All the scriptures of Buddhism are characters written on pieces of paper. They look like, for instance, stars and the moon scattered in the sky or plants growing on the earth. The characters of all the scriptures of Buddhism are the spirit of Śākyamuni Buddha, namely His strength of Life.
Sokumotsu Santoku Gosho, On the Three Utilities of Food, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Pages 178-179
Referring to the Lotus Sūtra, it is stated in the Sūtra on the Great Extinction, “Suppose someone commits the sin of slandering the True Dharma. If this person repents, returns to the True Dharma and embraces it again, the sin of slandering the True Dharma will disappear. However, a return to the True Dharma must be made because no other sūtra except this True Dharma can absolve one from the sin of slandering the True Dharma.” Interpreting this, Grand Master Miao-lê states in his Annotations to the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, “The Nirvana Sūtra calls the Lotus Sūtra the supreme True Dharma,” and “Just as a person who fell on the earth will stand up again with the support of the earth, a person who slandered the True Dharma can be saved from hell through the help of the True Dharma.”
Ōta Nyūdō-dono Gohenji, A Reply to Lay Priest Lord Ōta, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 34-35
Having last month considered the first of the 10 Beneficial Effects of the Sutra of Innumerable Meaning, we consider the second beneficial effect:
“O you of good intent! Second, this sutra’s unimaginable power for beneficial effect is this: If there are living beings who obtain this sutra—whether a section of it, whether a verse of it, or whether a phrase—and thus become able to perceive millions upon millions of meanings, even though uncountable numbers of kalpas may pass they will not be able to elucidate the teaching they have acquired and kept. Why is this so? It is because the meanings of this teaching are unlimited. O you of good intent! This sutra can be likened to a single seed from which a thousand million seeds result. And each of these seeds, in turn, also results in a thousand million in number. In this way, the production of seeds is limitless in measure. So it is also with this sutra—it is a single teaching that gives rise to a hundred thousand meanings, and each one of these, in turn, produces a thousand million in number. In this way, meanings are produced to an unlimited and boundless extent. Thus is this sutra named Infinite Meanings. O you of good intent! This is known as the inconceivable power of the second beneficial effect of this sutra.
I am reminded of Nichiren and the progress from his first declaration of Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō:
At first only I, Nichiren, started chanting the daimoku, Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, but then two, three, then one hundred people, gradually began chanting it. This will continue in the future. Isn’t this what emerging from the earth means? When an innumerable number of people emerge from the earth and this Wonderful Dharma spreads extensively, there will be no mistake, just as a shooting arrow never misses the earth, Japan will be filled with people chanting Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō. You should therefore establish your fame as the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra and devote your life to it.
Shohō Jisso-shō, Treatise on All Phenomena as Ultimate Reality, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 78
A single seed from which a thousand million seeds result.
As I contemplate my own life, I, Nichiren, have studied Buddhism ever since I was a child. Our life is uncertain, as exhaling one’s breath one moment does not guarantee drawing it the next; it is as transient as dew before the wind and its end occurs suddenly to everyone, the wise and the ignorant, the aged and the young. I thought I should study the matter of the last moment of life first of all, before studying anything else. In this endeavor I collected commentaries and interpretations of the holy teachings of the Buddha written by commentators and Buddhist masters. Using them as a spotless mirror, I collated all their thoughts upon death and after death, I found no discrepancy.
Myōhō-ama Gozen Gohenji, A Reply to My Lady, the Nun Myōhō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 141
All the bodhisattvas tried in vain to attain Buddhahood during the first 40 years or so of the Buddha’s preaching, beginning with the Flower Garland Sūtra, Therefore when the “concise replacement of the Three Vehicles with the One Vehicle” doctrine was preached in the “Expedients” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, “80,000 bodhisattvas who wished to become Buddhas as well as the Wheel-turning Noble Kings gathered from tens of thousands and millions of lands pressed their palms together in the form of gasshō to show respect to the Buddha, wishing to hear the perfect way.” Thereupon the Buddha expounded the “expanded replacement of the Three Vehicles with the One Vehicle” doctrine. “Listening to this doctrine, those bodhisattvas’ doubts all melted away,” says the sūtra.
