Because I view things in this way, I feel immeasurable delight even though I am now an exile. Joy as well as sorrow brings us to tears. Tears express our feeling for both blessings and misfortune. I, Nichiren, now feel exactly as they did. I cannot hold back my tears when I think of the great persecution confronting me now, or when I think of the joy of attaining Buddhahood in the future.
Birds cry, but never shed tears.
I, Nichiren, do not cry, but my tears flow ceaselessly. I shed my tears not for worldly affairs but solely for the sake of the Lotus Sutra. So indeed, they must be tears amrita . The Nirvana Sutra states that while the tears one sheds throughout his many existences on the death of his parents, brothers, sisters, wives, children and followers may surpass the quantity of water in all the seas, he weeps not a drop for Buddhism. One becomes a votary of the Lotus Sutra by virtue of his practice in past existences.