The Parable of the Burning House
The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wondrous Dharma,
Chapter 3: A Parable
At a certain place there once was a large house of a rich elder. He lived in the house with his children and many servants, but the house was in a state of terrible disrepair. One day, fire suddenly broke out in the house. The elder’s children were playing inside without noticing the fire. The elder who was outside the house hurriedly returned and warned his children in a loud voice that fire had broken out, but the children were totally absorbed in their play and didn’t notice their father’s loud cry.
At first the elder thought that he would put his children on a table and bring them out. But on second thought, he realized that some of his children might fall off on the way. So he explained to his children the horror of fire and tried to make them realize the danger, but they did not take heed of the elder’s warnings. Then he finally had this idea: “I will have to use some kind of skillful means to save them.” He called out to his children that goat carts, deer carts, and ox carts, all of which the children would love to play with, were waiting for them outside.
All the children finally came out of the burning house on their own, through the single narrow gate. The elder was very happy to see that all children were safe. The children pestered him: “Father, please give us the goat, deer, and ox carts that you promised us!” The elder responded to their requests by giving all of his children equally a great, white ox cart, which was far more splendid than any of the three carts he had originally promised.
Commentary
The elder in this story corresponds to the Buddha, and his children to us. The dilapidated house indicates the precarious state of the world that we live in. The fire that breaks out there symbolizes all human sufferings. These sufferings will befall all of us sooner or later, but we are unaware of them and engrossed in our own desires.
The Buddha wishes to deliver us out of the burning house single-mindedly. The house has only one gate, and it is very narrow. In order to get out of the house, we ourselves must realize the wish of the Buddha and go through the narrow gate on our own. If the Buddha hauls us on a table out of the burning house, unless we are aware of our own sufferings, there always is a danger that we might lose our grip on the compassionate hand of the Buddha, which is reaching out to us. The Buddha is trying to make us realize our sufferings, but we are unaware of it. Occasionally we glance at the Buddha’s face, but we do not try to listen to the Buddha’s teachings seriously.
Finally, as a last resort, the Buddha shows us the goat carts, deer carts, and ox carts. Hearing the Buddha tell us that we can choose any of the teachings symbolized by the three carts, which fits our characters, we finally begin to take an interest in the Buddha’s teachings.
Having run out of the burning house by our own will means that we voluntarily practiced the Buddha’s teachings. However, we do not yet realize our liberation from the burning house. Our minds are totally occupied by an earthly desire to obtain one of the carts we asked for. Yet when we expressed our earnest desire to the Buddha, unexpectedly all of us were given a great white ox cart—the supreme awakening—equally. It means that everyone can attain the Buddha’s awakening by accumulating the practice that suits each individual. The Buddha is always concerned about us as his beloved children and is trying to liberate us from sufferings. Actually, our world is filled with sufferings just like the burning house. The Buddha jumped into the burning house and has been showing us the way that all of us can attain buddhahood together.
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Research Institute