These are the predictions in the “Risshō Ankoku-ron.” Now I, Nichiren, would like to add my views to them. The Buddha once predicted that Kutoku, a Jain, would die in seven days and be reborn a hungry spirit. Refuting the Buddha, Kutoku declared that he would not die in seven days and that he would be an arhat, who would not be reborn in the realm of hungry spirits. Nevertheless, Kutoku died in seven days, showing the very appearance of the hungry spirit just as predicted by the Buddha.
When the wife of a rich man in the city of Campā, in central India, became pregnant, six non-Buddhist masters insisted that she would give birth to a baby girl. However, just as the Buddha predicted, a baby boy was born.
Upon finishing the preaching of the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha predicted in the Sūtra of Meditation on the Universal Sage Bodhisattva that He would enter Nirvāṇa in three months. Although non-Buddhist masters all called it a lie, the Buddha entered Nirvāṇa on the fifteenth of the second month.
It is stated in the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 2, chapter three on “A Parable”: ” Śāriputra! After a countless, inconceivable number of kalpa from now you will become a Buddha called Flower Light Buddha.” The sūtra also asserts in the third fascicle, chapter eight, “Assurance of Future Buddhahood”: “This Mahā-Kāśyapa, a disciple of Mine, will see 300 trillions of Buddhas in future lives. … After that in the final stage of his physical existence, he will become a Buddha called Light Buddha.” It is declared in the fourth fascicle, chapter ten, “The Teacher of the Dharma, “If anyone rejoices even for a moment at hearing a verse or a phrase of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower Of the Wonderful Dharma after My death, I also assure him of his future attainment of Perfect Enlightenment.”
These passages in the Lotus Sūtra are predictions of the Buddha about future lives. Nevertheless, who would believe in them if His three predictions cited above, such as the death of Kutoku, a Jain, had not proved to be true? It would be difficult to believe in them even if the Buddha of Many Treasures attested them to be true, and Buddhas in manifestation swore to their truth with their long tongues touching the Brahma Heaven. The same can be said about me today. Even if I, Nichiren, were able to preach as fluently as or show the divine powers of Maudgalyāyana, who would believe in me if my predictions had not proven to be true?
When a letter of state came from the Mongol Empire in the fifth year of the Bun’ei Era (1268), a wise man, if there had been one in Japan, should have wondered whether or not my prediction was proving to be true. I uttered harsh words to Hei no Saemonnojō who arrested me on the twelfth of the ninth month in the eighth year of the Bun’ei Era (1271). Those harsh words have proved to be true on the eleventh of the second month in the following year, when a domestic disturbance erupted. Anyone with a human mind should have believed in me. People should have believed in me even more so, as Mongol troops have invaded Japan this year, plundering the two provinces of Iki and Tsushima. Even pieces of wood and stone or birds and beasts would be startled by the exact agreement between what I had predicted and what actually happened. Yet, nobody listens to me. This is no trivial matter. Possessed by evil spirits, all the people in this country are drunk and insane. It is sad, pitiful, fearful, and hateful.
Ken Risshō-i Shō, A Tract Revealing the Gist of the “Risshō Ankoku-ron,” Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 164-165
