Blog » Sweet Dews Of Dharma Talks » 2007 » Poor son, hurry home!
Poor son, hurry home!2013-01-10
By Dharma Master Heng Yun
English Translation By Huali Yuan
Today is the first day of the lunar New Year, a lot of old friends are here. There are also some new faces that may be seen here once a year. People come to the temple in the beginning of a year, and most of them wish that everything will be auspicious in the New Year, so even though I meet you only once in a year, I would like to share with you some auspicious dharma, hoping that you can bring it home. There are plenty of foods today, but they will be gone after you eat them. However, there is something that will nourish your mind and follow you forever—it is the Buddha dharma.
The Buddha expounded lots of Sutras in his life. The word “Sutra” means that 「Above, accords with Buddhas’ principles; below, corresponds to living beings’ dispositions」. In other words, Sutras flow from the Buddha’s mind to teach and transform living beings in accordance to their inclinations. Since we living beings have many different needs and potentials, the Buddha proclaimed abundant Sutras to teach and guide us.
Before the Buddha entered into Nirvana, he spent eight years teaching the 《Louts Flower Sutra》which states that all living beings can ultimately become Buddhas. Therefore, in this Sutra, the Buddha used a variety of analogies to tell us and remind us that we can realize the Buddhahood. There are many stories worth pondering over in the Sutra, in one such story, a son, unaware of how wealthy, compassionate and wise his father is, runs away from home.
After the son ran away, he lived a vagrant life for a long time, which was very poor and hard. More than fifty years later, he slowly wandered toward his own country. The poor son was trying to find some job to make a living, when he came upon his father’s residence. From a distance, he saw a very adorned and magnificent house, inside which many retinues clustered together around an elderly person. The poor son thought to himself: “Wow, how wealthy this person is! I am not suitable to work here.” However, just at this moment, his father recognized him from distance and told the retinues: “Hurry to bring that person over!”
Upon seeing people coming towards him, the poor son tried to run away, but got caught up by force. He thought: too bad, too bad, something disadvantageous must have happened to me! He was so scared that he suddenly fainted. Later on, his father asked people to pour cold water on him. After he woke up, his elderly father let him leave, since his father knew that after wandering outside for so long, his poor son had become accustomed to a destitute lifestyle and was unable to recognize how wealthy he originally was.
Soon afterwards, the father secretly sent out two servants and asked them to dress in ragged clothes, so that they could approach the poor son and tell him that they could help him find a job. Once they did so, the poor son said: “OK, I want to do this job.” What kind of job was this? It was cleaning the bathroom and removing human feces. The son did his job very diligently. Previously, the bathroom had been very dirty and the feces had be removed little by little. Gradually, the elderly person also disguised himself in worn clothes and drew near his son. This situation continued for twenty years, and during that period, the elderly person told his son bit by bit what happened at home and what properties they had. At time passed, the poor son gradually opened up his mind and was able to accept what his father told him.
The elderly person knew that his son already opened up his mind, and more or less could recognize and accept such tremendous family property. When the elderly person was about to leave the world, he called his son to him and said: “You are actually my son. Since I am leaving, you shall inherit these family properties.”
Who is this wealthy elderly person? He is the Buddha. Our inherent wealthy wisdom and compassionate virtues are just like those of the Buddha and the elderly person. Who is this poor son? It is us. Being unable to recognize our inherent nature, we are just like the poor son; thus the Buddha employs all kinds of means to welcome, teach and guide us. However, many people come back to the Way-place only during the lunar New Year festival, which is not nearly enough.
You see, the poor son specifically engaged in removing feces for twenty years. It is called eliminating two kinds of delusion- the delusion of views and thoughts. What is the delusion of views? It means a greedy and affectional mind arises when you encounter certain situations, and thus you get attached. For example, when you see delicious foods, your first take would be your favorites, in such case, a greedy mind has arisen within upi; or when you see foods you dislike, at hateful mind may arise within you. The delusion of thoughts means that you give rise to a discriminating mind when you are confused with principles. That is to say, since you are not clear about principles, you get confused and muddle along through your life.
I took twenty years for the poor son to be able to gradually recognize himself. Thus I wish everybody, after having been here today, would make a resolution this year that you will constantly study the Buddhadharma and draw near the Triple Jewel, so that you can return to your inherent nature. Otherwise, just like what we’ve heard Venerable Master Hua mention today in tape: “What is the point of being in such a rush? What on earth is the meaning of life if we just engage our whole life in running after outside trivialities and exhausting ourselves in afflictions?” Therefore, every one of you should make a resolution in the New Year to frequently come back to the Bodhimanda to enhance your own blessings and wisdom, so that you can discover your original nature and become your own master. Free of any afflictions and worries, you will be endowed with true happiness and auspiciousness.
