Thus thinking of my situation, I am an exiled man but my joy is immeasurable. I shed tears of joy, and I also shed tears of sorrow. Tears are common to good and evil. As one thousand arhats shed tears while remembering the Buddha, and Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī chanted “Myōhō Renge Kyō,” one of the thousand arhats, Venerable Ānanda, replied, “Thus I heard.” The other nine hundred and ninety-nine arhats also wept, and using tears as water for ink, wrote, “Thus have I heard,” and “Myōhō Renge Kyō” above it. Now, I, Nichiren, am shedding tears in the same manner.

I find myself in such a circumstance because I spread the five or seven character daimoku of “Myō, Hō, Ren, Ge, and Kyō.” It was because I had heard that Śākyamuni Buddha and the Buddha of Many Treasures have left the Lotus Sūtra for the sake of Japan and all people in the future. Tears keep falling when I think of the current unbearable hardships, but I cannot stop tears of joy when I think of obtaining Buddhahood in the future. Birds and insects chirp without shedding tears. I, Nichiren, do not cry but tears keep falling. These tears are shed not for worldly matters, but solely for the sake of the Lotus Sūtra. Therefore, they could be called tears of nectar. It is said in the Nirvana Sūtra, “When people part from their parents, brothers, wife, children, or relatives, they shed more tears than the water of four great oceans but not a teardrop for the Buddha’s Dharma.”

Shohō Jisso-shō, Treatise on All Phenomena as Ultimate Reality, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 79