And yet even though a finger might point to the great earth and miss it, a person tie up the sky, the ocean’s tide lack an ebb and flow, or if the sun should rises in the west, there cannot be a time when the prayer of a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra is not answered.
Kitō Shō, Treatise on Prayers
We are presently living in the Latter Age of Degeneration. The Lotus Sūtra and other sūtras are no longer efficacious in bringing about enlightenment. Only the odaimoku can accomplish this. This is not my arbitrary opinion. It was so-arranged by the Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures, various Buddhas from all over the universe, and numerous great bodhisattvas from beneath the earth such as Superior Practice Bodhisattva.
Ueno-dono Gohenji, A Reply to Lord Ueno
Deer are killed by men because the meat is tasty, and tortoises lose their lives because of their good fat. Attractive women are envied by many others. Those who govern a country must worry about defending it against foreign forces, while property owners are susceptible to the dangers of life. Likewise, upholders of the Lotus Sūtra with the assurance of achieving Buddhahood are envied by the king of devils in the Sixth Heaven, who is the lord of the triple world of the unenlightened. It is preached in scriptures that this king of devils will haunt kings, parents, wives and children and envy the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra in the same way as how people fall victims to epidemics without seeing the disease or how old sake can make people dead drunk without them realizing it. This is exactly what is happening in the world today.
Shuju Onfurumai Gosho, Reminiscences: from Tatsunokuchi to Minobu
[A]bsolute subtlety (zetsudaimyō) is a doctrine of revealing the truth (single path to enlightenment) and merging all the provisional teachings for bodhisattvas, pratyekabuddha, and śrāvaka (kaie). Here the pre-Lotus sūtras, which are abandoned as expedient by the doctrine of relative subtlety (sōdaimyō), are all included in the ocean of the Lotus Sūtra. Once entering the ocean of the Lotus Sūtra, the pre-Lotus sūtras will no longer be dismissed as expedient. All the sūtras entering the ocean of the Lotus Sūtra take up the one flavor of Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō because of the wonderful merit of the ocean of the Lotus Sūtra. There is no reason why they have to be referred to by other names such as nembutsu, Ritsu, Shingon, or Zen. Consequently, Grand Master T’ien-t’ai said in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, “Just as water becomes salty when it flows into the sea, any wisdom ceases to exist in itself after it is taken in the True Wisdom.” Thus he instructs us that no original names be mentioned.
Shoshū Mondō-shō, Questions and Answers Regarding Other Schools
T’ien-t’ai explains, “The profound doctrine of all phenomena as ultimate reality is the Lotus Sūtra that exists originally and always.” This annotation means that “the deep doctrine of ultimate reality” expounded in the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra is called in the essential section the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma which exist originally and always. This interpretation is not easy to understand, so please spare no effort in contemplating this.
Shohō Jisso-shō, Treatise on All Phenomena as Ultimate Reality
What we should chant all the time as the practice of the perfect teaching is “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō,” and what we should keep in mind is the way of meditation based on the truth of “3,000 existences contained in one thought.” Only wise men practice both chanting “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō” and meditating on the truth of “3,000 existences contained in one thought.”
Jisshō-shō, A Treatise on the Ten Chapters of the Great Concentration and Insight
To put it figuratively, a woman can’t feel her pregnancy in the beginning, but after a while she begins to suspect it until she knows for sure that she is pregnant. An attentive woman can even tell whether she has conceived a boy or a girl.
The same could be said about the doctrines of the Lotus Sutra. If we believe in the merit of “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō,” Śākyamuni Buddha will be conceived in our hearts before we know it, just as a woman is pregnant before she knows it. We can’t feel it in the beginning, but as the months pass we begin dreaming of the Buddha residing in our hearts, until we feel happiness within us.
Matsuno-dono Nyōbō Go-henji, A Response to the Wife of Lord Matsuno
“The Teacher of the Dharma” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra preaches, “The highest and most perfect enlightenment that all bodhisattvas should attain is expounded only in this sūtra.” The bodhisattvas in this passage refer to living beings in the nine realms. It means that all the people, virtuous or wicked or female or male, the śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattvas in the Tripiṭaka teaching, the Three Vehicles (śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattvas) in the Common teaching, the bodhisattvas in the Distinct teaching, and the bodhisattvas in the Perfect teaching of the pre-Lotus sūtras must depend on the power of the Lotus Sūtra for becoming Buddhas.
Ichidai Shōgyō Tai-I, Outline of All the Holy Teachings of the Buddha
[There] once was an ordinary man who strictly observed the precept against telling lies. Although his eyes were gouged out, his skin stripped, his flesh cut off, his blood sucked up, his bones broken, his children killed, and his wife attacked, he refused to lie even once for innumerable kalpa (aeons), and thereby attained Buddhahood. As the Buddha, he then preached the Expedients chapter in the Lotus Sūtra: “There is none who will not become a Buddha.” Namely, he has preached that anyone who said “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō” even once will not fail to become a Buddha. Even if Śākyamuni Buddha alone said this, there should be absolutely no doubt about its veracity. How could the Buddha utter a false statement before the assembly of various Buddhas from all the worlds in the universe? Besides, Śākyamuni Buddha as well as all the Buddhas from the worlds throughout the universe at the same time extended their long tongues to the Mahābrahman Heaven to prove its truthfulness.
Nanjō-dono Gohenji, Reply to Lord Nanjō
When believers of other Buddhist schools thus slander the Lotus Sūtra, how can we induce them to take the excellent medicine of Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō? The Buddha thought that it would be better trying to induce the Two Vehicles (śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha) to the Lotus Sūtra after preaching the Āgama sūtras for a while. When the Two Vehicles, attached to the Āgama sūtras, refused to believe in the Lotus Sūtra, how did the Buddha deal with them? The Buddha explains this in the Vimalakirti Sūtra: “Even those who committed the five rebellious sins, or those who supported such sinners can eventually attain Buddhahood. It is also possible that evil sins can become the seed of Buddhahood. Nonetheless, the meritorious acts of those of the Two Vehicles can never be the seed of Buddhahood.”
Kangyō Hachiman-shō, Remonstration with Bodhisattva Hachiman