) of Hinayāna or provisional Mahāyāna sūtras. It is like providing an elderly person with coarse food and a person of high standing with rice cooked with barley.

Kangyō Hachiman-shō, Remonstration with Bodhisattva Hachiman, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 258-259