The religions and philosophies of India rate higher than the Chinese traditions
in Nichiren’s evaluation because some of them did teach the law of cause and effect, rebirth in the six paths of transmigration, and the need to strive for rebirth in the heavens through the cultivation of morality and meditative disciplines. Nichiren does not actually use the word “Brahmanism” to refer to them, but instead the Chinese character for “outside” in reference to all the teachings in India that Buddhists considered the “outside way” in contrast to the Buddha Dharma. In this outside way he is encompassing both the teachings of the brahmins who followed the Vedic revelation and the ascetics whose teachings rejected the Vedas.
Open Your Eyes, p74