In chapter 4, “Faith and Understanding,” is found the parable of the rich man and the poor son, in which a rich man corresponds to the Buddha, and the poor son indicates the nihilism of Small Vehicle Buddhists. The great rich man had only one son, who had run away from home while still young. In extreme poverty, the son became a wandering beggar. The son, having become used to a life of begging, accidentally returned to a place in front of his father’s house, but fled in fear of the magnificent mansion. The father then thought about what to do and hired him to clean latrines. Since it suited him, he did this kind of work in his father’s house for twenty years. As the son gradually became used to this work, the father disclosed that he was his father and gave his incomparable wealth to him. When he realized this, the son was overjoyed.

This is a story about how very difficult it is for someone who has sunk to the bottom of nihilism to get out. At the same time it is a story of how, being skillfully led to the Wonderful Dharma of the One Vehicle, one can finally return to life. Furthermore, the mental state of the poor son—of the nihilistic followers of the Small Vehicle—is described in Kumarajiva’s translation as follows:

The World-honored One has been teaching the Dharma for a long time, and all the while we have been sitting in our places, weary in body and mindful only of emptiness, of formlessness, and of non-action. Neither the enjoyments nor divine powers of the bodhisattva-dharma—purifying buddha-lands and saving living beings—appealed to us.

Freely translated, the same words in verse are:

Even if we had heard
About purifying buddha-lands
Or teaching and transforming living beings,
We did not aspire to do them.

Why? Because all things are empty and tranquil
Without coming to be, without extinction,
And without existence.
Being without faith,
This is how we thought.