The Lotus Sūtra says in effect that when the sūtra is propagated in the fifth 500-year period after the death of Śākyamuni Buddha, evil spirits will dwell in the people and try to stop it. If one believes the sutra, he is spoken ill of, beaten, chased away, and even killed. Under the circumstances, the first person to propagate the sūtra receives the same merit of serving all Buddhas in the universe throughout the lives in the past, present, and future. He also inherits the merit of Śākyamuni Buddha which He had accumulated as a bodhisattva in the past. Therefore, when Bodhisattva Fukyō was propagating the sūtra in the past, scholarly priests, nuns, and great priests who kept 250 precepts seduced men and women to speak ill of him and beat him, but he never gave up until he attained Buddhahood. Śākyamuni Buddha is the former Bodhisattva Fukyō.

Myōhō Bikuni Go-henji, A Reply to Nun Myōhō, Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, Page 214

[P]racticers of the Lotus Sūtra today should remember this as preached in the “Previous Life of the Medicine King Bodhisattva” chapter: “Just as the ocean is the largest of all bodies of water, upholders of the Lotus Sūtra are above all other people.” They should also remember: “Just as the moon is brighter than any star, upholders of the Lotus Sūtra are the first among the people.” Wise men today in Japan are like numerous stars while Nichiren is like the full moon.

Senji-shō, Selecting the Right time: A Tract by Nichiren, the Buddha’s Disciple, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 248

QUESTION: What merits exist for us, the uneducated, in listening to such an important teaching?

ANSWER: With this we can say that we have really heard the Lotus
Sūtra for the first time. Grand Master Miao-lê claims in his Annotations on the Great Concentration and Insight: “If indeed the three evil ways can readily become the three merits, then it becomes possible to cross both kinds of rivers separating life and death—that experienced by men who are lost in rebirth and that of bodhisattvas who have managed to free themselves from delusions, not to speak of the rebirth in the triple world and six lower realms.” When we, the unenlightened of the latter age, hear this teaching, we are not the only ones to gain enlightenment, but our parents would so benefit as well. Without a doubt, this truly exemplifies filial piety.

Shimon Butsujō-gi, Listening to the Once Buddha Vehicle Teachings for the First Time, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 249-250

In India, there was a man named Sudatta who experienced poverty seven times and also experienced becoming millionaire seven times. When he was stricken with poverty for the seventh time, his family members as well as household servants all fled or died, leaving only Sudatta and his wife. The couple then had five shō of rice, which they planned to use for food for five days. Just at that moment five priests — Mahākāśyapa, Śāriputra, Ānanda, Rāhula, and Śākyamuni Buddha visited them one by one begging for food. Sudatta offered all the five shō of rice to them. From that day on Sudatta became the wealthiest person in all of India. In the end he was able to build the Jeta Grove Monastery for the Buddha.

Ueno-dono Gohenji, Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers II, Volume 7, Page 44

Prince Siddhārtha … was born as the heir to King Śuddhodana. His father-king wanting to place his son on the throne, abdicated his rule, but Prince Siddhārtha, acting against the wish of his father-king, left the royal castle in the middle of the night. The king regretted his son’s unfilial act, but the first thing that his son did after attaining Buddhahood was to lead King Śuddhodana and Queen Māyā to the Buddhist Way. No parent would advise his (or her) children to leave his home to attain Buddhahood.

Hyōesakan-dono Gohenji, Answer to Lord Ikegami Munenaga, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 94

When Śākyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of Many Treasures, and many other Buddhas and bodhisattvas from all over the Universe gathered at the assembly up in the sky above Mt. Sacred Eagle, what Śākyamuni Buddha and the Buddha of Many Treasures agreed upon was solely for the sake of perpetually spreading the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration. When the Buddha of Many Treasures who had already been inside the Stupa shared his seat with Śākyamuni Buddha, what was decided by the two Buddhas as generals standing under the flag of Myōhō Renge Kyō was nothing but the truth. It was a meeting to help us living beings achieve Buddhahood. Although I was not at the scene, I have no doubt about it when I read the sūtra. However, I may have been there, but I don’t remember it simply because I am an ordinary man. And yet I can see clearly in the present time that I am a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra. Moreover, it is determined that I will surely visit the practicing place of the Buddha in the future. Considering the past according to these things, I may have been at the assembly up in the sky because the past, present, and future are not separated from one another.

