Buddhism’s Sacred Scripture: The Sutra of the Lotus of the Wonderful Dharma, Chapter 4, Part 4 of 6

Today, we would like to present an excerpt from Chapter 4 of this sutra – Belief and Understanding. “World-Honored One, this old man with his great riches is none other than the Tathagata, and we are all like the Buddha’s sons. The Tathagata constantly tells us that we are His sons. In addition, though we expounded and set forth the Buddha wisdom for the sake of the Bodhisattvas, we ourselves did not aspire to attain it. Why do I say this? Because the Buddha, knowing that our minds delight in lesser doctrines, employed the power of expedient means to preach in a way that was appropriate for us. So, we did not know that we were in truth the sons of the Buddha. But now, at least we know it. ‘With regard to the Buddha wisdom, the World-Honored One is never begrudging. Why do I say this? From times past, we have in truth been the sons of the Buddha, but we delighted in nothing but lesser doctrines. If we had the kind of mind that delighted in great ones, then the Buddha would have preached the Dharma of the Great Vehicle for us.’”