What the Buddha is trying to teach us in the Parable of the Rich Man and His Poor Son is that we all are inherently capable and endowed with the capacity to become enlightened and inherit the great fortune of all Buddhas. It isn’t about standing along side and comparing our life to the life of some other, but about being awakened to our own potential and recognizing the potential in others as being unique and yet the same.
Lecture on the Lotus Sutra