Day 7 concludes Chapter 3, A Parable.
(The Buddha said to Śāriputra:)
I am like the father.
I am the Saint of Saints.
I am the father of the world.All living beings are my children.
They are deeply attached
To the pleasures of the world.
They have no wisdom.The triple world is not peaceful.
It is like the burning house.
It is full of sufferings.
It is dreadful.There are always the sufferings
Of birth, old age, disease and death.
They are like flames
Raging endlessly.I have already left
The burning house of the triple world.
I am tranquil and peaceful
In a bower in a forest.This triple world
Is my property.
All living beings therein
Are my children.
When the Buddha later explains to Śāriputra the merits of the One Vehicle it is hard not to see one of those late-night car commercials:
This vehicle is
The purest and most wonderful.
This is unsurpassed by any other vehicle
In all the worlds.
This vehicle is approved with joy by the Buddhas.
All living beings should extol it.
They should make offerings to it,
And bow to it.The powers, emancipations, dhyāna-concentrations, wisdom,
And all the other merits [of the Buddhas],
Many hundreds of thousands of millions in number,
Are loaded in this vehicle.
But no car salesman was ever as compassionate as the Buddha:
I am the King of the Dharma.
I expound the Dharma without hindrance.
I appeared in this world
In order to give peace to all living beings.
In reading today, I was struck by the impact of slander. It doesn’t just affect the individual:
Those who do not believe this sūtra
But slander it,
Will destroy the seeds of Buddhahood
Of all living beings of the world.
The litany of “Will be punished like this” that follows hardly seems sufficient.
Day 7 finishes with a short introduction of Chapter 4, Unerstanding by Faith.
Something in the plight of the “elders of the Samgha” resonates with me:
You have been expounding the Dharma for a long time. We have been in your congregation all the while. We were already tired [when we heard of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi]. Therefore, we just cherished the truth that nothing is substantial, the truth that nothing is different from any other thing, and the truth that nothing more is to be sought. We did not wish to perform the Bodhisattva practices, that is, to purify the world of the Buddha and to lead all living beings [to Buddhahood] by displaying supernatural powers because you had already led us out of the triple world and caused us to attain Nirvāṇa. Neither did we wish at all to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, which you were teaching to Bodhisattvas, because we were already too old and decrepit to do so. But now we are very glad to hear that you have assured a Śrāvaka of his future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. We have the greatest joy that we have ever had. We have never expected to hear such a rare teaching all of a sudden. How glad we are! We have obtained great benefits. We have obtained innumerable treasures although we did not seek them.
Sometimes it is the treasures we do not seek that are the most valuable.