The worst of the evil will return not only to the one who committed the sin but also to his children, grandchildren and everyone on down to seven generations. The same is true to the most virtuous of the virtuous.

The great virtue of Venerable Maudgalyāyana having faith in the Lotus Sūtra not only made himself a Buddha but also his parents Buddhas. Moreover, all the parents in seven generations above and below, and all the parents in the limitless generations above and below became Buddhas unexpectedly. In addition, sons, husbands and wives, their retainers, devotees, and an incalculable number of people all were emancipated from the three evil realms. Not only that, they all entered the rank of shoji and eventually attained Buddhahood. Therefore, it is preached in the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 3 (“Parable of a Magic City” chapter), “May this merit be spread over all living beings so that we and all others may attain Buddhahood together.”

Urabon Gosho, On theUllambana Service, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 175

Looking at things from this angle, is there any doubt about the spread of the Lotus Sūtra, the true teaching of the Buddha, all over Japan and the world following the period of the disappearance of the True Dharma predicted in the Sūtra of the Great Assembly? The Sūtra of the Great Assembly was preached by the Buddha, but it is a quasi-Mahāyāna sūtra. It does not show the true way to cut the chain of life and death and attain Buddhahood. Therefore, we cannot claim it to be the true sūtra for those who have not heard the Lotus Sūtra. Nevertheless, does not the sūtra seem exactly like the Lotus Sūtra in describing the transmigration of beings born in the four modes of birth in the six base realms throughout the lives in the past, present, and future?

Moreover, it was in reference to the Lotus Sūtra that Śākyamuni Buddha declared in the second chapter on “Expedients,” “He would reveal His true intention,” and that the Buddha of Many Treasures attested it to be all true, and all the Buddhas throughout the universe declared it to be true by reaching the Brahma Heaven with their long, wide tongues. His never-lying tongue touching the highest heaven in the realm of form, Śākyamuni Buddha again declared to the King of the Brahma Heaven, Indra, the sun god, the moon god, the Four Heavenly Kings, and dragon gods: “In the fifth 500-year period, when all the teachings of the Buddha are about to disappear, Bodhisattva Superior Practice will be entrusted with the five ideograms of myō, hō, ren, ge, and kyō (Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma) as the cure for those slanderers and non-believers of Buddhism who suffer from white leprosy.” How could these words of the Buddha be false? Even if the earth turned upside down, high mountains crumbled, summer did not follow spring, the sun set in the east, and the moon fell on the earth, there would be no mistake about this.

Senji-shō, Selecting the Right time: A Tract by Nichiren, the Buddha’s Disciple, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 204-205

QUESTION: You say that epidemics spread in Japan because this country persecutes the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra causing the protective deities to leave the country. If so, why is it that not only nonbelievers of the Lotus Sūtra but also your disciples suffer or even die from the disease?

ANSWER: Your question seems most reasonable, but it is like knowing only one side of a coin. Virtue and evil have originally been incompatible but inseparable.

Looking at it from this point of view, we see that provisional teachings of sūtras other than the Lotus Sūtra and Buddhist sects based on them maintain that bodhisattvas up to the second highest rank (tōgaku: equivalent to enlightenment) have merits as well as demerits. However, according to the doctrine of “3,000 existences contained in one thought” based on the Lotus Sūtra, each of our minds is equipped with virtue as well as evil. Even bodhisattvas of the highest rank (myōgaku: wonderful enlightenment) have evil in mind. The Dharma-nature originally existing in our mind appears as the protective deities of the Lotus Sūtra such as the King of the Brahma Heaven and Indra, whereas the fundamental ignorance innate in us becomes the king of devils in the Sixth Heaven.

Virtuous deities dislike evil persons, and evil spirits hate virtuous people. In the Latter Age of Degeneration, demons naturally prevail over the land like useless pieces of tile and stone or weeds and bushes.

Toki Nyūdō-dono Go-henji: Chibyō-shō, A Response to Lay Priest Lord Toki: Treatise on Healing Sickness, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 254-255

Is it because of the karma in your past lives that you sent me this robe or are you trying to be a particle of soil on a fingernail? It is stated in the Nirvana Sutra: “It is much more difficult to meet a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of the Decadent Dharma than putting a thread hanging from the sky into the eye of a needle standing on ground during a windy day.” The Lotus Sūtra tells of a tortoise who lives at the bottom of the ocean and surfaces once in 3,000 years, finds a floating piece of sandalwood with a hole in it, and rests in the hole. This tortoise, moreover, is one-eyed and squints so it sees the west as the east, and the east as the west. It is likened to men and women who are born in the Latter Age of the Decadent Dharma; and the hole in the sandalwood is likened to the Lotus Sūtra and the “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.” It must have been caused in the past for you to donate this robe to me.

