The
Burning
House
Parable
and the
Contemporary
World
Ruben
L. F. Habito
The Saddharmapundarika-sutra, more popularly known as the Lotus Sutra
(to be used henceforth in this paper) is noted among other things for the Parable of the Burning House, which, delineates in a picturesque way the merciful compassion and the skillfulness of the Buddha in the task of saving living being in their suffering state. The parable is quite suggestive on many points, as it also expresses a central doctrine of the Lotus Sutra not only concerning the nature of Buddhahood as such, but also on the human situation, or the situation of all living beings for that matter.
Very well, very well, O Sariputra. Just as you say, Sariputra, so it is. Indeed, The Tathagata, the Venerable, Well-enlightened One, has cut off all fear, is
rated from all trouble, despondency, calamity, pain, grief, from the thick enveloping dark mist called ignorance. The Tathagata, endowed with wisdom, power, confidence, special properties of the Enlightened, exceedingly mighty with divine power, is the father of the world. He has reached the highest stage of perfection of wisdom and of great skillful means, is most merciful, forebearing, benevolent,
compassionate.
He comes forth in this triple world which is like a house whose roof and shelter are decayed, burning with a mass of suffering and misery, in order to deliver living beings subject to birth, aging, disease, death, grief, wailing, pain, sadness,
despon-dency, the thick enveloping dark mist called ignorance, from lustful greed, anger and delusion, and in order to incite them to supreme and perfect enlightenment.
Coming forth, he sees how living beings are burnt, tormented, vexed, troubled due to birth, aging, disease, death, grief, wailing, pain, sadness, despondency; how, because of enjoyments and lustful desires, they experience various kinds of
And as they keep going in circles in this mass of suffering, they keep on ing, playing, diverting themselves. They do not fear nor dread, nor are they seized by terror. They do not realize nor understand, they do not startled, nor try to escape, but are ever diverting themselves in this triple world which is like a burning house, and keep running here and there. Although they are overwhelmed by that mass of suffering, the idea that they are to beware of this suffering does not arise
at all-1)
The above prose delineation is also expressed in verse in the following way.2) This triple world is thus like that house
Fearsome, laden with hundreds of sufferings. Entirely enflamed on every side
By birth, aging, disease, and hundreds of others. (87) I am liberated from this triple world, at peace Living in secure retirement alone in a wood This triple world is my domain
And those burning in it are my children. (88) I recounted to them its misfortune therefore As I resolved to become the Saviour of these But these children would not lend me their ears
Because of their lustful desires and their clinging to the senses. (89)
This paper is not so much as an interpretation of the parable as such, but an attempt to delve into the teaching behind the parable, towards deriving hints at understanding our human situation, and in particular the situation of man in the contemporary age. It is not a mere transposition of the parable from its time and setting of more or less two thousand years when the sutra was composed into our own time as such, but an attempt at a reading of the parable as a guide in reading the signs of our own times. Thus, it will be clear that this paper is neither a textual analysis nor an interpretative venture, but simply a presentation of a reading of our present human situation as inspi-red by the Lotus Sutra's profound insight as expressed in the Parable of the Burning House.
1. The Contemporary World as Burning House
The Burning House Parable and the Contemporary World (Ruben L. F. Habito) (15) As the parable was conceived more or less two thousand years previous to our present age, there is no validity at all in the attempt to read into the parable certain elements unipue to our time, nor in the attempt to portray the parable as prophetic of our times. It is simply a delineation of the perennial human situation based on a profound insight into our existential condition as sur-rounded by a "thick enveloping dark mist called ignorance" which prevents us from realizing that we are indeed on the brink of calamity. The nature of this calamity is expressed by the parable in traditional Buddhist terms as the exis-tential state of suffering characterized mainly. by birth, aging, disease, death, etc., wherein man, in clinging to his self-centered lustful desires, wreaks des-truction upon himself.
Admitting this as our background, an objective look into our contemporary world situation will give us an additional venue in understanding the human condition, our present condition as enlightened by the burning-house parable, a condition rushing in the direction of calamity caused by man's self-centered ignorance.
Our present world is suffering from three serious ailments, and is rushing towards destruction in this condition: the increasing gap between the few rich and the innumerable poor, whereby the latter are deprived of even the basic conditions of human existence as food, clothing and shelter and thus sub-jected to disease and early death; the ongoing destruction of nature and of our living environment, based not only a thoughtless and flagrant way of ex-tracting natural resources from the earth, such as forest resources, minerals, etc., but also on an equally thoughtless way of disposing of industrial wastes which pollute the earth, sea and air and gradually destroy the environment of living beings on a global scale; and thirdly, the ever increasing militarization measures, including the unceasing piling up of nuclear weapons by major powers
which only increases the tension between national states, as well as the local wars continually being waged in various territories of the world which are used as stages in the interplay of the major powers, and the already existing situation of military repression and perpetration of military atrocities by those in power against helpless people simply asserting basic human rights.
