Tales from the Lotus Sutra 

The Parable of the Excellent Physician
and His Sick Children

This month we will discuss the final parable from our series of Tales 
from the Lotus Sutra, entitled Parable of the "Excellent Physician and 
His Sick Children". This tale appears in the sixteenth, or Juryo ("The 
Life Span of the Tathagata") chapter of the Lotus Sutra.
There was once a skilled physician long ago in a land far away who 
had many children. One day, while the doctor was on a long and 
distant journey, his children mistakenly ate some bad food or drank 
poison. The physician returned home to find them writhing on the 
ground in agony. When the children saw their father, the very skilled 
physician, they called out, "Help us!"
The father immediately prepared and gave the sick children a 
wonderfully flavored, sweet smelling and beautifully colored 
medicine. However, a problem did occur in the process of getting the 
children to take the medicine. Some of the children who had only 
fallen ill to a lesser level of poisoning, drank the medicine and were 
soon cured. Of the children who were more gravely poisoned, the 
effects of the toxin were more severe and had consequently effected 
their reasoning. The father could not persuade them to take the 
wonderful medicine that he had prepared.
Even though the children were still suffering in pain, they refused to 
take the elixir that would cure them. So, the father devised a plan to 
coax them into taking the medicine. He said to the children, "One 
thing I want all of you to know. I am getting to be an old man and I 
may not have much longer left to live. So, I will leave this medicine 
with its wonderful color, fragrance and taste here for you now. I 
hope that you will take the medicine, because if you drink it, you will 
have nothing to worry about. This medicine will cure your illness."
The father then departed on a long journey. While the father was 
away, he sent his servant back home who told the children, "Your 
father has died!"
"No!" The children cried out in astonishment as they heard the news 
of the death of their father. Greatly saddened about their father's 
passing, the gravely poisoned children who had lost their reasoning 
due to the effects of the toxin slowly started to regain their senses. 
Finally realizing that their dear deceased father had lovingly 
prepared and left medicine for them, they took the medicine and 
were cured of their illness. Upon taking the medicine, the father 
suddenly returned home and the family was again joyfully united. 
The children had been saved from certain death.
The father in this parable who is also a famous and skilled physician 
is the True Buddha of the Latter Day of the Law, Nichiren Daishonin. 
The children in this tale who drank the poison, refused to take the 
medicine and therefore remained scrawling in agony are all of us, the 
people who were born into the age of the Latter Day of the Law.
The father, who saved the children who were suffering from the 
effects of drinking poison, had prepared a wonderfully flavored, 
sweet smelling and beautifully colored elixir to cure them of 
poisoning. This wonderful medicine is none other than the Dai-
Gohonzon (and subsequently our own individual Gohonzons that we 
have enshrined in our homes) to which we join our hands in prayer 
every morning and evening as we recite the Lotus Sutra and chant 
the Daimoku of Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo.
The actual action of drinking the medicine comes about because one 
has faith that the medicine will work. Therefore, through belief in 
the Gohonzon people are able to chant Daimoku and do daily morning 
and evening Gongyo that then leads them to happiness. However, the 
children in this parable who were heavily poisoned and lost their 
senses refused to take the medicine. They are the people who have 
slandered the Law and have turned their backs on the true and 
correct teachings of Buddhism. They staunchly refuse to listen to and 
embrace the words of the True Buddha of the Latter Day of the Law. 
This situation is somewhat like what we are witnessing with the Soka 
Gakkai today.
At this point in the parable, the father deploys a method to entice 
the children into taking their medicine. The father promptly 
departed on a long journey, but (as a ploy to entice the children to 
take the vitally necessary medicine) soon sends his servant as a 
messenger back home to tell the children of his (feigned) death. 
The action of the father's using a servant as his messenger appears 
written in the Lotus Sutra as the phrase "Ken shi gen jo", or 
"dispatching a servant who returned to report [the death of the 
father]."
The servant depicted in this passage that has been asked by the True 
Buddha of Mappo, is each successive High Priest in Nichiren 
Shoshu.When the father was about to depart on his long journey, he 
told the children who had been heavily poisoned, "So, I will leave 
this medicine with its wonderful color, fragrance and taste here for 
you now. I hope that you will take the medicine. Because if you drink 
it, you will have nothing to worry about. This medicine will cure your 
illness."
The phrase "So, I will leave this medicine with its wonderful color, 
fragrance and taste here for you now." is written in the Lotus Sutra 
as "Kon ru zai shi", or in a more direct, word by word translation:  
"Now I will stop and put it (the medicine) here." Therefore, as one 
recalls the passage Ken shi gen jo, one incidentally also keeps in mind 
the sentence Kon ru zai shi, or "The father promptly departed on a 
long journey, but soon sent his servant as a messenger back home to 
tell the children of his (feigned) death." and "So, I will leave this 
medicine with its wonderful color, fragrance and taste here for you 
now."
Taking a closer look at this phrase "So, I will leave this medicine with 
its wonderful color, fragrance and taste here for you now." , the word 
"now" signifies the current age of Mappo, or the Latter Day of the 
Law. "I will leave this medicine with its wonderful color, fragrance 
and taste here" means that Nichiren Daishonin left the Dai-Gohonzon, 
the Great Object of Worship, at the Head Temple, Taisekiji in Japan so 
that all humanity in their sincere and correct faith of True Buddhism 
would be able to eradicate their evil karma accumulated since the 
infinite past and obtain the great benefit of enlightenment in this 
lifetime.
Let us conclude this last article in the series Tales from the Lotus 
Sutra. Watch for our next installment of other Buddhist parables 
when we will present a new series of Tales from the Sutras.

©1995 Nichiren Shoshu Monthly