Various reasons are given in the Sutra as to why the Buddha has announced his entry into final nirvana when actually he is still alive in this world. For example: “If the Buddha lives for a long time in this world, people of little virtue will not plant roots of goodness, and those who are poor and of humble origins will become attached to the five desires and be caught in a net of assumptions and false views. If they see that the Tathagata is always alive and never extinct, they will become arrogant and selfish or discouraged and neglectful. Unable to realize how difficult it is to meet him, they will not have a respectful attitude toward him.” (LS 293)

It is useful to understand these terms through the vehicle of the parables. The children in the parable of the burning house are too absorbed in their play to notice what is going on around them, including their father’s attempts to warn them of the dangers. The son in the parable of the rich father and poor son is simply lacking in self-confidence and self-respect. The children in this parable are stricken by poison. All are in need of help and guidance, but what they need guidance for is to accept greater responsibility for the direction and quality of their own lives. In this way, they can, perhaps only very gradually, become bodhisattvas, and take responsibility for doing the Buddha’s work in this world.

And yet, even though stories have been told about the death of the Buddha, even now the Buddha is not really dead. He is still with us, alive in this world, living the bodhisattva way, doing the bodhisattva work of transforming people into bodhisattvas and purifying buddha lands. “From the beginning,” he says, “I have practiced the bodhisattva way, and that life is not yet finished. . . .” (LS 293)