Lord Śākyamuni declared that those who speak ill of and abuse a propagator of the Lotus Sūtra in the latter-day period of the evil world would be many hundreds of thousands of billions times more sinful than those who harm Him (the Buddha) for as long as a kalpa. Nevertheless, the sovereign of Japan and his people persistently harbor enmity against such a propagator more than against their parents’ enemies and their enemies from previous lives or revile him more than they do traitors and murderers. Yet the earth does not split open to swallow them or thunder does not shatter them into bits. I wonder why?

Is it because I, Nichiren, am not a true practicer of the Lotus Sūtra? If so, it is regrettable indeed. How sad it is for me to be accused by everyone without time for rest in this life and fall in evil realms in the next life! Also, if I, Nichiren, am not a true practicer of the Lotus Sūtra, who is the upholder of the One Vehicle teaching, the Lotus Sūtra? Is Hōnen, who advised people to discard the Lotus Sūtra in his Collection of Passages on the Nembutsu; Shan-tao, who said in the Praise of Rebirth in the Pure Land that not even one out of 1,000 people can attain Buddhahood through the Lotus Sūtra; or Tao-ch’o, who declared in the Collection of Passages Concerning Rebirth in the Pure Land that no one attains Buddhahood by means of the Lotus Sūtra, the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra? Or, is Grand Master Kōbō, who stated in his Treatise on the Ten Stages of Mind that practicing the Lotus Sūtra was merely a joke, the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra?

Senji-shō, Selecting the Right time: A Tract by Nichiren, the Buddha’s Disciple, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 206