Those who do not aspire to Buddhahood will never attain it. Lord Śākyamuni Buddha was abused by all non-Buddhist teachers in India as an evil man. Grand Master T’ien-t’ai was spoken ill of as “a man who destroys his own five-foot body by slandering the Buddha with a three-inch tongue” by the three Southern masters and seven Northern masters of Buddhism in China and Monk Tokuitsu of Japan. Grand Master Dengyō was laughed at by scholar-monks of Nara for not having seen the capital of T’ang China. However, these masters had nothing to be ashamed of because they were abused just for the sake of the Lotus Sūtra. Praise by the ignorant should be regarded most dishonorable.

Kaimoku-shō, Open Your Eyes to the Lotus Teaching, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 114