In the concluding verse section of [Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures], now seated in midair within the jeweled stūpa beside Prabhūtaratna, Śākyamuni Buddha again stresses how difficult it will be to uphold the Lotus Sūtra after his passing, setting forth the analogy of what Nichiren summarized as the “nine easy and six difficult acts.” …

Nichiren read this passage as directly addressing his own circumstances and those of his followers, and he stressed that the sūtra was in fact speaking to them. For example, to a lay nun who had asked him a question about the sūtra, he wrote that her query itself was “a root of great good.” He continued: “Now in this Final Dharma age, those who ask about the meaning of even one phrase or verse of the Lotus Sūtra are rarer than those who can fling Mount Sumeru to the worlds of another quarter … or those who can uphold and preach countless other sūtras, causing the monastics and lay people who hear them to attain the six supernormal powers. The chapter called ‘A Jeweled Stūpa’ in the fourth fascicle of the Lotus Sūtra sets forth the important teaching of the six difficult and nine easy acts. Your posing a question about the Lotus Sūtra is among the six difficult acts. You should know thereby that, if you uphold the sūtra, you will become a buddha in your present body.”