Questions and Answers on the Object of Devotion Chapter9-1

As a result, all of the several hundred thousand temples and shrines throughout Japan have come to belong to the True Word school. Even in the rare cases where a temple honors the Lotus school along with the True Word school, the latter is regarded as the lord and the former as a retainer of the lord. And if persons study the doctrines of the two schools, at heart they uniformly consider themselves belonging to the True Word persuasion.

Whether the position is that of chief priest, chief official, temple supervisor, or superintendent, the persons occupying such positions are all True Word teachers, and since those in inferior positions all customarily imitate the preferences of their superiors, there is not one person in an inferior position who is not a True Word priest.

Hence throughout Japan, though people may recite with their mouths the words “The Lotus Sutra is foremost,” in their minds they think, “It is the second in rank” or “It is the third in rank.” Or they will affirm with body, mouth, and mind together that it is second or third in rank.

For the past four hundred years and more, there has not been a single person who, as a practitioner of the Lotus Sutra, has affirmed with all three categories of action, those of body, mouth, and mind, that the Lotus Sutra holds the highest place. And much less has there been any practitioner who, as the Lotus Sutra says, “can uphold this sutra.”¹⁴ The sutra states, “Since hatred and jealousy toward this sutra abound even when the Thus Come One is in the world, how much more will this be so after his passing?”¹⁵ All living beings in this age “after his passing,” from the supreme ruler on down to the multitude of common people, are archenemies of the Lotus Sutra.

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