In the Parable of the Rich Man and His Poor Son in Chapter 4 of the Lotus Sutra, Understanding by Faith, a wealthy merchant who has been pining for his missing son ever since he ran away 50 years before, recognizes his son in the crowd outside his manor house and dispatches one of his servants to bring the man to him. When the messenger apprehends the son and demands that he accompany him back to the wealthy merchant’s home, the terrified son faints in fright.
In discussing this parable, it has been suggested that the rich man’s failure to understand how his son would react was a demonstration of the fallibility of the Buddha. The Buddha should have known that his son was “too base and mean to meet a noble man” and gone immediately to the expedient plan to improve the son’s self-image before bringing the son into the rich man’s home.
That suggestion that this parable illustrates the Buddha’s fallibility is as wrong as it would be to say that the Parable of the Burning House in Chapter 3 reveals that the Buddha is a neglectful parent since he fails to maintain his property and allows his children to play unsupervised in knowingly dangerous surroundings.
There is a reason that the rich man immediately dispatches his messenger to bring his son to him. This illustrates that our inheritance is unconditioned. We are the Buddha’s children. Nothing is required of us to inherit the immeasurable wealth of our father. We need only faith. It is only because we lack faith – we can’t believe we could have such great fortune – that the Buddha must bring us along in steps, helping us to gain confidence and preparing us the assume our rightful place.
In Chapter 3, the dire condition of the Triple World – the rich man’s manor house – is the manifestation of our delusions, our misperception. As we will learn in Chapter 16, “I do not see the triple world in the same way as [the living beings of] the triple world do. I see all this clearly and infallibly.” And in gāthās: “[This] pure world of mine is indestructible. / But the [perverted] people think: / “It is full of sorrow, fear, and other sufferings. / It will soon burn away.”
In Chapter 4, the father has been looking for his son ever since he ran away and wishes to welcome him home so that he will have an heir to whom he can give his vast treasures. The poor son, however, is incapable of believing that he has a place in the household of this rich man. He cannot imagine himself wealthy beyond measure. Instead, when he is released by the messenger and told he is free to go, “The poor son had the greatest joy that he had ever had.”
The poor son chooses to live in poverty and deprivation, just as those who reject the Dharma are doomed to a life of spiritual poverty in this world of suffering.
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