QUESTION: It is preached in the tenth chapter, “The Teacher of the Dharma, of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 4, that the Lotus Sūtra is “difficult to believe and understand.” What does it mean?

ANSWER: It has been more than 2,000 years since the Buddha preached the Lotus Sūtra. Having existed in India 1,200 years or so and about 200 years in China, the Lotus Sūtra was transmitted to Japan more than 700 years ago. During these years after the death of Śākyamuni Buddha, no one, except three, has ever truly read this phrase in the Lotus Sūtra. They are Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna, Grand Masters T’ien-t’ai and Dengyō. First of all Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna in India declared in his Great Wisdom Discourse: “The teaching of the Lotus Sūtra enabled the men of Two Vehicles, śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha, who had been considered as having no chance of attaining Buddhahood, to attain Buddhahood. It is like a great physician who knows how to use poisons as medicine. Indeed, this shows that Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna truly read and clarified the meaning of the four-character phrase of being “difficult to believe and understand.”

In China, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai, the wisest, explains this phrase in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra: “Of all sūtras which had been preached, are now being preached and will be preached in the future, the Lotus Sūtra is the most difficult to believe and comprehend.”

Grand Master Dengyō of Japan further expounds this in his Outstanding Principles of the Lotus Sūtra: “Sūtras that were preached during the four (pre-Lotus) periods of Śākyamuni’s lifetime preaching, the Sūtra of Infinite Meaning, which is now being preached, as well as the Nirvana Sūtra, which will be preached, are easy to believe and understand. It is because they are preached with expedient means according to people’s capacity to understand. On the contrary, the Lotus Sūtra is the most difficult to believe and comprehend because it is the true teaching preached according to the Buddha’s own mind, directly revealing the Buddha’s enlightenment.”

Shokyō to Hokekyō to Nan’I no Koto, The Difficulty and Easiness in Understanding the Lotus Sūtra and Other Sūtras, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 281-282