Day 8 concludes Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, and closes the second volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Today we hear The Parable of the Rich Man and His Poor Son. And in today’s reading I was struck by the example of the Buddha’s compassion that is illustrated by the rich man. All of the rich man’s riches meant nothing if he could not pass his riches to his son.

And the son is such a dolt. When he escaped his first encounter with the rich man’s messenger – not knowing he was the rich man’s son – “The poor son had the greatest joy that he had ever had.”

This summary nicely explains the Sravaka perspective:

World-Honored One! We once had many troubles in the world of birth and death because of the three kinds of sufferings. We were so distracted and so ignorant that we clung to the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle. At that time you caused us to think over all things and to clear away the dirt of fruitles discussions about them. We made strenuous efforts according to the teachings [of the Lesser Vehicle] and attained Nirvana as a day’s pay. Having attained it, we had great joy, and felt satisfied [with the attainment of it]. We said, ‘We have obtained much because we made efforts according to the teachings of the Buddha.’ But when you saw that we clung to mean desires and wished to hear only the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle, you left us alone. You did not tell us that we had the treasure-store, that is, the insight of the Tathagata. You expounded the wisdom of the Buddha[, that is, the Great Vehicle] with expedients, but we did not aspire for that vehicle because, when we had obtained the day’s pay of Nirvana from the Buddha, we thought that we had already obtained enough.

And the rich man’s dilemma helps my understanding of why the Buddha needed expedients, why many would not understand the One Vehicle:

The rich man thought:
“He is ignorant, narrow-minded, and mean.
If I tell him that I am his father,
He will not believe me.”

And so the Sravakas had to be brought along slowly:

The rich man knew
That his son was base and mean.
Therefore, he made him nobler
With expedients,
And then gave him
All his treasures.

In the same manner,
You knew that we wished
To hear the Lesser Vehicle.
Therefore, you did a rare thing.
You prepared us with expedients,
And then taught us the great wisdom

I’m going to tag on a quote from Lecture on the Lotus Sutra that applies to this day:

This Parable of the Rich Man and His Poor Son teaches us that we should have confidence in not only the truth of the Buddha’s words, but also in the truth that we are already inherently completely endowed with the basic fundamental enlightened life condition equal to that of all Buddhas. … It may be easier for you to think, not this lifetime but perhaps I can do it next lifetime. The end of the tunnel in your life may seem so far off that you feel it will never become light again. This may sound like some empty promise. It may sound like some feeble attempt at encouraging you to have positive thoughts, when it may be just a struggle to have any thought. You may think it has been so hard that nothing could possibly make it better. I know those feelings and thoughts. I can only tell you that in my experience the Lotus Sutra was the one thing that did give me hope. When I thought my world could never get better, that nothing would change, little by little as my life began to change through the practice of the Lotus Sutra, I began to see other options, other ways of being. It wasn’t easy, it didn’t happen overnight. Slowly I began to change my way of being in the world, in a sense I become more comfortable sleeping in the house of the Buddha.