Regretting that the Lotus Sūtra may be destined to be ignored in the Latter Age of Degeneration, Grand Master Miao-lê states in his Annotations on the Great Concentration and Insight:

“The Perfect teaching of the Lotus Sūtra that enables people to attain Buddhahood immediately has not been respected because those who study the Mahāyāna teachings during these times confuse the expedient teachings with the true teaching. Furthermore, in the Age of the Semblance Dharma or the Latter Age of Degeneration, the spiritual capacity of the people diminishes, and their faith weakens. Consequently, though there are libraries and chests filled with perfect and immediate teachings, it is disappointing that no one considers or studies them in the least. People are born with no purpose and die in vain without meeting Buddhism. How this is! Someone may say, ‘Just listening, without any type of practice, does not bring any merit.’ This person does not fully understand the everlasting merit that just listening to the Lotus Sūtra can cause one to become a Buddha. In the Zenjūtenshi Sutra, Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva told Venerable Śāriputra, ‘It is better to listen to the Dharma, slander it, and as a result, fall into hell than to make offerings to many Buddhas. For even though one slanders the True Dharma and falls into hell, his sin will become an ‘adverse condition’ causing him to get an opportunity to listen to the True Dharma after he emerges from hell.’ This compares the merit of those who listen to the Dharma to those who make offerings to the Buddha but do so without listening to the Dharma. Listening to the Dharma, even slandering it can be the seed for Buddhahood, though this will take a long time. Needless to say, this does not compare to the merit of those who listen to and contemplate the Dharma and strive to practice it.”

Ichidai Shōgyō Tai-I, Outline of All the Holy Teachings of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 83-84