There once was a poor woman named Golden Pearl Lady who donated a gold coin for gilding a statue of the Buddha. For this merit, her body retained a golden hue through numerous existences for as long as 91 kalpa (aeons). Her husband, a gold beater, is the Buddha’s disciple Kāśyapa in this life and is guaranteed to be a future Buddha called Light Buddha in the Lotus Sūtra.

Now, Priest Jōmyō and his wife donated 2,000 pieces of copper coins to the Lotus Sūtra. Golden Pearl Lady’s donation was made to the Buddha while you donated to the Lotus Sūtra. The sūtra is the teacher of the Buddha and the Buddha is a disciple of the sūtra. Regarding this it is preached in the Nirvana Sūtra, “What is looked up by various Buddhas is the dharma; therefore, various Buddhas respect and donate offerings to the dharma.” It is also preached in the “Medicine King Bodhisattva” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 7, “Suppose a person fills the whole world with the seven treasures such as gold, silver, lapis, and pearls and donate them to the Buddha and other sages such as a great bodhisattva, a pratyekabuddha, and an arhat. The merit he gains does not amount to the great merit of the person who believed in a line or a verse of the Lotus Sūtra.”

As stated above, Golden Pearl Lady continued to be reborn with a golden body for as long as 91 kalpa (aeons) because of her merit of making a donation to the Buddha, who is inferior to the Dharma. How could it be for you two, who made a donation to the Lotus Sūtra, the teacher of the Buddha, not to attain the rank of Buddhas during this lifetime?

Jōmyō Shōnin Gohenji, A Reply to Holy Priest Ota Jōmyō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Pages 39-40