[W]hen Hinayāna people are shackled by Hinayāna teachings and go against Mahāyāna principles or try to be equal to Mahāyāna countries although they do not intend to go against Mahāyāna Buddhism, they (Hinayāna Buddhists) and their countries will contract various sicknesses. When they try to cure their mental sickness by means of the teaching of Hinayāna Buddhism, they only intensify their troubles instead of curing them. Only practicers of Mahāyāna sūtras can cure them.

Likewise, when believers of provisional Mahāyāna sūtras … adhere to their biased opinions, insisting that their inferior faith equals or is even superior to the Lotus Sūtra, and when rulers of the land recognize them without discerning their prejudices, the 84,000 mental sicknesses such as the three poisons will be begotten. The harder they try to heal the sickness by means of their respective canonical sūtras, the worse their troubles will be. Even if they try to cure their troubles by the Lotus Sūtra, it will not work. It is not because the sūtra is not good enough but because the people who try to use it are prejudiced.

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 252-253

[D]uring the reign of Emperor Kammu, the fiftieth emperor, 800 years after the beginning of the Age of the Semblance Dharma, a monk called Saichō appeared, who was later known as Grand Master Dengyo. At first, he studied the six schools of Buddhism (Sanron, Hossō, Kegon, Kusha, Jōjitsu, and Ritsu) as well as Zen Buddhism from such masters as Bishop Gyōhyō. Meanwhile, he himself established the Kokushōji Temple (later renamed the Enryakuji Temple) on Mt. Hiei, where he checked basic sūtras and commentaries of the six schools against the interpretations by scholars of those schools. He found many discrepancies between interpretations of scholars and their basic sūtras and commentaries. Moreover, they produced so many false opinions that he felt that all those who believed in them would fall into the three evil realms (hell, realm of hungry souls, and that of beasts).

Besides, Saichō found that those scholars of the six schools each boastfully claimed mastery of the true teaching of the Lotus Sūtra without actually mastering it. He tormented himself thinking: “If I point this out, there will be disputes; if I keep silent, I will be going against the Buddha’s warning.” Fearful of the Buddha’s warning, he finally appealed to Emperor Kammu, who was astonished and ordered the scholars of the six schools to meet Saichō in debate. At the beginning their banner of self-pride waved as high as a mountain and their evil thoughts were more vicious than poisonous snakes. However, they finally had to surrender to Saichō in front of the Emperor, and the six schools and seven temples all became his disciples. It was just like the time those scholars from Northern and Southern China became the disciples of Grand Master T’ien-t’ai after being defeated in debate by him in front of the Emperor of Ch’ên.

While Grand Master T’ien-t’ai’s comparison of the Lotus to other sūtras was limited to the areas of meditation (jō) and wisdom (e), without covering the area of observing precepts (kai), Grand Master Dengyō refuted the specific granting of Hinayāna precepts and performed the ceremony for the specific granting of Mahāyāna precepts according to the Brahma-net Sūtra for eight monks of the six schools in Nara. In addition, Grand Master Dengyō established the “perfect and sudden” Lotus precept dais on Mt. Hiei for granting-the-precepts ceremony. Therefore, the “perfect and sudden” specific granting-the-precepts ceremony on Mt. Hiei was not only the first of its kind in Japan, but also the first ever held in India, China, and the world for over 1,800 years since Śākyamuni performed it on Mt. Sacred Eagle.

In this sense, Grand Master Dengyō’s accomplishments were greater than those of Nāgārjuna, Vasubandhu, T’ien-t’ai, and Miao-lê. Not a single monk of Japanese Buddhism today—including those of the Tōji Temple, the Onjōji Temple, the seven great temples at Nara, the eight schools of Buddhism, and those of the Pure Land, Zen, and Ritsu Schools—was opposed to this “perfect and sudden” precepts of Grand Master Dengyō. Though Buddhist monks in the entire land of China seemed to be disciples of T’ien-t’ai as far as perfect meditation and wisdom are concerned, since there was no platform for the “perfect and sudden” precept established in China, some Chinese monks may not have been disciples of T’ien-t’ai in this regard. In Japan, on the other hand, Buddhists monks who were not disciples of Grand Master Dengyō were either non-Buddhists or villains.

Senji-shō, Selecting the Right time: A Tract by Nichiren, the Buddha’s Disciple, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 202-203

In the past there was a king called Golden King in India. His kingdom was plagued by a 12-year spell of drought and countless people perished as a result. The rivers were filled with corpses while on land skeletons were piled up like earth mounds.

With an aspiration for Enlightenment, the king performed an expansive almsgiving campaign until his possessions were nearly exhausted except for five shō (about nine liters) of rice in the warehouse. One of the servants said to the king, “This is a single day’s food for your honor.” The king then had all the rice taken out of the warehouse to be distributed among the hungry, one or two grains or three or four grains each. After this the king declared to the heavens, “I am willing to die of hunger in place of all the people suffering from the famine.” Having heard this, the heavens immediately opened and showered down rains of “nectar.” Those who received this rain in their palms as well as those whose faces were wet with it were filled with food, and all the people in the kingdom were revived in an instant.

