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[Continued from Part Four]


The question might be asked, when it all had come to pass
and the children were delivered from the blaze en masse,
if the father’s behavior seems artfully contrived,
in enticing his offspring—who subsequently thrived—
with numerous playthings, toys and carts, so they would run
away from the burning house… then giving them just one
single ox cart only, after all was said and done?

The point is that he was not attempting to impress
the children with his vast array of riches, much less
to appear more exalted or intimidate them—
no, his aim was decidedly to liberate them.

He endowed them with a perfect vehicle, for real.
And they were not injured in that harrowing ordeal.

Yet the house symbolizes our living-dying realm,
with the troublesome worries that tend to overwhelm
us humans; but rather than trying to escape it,
with Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, we wholly reshape it.

The fire of desire, instead of bringing pain,
through this sole theme and title, accesses the terrain
of our deep Dharma nature, which is one and the same
as the whereabouts of the elder’s mansion, aflame.

So, to give this ancient parable a modern feel—
nowadays, the never-ending truth it can reveal
is that those who follow Nichiren will come to know,
by constantly reciting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo,
that they’ve entered the ox cart that’s wonderfully great
and arrived on true enlightenment’s path as their fate!



~ Harley White




[Inspiration for the poem ~ (Buddhist) Parable of the Burning House which can be found in the Third Chapter of the Dharma Flower Sutra (aka, Lotus Sutra)]

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