Essentially men and women have different characters just as fire is warm while water is cold. A woman diver is good at fishing and a male hunter is good at trapping deer. It is said in some sūtras that women are promiscuous, but I have never seen them say a woman was adept in the Buddha Dharma. All scriptures preached before the Lotus Sūtra contrast a woman’s mind with the wind because even if we can secure the wind, we cannot grasp a woman’s mind. The scriptures also compare a woman’s mind to letters written on water because the letters will quickly vanish. Women are also compared to people of unsound mind because sometimes they are honest but other times they are not. Finally, women are also compared to a river because all rivers bend. (Thus pre-Lotus scriptures demean women).

But in the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha states that He honestly discards expedient means, and the Buddha of Many Treasures affirms that Śākyamuni preaches only the truth. The sixteenth chapter of the sūtra, “Life Span of the Buddha,” preaches “straight and gentle minds” and a “gentle and straight person.” This is the sūtra believed by honest people, whose minds are as straight as a bowstring or a carpenter’s inked string. If you call dung sandalwood, it won’t smell like sandalwood. If you call a lie a truth, it won’t become true. It is said that all Buddhist scriptures are true because the Buddha expounded them. However, compared to the Lotus Sūtra, they are false, lies, distorted or double-tongued. The Lotus Sūtra is the supreme truth.

Nichimyō Shōnin Gosho, A Letter to Nichimyō Shōnin, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers II, Volume 7, Page 140