The Buddha must know what is in our hearts and in the hearts of the top Japanese Senior Leaders

We beg you not to worry.

After the Buddha has passed into extinction,

in an age of fear and evil

we will preach far and wide.

There will be many ignorant people

who will curse and speak ill of us

and will attack us with swords and staves,

but we will endure all these things.

In that evil age there will be monks

with perverse wisdom and hearts that are fawning and crooked

who will suppose they have attained what they have not attained,

being proud and boastful in heart.

Or there will be forest-dwelling monks

wearing clothing of patched rags and living in retirement,

who will claim they are practicing the true way,

despising and looking down on all humankind.

Greedy for profit and support,

they will preach the Law to white-robed laymen

and will be respected and revered by the world

as though they were arhats who possess the six transcendental powers.

These men with evil in their hearts,

p.233constantly thinking of worldly affairs,

will borrow the name of forest-dwelling monks

and take delight in proclaiming our faults,

saying things like this:

“These monks are greedy

for profit and support

and therefore they preach non-Buddhist doctrines

and fabricate their own scriptures

to delude the people of the world.

Because they hope to gain fame and renown thereby

they make distinctions when preaching this sutra.”

Because in the midst of great assemblies

they constantly try to defame us,

they will address the rulers, high ministers,

Brahmans, and householders,

as well as the other monks,

slandering and speaking evil of us,

saying, “These are men of perverted views

who preach non-Buddhist doctrines!”

But because we revere the Buddha

we will bear all these evils.

Though they treat us with contempt, saying,

“You are all no doubt buddhas!”

all such words of arrogance and contempt

we will endure and accept.

In a muddied kalpa, in an evil age,

there will be many things to fear.

Evil demons will take possession of others

and through them curse, revile, and heap shame on us.

But we, reverently trusting in the Buddha,

will put on the armor of perseverance.

In order to preach this sutra

we will bear these difficult things.

We care nothing for our bodies or lives

but are anxious only for the unsurpassed way.

In ages to come we will protect and uphold

what the Buddha has entrusted to us.

p.234This the world-honored one must know.

The evil monks of that muddied age,

failing to understand the Buddha’s expedient means,

how he preaches the Law in accordance with what is appropriate,

will confront us with foul language and angry frowns;

again and again we will be banished

to a place far removed from towers and temples.

All these various evils,

because we keep in mind the Buddha’s orders,

we will endure.

If in the settlements and towns

there are those who seek the Law,

we will go to wherever they are

and preach the Law entrusted to us by the Buddha.

We will be envoys of the world-honored one,

facing the assemblies without fear.

We will preach the Law with skill,

for we desire the Buddha to rest in tranquillity.

In the presence of the world-honored one

and of the buddhas who have gathered from the ten directions

we proclaim this vow.

The Buddha must know what is in our hearts. - Lotus Sutra Ch. 13