In the past, the Buddha, wishing to repay his debt to his mother Māyā, ascended to the Trāyastriṃsá Heaven on the fifteenth day of the fourth month. While he was there, everyone in the five regions of India from the rulers and their great vassals down to the ordinary men and women, sobbed with grief and lamented that they had lost the Buddha, like parents who had lost a child or a child who had lost his parents. For a man to be separated from a beloved wife or a woman from her beloved husband is unbearable. How much more unbearable a separation from the World Honored One of Great Enlightenment with the thirty-two marks and eighty signs, whose color is a beautiful purple-gold, and whose voice is that of the kalaviṅka bird, and who teaches that all sentient beings will attain Buddhahood. Because of the Buddha’s deep loving-kindness and compassion, their longing and grief for Him is indescribable. It exceeded the grief of the beautiful lady imprisoned in the Shang-yang Palace; it exceeded the grief of the two daughters of Emperor Yao, O-huang and Nu-ying, when they were parted from Emperor Shun; and it exceeded the longing of Su Wu, banished for nineteen years to live amidst the snow in a foreign land.

A man who longed to see the Buddha took wood to make an image of Him, but he was unable to carve the likeness of even one of the thirty-two marks of the Buddha. At that time the great King Udayāna summoned Viśvakarman, the Carpenter, down from the Trāyastriṃsá Heaven and had a statue carved from red sandalwood. That statue went to meet the original Buddha in the Trāyastriṃsá Heaven, because of King Udayāna’s deep faith. This was the first statue of the Buddha carved in Jambudvipa.

Again, there was a wealthy man called Sudatta. When the Buddha was to descend to India from the Trāyastriṃsá Heaven on the fifteenth of the seventh month, Sudatta wished to build a monastery, but he had no land on which to build. Prince Jeta, a son of King Prasenajit, owned a park called Jetavana, which was about 40 li wide. This park was such a sacred and peaceful place that if one were to bring in swords or knives, the weapons would suddenly break apart. When the wealthy man Sudatta asked for the park in which to build his monastery, the prince told him he would only sell it for the amount of gold it would take to cover the park 4 inches thick. Sudatta agreed to the terms, but the prince then said, “I was only joking. The park is not for sale.” Sudatta insisted, “The Son of Heaven can never be double-tongued. How could you lie, even for a moment?” and he told King Prasenajit what had happened. “Prince Jeta is the heir to the throne. How could he lie even in jest,” wondered the king. Prince Jeta had no choice but to sell the park. Then, when the wealthy man Sudatta paid for the park with gold piled four inches thick as promised and joyfully prepared to build the monastery, Śāriputra appeared with a rope to demarcate the grounds of the park. Then he looked up into the sky and laughed. Sudatta remarked, “A great sage always has a dignified bearing and maintains self-control. What strange thing have you seen to cause you to laugh?” Śāriputra replied, “Because of this monastery you are building the six heavens of the realm of desire are each raising armies to contend for you. Each of the gods wants the person who is cultivating such a tremendously good deed in his own heaven. I am laughing at them for fighting. When your life-span is over, you will be born in the Tuṣita Heaven.” Thus the monastery was built and named the Jeta Grove Monastery.

On the night of the fifteenth of the seventh month when the Buddha was about to enter the temple, Indra and the King of the Brahma Heaven built three bridges made of gold, silver, and crystal from the Trāyastriṃsá Heaven. The Buddha entered by the middle bridge, while Indra on his left and the King of the Brahma Heaven on his right held a canopy over the Buddha. Behind the Buddha came the four categories of Buddhists (monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen); the eight kinds of supernatural beings (gods, asura, dragons, gandharva, kiṃnara, garuda, mahoraga, and yakṣa); twelve hundred arhats led by Kāśyapa, Kātyāyana, Maudgalyāyana, and Subhūti; twelve thousand hearers; and eighty thousand bodhisattvas.

All the people of the five regions of India gathered together to collect oil to offer lamps. Some lit ten thousand lamps, some lit one thousand lamps, some lit one hundred lamps, and some could only light one lamp. Among them was an impoverished woman, incomparably poor. She had no clothes except a mat woven of wisteria vines even coarser than a rush mat. She ran about in all four directions but was not able to get enough money to buy enough oil for even a single lamp. She looked up to the sky and cried, thinking that if her tears had been oil they could have fueled one hundred or one thousand or ten thousand lamps or more.

