Awakening is more a road than a destination, more a commencement than a conclusion – a responsibility as much as an achievement. To enter the Buddha Way is not a matter of attaining some great height from which one can boast or look down on others. It is to enter a difficult path, a way. At the end of this parable, the children are very happy, as they have received a gift much greater than they expected, perhaps greater than they could have imagined. But we must not imagine that receiving the gift is the end of the matter.

We can say that their lives and their difficulties – that is, their responsibilities – have now really only just begun.