I have gratefully received the bolt of fabric for a clerical robe and summer wear. I thank you very much for the donation.

To begin with, food maintains life and clothes cover the body. Therefore, one who gives food to sentient beings will be rewarded with longevity while one who deprives others of food will receive in retribution a short life.

Those who do not give clothes to people will receive their just due of being reborn without clothes. Those in the lower five of the six paths of existence are born without clothes. Only heavenly beings in the six paths are born with clothes on. In particular, among those in the lower five paths, the deer is born not only without clothes but with the ill fate of having its hide skinned as retribution for the sin of robbing others of clothing.

Among the people who practiced giving clothes to others, Nun Sembyaku was born with clothes on. There are many ways of practicing Buddhism, none of which is practiced without clothes. Therefore, Śākyamuni Buddha attained Enlightenment in the clothes given by his foster mother, Nun Mahā-Prajāpatī, and Buddhist monks were allowed to wear the “three robes.” It seems that Buddhist monks with low capacity will not attain the level of arhat without sufficient clothes and food. This is especially so in the Lotus Sūtra, where it is preached that wearing the “robe of the gentle and patient” is the most basic of practices. The sūtra also says that the Buddha protects the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra with clothes. Isn’t this gracious?

Hōe Sho, Writing on Vestments, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers II, Volume 7, Page 185-186

King Ajātaśatru stood against Śākyamuni Buddha, but on the urging of Minister Jivaka he put faith in the Lotus Sūtra and governed the whole country. King Wonderful Adornment was advised by his two princes and corrected his mistaken views. What happened in your situation is the same. I believe your advice softened the heart of your lord. This is solely due to your deep faith in the Lotus Sūtra.

Shijō Kingo-dono Gohenji, Response to Lord Shijō Kingo, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers I, Volume 6, Page 151

The Lotus Sūtra is preceded by an introductory sūtra called the Sūtra of Infinite Meaning. It is like a general who precedes a royal procession when a great king goes out in order to quell the rude people. It is stated in this sūtra that “The truth has never been revealed during the first forty years or so of preaching by Śākyamuni Buddha.” This is like a general with his powerful bow and arrows shooting down enemies of the king or cutting them down with his great sword.

Ueno-dono Haha-ama Gozen Gohenji, A Response to My Lady the Nun, Mother of Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 178

If there is no mistake about the words of the Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures and all the Buddhas throughout the universe, how can the king of Japan, his vassals and all the people feel at peace abusing, speaking ill of, banishing and striking me, Nichiren, and inflicting much suffering on my disciples and followers? After all I, as a messenger of the Buddha, am only trying to spread “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō” in this period of disputes and quarrels. With my saying this, ignorant people might think that I, Nichiren, am cursing the entire land of Japan. Actually, however, those who spread the Lotus Sūtra in Japan are parents of all the Japanese people. Grand Master Chang-an’s Annotations on the Nirvana Sūtra teaches us that pointing out a man’s mistake to help him get rid of it was doing him a favor. Then, I, Nichiren, am the parent of the reigning emperor of Japan.

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

I, Nichiren, am a child of a fisherman at the edge of the sea in the Tōjō District of Nagasa, in Awa Province, which is the 12th of the 15 provinces in the circuit of Tōkaidō. At the age of 12, I went to the Kiyosumidera Temple in the same Tōjō District to study. However, since this was a remote place, even though it was called a temple, there were no scholars there. That’s why I visited other provinces as a part of my training and study. Because I was a nobody and had no one who could teach me, it was difficult to learn about the origin of the ten schools and the comparative superiority among them; so I earnestly prayed, beseeching Buddhas and the bodhisattvas for assistance, and pondered the teachings in all the sutras.

Honzon Mondō Shō, Questions and Answers on the Honzon, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 267

The Lotus Sūtra also states that Śākyamuni Buddha enters the spirit of people who support a practicer of the sūtra in the Latter Age of the Decadent Dharma. When a stingy person drinks alcohol, for instance, he feels like giving something to others. It is that a bodhisattva has entered the drunken person in the Realm of Hungry Spirits through the bond of alcohol. When we put a jewel in dirty water, the water becomes clear; and when we see the moon, we feel romantic. A devil’s picture looks threatening even if it has no mind; while a portrait of beauty looks enticing. Nobody wants to wear brocaded clothes with a picture of snakes. When a body feels hot, it doesn’t want warm air. The human mind works the same; it changes depending on conditions. When you wanted to donate a robe to me, a dragon daughter expounded in the 12th chapter of the Lotus Sūtra entered you.

