Day 14 covers all of Chapter 9, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Śrāvakas Who Have Something More to Learn and the Śrāvakas Who Have Nothing More to Learn, and opens Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma.
Having last month considered the consequences of speaking ill of someone who keeps the Lotus Sūtra, we repeat in gāthās the need to make offerings to the keeper of the Lotus Sūtra.
Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
If you wish to dwell in the enlightenment of the Buddha,
And to obtain the self-originating wisdom,
Make offerings strenuously to the keeper
Of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma!If you wish to obtain quickly the knowledge
Of the equality and differences of all things,
Keep this sūtra, and also make offerings
To the keeper of this sūtra!Anyone who keeps
The sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma,
Know this, has compassion towards all living beings
Because he is my messenger.
Anyone who keeps
The Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
Should be considered to have given up his pure world and come here
Out of his compassion towards all living beings.Know that he can appear wherever he wishes!
He should be considered
To have appeared in this evil world
In order to expound the unsurpassed Dharma.Offer flowers and incense of heaven,
Jeweled garments of heaven,
And heaps of wonderful treasures of heaven
To the expounder of the Dharma!Join your hands together and bow
To the person who keeps this sūtra
In the evil world after my extinction,
Just as you do to me!Offer delicious food and drink,
And various garments to this son of mine,
And yearn to hear the Dharma [from him]
Even if for only a moment!
Nichiren addressed this idea of praising and making offerings to the keeper of the Lotus Sūtra in his Letter to Hōren:
The Buddha preached the two doctrines … that those who slander the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra will fall into the Hell of Incessant Suffering and those who praise and admire the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra will be rewarded with merit superior to that of those who embrace the Buddha, but they are difficult to understand. Just how, one may wonder, can serving an ordinary person be more meritorious than serving the Buddha? If, however, we say that these two doctrines are false, we call into question the golden words of Śākyamuni Buddha, neglect the testimony of the Buddha of Many Treasures, and negate the proof of the long, wide tongues of the numerous Buddhas in manifestation from all the worlds in the universe. We will then fall into the Avici Hell. It is as dangerous as riding a wild horse running on the rocks. On the other hand, if we believe in these two doctrines, we will become Buddhas of great Enlightenment. We therefore must establish a firm faith in the Lotus Sūtra during this lifetime. Practicing this sūtra without having a firm faith is like trying to grab hold of a jewel in a mountain of treasures without hands or walking a journey of 1,000 ri (4,000 km) without feet. It is best for us to put faith in the Buddha by observing the objective phenomena.
Hōren-shō, Letter to Hōren, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 48