Nichiren on errors in the application of the Buddhist teachings and his teaching on capacity

 "Little waves and a slight wind can hardly do harm to a large ship, but high waves and strong winds can easily overturn a small ship. Similarly, slight irregularities in the secular rule of the sovereign are like little waves and a slight wind and can do little harm to a great nation or a great man. But errors in the application of the Buddhist teachings, like high waves and strong winds that overturn a small ship, can without doubt bring about the destruction of the nation."

"Second is the matter of capacity. One who attempts to propagate the teachings of Buddhism must understand the capacity and basic nature of the persons one is addressing. The Venerable Shāriputra attempted to instruct a blacksmith by teaching him to meditate on the vileness of the body, and to instruct a washerman by teaching him to conduct breath-counting meditation.1 Even though these disciples spent over ninety days in their respective meditations, they did not gain the slightest understanding of the Buddha’s teachings. On the contrary, they took on erroneous views and ended by becoming icchantikas, or persons of incorrigible disbelief.nd to instruct a washerman by teaching him to conduct breath-counting.

The Buddha, on the other hand, instructed the blacksmith in breath-counting meditation, and the washerman in the meditation on the vileness of the body, and as a result both obtained understanding in no time at all. If even Shāriputra, the foremost in wisdom among the disciples of the Buddha, failed to understand people’s capacity, then how much more difficult must it be for ordinary teachers today, in the Latter Day of the Law, to have such an understanding! Ordinary teachers who lack an understanding of people’s capacity should teach only the Lotus Sutra to those who are under their instruction."