“Seeing the exceedingly powerful father, the poor son was frightened. He regretted that he had come there.

The li of the “father” is able to suppress the son’s emotion: it has “great Power.” What he was afraid of, the suppression of emotion, is what fear symbolizes. The subtle triggering-mechanism for embracing the Greater (Vehicle) actively contacted (“struck”) the Sage: he “had seen his father.” But his feelings deluded and blinded his mind, being still unable to receive “the Greater”; he “regrettcd having come to that place.”

He thought, ‘Is he a king or someone like a king? This is not the place where I can get something by labor.

The subtle triggering-mechanism for the “Greater” [Vehicle] was not yet manifest. [Therefore the Buddha] set forth a wide variety of (provisionary) expressions.

I had better go to a village of the poor, where I can work to get food and clothing easily.

The three spheres are “poor villages.” Practicing the five precepts and the good virtues, and seeking the pleasure of men and gods (devas) are “easy to obtain.”

If I stay here any longer, I shall be forced to work.’ Having thought this, the poor son ran away.

By “staying long,” he certainly would be made to practice the path of the Greater. By being caused to practice the path of the Greater, he would certainly have to work for the sake of [other] beings. One who works for the sake of [other] beings does not [ascribe] the merit to himself (“me”). One who does not [ascribe] the merit to himself (“me”) is made to see [the Greater] and is “coerced,” [this is] what “others [are coerced to] work” means, which is [the antithesis] of “I [may be coerced to] work.” He has thus quickly “run off” to the antithesis of worldly pleasure, where the calamities have quickly stopped.