Thereafter bodhisattvas from this and other lands as numerous as stars in the sky came together like clouds to listen to the Buddha expound the Lotus Sūtra. When the “Appearance of a Stupa of Treasures” chapter was preached, Buddhas of the worlds throughout the universe each leading limitless number of bodhisattvas gathered together; at the time of the “Devadatta” chapter, Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī emerged from the sea leading numerous bodhisattvas; and at the time of the “Encouragement for Keeping This Sūtra” chapter, there were 800 thousands million nayuta bodhisattvas. Moreover, there were bodhisattvas more numerous than the sands of eight times the Ganges River and also bodhisattvas as many as the number of dust-particles of 1,000 worlds emerged from the great earth (“Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground” chapter); bodhisattvas as numerous as the sands of 6,800,000 million nayuta times the Ganges River; bodhisattvas 1,000 times it in number; bodhisattvas as many as the number of the dust-particles of a world; of the “triple-thousand great one-thousand worlds,” of two middle-size lands; of 1,000 minor lands; of four times the “fourcontinents;” of three times the “four continents;” of two times the “four continents;” and of the “four continents;” and living beings as numerous as the number of dust-particles of eight worlds (in the “Variety of Merits” chapter). Besides, the 84,000 bodhisattvas mentioned in the “Medicine King Bodhisattva” chapter, the 84,000 bodhisattvas and 42,000 sons of gods in the “Wonderful Voice Bodhisattva” chapter, the 84,000 persons in the “Avalokiteśvara” chapter, the 68,000 persons in the “Dhārāṇi” chapter, the 84,000 persons in the “King Wonderful Adornment” chapter, and the bodhisattvas as many as the number of sands in the Ganges River and those as many as the dust-particles of the “triple-thousand great one-thousand world” mentioned in the “Encouragement of Universal Sage Bodhisattva” chapter were present. When we add up all these bodhisattvas, they are as numerous as the dust-particles of all the worlds in the universe. They are as numerous as the number of all the plants, all the stars and drops of all the rains in the worlds throughout the universe. These incalculable bodhisattvas all became Buddhas, thanks to the Lotus Sūtra, and reside above in the “triple-thousand great one-thousand world,” or under the earth or in the sky.
Kitō Shō, Treatise on Prayers, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 61-62
I now realize, though dimly, the heart of the eleventh chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, “Appearance of the Stupa of Treasures.” It is stated in this chapter: “Even a man as powerless as I can throw Mt. Sumeru over to countless numbers of Buddha lands. … Even more so, it is not easy to uphold the Lotus Sūtra in the evil world after the death of the Buddha.” Grand Master Dengyō interprets this in his Outstanding Principles of the Lotus Sūtra (Hokke shūku): “The Buddha has determined that it is easy to spread the sūtras which are shallow in meaning, and difficult to spread those which are profound in meaning. A man should leave the shallow and take the deep. Therefore, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai, putting faith in Śākyamuni Buddha, spread the Lotus Sūtra in China; and all the kinsfolk of Mt. Hiei, receiving the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra from T’ien-t’ai, spread it in Japan.”
Kembutsu Mirai-ki, Testimony to the Prediction of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 178
Śākyamuni Buddha preached an important principle about the three venerables: lord, master and parents, in the third chapter on the “Parable” of the Lotus Sūtra.
This is the essence of the sūtra. In this sūtra it is said: “Now this Sahā World is all My domain, where all the people are My children. However, this world is full of various sufferings, and it is I, Śākyamuni Buddha, alone who can save them.” To those against the Lotus Sūtra, it preaches: “Those who do not listen to the Buddha when He taught and tried to persuade them that they are slanderers of the dharmas will all fall into the Hell of Incessant Suffering without fail.”
Shimoyama Goshōsoku, The Shimoyama Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 91-92
Heavenly beings without fail protect those who observe the precepts and practice the virtuous deeds. This is because if human beings do not observe the precepts and practice the virtuous deeds, many of them will be reborn in the realm of asura upon death. If those in the realm of asura increase in population, they will grow so arrogant that they will certainly invade the realm of heavenly beings. When human beings observe precepts and practice the virtuous conducts, they will be reborn in the realm of heaven upon death. If the realm of heavenly beings increases in population, asura demons become frightened of the heavenly realm and will not dare to invade it. This is the reason why heavenly beings never fail to protect those who keep precepts and perform good deeds. How much more so with the Two Vehicles, who are superior in dignity and wiser in wisdom to those in the lower six realms! How can they abandon practicers of the Lotus Sūtra, as it was the sūtra through which they were able to attain Buddhahood?
Kitō Shō, Treatise on Prayers, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 59-60
When Śāripūtra, a man of the Two Vehicle considered unable to attain Buddhahood in the pre-Lotus sūtras, was guaranteed future Buddhahood, he expressed his astonishment in the third chapter, “A Parable,” “Is this not a devil pretending to be the Buddha, trying to trouble and confuse my mind?” The Buddha preaches in the fifth chapter, “The Simile of Herbs,” “Regarding this essential doctrine, I kept silent for a long time without revealing it at once.” These make clear that the sūtras preached before the Lotus Sūtra are all expedient; only the Lotus Sūtra is the True Dharma.
Ichidai Goji Keizu, Genealogical Chart of the Buddha’s Lifetime Teachings in Five Periods, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 243
How lucky I am to be able to extinguish within one life my sin of slandering the True Dharma ever since the eternal past! How glad I feel to be able to wait on Lord Śākyamuni Buddha, whom I have never seen yet!
May I guide first of all those rulers of this land who have persecuted me. May I tell Śākyamuni Buddha about my disciples who have assisted me. May I present this great merit to my parents, who gave birth to me, before I die.
Kembutsu Mirai-ki, Testimony to the Prediction of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 178