Śākyamuni Buddha preaches in chapter 3 on “A Parable” of the Lotus Sūtra, “All living beings in this world are My children. There are many sufferings in this world, and only I can save all living beings.” This explains that only Śākyamuni Buddha possesses the three virtues of the master, the teacher and the parent, and other Buddhas such as the Buddha of Infinite Life are not equipped with them. I have already told this many times before. However, be sure that the words “only I can” are not found in Hinayāna sūtras nor in any of the pre-Lotus Mahāyāna sūtras, which resort to expedient means or do not reveal the truth to those whose capacities to understand are not sufficient. They are the golden words of Śākyamuni Buddha in the Lotus Sūtra, validated by the Buddha of Many Treasures and all other Buddhas from all the worlds throughout the universe.

Gochū Shujō Gosho, People in the World Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 201

The Sūtra of the Transmission of the Dharma explains how the Buddhist dharma would be propagated after His death. It says, “During the Age of the True Dharma, a one-thousand-year period following the death of the Buddha, many propagators will spread His teachings. The first of them will be Venerable Kāśyapa for the first twenty years; the second, Venerable Ānanda for the next twenty years; the third, Śānavāsa for the next twenty years; and the twenty-third will be Āryasimha.”

Regarding the third propagator, Śānavāsa, the Buddha explained that his name came from the garment in which he was born. To be born wearing clothes is indeed a wonder. In the six realms of the unenlightened, all those from hell to the human realm are born naked; but only those in heaven are born with clothes on. All people, even sages and wisemen, are born in the nude. Even bodhisattvas destined to be Buddhas in the next life are born in the nude, not to say of all others. Nevertheless, Śānavāsa was born wearing a wonderful garment called Śāna-clothes.

This garment was never stained with blood or soiled just as a lotus in a pond and wings of an eagle never get wet. As Śānavāsa grew, the garment grew wider and longer. It became thicker in winter and thinner in summer, blue in spring and white in winter. He was wealthy, so he suffered no inconvenience. Later, as the Buddha had predicted, he entered the priesthood under Ānanda. Then, the garment became the ceremonial robes of gojō, shichijō, and kyūjō. The Buddha explains this wonder of Śānavāsa as follows:

Billions of years ago, this man, Śānavāsa, was a merchant. One day, he crossed an ocean for trade with five hundred merchants. There, he found a sick priest named Pratyekabuddha on the beach. Probably due to his ill karma the priest was in critical condition, had lost consciousness, and lay in filth. Feeling compassionate, the merchant nursed the sick man and brought him back to consciousness, cleaned up the filth, and wrapped him with Śāna-clothes made of a hemp garment. This sage appreciated his kindness, saying, “You helped me and covered up my shame. I shall use this garment not only in this life but also in future lives.” He then passed away. With this merit, during the incalculably long period in the past, every time Śānavāsa was reborn in heaven or on earth, he was wearing the garment. … In this life he became the third transmitter of the dharma after the death of the Buddha, and a sage called Śānavāsa. He built a great temple on Mt. Ulda in Matela. He taught the dharma to numerous people for twenty years.

Thus the Buddha preached that all the happiness and wonder of Priest Śānavāsa stemmed from this one garment.

Myōhō Bikuni Go-henji, A Reply to Nun Myōhō, Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, Page 176-180

Numerous bodhisattvas as many as the number of dust-particles of the great earth worked their way up to the highest stage of bodhisattva practice, next only to the Buddha. They had eliminated incalculable number of evil passions except the last one, the fundamental ignorance. They had hoped to encounter the Buddha so that this huge rock of fundamental ignorance would crushed by Him, but the Lord Buddha Śākyamuni preached only the method of practicing the teaching, not the doctrine attained by practicing it during the first 40 years or so. As the merit of Perfect Enlightenment was not revealed in those years, it saddens me to report that none of those numerous bodhisattvas was able to ascend to the stage of Wonderful Enlightenment (myōgaku).

