There is a story of a person who offered a rice cake made of soil to a Buddha and attained Buddhahood as a result. Conversely, there is also the story of a person who donated a jewel but went to hell. The difference between the two appears to be in the timing.

Since my birth in Japan I have never deceived anyone, stolen anything, or committed any sinful deed. As a priest in the Latter Age of Degeneration I have committed few errors. Nevertheless, I was despised both by the ruler and the people in the same way a literary ruler disregards the military arts or a garish person hates the faithful, because I propagated the Lotus Sūtra in a world where Pure Land, Zen, Shingon (True Word), and Precept Buddhism were widely believed. In the end, finding no place among the people in the street, I retreated into the mountain. I wonder how Heaven will treat me hereafter. The five-foot deep snow-covered mountain path, which normally has no traffic, makes it impossible for anyone to visit me here. My clothing is not thick enough to protect me against the freezing weather. My food supply is gone, and I am at the end of my life.

It was just at this time that I received your gift as if to prevent my decision to face death. I felt both happy and sad when I received it because I had just made up my mind to die of hunger once and for all, but your gift of polished rice was like adding oil to a light that was about to burn out. It was indeed a precious and wonderful offering of yours. Śākyamuni Buddha and the Lotus Sūtra will never fail to extend their divine protection to you.

Ueno-dono Gohenji, Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Page 35

It is preached in the eighth fascicle of the Great Concentration and Insight: “As devils respectfully avoid the Hall of Indra, evil demons are unable to invade the place of practicing Buddhism indiscriminately when a powerful god protects it. When the lord of a castle is dauntless, his soldiers also are powerful. When the lord of a castle is a coward, his soldiers also are frightened. The mind is the lord of the body, which is always guarded by the two gods named Dōmyō and Dōshō. When the mind is steadfast, the body is guarded well. If the god of a body is like this, how much more so with the god of the place of practicing Buddhism!”

Interpreting this, the Annotations on the Great Concentration and Insight, fascicle 8, states: “The two gods of Dōmyō and Dōshō never cease in protecting people, but the stronger one’s mind is, the more powerful will the protection be;” and “even the gods who rest on the shoulders of people never stop protecting them, how much more so the god of the place of practicing Buddhism.” People are protected ever since their birth by the two gods of Dōshō-ten and Dōmyō-ten, who are called Kushō-jin in the Flower Garland Sūtra.

Dōjōjin Shugo-ji, Protective Deities for the Place of Practicing Buddhism, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Pages 15-16

Once upon a time, a man who had offered a “rice cake” made from mud to a Buddha ascended the throne in a kingdom due to this virtuous act. As the Lotus Sūtra is the dharma superior to a Buddha, those who make donations to the sūtra will inevitably gain blessings in this life and attain Buddhahood in the future lives, will they not?

Kurōtarō-dono Gohenji, A Reply to Lord Kurōtarō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 153

We, ordinary people, are ignorant because we do not fear or take heed to what is written in the sūtras and commentaries. Nor do we concern ourselves about events likely to occur in the future. I am sure that Hei no Saemonnojō Yoritsuna, Akita Jōnosuke, and others will be enraged with us, Nichiren Buddhists, and persecute us with great intensity. You should summon your resolve and be prepared for it. Please consider things from the position of those who would be deployed in Kyushu to fight against the Mongols, those who are on the way to Kyushu as well as those who have already been fighting. Thus far our fellow Nichiren Buddhists have not experienced such suffering. The warriors in Kyushu, however, are encountering the horrible agony of death and will fall into the realm of hell if they are killed in battle. On the other hand, though we encounter great perils now, we are sure to become Buddhas in the next life. This is like moxa treatment, painful but bearable if we keep in mind the beneficial aftereffects.

Shōnin Gonan Ji, Persecution Befalling Nichiren Shōnin, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 119-120

The Buddha is the master of the human and heavenly realms, the parents of all living beings, and the teacher who opens the way and leads us all to enlightenment. Lowly parents lack the virtue of a master, and the master without the virtue of parents is frightening. People with the virtue of parents or master do not necessarily possess the virtue of the teacher. Various Buddhas are also World Honored Ones with the virtue of a master, but they are not our teachers because they do not appear in this Sahā World to guide us. As they do not declare, “All living beings in it are my children,” they also lack the parental virtue. Śākyamuni Buddha alone is equipped with all three virtues of the master, teacher, and parent.

Kitō Shō, Treatise on Prayers, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 66

According to these sūtras, it is due to the great merit of his virtuous acts in past lives that anyone listens to the Lotus Sūtra without slandering it, though unable to understand it. The chances of our being born in the three evil realms are more numerous than particles of dust on earth, while chances of our being born in the human realm are as scarce as the specks of dirt on a fingernail. (…) The chances of our encountering expedient sūtras preached in the forty-odd years before the Lotus Sūtra are more numerous than the particles of dust on earth, while encountering the Lotus-Nirvana Sūtras is as scarce as specks of dirt on a fingernail. It is just as the passage … from the Nirvana Sūtra, fascicle 33 stated. To be able to believe in this Lotus Sūtra, even one character or one phrase, is due to the profound association with it from previous lives, which is a great blessing.

Shugo Kokka-ron, Treatise on Protecting the Nation, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Page 66

It is said in the Lotus Sūtra, “Those who heard the Dharma from those śramaṇera (teachers) are now living under those Buddhas.” T’ien-t’ai stated (in the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra), “The Buddha in the Western Pure Land is different from the Buddha in this Sahā World; therefore, no relationship between parents and children exists between the Buddha of Infinite Life and us, ordinary beings in the Sahā World.” Miao-lê explains this (in his Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra) that the Buddha of Infinite Life and Śākyamuni are different Buddhas. (…) Their relationships to us from past lives are different, so are their ways of teaching. Sowing the seeds of Buddhahood in living beings by the Buddha is similar to giving birth to a child by parents and guiding the people by the Buddha is similar to raising a child by parents. If the parents who give birth to a child and parents who raise him are different, the true relationship between parents and child does not exist.

In these days, people in Japan believe that the Buddha of Infinite Life will come to save them. This is as nonsensical as feeding a baby cow on horse milk or trying to have the moon reflected on a roof tile.

Hokke Shuyō Shō, Treatise on the Essence of the Lotus Sūtra, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 208

I have written exhaustively about your deep resolution to make a donation for the cause of the Lotus Sūtra that my writing brush is worn out and my fingers are too tired to hold the brush. It may be possible to count the number of rain drops falling in seven days over the triple thousand worlds. There must be a person who knows the amount of dust on the earth in all the worlds throughout the universe. In contrast, however, the Buddha has declared that the merit of offering a donation to just one character of the Lotus Sūtra is unfathomably great. Please realize the significance of offering a donation to the Lotus Sūtra through this teaching.

Kubo-ama Gozen Gohenji, Response to My Lady, the Nun of Kubo, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Page 95

It is said that a sage is not affected by the “eight winds”: profit, sorrow, slander, fame, praise, censure, and pleasure. This means that a sage neither takes delight in his crowning hour nor grieves during depths of despair. Those who are unaffected by the “eight winds” are protected by the heavenly deities without fail, but not so for those who carry an irrational grudge against their lord, no matter how hard they pray.

Shijō Kingo Shakabutsu Kuyō, Opening the Eyes Service of Shijō Kingo’s Statue of Śākyamuni Buddha, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Pages 135