Grand Master Chang-an says in his Annotations on the Nirvana Sūtra, fascicle 8, that whether we should adopt the aggressive means of propagation or the persuasive means must be decided according to the condition of the time, and therefore, we cannot say either one way or the other. Grand Master T’ien-t’ai says of this in the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 8: “It all depends on the time. Sometimes resort to the aggressive means, other times use the persuasive means.” For instance, we cannot harvest rice by cultivating rice paddies and planting rice seeds at the end of autumn.

Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 112