[I]t is less difficult to pass a thread from the Heavenly Palace of the Great Brahma down through the hole of a needle that is standing upright on the great earth below than it is for us to be born as human beings. Even if an endless period of a trillion inconceivably long kalpa should pass, it is difficult to encounter the sacred teachings of the Tathāgata. However, we have received a human birth and encountered the sacred teachings. Then if one should encounter an “evil friend,” one will without a doubt fall into the three evil realms. According to a commentary, if the teacher falls, then the disciples will fall, and if the disciples fall then their followers will also fall.

Happily, you have encountered the practicer of the One Vehicle. Without having to cut off your skin and flesh, or serve for a thousand years, you are able to learn about the “three thousand existences contained in one thought,” the “ten realms,” the “ten aspects,” the “one truth of Middle Way,” and “Wonderful Dharma of the Supreme Buddha Way.” Although we have not cultivated virtue in the past, if we had not been born in the Latter Age of Degeneration, the age when the Wonderful Dharma is transmitted, it would have been difficult to attain the Way of liberation even though eternities passed by.

Minobu-san Gosho, Mt. Minobu Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 128-129