These three ailments have been part of the human condition since way back in history : there have always been gaps between rich and poor in different societies; man's advent into this planet has put what we may call a surd in nature which tends towards destruction as man came to learn to control nature for his own purposes; wars have always been characteristic of relationships between different human groupings. In this sense three ailments are not peculiar to our contemporary world. However, in our present time these three basic ailments have reached global proportions, and we are coming to a stage where the very survival of living beings on this planet is being threatened.
First, a great majority of the 4.4 billion human inhabitants of this planet do not have the basic necessities for a human subsistence, and of these, 850 million are on the brink of death by starvation, according to World Bank sta-tistics. At the present rate of increase of population, 80% or 90% of the world's population will be living in the Third World by the year 2000, the overwhelming majority of these living below the poverty line, under conditions of malnutri-tion, disease, and early death. In short, the number of human beings born under deprived and dehumanizing conditions tends to increase, while those who already are in control of economic resources tend to widen that control and come into possession of greater and greater wealth, based on the self-generating nature of economic resources. (A vivid structural explanation of this situation can be found in Susan George, How the Other Half Dies... The Real Reasons for World Hunger, Penguin Books, 1977)
Second, the ongoing destruction of nature and ' of our living environment is no longer simply a localized phenomenon, but is reaching global proportions to the effect that the very suitability of the planet to harbor living beings is being threatened from-many angles. There is the rampant extraction of natural resources without thought for later generations, as seen just in the depletion of forest resources. In The Global 2000 Report. to the President-Entering the Twenty-First Century, (A Report prepared by the Council on Environmental Quality and the U. S. Department of State, issued in 1980) it is mentioned that if things go on in the pace they are going, all the usable and available forest reserves in the Third World would have been actually used up by the year
-968-The Burning House Parable and the Contemporary World (Ruben L. F. Habito) (17) 2020, an appalling prospect indeed. And yet, there seems to be no stop in the continual extraction of these reserves without sufficient means for adequate replacement for coming generations. And not only this, the continued mining of uranium sends up radioactive particles into the atmosphere which gradually poisons the air and water coming to alarming proportions, not to mention the radioactive poisoning cause by the disposal of wastes from nuclear power plants. And this again is not to mention the already alarming increase in other forms of industrial pollution and destruction of the balance in the environment by large scale production, nor the depletion of the earth's natural fertility due to the large scale use of agricultural chemicals, etc.
Third, the political tensions between the major powers have been fanning the continued escalation of the nuclear arms build-up, and there are now sufficient nuclear stockpiles to blow up the whole earth several times over. And under the prevailing conditions where tensions keep on mounting, the possibility of such a catastrophe likewise grows on.
In short, the whole global situation can be seen as almost uncontrollably heading in the direction of a total disaster, not unlike the near-collapsing situa-tion of the burning house in the Lotus Sutra's parable. And the striking thing is that, as in the parable, the inhabitants of this burning planet are still for the most part wrapped in the "thick enveloping dark mist called ignorance," continuing to go in circles in this mass of suffering, and "do not realize nor understand" the implications of such a situation as they "keep on sporting, playing, diverting themselves" in various ways.
2. Towards Enlightenment -A Stark Look at Reality
In the parable, the Buddha makes use of skillful means to entice the unwitting children to come out of the burning house towards safety, and remain unwitting participants in the whole process. The present world situation, however, seems to afford no way wherein we inhabitants can remain unwitting and ignorant concerning our actual condition and be saved from destruction.
So the very first step to be taken in such a situation is to take a stark look at the reality of this actual condition, and see the alarming implications of the present world order. It is a world order, or lack of order, which is not only
-967-depriving millions of their right to life and a decent human existence, but is also destroying our planet's natural living environment, and threatening the very existence of living beings on this planet through the imminence of nuclear disaster. At the roots of such a situation, needless to say, is the "thick envelo-ping mist called ignorance," which comes to express itself in "lustful greed, anger, and delusion," that actually dominates the present socio-political-economic system founded on the self-centered profit motive.
To realize that our house is burning is to realize that we cannt go on "spor-ting and playing and diver"spor-ting ourselves" as if everything were all right, remaining enveloped in the mist of ignorance, and in the process being co-conspirators in furthering the conflagration that is already threatening living beings on this planet. The realization of this alarming situation is the first, and indispensable step towards true safety, true peace. This is but the first step, however, and having taken this, there remains before us the arduous task in the direction of putting out the fire, by attacking at its roots in our self-centered ignorance that breeds "lustful greed, anger and delusion" which reigns in the present destructive world system.
1) My own improvised translation, based on the text edited by Dr. P. L. Vaidya, The Mithila Institute, Buddhist Sanskrit Texts No. 6, 1960, pp.53-54.
2) Vaidya edition, p. 62.
(Lecturer, Sophia Univ.)
