One may call dung sandalwood, but it will not have the sandalwood’s fragrance. A liar never becomes a truthful person simply because one calls him honest. All the sutras are the Buddha’s golden teachings, his true words. When compared with the Lotus Sutra, however, they are false, flattering, abusive or forked-tongued. The Lotus Sutra alone is the truth of truths. Only honest people are able to take faith in this sutra, a teaching free from all falsehood.
Letter to Nichimyo Shonin
I do not know whether these trials equal or surpass those of the Buddha. Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu, Tien-t’ai and Dengyo, however, cannot compare with me in what they suffered. Had it not been for the advent of Nichiren in the Latter Day of the Law, the Buddha would have been a teller of great lies, and the testimony given by Many Treasures and by the Buddhas of the ten directions would have been false. In the 2,230 and more years since the Buddha’s passing, Nichiren is the only person in the entire land of Jambudvipa who has fulfilled the Buddha’s words.
On Persecution Befalling the Sage (WND, 997)
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