Ueno-dono Gohenji, Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers II, Volume 7, Page 43-44

In ancient times there lived a great king named King Makara [sic] in the state of Vārāṇasī in India. The king had two sons: Zen’u (Virtuous Friend) and Aku’u (Evil Friend). Zen’u possessed the wish-fulfilling gem. In order to steal Zen’u’s precious gem, the younger brother Aku’u plucked Zen’u’s eyes out. King Makara in the past is King Śuddhodana today, and Prince Zen’u is Śākyamuni Buddha while Prince Aku’u is Devadatta now. Though brothers, they fought over the gem life after life until one of them attained Buddhahood while the other fell into the Hell of Incessant Suffering.

Hyōesakan-dono Gohenji, Answer to Lord Ikegami Munenaga, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 97

The first of the eight major hells is called the Hell of Regeneration, which is located 1,000 yojana (9,600-24,000 km) beneath this world (Jambudvīpa) and it occupies a vast area of 10,000 square yojana. Sinners who fall into it hate one another and fight like dogs against monkeys whenever they happen to meet. With iron fingernails, they scuffle with one another causing bleeding and injury to the flesh, until nothing but skeletons remain. Or they are beaten up by hell guards with iron bars until their whole body from head to toe is crushed into particles of sand or cut up by a sharp sword into small pieces. Upon dying from such unbearable sufferings as these, they will be regenerated to undergo these cruel torments again.

The life span of these sinners in this hell is as follows. Suppose 50 years in the human world is equal to one day in the Four-king Heavens, the first heaven in the realm of desire, where heavenly beings’ life span is 500 years. Suppose 500 years in the Four-king Heavens correspond to one day in the Hell of Regeneration. Sinners in the Hell of Regeneration live as long as 500 years.

Ken Hōbō-shō, A Clarificaton of Slandering the True Dharma, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 106.

During the night on the 12th day of the 9th month in the 8th year of the Bun’ei Era (1271), I was to be beheaded at Tatsunokuchi in Sagami Province. For some unknown reason, my execution was postponed and I was sent to a place named Echi. On the 13th day it was rumored that I would be pardoned, but in fact I was exiled to Sado Island. There my execution was rumored constantly for three years, but it was not carried out in the end. I was eventually pardoned on the 14th of the second month in the 11th year of the Bun’ei Era (1274). On the 26th day of the third month in the same year, I returned to Kamakura. On the 8th day of the fourth month I met Hei no Saemonnojō, whom I told many things, including my prediction that Mongol armies would attack Japan within the year without fail. I left Kamakura on the 12th day of the 5th month in the same year and entered Mt. Minobu. I sacrificed my life solely for the purpose of repaying the favors I received from my parents, masters, the Three Treasures (the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṃgha), and my country, but I am still alive. It has been customary for wise men to live in retreat in the woods after remonstrating their countries three times in vain.

Hōon-jō, Essay on Gratitude, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 48.

The Lotus Sūtra says in effect that when the sūtra is propagated in the fifth 500-year period after the death of Śākyamuni Buddha, evil spirits will dwell in the people and try to stop it. If one believes the sutra, he is spoken ill of, beaten, chased away, and even killed. Under the circumstances, the first person to propagate the sūtra receives the same merit of serving all Buddhas in the universe throughout the lives in the past, present, and future. He also inherits the merit of Śākyamuni Buddha which He had accumulated as a bodhisattva in the past. Therefore, when Bodhisattva Fukyō was propagating the sūtra in the past, scholarly priests, nuns, and great priests who kept 250 precepts seduced men and women to speak ill of him and beat him, but he never gave up until he attained Buddhahood. Śākyamuni Buddha is the former Bodhisattva Fukyō.

Myōhō Bikuni Go-henji, A Reply to Nun Myōhō, Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, Page 214

[P]racticers of the Lotus Sūtra today should remember this as preached in the “Previous Life of the Medicine King Bodhisattva” chapter: “Just as the ocean is the largest of all bodies of water, upholders of the Lotus Sūtra are above all other people.” They should also remember: “Just as the moon is brighter than any star, upholders of the Lotus Sūtra are the first among the people.” Wise men today in Japan are like numerous stars while Nichiren is like the full moon.

Senji-shō, Selecting the Right time: A Tract by Nichiren, the Buddha’s Disciple, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 248

QUESTION: What merits exist for us, the uneducated, in listening to such an important teaching?

ANSWER: With this we can say that we have really heard the Lotus
Sūtra for the first time. Grand Master Miao-lê claims in his Annotations on the Great Concentration and Insight: “If indeed the three evil ways can readily become the three merits, then it becomes possible to cross both kinds of rivers separating life and death—that experienced by men who are lost in rebirth and that of bodhisattvas who have managed to free themselves from delusions, not to speak of the rebirth in the triple world and six lower realms.” When we, the unenlightened of the latter age, hear this teaching, we are not the only ones to gain enlightenment, but our parents would so benefit as well. Without a doubt, this truly exemplifies filial piety.

Shimon Butsujō-gi, Listening to the Once Buddha Vehicle Teachings for the First Time, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 249-250