Appearing in this world, Śākyamuni Buddha preached many teachings during His lifetime. The Buddha classified His own teachings preached during 50 years into different type of doctrines: shallow and profound, inferior and superior, and expedient and true. He thus preached that the truth was not revealed in the sūtras expounded in the 40 years or so before the Lotus Sūtra was preached, and that the Lotus Sūtra is the supreme and true teaching of all the sūtras expounded in the past, present, and future existences. Moreover, the Buddha of Many Treasures and various Buddhas throughout the universe attested this to be true.

Jōren-bō Gosho, A Letter to Jōren-bō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 172

As I contemplate the matter, it is clearly stated in the “Teacher of the Dharma” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra that those who uphold this sūtra during the Latter Age of Degeneration would suffer from hatred and jealousy even more severe than those who upheld the sūtra during the lifetime of the Buddha.

The reason is that during the lifetime of the Buddha the preacher was the Lord Buddha, and His disciples were such superior beings as great bodhisattvas and arhats. The Buddha’s disciples also included humans, gods, the four categories of Buddhists (monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen), the eight kinds of gods and demi-gods who protect Buddhism, and non-humans. However, the Buddha preached the Lotus Sūtra for them only after spending forty years or so cultivating and nurturing their ability to understand and have faith in it. Even so, He encountered much hatred and jealousy. How much more hatred and jealousy should there be in this Latter Age of Degeneration, when the True Dharma is lost and the people quarrel and fight constantly!

Nyosetsu Shugyō-shō, True Way of Practicing the Teaching of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 81-82

QUESTION: As ordinary people who live in the evil latter days, what should we define as the honzon?

ANSWER: We should regard the daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra as the honzon.

QUESTION: According to which sūtra passages or which learned monk’s interpretation?

ANSWER: The “Teacher of the Dharma” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 4, says: “Medicine King! Erect a Stupa of the seven treasures in any place where this sūtra is expounded, read, recited or copied, or in any place where a copy of this sūtra exists! The Stupa should be tall, spacious and adorned. You need not enshrine My relics (śarīras) in the stupa. Why not? It is because this sūtra contains My perfect body.” In the “Nature of the Buddha” chapter of fascicle four of the Nirvana Sūtra it is said: “Kāśyapa. Each Buddha regards the Dharma as master. For that reason the Buddha reveres and makes offerings to the Dharma. Because the Dharma is eternal, each Buddha is also eternal.” Grand Master T’ien t’ai declares in his Lotus Meditation Repentance: “Make a raised seat in the training hall and place the Lotus Sūtra there. There is no need to place a statue of the Buddha or a relic or other sūtras. Only the Lotus Sūtra is needed.”

Honzon Mondō Shō, Questions and Answers on the Honzon, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 259

I am glad to hear that you greeted the New Year with the pleasure of seeing flowers in full bloom and feeling happy like the full moon.

But I still remember the late Gorō, your son. It is during this time of the year when the blossoms bloom again and the dry grass begins to sprout. Why can’t the late Gorō come back to this world? If he were the delicate and transient flower and grass, I would never leave the flower, like Kakinomoto Hitomaro, the poet, nor the grass, like a hitched horse.

It is written in the passage of a Buddhist scripture that children are enemies. I think that there is a reason for this. I hear that the owl eats its mother and a beast called hakyō devours its father. A man, An Lushan, was killed by his son, Shih Shih-ming. A warrior called Minamoto Yoshitomo killed his father, Tameyoshi. Therefore, there is some truth to the Buddhist scripture that states children are enemies.

It is also written in the scripture that children are treasures. King Wonderful Adornment was destined to fall into the Hell of Incessant Suffering upon death, but he was saved by a prince named Pure Store. Saved from suffering in hell, he ultimately became a Buddha called Śāla Tree King Buddha. A woman named Moggaliya was sent to the realm of hungry spirits for the sin of malice and greed, but she was saved by her child, Maudgalyāyana, escaping the suffering mandated in the realm of hungry spirits. Therefore, it seems reasonable for the Buddhist scripture to claim that children are treasures.

The late Gorō was 16 years old and had a more pleasing nature than most. An able man, he was admired by everyone. Moreover, he was filial and obedient to his parents much as water takes the form of a vessel and a shadow follows its form. You must have deeply relied upon him as a pillar of your home and a cane for support on the road. The box of treasures must have been saved for him, and your retainers who have served your family must have been for him. You were hoping that when you died you would be carried on his back to your grave and if this were so you would have had no regrets. Nevertheless, that he left you first must seem like a dream or illusion. If only this were so, I would love for you to be awakened from it soon. But it was neither a dream nor an illusion, and at last the year has come to an end.

I don’t know how long you must wait to meet him again. If I were to tell you where to meet him, you would no doubt fly up to the sky in spite of having no wings or sail even to China in spite of having no ship. If you heard that he was buried deep below the earth, wouldn’t you use all your energy to dig him out?

There is a way, however, to meet him easily. It is to have Śākyamuni Buddha lead you to the Pure Land of Mt. Sacred Eagle. It is written that all who listen to this Lotus Sūtra shall become a Buddha. Thus, even if a finger pointed to the earth were to miss it, the sun and the moon did not rise, the tide did not ebb and flow, and the flowers failed to bloom in summer, the woman who chants “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō” will surely be able to meet her son. Devote yourself to your faith.

