Sakyamuni indicates the path to true happiness by first pointing out that suffering in this world surely exists. Then in the last verses of Chapter 3 he gives the remedy.

I am the father of this world, the best of the sages. All living beings are my children. They are deeply attached to the pleasures of the world. They lack wisdom. The triple world is not peaceful. It is like the burning house. It is full of sufferings. It is dreadful. There are always the sufferings of birth, old age, disease, and death. They are like flames raging endlessly. I have already left the burning house of the triple world. I am tranquil and peaceful in a bower in the forest. This triple world is my property. All living beings in it are my children. There are many sufferings in this world. Only I can save all living beings.

It is based on this passage that Nichiren formulated his doctrine of the three virtues of the Buddha: he is our master, our teacher, and our parent.

Another important point of the parable [of the Burning House] is that we humans are allegorically illustrated as living in a burning house. The burning, of course, symbolizes our suffering. From the Buddhist viewpoint, suffering is an inescapable fact of life, as illustrated in the dictum, “All existence is suffering.” Many people think this view is too pessimistic, but that is not the case. The dictum is presented as a bare fact, neither good or bad. Biological suffering is a part of life. The question is, What can we do about it?

In [The Parable of the Burning House], the rich father symbolizes the Buddha, while the children represent all of us living beings. In other words, the relationship between the Buddha and living beings is compared to the relationship of a father and his children. That the father saves his children out of compassion for them implies that the Buddha does the same thing. In short, the parable proclaims the Buddha to be nothing less than the universal Savior.

The Buddhist faith often expounds difficult doctrines consisting of abstract philosophical ideas. When it comes to the Lotus Sutra, however, such complicated dogmas do not appear on the surface. For this reason, some critics have argued that there are no doctrines in the Lotus Sutra. But this is not true. The Lotus Sutra does contain profound philosophical thoughts. Instead of using tortuous logic, however, the Sutra explains its philosophy in the simplified form of stories, drawing on examples familiar to us from everyday life. This is why we find many parables in the text.

This chapter is named “A Parable” because it contains a well-known story called, “The Burning House and the Three Carts” or “The Burning House of the Triple World.” The Lotus Sutra contains seven parables, commonly called the Seven Great Parables, and this is the first of them.

The first half of the Lotus Sutra (“Shakumon” or the “Theoretical Section”) is characterized by three stages of preaching. That is, the same subject is presented in three different ways according to the capacities of the hearers: first by a theory, then by a parable, and finally by means of a story from some previous existence. The teaching of the One Vehicle, for instance, is first presented theoretically in Chapter Two. Then it is illustrated by parables in Chapters Three, Four, Five, and Six. Finally its reason and purpose is clarified in Chapter Seven by a story from a previous existence.