A short essay by Graham Lamont

"No matter how much they chant, everybody who has hatred for Nichiren, first must fall to the Unremitting Hell; after immeasurable kalpas, having become the disciples of Nichiren, they shall attain Buddhahood." (Kyôô gozen gosho, STN, v. 1, 687)

Now there are those who say "we don't hate Nichiren Daishônin and we chant so this does not apply to us! This is just your idea." But stop and think about this for a moment: what greater hatred could there be for Nichiren than deliberately substituting false doctrines for what he really taught?

If he was, indeed, the Messenger sent by the Lord Buddha to save us beings of this terrible age, is it not the greatest hatred of the Messenger when any person deliberately distorts, adulterates or replaces that saving message? The physical person of Nichiren Daishônin no longer exists; no one can hurt him in a material sense as his enemies did when he lived. He has returned to the Eternal Pure Land to abide in his Original State, the Great Bodhisattva Jôgyô. However, what remains of him here is his teachings, as he transmitted them in his own lifetime. To destroy these teachings and replace them with different doctrines under his name is surely more destructive than killing the physical body of the person. When Nichiren Daishônin showed the greatest reverence for the Beginningless and Endless Lord, Teacher, and Parent Shakyamuni and the authority of the text of the Lotus Sutra, is it not the most terrible contempt for that same Nichiren Shônin to degrade both that Buddha and that Sutra? And is it not also contemptuous to chant the Daimoku, which Nichiren Daishonin brought forth from the Eternal Buddha Shakyamuni, and at the same time say that Nichiren Daishônin's teachings are passé? Or is not hatred to modify his clear instructions to please one's personal preferences? If the Patriarch's words are true, the fate of such people is clear." -- Graham Lamont