[S]cholars today, while praising the Lotus Sūtra as superior to all other scriptures, maintain it is unsuitable for the inferior capacity of the people in the Latter Age, a contention that people accept. Are they not the slanderers of the True Dharma? You should wholeheartedly reject these scholars. After all, the text of the Lotus Sūtra can be broken up or cut up, but its spirit cannot be destroyed. Even if someone criticizes the Lotus Sūtra by comparing conducts of evil in the world with the practice of the Lotus Sūtra, people will not believe him. Only when someone slanders the Lotus Sūtra with the provisional doctrine similar to that of the Lotus Sūtra, will people be deceived.

Shō Hokke Daimoku-shō, Treastise on Chanting the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 15

[T]hese two teachings – the Tripiṭaka teaching and the Common teaching – do not espouse the idea that ordinary people in the Six Realms originally have the Buddha-nature. They preach instead that one can be a śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, bodhisattva, or Buddha only by practicing the way leading to each of them.

Ichidai Shōgyō Tai-I, Outline of All the Holy Teachings of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 69

The 13th chapter of the Lotus Sutra, the “Encouragement for Upholding This Sūtra,” declares, “Ignorant people will speak ill of us (practicers of the True Dharma) and abuse us.” I, Nichiren, have been as utterly despised as mentioned in the sūtra. Are not those who slander me the “ignorant people” referred to in the sūtra? The same chapter continues, “They (ignorant people) threaten us (practicers of the True Dharma) with swords and sticks.” I, Nichiren, have experienced what the sūtra preaches with my own body. Why don’t you, slanderers and persecutors, understand what the sūtra preaches?

It is also said in the same chapter: “They always try to slander us in the midst of the great multitude…, they speak ill of us to kings, ministers, Brahmans, and house-holders, or “they speak ill of us, frown at us, or drive us often out of our monasteries.” “Often” here means not a few times. I, Nichiren, was driven out of my dwelling several times and exiled twice.

Teradomari Gosho, A Letter from Teradomari, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 11-12

Essentially men and women have different characters just as fire is warm while water is cold. A woman diver is good at fishing and a male hunter is good at trapping deer. It is said in some sūtras that women are promiscuous, but I have never seen them say a woman was adept in the Buddha Dharma. All scriptures preached before the Lotus Sūtra contrast a woman’s mind with the wind because even if we can secure the wind, we cannot grasp a woman’s mind. The scriptures also compare a woman’s mind to letters written on water because the letters will quickly vanish. Women are also compared to people of unsound mind because sometimes they are honest but other times they are not. Finally, women are also compared to a river because all rivers bend. (Thus pre-Lotus scriptures demean women).

But in the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha states that He honestly discards expedient means, and the Buddha of Many Treasures affirms that Śākyamuni preaches only the truth. The sixteenth chapter of the sūtra, “Life Span of the Buddha,” preaches “straight and gentle minds” and a “gentle and straight person.” This is the sūtra believed by honest people, whose minds are as straight as a bowstring or a carpenter’s inked string. If you call dung sandalwood, it won’t smell like sandalwood. If you call a lie a truth, it won’t become true. It is said that all Buddhist scriptures are true because the Buddha expounded them. However, compared to the Lotus Sūtra, they are false, lies, distorted or double-tongued. The Lotus Sūtra is the supreme truth.

Nichimyō Shōnin Gosho, A Letter to Nichimyō Shōnin, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers II,
Volume 7, Page 140

The Buddha is equipped with 32 marks of physical excellence, each of which is adorned with many blessings. A bump on top of the head and a white curl on the forehead that glows are like the fruit of a flower, namely, the merit of practicing the bodhisattva way as a bodhisattva resulted in the 32 marks of physical excellence of the Buddha. One of the 32 marks is that the top of His head is invisible. Śākyamuni Buddha is 16 feet tall, but non-Buddhists with bamboo sticks could not measure His height, nor could they see the top of His head. Neither Bodhisattva Ying-ch’ih (Ōji Bosatsu) nor the King of the Mahābrahman Heaven could see His top. Why couldn’t they? It is because the Buddha won this “invisibility of His top” mark as the reward for respecting His parents, teachers, and lord by bowing with His head touching the ground.