After much thought, she cut off her own hair, and braided it into a wig that she sold to buy oil for a single lamp. Perhaps because her devotion was accepted by the Buddha and gods, the three treasures, the heavenly deities, and the terrestrial deities, her lamp alone was not extinguished by the fierce winds that blow at the destruction of the world and the beginning of a new world cycle, and it lit the way as the Buddha entered the Jeta Grove Monastery.

As you see, even if people are rich and give great treasures as alms, if their faith is weak they cannot attain Buddhahood. Even though people are poor, if they have strong faith and deep determination they will attain Buddhahood without fail.

Minobu-san Gosho, Mt. Minobu Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Pages 133-135

Fascicle four of the Annotations on the Great Concentration and Insight says: Long ago in the great country Bima, a fox pursued by a lion tried to escape but fell into a dry well. The lion leapt over the well and ran on, but when the fox tried to climb out it couldn’t because the well was too deep. Many days passed and the fox was close to starving to death. At that time the fox cried out: “Woe is me! I am going to die miserably in this dry well. All things are impermanent. It would have been better if the lion had eaten me. Hail all the Buddhas of the worlds of the ten directions, with your wisdom see that my heart is pure and precious.”

At that time, the god Indra heard the fox’s cry and came down himself to lift the fox from the well and ask it to teach the Dharma. “This is all wrong,” said the fox. “The disciple is on top and the teacher is on the bottom.” All in the heavens laughed to hear this. When Indra, acknowledging that the fox was correct, nevertheless sat at his feet and asked him to preach, the fox said, “This is all wrong. It is not right for disciple and teacher to sit down together.” Thereupon Indra took all the heavenly robes and piled them up to make a tall seat for the fox, and again asked him to preach the Dharma. The fox said: “There are those who rejoice to live and hate death. There are those who rejoice to die and hate life.” Ignorant people are ignorant regarding future lives and so they hope to live and hate death. Good people know the truth of the workings of karma and retribution and so they hope to die and hate life. Indra learned this and followed the fox as his teacher. The Grand Master T’ien-t’ai said: “The Young Ascetic in the Snow Mountains offered himself to a demon to gain half a verse, Indra revered an animal and made him his teacher. No one discards gold because the purse stinks.” No matter how humble, if someone knows the True Dharma, you must not look down on them. Fascicle 8 of the Lotus Sūtra says: “Those who, upon seeing the keeper of this sūtra, blame him justly or unjustly, will suffer from white leprosy in their present life.” This means that if one accuses the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra of faults, whether one is justified or not, one will contract white leprosy in this life and in the next life will fall into the Hell of Incessant Suffering.

Minobu-san Gosho, Mt. Minobu Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 132-133

[A letter of explanation written by Nichiren Shōnin on behalf of Shijō Yorimoto on the 25th of the sixth month in the third year of the Kenji Period (1277) and submitted to the lord of the Ema Family.]

“Master Shan-tao of the Pure Land Sect in China said that ten out of ten or 100 out of 100 of those who practice the nembutsu will be able to be reborn in the Pure Land through the power of the original vow of Amitābha Buddha, but not even one out of one thousand persons who practice the holy way gate such as the Lotus Sūtra will be able to attain Buddhahood. Priest Hōnen of the Pure Land Sect in Japan urged his followers to abandon, close, set aside, and cast away the Lotus Sūtra, the holy way gate, calling the practicers of the holy way gate a school of bandits. Zen Sect insists that Śākyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment is transmitted to practicers only through the mind (special transmission without scriptures or preachings) and therefore sūtras are needless.