However, during the eight years when the Buddha expounded the One Vehicle teaching of the Lotus Sūtra on Mt. Sacred Eagle, all the bodhisattvas reached the stage of Wonderful Enlightenment, attaining the same Perfect Enlightenment of Śākyamuni Buddha and perceiving everything clearly as if they looked all around on the summit of Mt. Sumeru or the sun rose at dawn of a long night. Therefore, it cannot be that they do not intend to spread the Lotus Sūtra or bear the suffering of the practicer of the sūtra even without the word of the Buddha. They have thus made a vow, “We will not spare even our lives; we will treasure only the supreme way;” or “Without sparing our lives, we will disseminate this sūtra throughout the land. ”

Kitō Shō, Treatise on Prayers, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 65

It is stated in the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 9, “The seed of Buddhahood was planted by this Buddha-Bodhisattva at the beginning, and it was nurtured by this Buddha-Bodhisattva;” and in the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 6, “The Buddha appears in the actual world with form and figure to guide the people. How can those in whom He had planted the seed of Buddhahood not come to receive His guidance? As streams of many rivers all go into the ocean, people who have established a relationship with the Buddha can have the good fortune of encountering the Buddha in this life.”

As stated above, the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 6, preaches, “Properly speaking, all living beings will awaken aspiration for Buddhahood and proceed to it without falling back to a lower spiritual stage by following this Buddha.”

Ichidai Goji Keizu, Genealogical Chart of the Buddha’s Lifetime Teachings in Five Periods, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Page 248-249

According to the shakumon section of the Lotus Sūtra, the people in this Sahā World have been closely related to Śākyamuni Buddha since dust-particle kalpa ago without any relations to other Buddhas such as the Buddha of Infinite Life. Chapter 7 on the “Parable of A Magic City,” of the Lotus Sūtra states: “Those who listened to the teachers then have always been beside those Buddhas. … Destiny has made them meet the preaching of the Lotus Sūtra now.” This statement tells us that we, the people in this Sahā World, have never been in Pure Lands of fifteen other Buddhas such as the Buddha of Infinite Life in the universe. Grand Master T’ien-t’ai states in his Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra:

“An old interpretation considers the Buddha of Infinite Life as the rich father in the parable of the father and son. However, this is incorrect, and today we do not consider the Buddha of Infinite Life as the wealthy father. The Western Pure Land of the Buddha of Infinite Life and this Sahā World of Śākyamuni Buddha each has a different Buddha and karmic relations. The Buddha of Infinite Life is not the Lord Buddha of this Sahā World, so he was never born to and died in this world. He never guided us in this world. There are no relationships formed between the Buddha of Infinite Life and us like that of a father and son. There are no words in the Lotus Sūtra which state that the Buddha of Infinite Life is our lord, teacher or parent. If you really want to encounter the Buddha, you need to contemplate this with your eyes closed.”

Grand Master Miao-lê explains this in his Annotations on the Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra: “Śākyamuni Buddha and the Buddha of Infinite Life have completely different karmic relationships to the people in their past lives, and the worlds they guided are completely different. By birth and in growing up, the Buddha of Infinite Life and the people in this Sahā World have no father-son relationship.” From these statements of T’ien-t’ai and Miao-lê, I would think the Buddha of Infinite Life and other Buddhas in the world all over the universe are like stepfathers whereas Śākyamuni Buddha is a compassionate, real father. T’ien-t’ai wrote many works interpreting the Lotus Sūtra; however, we should know this interpretation of his to be fundamental, and consider Śākyamuni Buddha as the lord of this Sahā World.

Gochū Shujō Gosho, People in the World Letter, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 202

On the palm of a man named Mahānāma a pebble changed to a precious stone. King Konzoku is said to have been able to transform sand into gold. The Lotus Sūtra enables even insentient beings such as grass and trees to attain Buddhahood, not to speak of sentient beings that possess minds such as humans. The Lotus Sūtra enables the Two Vehicles whose seed of Buddhahood has been burned to attain Buddhahood, how much more so with people whose seed of Buddhahood is still alive! Moreover, the Lotus Sūtra enables even the icchantika who has no religious belief to attain Buddhahood, how much more it will lead those with religious faith.

