Nevertheless, I encouraged myself by thinking that if the teaching of the Lotus Sutra were indeed
true and the gods of the sun and moon did not abandon me, I might yet have an opportunity to return to Kamakura
and also visit my parents' grave. Climbing a high mountain, I would shout these words aloud: "What has happened to
Bonten, Taishaku, the gods of the sun and moon, and the Four Heavenly Kings? Are Tehsho Daijin and Hachiman no longer
in this country? Do you intend to break the vow you made in the Buddha's presence and forsake the votary of the
Lotus Sutra? Even if you fail to protect me, Nichiren, I will have no regrets, no matter what may happen to me.
Remember, however, what you each solemnly pledged in the presence of the Lord Shakyamuni, Taho Buddha and all
the Buddhas of the ten directions. If you do not protect me, Nichiren, now, but instead abandon me, will you not be
making a great lie out of the Lotus Sutra, in which the Buddha declared that he was 'honestly discarding the provisional
teachings?' You have deceived all the Buddhas throughout the ten directions and the three existences, an offense
even graver than Devadatta's outrageous falsehoods and more blameworthy than Kokalika's deceptions. Now you may
be respected as Great Bonten and live at the top of the world of form, or be revered as the Thousand-eyed God and dwell
on the summit of Mount Sumeru. But if you discard me, Nichiren, you will become firewood to feed the flames of the Avichi
Hell and be forever confined to the great citadel of incessant suffering. If you dread committing this offense,
make haste to manifest some sign to the country [showing my teachings to be correct], so that I may be permitted
to return home!"