Shijō Kingo-dono Gohenji, Response to Lord Shijō Kingo, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers I, Volume 6, Page 120-121

You should consider that the Lotus Sūtra is like the king, parents, sun and moon, great ocean, Mt. Sumeru and heaven and earth while other sūtras are like regents, ministers, court nobles, or all the people in the country, various stars, rivers, mountains, trees and plants. We are the ignorant in the Latter Age of Degeneration committing sins and are not capable of accepting the Dharma. The king helps the people rather than his retainers; parents have compassion on their own children more so than unrelated persons; and the light of the sun and the moon is brighter than stars. Likewise, if the Lotus Sūtra is unsuitable to save the ignorant with inferior capacity in the Latter Age of Degeneration, you should realize there is no other sūtra.

Shō Hokke Daimoku-shō, Treastise on Chanting the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 15

The Common teaching is the beginning of the Mahāyāna teaching, and it preaches the Three Principles: to observe the Buddhist precepts, to concentrate on meditation, and to gain wisdom. What is mainly taught in this teaching does not go beyond the Six Realms of the triple world. However, a few bodhisattvas with superior capacities may perceive the teachings beyond the Six Realms of the triple world by hearing the principle of the Common teaching. The śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha and bodhisattvas all learn the same teaching and eliminate the delusions in view and thought. In addition, some śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha may enter the state of turning the body to ashes and annihilating consciousness while others do not.

Ichidai Shōgyō Tai-I, Outline of All the Holy Teachings of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 68

According to the second chapter on the “Expedients” of the Lotus Sūtra, Buddhas in the past, present and future are to preach provisional teachings first in order to lead people to the Lotus Sūtra, which is to be preached last. Accordingly, the order of preaching or the method of propagation are the same among Buddhas; it should thoroughly be similar to that of the Lotus Sūtra. This is why the teaching of the twentieth chapter on the “Never-Despising Bodhisattva” of the Lotus Sūtra preached in the days of Powerful Voice King Buddha is expounded by the present Śākyamuni Buddha in the thirteenth chapter on the “Encouragement for Upholding This Sūtra.” Likewise, the teaching of the present Śākyamuni Buddha in the 13th chapter will be preached in the days of future Buddhas as the 20th chapter expounded in the past, Buddhas demonstrating the example of propagating the True Dharma. Never-Despising Bodhisattva, mentioned in the 20th chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, gave guidance to the devotees as well as the slanderers without discrimination. He was sometimes struck with swords and sticks, or pieces of tiles and pebbles were thrown at him. When this chapter, “Encouragement for Upholding This Sūtra,” is preached in the future and respected as the chapter on “Never-Despising Bodhisattva” in the past, Nichiren will be looked up as the exemplary propagator of the True Dharma: Never-Despising Bodhisattva in the past.

Teradomari Gosho, A Letter from Teradomari, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 12

QUESTION: What are the differences between Mahāyāna and Hinayana teachings?

ANSWER: Generally speaking, the sūtras preached in the Agon period are Hinayana, while those preached in the Kegon, Hōdō, Hannya and Hokke-Nehan periods are Mahāyāna. In addition, those sūtras which expound the six unenlightened realms of hell, hungry spirits, beasts and birds, asura, human beings, and heavenly beings without expounding the four enlightened realms of śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, bodhisattvas, and Buddhas are Hinayana while those which expound all the ten realms are Mahāyāna. Other than these two main distinctions, comparing the truthfulness in doctrine between the Lotus Sūtra and other sūtras, those sūtras preached in forty years or so before the Lotus Sūtra are in reality Hinayana although they are commonly called Mahāyāna sūtras; only the Lotus Sūtra is Mahāyāna.

Shugo Kokka-ron, Treatise on Protecting the Nation, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 12

The Lord Śākyamuni Buddha is the lifetime head of a Buddhist Order and guiding teacher of all living beings. The eighty thousand Buddhist teachings preached by Śākyamuni Buddha are all words of wisdom, and the 12 divisions of Mahāyāna scriptures are all true. All the scriptures of Buddhism were preached by Śākyamuni Buddha who upheld the precept of not spreading lies. Therefore, each of the teachings should not be doubted. This, however, is a generalization. If we study them thoroughly, we can perceive differences between the Mahāyāna and Hinayana, exoteric and esoteric, and provisional and true teachings, though they were all uttered from the golden mouth of Śākyamuni Buddha. Now in this Lotus Sūtra (the “Expedients” chapter) the Buddha declares, “He honestly abandons the expedient teachings and expounds only the true way; after preaching various sūtras He inevitably preaches the very true teaching in the end.” Who can doubt this?

Shijō Kingo-dono Gohenji, Response to Lord Shijō Kingo, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers I, Volume 6, Page 119-120