“The Buddha Śākyamuni, however, states in the Lotus Sūtra: ‘I will reveal the Truth after an extensive period of preaching.’ The Buddha of Many Treasures also verified that ‘The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma is entirely true,’ and the Buddhas manifested in the worlds throughout the universe also testify to the truth of the Lotus Sūtra. Which should we believe between the two: Śākyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures and the Buddhas manifested in the worlds throughout the universe who prove the truth of the Lotus Sūtra, or Grand Master Kōbō of Japan who says that the Lotus Sūtra is a sūtra of no merit? Śākyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures, and the Buddhas manifested in the worlds throughout the universe preach that all without exception will attain Buddhahood through the Lotus Sūtra, but Master Shan-tao and Priest Hōnen said that no one could attain Buddhahood through the Lotus Sūtra, which we should abandon, close, set aside, and cast away. The teachings of Śākyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures, and the Buddhas in manifestation and those uttered by Master Shan-tao and Priest Hōnen are as different as fire and water or clouds and mud. Which should we put faith in? Which should we discard? …

To this question put forth by Sammi-kō, Ryūzō-bō replied: “How can I have any doubts about such senior masters as Shan-tao and Hōnen? The only thing that ordinary monks like myself can do is to pay respect and venerate them.”

Then, Sammi-kō asked again: “Such an answer does not sound like your teaching. Although everybody respects their senior masters or men of virtue, it is willed in the Nirvana Sūtra, preached last by the Buddha, ‘Rely on the dharma, not on masters.’ This means that since masters may have made mistakes, one should depend upon the sūtras the Buddha expounded.

Yorimoto Shinjō, Yorimoto’s Letter of Explanation, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Biography and Disciples, Volume 5,
Pages 104-105

[In the sixth month of the 3rd year of the Kenji era (1277), Nichiren Shōnin wrote a letter of explanation in place of Inaba-bō Nichiei, a disciple of Nichiren, and submitted it to Nichiei’s father, Shimoyama Hyōgo Gorō Mitsumoto.]

I am sorry to trouble you, but I would like to inform you of one thing in advance. This master, Nichiren Shōnin, is the one and only master of virtue and is a sagacious and irreplaceable person. If the worst should happen, you would surely be sorry. It is rather foolish for you not to believe in him just because the people in the world do not believe in him. When the rulers of Japan put faith in him, everyone will believe in him. It will be useless for you to believe in him then. Putting faith in him because the rulers of Japan believe in him means that you believe in a man, not the dharma. The people in the world think that children must obey their parents, retainers obey their lord, and disciples follow their masters, but this is a wrong idea held by those who know neither Buddhism nor non-Buddhist teachings. In the Filial Piety, a Confucian classic, it is stated that when a father makes a mistake, his son should remonstrate with him, and that when a lord makes a mistake, his retainer should admonish him. In Buddhism it is preached: “He who enters Buddhism, discarding the favors of his parents, is one who truly compensates the favors received from his parents.”

Prince Siddhārtha, who had become a monk against the wishes of His father, King Suddodana, became the Buddha to lead His parents to Buddhahood. In the end He became the most filial son in the world. Filial Pi-kan was killed for remonstrating his father, King Chou Hsin of the Yin Dynasty, and left behind the fame of being a man of wisdom. If you disregard what I say as words of a petty monk, I am sure you will regret it not only in the present life but also in the one to come.

Shimoyama Goshōsoku, The Shimoyama Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 99

As you know, I, Nichiren, have been eagerly studying since childhood and began praying when I was twelve years old to Bodhisattva Space Repository to help me to become the wisest in Japan. The reason for my prayers was complicated, too complicated to explain here in detail. Later I first began to study the doctrines of the Pure Land and Zen Sects. Then I studied the doctrines of the Tendai and Shingon Sects on Mt. Hiei, at the Onjōji Temple, and on Mt. Kōya. I further studied the doctrines of the various sects at temples in Kyoto and the provinces, but these studies did not serve to clear up the doubts I had in mind about Buddhism.

In my initial prayer I made a vow that: I would not favor any particular sect; I would adopt whichever sect that provided the evidence of being the teaching of the Buddha and was reasonable; I would be guided solely by the sūtras, not by the commentators in India, translators and minister-masters in China; I would not be afraid, regarding the doctrines of Buddhism, of even being punished by a king, not to mention persecutions by the people below him; I would not follow instructions against the Buddha’s teachings even if they were given by my parents, teacher and elder brother; and that I would speak up honestly as expounded in the sūtras regardless of whether or not people believed in me.

Ha Ryōkan-tō Gosho, A Letter Refuting Ryōkan-bō and Others, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 62