Shohō Jisso-shō, Treatise on All Phenomena as Ultimate Reality, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 78-79

[I]t is said in the Lotus Sūtra, 13th chapter: “We will not spare even our lives; we treasure only the unsurpassed enlightenment.” In the Nirvana Sūtra it is said: “Do not hide the teaching of the Buddha even at the cost of your life.”
If we spare our lives in this life, in which life will we be able to become Buddhas? In which life can we save our parents and masters? Thus, I decided to speak up with the true teaching. As expected, I have been expelled out of my residence, abused, beaten, and hurt. On the 12th of the fifth month in the first year of the Kōchō Era (1261), I fell out of shogunal grace and was exiled to Itō of Izu Province. On the 22nd of the second month of the 3rd year of the same era, I was pardoned.

Thereafter, the more intense my aspiration for Buddhahood became, the more fervently I spoke up. Great difficulties were brought about just as high waves are caused by strong winds. I could imagine through my experiences how terrible it was when Never-Despising Bodhisattva was beaten with sticks and hit by stones and broken tiles were thrown at him. The difficulties experienced by Monk Virtue Consciousness toward the end of Rejoice (Kangi) Buddha’s period seem incomparable to mine. I have no place to live at all in the sixty-six provinces and two islands of Japan even for a day or a moment. Even sages who, like Rāhula in the past, keep the 250 precepts and bear the intolerable and men of wisdom like Pūrṇa abuse me, Nichiren, whenever they see me. Even men as honest as Wei-chêng of ancient China and as wise as Imperial Regent Fujiwara Yoshifusa of Japan treat Nichiren with hostility beyond reason, not to mention ordinary people in this world who hate me just as dogs hate monkeys and hunters chase deer.

Hōon-jō, Essay on Gratitude, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 46.

QUESTION: I ask with much hesitation whether it can be that fire can beget water, or that a rock may beget flowers. From the standpoint of Buddhism, it is understood that a bad effect would follow from a bad cause; similarly, a good product would arise from something good. Nevertheless, should we look at our origins, it is clear that we are the products of the binding of our parent’s red and white blood. In like manner, the root of evil can spawn impurity. Whilst we attempt to wash it with the waters of the ocean, it would still not be cleansed. When we examine our minds and bodies–that which receives of this painful lot–we can say that it is composed of the three basic evil passions: greed, anger, and ignorance. When these two, evil passions and their painful results, come together to form various karma, they give rise to the paths of karma that chain us to the painful environment of the triple world and six realms (lower six of the ten realms). It is like a bird trapped in a cage. How is it that the three ways, evil passions, karma, and suffering can turn into the three merits, Dharma Body, Reward Body and Accommodative Body of the Buddha? It is, for example, as difficult to expect an appealing fragrance to arise from feces made to look like sandalwood.

ANSWER: Your question is quite natural. It is difficult for me to provide a sufficient answer as well. In any case, Nāgārjuna, the 13th transmitter of the Buddhist teaching whom even Grand Master T’ien t’ai respected as the Founder, comments on the single character “myō” in his Great Wisdom Discourse: “It is the same as a renowned doctor who prescribes a poison for medicine.” What is meant here by “poison”? It refers to the three paths, that are our evil passions, karma, and suffering. Then what is meant by medicine? It refers to the three merits: Dharma Body, unsurpassed wisdom, and emancipation. What is meant by prescribing a poison for medicine? It means nothing but transforming the three evils to three merits. Grand Master T’ien-t’ai in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra states: ” ‘Myō’ of Myōhō Renge Kyō means unfathomable.” And in the Great Concentration and Insight, he claims: “As one thought contains ten realms, there should be no less than 3,000 modes of existence contained in one thought, making it impossible to separate one’s thought from all existing things. This relationship is difficult to explain in words, such that ‘thought’ falls within the realm of incomprehension.” Becoming a Buddha with one’s present body is not easily defined.

Shimon Butsujō-gi, Listening to the Once Buddha Vehicle Teachings for the First Time, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 247-248

Becoming a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra is brought about by a long causal relationship from the past. Even among trees and plants, some of them are carved into Buddhist statues because of their long karmic relationship. Some trees are carved into provisional Buddhas, not true ones, due to the long causal relationship from the past existences.

Shohō Jisso-shō, Treatise on All Phenomena as Ultimate Reality, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 79