Myōhō Bikuni Go-henji, A Reply to Nun Myōhō, Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, Page 222

I handed over to you all the doctrines important to my life. I might be a follower of those numerous bodhisattvas who emerged from the earth. This is because I chant “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō,” trying to lead men and women of Japan to Buddhahood. Is it not stated in the Lotus Sūtra, the “Emerging from the Earth” chapter, “The first was called Superior Practice. … [He was] a guiding teacher”? Because of your strong karmic relationship in past existences, you have become my disciple. Please be very careful dealing with this letter. I wrote the doctrines that I have awakened myself. I will stop writing now.

Shohō Jisso-shō, Treatise on All Phenomena as Ultimate Reality, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 80

The third of the eight major hells is the Hell of Crushing, which is located beneath the Hell of Black Ropes but is the same size. Here many pairs of iron mountains face each other. Hell guards with cow heads and horse heads, and armed with sticks chase the sinners between the mountains. Then the pair of iron mountains draw closer, crushing sinners and flooding the earth with blood. Sinners are subject to many other types of suffering.

Suppose 200 years in the human world correspond to a day in the Heaven of Yama, the third heaven in the realm of desire, where heavenly beings live for 2,000 years. If 2,000 years in this Heaven of Yama are equal to one day in the Hell of Crushing, the life span of sinners in this hell is 2,000 years.

Ken Hōbō-shō, A Clarificaton of Slandering the True Dharma, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 107-108.

The five characters of the Wonderful Dharma, the gist of the essential section of the Lotus Sūtra, can deal with calamities and disasters if only one puts faith in it, but this is what the Buddha especially entrusted to the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra. In the final analysis, therefore, the calamities and disasters since the Shōka Period (1257-59) will not cease unless the truth and falsity of Buddhist dharmas are decided in public discussions.

Toki Nyūdō-dono Go-henji: Chibyō-shō, A Response to Lay Priest Lord Toki: Treatise on Healing Sickness, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 256

One Chinese character of the Lotus Sūtra gives birth to all things as the great earth does. It is like the ocean that absorbs all the river waters. It brightens the entire world as the sun and moon do. What is more, it becomes the moon, which in turn changes to a Buddha. The seed of a rice plant becomes a rice seedling, which in turn becomes a rice plant, grains of rice, then a human being and finally a Buddha. Likewise, a woman, through her faith in the Lotus Sūtra, becomes the character Myō, which in turn becomes Śākyamuni Buddha on the lotus pedestal. Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō. Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.

Ōnichi-dono Gohenji, A Response to Lord Ōnichi, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers II, Volume 7, Page 144-145

In ancient times, when the Buddha was begging for alms in Rājagṛha, it is said that two little boys named Tokushō and Mushō offered rice cakes made of mud to the Buddha and as a result of this pious deed they were reborn as Emperor Aśoka and his prime minister, Rādhagupta, who helped Aśoka to rule the continent of Jambudvīpa. Rādhagupta was like Lord Hōjō Yoshitoki, who supported the shogun of the military government at Kamakura as the shogunal regent. The merit of your donation is far greater than that of Tokushō and Mushō. The horse that carried your donated articles will become “Kondeigoma,” the horse on which Prince Siddhārtha left his family, and your servant who led the horse to Minobu will become Chaṇḍaka, the driver who accompanied the prince when he left the royal castle, and they both will ultimately attain Buddhahood.

Although this happened in the past, I repeat it again because I feel that it is precious and inspiring.

Hyōesakan-dono Gohenji, Answer to Lord Ikegami Munenaga, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 97

In the final analysis, the reason why Venerable Maudgalyāyana could not save his suffering mother was that he was a believer of Hinayāna Buddhism, observing the Hinayāna precepts. Accordingly it is preached in the Vimalakirti Sūtra that a man named Vimalakirti criticized Maudgalyāyana saying, “Anyone who gives offerings to you will fall into the three evil realms (hell, realm of hungry spirits, and that of beasts).” This scriptural statement means that those who revere and give offerings to Venerable Maudgalyāyana, upholder of the 250 precepts, will fall into the three evil realms. This should be heeded by not only Maudgalyāyana but also all śrāvaka disciples and upholders of the Hinayāna precepts in the Latter Age of Degeneration.

Compared to the Lotus Sūtra, the Vimalakirti Sūtra is like a retainer several scores of ranks below. After all it was because Venerable Maudgalyāyana had not become a Buddha. Without being a Buddha himself, how can he save even his own parents, not to speak of other people?

Nevertheless, coming to the Lotus Sūtra, which enjoins listeners to “abandon the expedient teachings,” Maudgalyāyana immediately cast away the 250 precepts of Hinayāna Buddhism and chanted “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō” to become a Buddha called Tamālapatracandana Fragrance. This is the very moment when his parents, too, became Buddhas. Therefore, it is stated in the Lotus Sūtra, “Our wishes have already been fulfilled, and desires of the multitude are also satisfied.” Maudgalyāyana’s body and mind are the legacy of his parents. When his body and mind became a Buddha, those of his parents also attained Buddhahood.

Urabon Gosho, On theUllambana Service, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 174