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

Although the time is ripe for the Lotus Sūtra to convert everyone, teachers who propagate it are ordinary teachers while their disciples are wicked and sickened by the three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance. They avoid teachers who preach the True Dharma, befriending teachers who preach false dharma. Is it not natural then that he who practices the Lotus Sūtra, the true teaching of the Buddha, and his disciples and lay followers are persecuted more severely by the three kinds of enemies?

Nyosetsu Shugyō-shō, True Way of Practicing the Teaching of the Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 82

It is stated in the Sūtra of the Golden Splendor that the Four Heavenly Kings (four guardian kings of Buddhism) declared to the Buddha:

Suppose there is a king in a country where this sūtra has been transmitted but has never been spread at all because the king would not recognize the sutra, listen to it, make offerings to it, revere it, or praise it. Even if he meets the four kinds of Buddhists (monks, nuns, male followers and female followers) who uphold the sutra, he would not revere or make offerings to them. As a result, we, the Four Heavenly Kings, our disciples and numerous gods would be unable to hear the teachings of this Wonderful Dharma, taste the nectar of the True Dharma, and bathe in the stream of the True Dharma. In the end we all would lose our authority and power, allowing only the spirits of the four evil realms (hell, realms of hungry spirits, beasts and birds and fighting spirits) to grow rampant in the land at the cost of heavenly and human spirits. People would all fall into the river of life and death, the realm of spiritual darkness and evil passion, losing the way to Nirvana.

World Honored One! Seeing this, we the Four Heavenly Kings, our retainers and others like the yaksa demons would all abandon this land, not wishing to defend it. It is not we alone who would abandon this king. Even if numerous protective gods exist to guard his country, we are sure that they all would abandon it. If we, the guardian deities and protective gods, all abandon this kingdom, various disasters would befall, and the king would be dethroned. All the people in the kingdom would lose compassion: arresting, killing, fighting, accusing, and flattering one another, causing even innocent people to suffer. Epidemics would spread widely; comets would appear often; two suns would appear simultaneously; the sun and moon would eclipse at random; two rainbows, a black one and white one, would appear foretelling misfortune; meteors would be seen; the earth would quake; voices would be heard in wells; unseasonable storms would occur; famine would not end; trees and plants would bear no fruit; and many foreign bandits would invade the land. Thus, the people would suffer in every way, finding no place to live in peace in this kingdom.

We read in the Sūtra of the Great Assembly, “Suppose there is a king who, upon seeing My dharma disappearing, gives up defending it. Even if he practiced charity, observed the precepts and cultivated wisdom in his numerous lives in the past, the amount of merit he accumulated would all disappear, and the three misfortunes would befall his country. … Upon death he would be reborn in the worst hell.”

Sainan Taiji-shō, Treatise on the Elimination of Calamities, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Pages 90-91

Even though people of Japan all pay lip service to the sūtra saying that, “The Lotus Sūtra is supreme,” in their minds they hold that “The Lotus Sūtra is second” or even “The Lotus Sūtra is in third place.” They do so not only in their minds but also in their words and deeds. After Grand Master Dengyō, there has been no practicer of the Lotus Sūtra in more than four hundred years who reads, “The Lotus Sūtra is supreme” in body, mouth and mind. Furthermore, I doubt that the practicer who “properly keeps the Lotus Sūtra” will ever appear. As Śākyamuni Buddha predicts in the “Teacher of the Dharma” chapter of the Lotus Sūtra, “Many people hate it with jealousy even in My lifetime. Needless to say, more people will do so after My extinction.” All the people in the Latter Age of Degeneration, from the Emperor down to the common people, are all archenemies of the Lotus Sūtra.

Honzon Mondō Shō, Questions and Answers on the Honzon, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 267

QUESTION: What is most essential of the twenty-eight chapters of the Lotus Sūtra?

ANSWER: Some people may say that each of its twenty-eight chapters is essential, while others say that chapters 2 and 16 are essential. Some say that chapter 2, “Expedients,” is essential, but others say that chapter 16, “The Life Span of the Buddha,” is. Still others say that the “open, show, perceive and enter” passage in chapter 2 explaining why the Buddhas appeared in this world, or the passage in the same chapter saying that all phenomena are ultimate reality is essential.

QUESTION: What do you think, then?

ANSWER: The essence of the Lotus Sūtra is “Namu Myōhōrengekyō. ”

Hōon-jō, Essay on Gratitude, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 51.