Ueno-dono Gohenji, A Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 7, Followers II, Page 56-57

There are two general categories of illness that afflict human beings. The first is the sickness of the body. The four great elements of the body: the earth, water, fire, and wind each has 101 kinds of sickness reaching 404 altogether. These physical illnesses can be cured by medicine prepared by great doctors such as Ch’ih Shui, Liu Shui, Jīvaka, and Pien Ch’üeh. The second kind of sickness is mental sickness, namely the 84,000 evil passions arising from the three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance. These sicknesses of mind can only be cured by the Buddha. Even the divine powers of the two heavenly beings and three hermits of Brahmanism in India cannot cure it, and certainly not the powers of Shen Nung and Yellow Emperor of Confucianism.

Nakatsukasa Saemonnojō-dono Gohenji, A Reply to Lord Nakatsukasa Saemonnojō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 145-146

The worst of the evil will return not only to the one who committed the sin but also to his children, grandchildren and everyone on down to seven generations. The same is true to the most virtuous of the virtuous.

The great virtue of Venerable Maudgalyāyana having faith in the Lotus Sūtra not only made himself a Buddha but also his parents Buddhas. Moreover, all the parents in seven generations above and below, and all the parents in the limitless generations above and below became Buddhas unexpectedly. In addition, sons, husbands and wives, their retainers, devotees, and an incalculable number of people all were emancipated from the three evil realms. Not only that, they all entered the rank of shoji and eventually attained Buddhahood. Therefore, it is preached in the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 3 (“Parable of a Magic City” chapter), “May this merit be spread over all living beings so that we and all others may attain Buddhahood together.”

Urabon Gosho, On theUllambana Service, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 175

Looking at things from this angle, is there any doubt about the spread of the Lotus Sūtra, the true teaching of the Buddha, all over Japan and the world following the period of the disappearance of the True Dharma predicted in the Sūtra of the Great Assembly? The Sūtra of the Great Assembly was preached by the Buddha, but it is a quasi-Mahāyāna sūtra. It does not show the true way to cut the chain of life and death and attain Buddhahood. Therefore, we cannot claim it to be the true sūtra for those who have not heard the Lotus Sūtra. Nevertheless, does not the sūtra seem exactly like the Lotus Sūtra in describing the transmigration of beings born in the four modes of birth in the six base realms throughout the lives in the past, present, and future?

Moreover, it was in reference to the Lotus Sūtra that Śākyamuni Buddha declared in the second chapter on “Expedients,” “He would reveal His true intention,” and that the Buddha of Many Treasures attested it to be all true, and all the Buddhas throughout the universe declared it to be true by reaching the Brahma Heaven with their long, wide tongues. His never-lying tongue touching the highest heaven in the realm of form, Śākyamuni Buddha again declared to the King of the Brahma Heaven, Indra, the sun god, the moon god, the Four Heavenly Kings, and dragon gods: “In the fifth 500-year period, when all the teachings of the Buddha are about to disappear, Bodhisattva Superior Practice will be entrusted with the five ideograms of myō, hō, ren, ge, and kyō (Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma) as the cure for those slanderers and non-believers of Buddhism who suffer from white leprosy.” How could these words of the Buddha be false? Even if the earth turned upside down, high mountains crumbled, summer did not follow spring, the sun set in the east, and the moon fell on the earth, there would be no mistake about this.

Senji-shō, Selecting the Right time: A Tract by Nichiren, the Buddha’s Disciple, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 204-205

QUESTION: You say that epidemics spread in Japan because this country persecutes the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra causing the protective deities to leave the country. If so, why is it that not only nonbelievers of the Lotus Sūtra but also your disciples suffer or even die from the disease?

ANSWER: Your question seems most reasonable, but it is like knowing only one side of a coin. Virtue and evil have originally been incompatible but inseparable.

Looking at it from this point of view, we see that provisional teachings of sūtras other than the Lotus Sūtra and Buddhist sects based on them maintain that bodhisattvas up to the second highest rank (tōgaku: equivalent to enlightenment) have merits as well as demerits. However, according to the doctrine of “3,000 existences contained in one thought” based on the Lotus Sūtra, each of our minds is equipped with virtue as well as evil. Even bodhisattvas of the highest rank (myōgaku: wonderful enlightenment) have evil in mind. The Dharma-nature originally existing in our mind appears as the protective deities of the Lotus Sūtra such as the King of the Brahma Heaven and Indra, whereas the fundamental ignorance innate in us becomes the king of devils in the Sixth Heaven.

Virtuous deities dislike evil persons, and evil spirits hate virtuous people. In the Latter Age of Degeneration, demons naturally prevail over the land like useless pieces of tile and stone or weeds and bushes.

Toki Nyūdō-dono Go-henji: Chibyō-shō, A Response to Lay Priest Lord Toki: Treatise on Healing Sickness, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 254-255

Is it because of the karma in your past lives that you sent me this robe or are you trying to be a particle of soil on a fingernail? It is stated in the Nirvana Sutra: “It is much more difficult to meet a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of the Decadent Dharma than putting a thread hanging from the sky into the eye of a needle standing on ground during a windy day.” The Lotus Sūtra tells of a tortoise who lives at the bottom of the ocean and surfaces once in 3,000 years, finds a floating piece of sandalwood with a hole in it, and rests in the hole. This tortoise, moreover, is one-eyed and squints so it sees the west as the east, and the east as the west. It is likened to men and women who are born in the Latter Age of the Decadent Dharma; and the hole in the sandalwood is likened to the Lotus Sūtra and the “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.” It must have been caused in the past for you to donate this robe to me.

Myōhō Bikuni Go-henji, A Reply to Nun Myōhō, Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, Page 222