With gratitude, I received one koku of rice, your offering for eight months.

Now the doctrine of “attainment of Buddhahood with the present body” is clearly described in various Mahāyāna sūtras such as the Great Sun Buddha Sūtra. But trying to obtain Buddhahood with the present body by such sūtras will cause one to enter two kinds of self-conceit and eventually, far from becoming a Buddha, fall into hell. Regarding these two kinds of self-conceit, Grand Master Miao-lê states in the 9th fascicle of his Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra: “When people are told that those who attained Buddhahood with the present body are equal to the Buddha, arrogance will appear in their minds preventing them from practicing Buddhism. When people with evil passions are told that they will become Buddhas as they are, they will neglect to cultivate the roots of goodness or to amend their self-conceit. Though there is a difference between the two kinds of self-conceit in depth, both are similar in assuming that the Buddha and people are the same, and they are disgraceful who do not reflect upon themselves.”

Ōta-dono Nyōbō Gohenji, A Response to the Wife of Lord Ōta, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 165-166