Ueno-dono Gohenji, Reply to Lord Ueno, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II, Page 33

As we cannot see this with our own eyes, we may wonder whether or not there are sūtras superior to the Lotus Sūtra in India, the Dragon Palace, palaces of the Four Heavenly Kings, and the palaces of the sun and moon gods. Were not the King of the Brahma Heaven, Indra, the gods of the sun and moon, the Four Heavenly Kings and the Dragon King present at the assembly of the Lotus Sūtra? If heavenly gods who were present at the assembly like those of the sun and moon say, “You may not know this but there is a sūtra superior to the Lotus Sūtra,” they are absolute liars. I, Nichiren, would charge them declaring:

It is due to their merits in keeping the precept of not telling a lie that the sun and moon stay high up in the sky as securely as we human beings stand on the earth. If they should utter such a lie as there are sūtras superior to the Lotus Sūtra, they would fall before the Kalpa of Destruction and this world would come to ruin. They would not stop falling until they hit the bottom of the Hell of Incessant Suffering. Such inadmissibly deceiving beings could not possibly remain in the sky even for a while orbiting the four continents which surround Mt. Sumeru.

Hōon-jō, Essay on Gratitude, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 3, Pages 6-7.

[W]ithout the power of the Lotus Sūtra, it is impossible for any living being to attain Buddhahood, break through the six lower realms and be reborn in any of the Pure Lands of Buddhas throughout the universe. It is the same as a Japanese person who wishes to enter the Chinese Imperial Palace must first receive permission from the Japanese sovereign. You must rely on the power of the Lotus Sūtra in order to leave this Sahā World to enter a Pure Land. For example, if a woman, whether she be an ordinary woman or a daughter of the Imperial Regent, bears a king’s child, that child will someday become a king. On the other hand, if a daughter of a king bears a vassal’s child, that child can never become a king. Accordingly, all living beings including bodhisattvas, men of the Two Vehicles, human beings, heavenly beings and animals who will be reborn in Pure Lands throughout the universe do so as royal children of the Lotus Sūtra. It is because children of the Lotus Sūtra are all able to become Buddhas.

Shōjō Daijō Fumbetsu-shō, The Differences between Hinayāna and Mahāyāna Teachings, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 197

It is predicted in the Lotus Sūtra: “Many people hate this sūtra with jealousy even in My lifetime. Needless to say, more people will hate this sūtra after My death.” The difficulties the Buddha encountered were incalculable. Above all He was forced to feed himself with fodder for 90 days; a huge rock was dropped on Him; His toes were injured and bled; eight disciples of the Buddha such as Sunakṣatra sided with non-Buddhists and tried to attack Him while off guard day and night; King Virūḍhaka murdered countless members of the Śākya clan; and King Ajātaśatru killed countless disciples of the Buddha by making drunken elephants tread on them. However, these were minor difficulties during the lifetime of the Buddha when compared to what is to come. Major difficulties that was predicted by the Buddha to occur after “His extinction” have not been experienced by either Nāgārjuna, Vasubandhu, T’ien-t’ai, or Dengyō. If someone says that they were not the practicers of the Lotus Sūtra, for what reasons are they not? On the contrary, if we say that they were the practicers, why have they not shed blood like the Buddha? Much more than that, they have never encountered greater difficulties than those of the Buddha. How can we call them the practicers of the Lotus Sūtra? Otherwise, the scriptural statement “More people will hate this sūtra after My death” would be futile, and the teachings of the Buddha would be a big lie.

However, during my propagation of the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra in the past 27 years, I, Nichiren, encountered many persecutions. I was exiled to the Province of Izu on the twelfth day of the fifth month in the first year of Kōchō (1261), injured on the forehead and my left hand was broken on the eleventh day of the eleventh month in the first year of Bun’ei (1264), placed on the execution mat on the twelfth day of the ninth month in the eighth year of Bun’ei (1271), and exiled to Sado Province in the end. Moreover, numerous disciples of mine were killed, wounded, expelled, or fined. I do not know whether or not my difficulties may equal or surpass those of the Buddha, but those of Nāgārjuna, Vasubandhu, T’ient’ai, and Dengyō cannot compare to mine, Therefore, if I had not appeared in the Latter Age of Degeneration [as a practicer of the Lotus Sūtra], the Buddha would have been a big liar, and the Buddha of Many Treasures and the Buddhas in manifestation from all the worlds in the universe would testify to this great falsehood. In the 2,220 years or so since the passing of the Buddha, I, Nichiren, am the only one who has verified the Buddha’s Words in the whole world.

Shōnin Gonan Ji, Persecution Befalling Nichiren Shōnin, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 5, Page 118