Chapter 3: Simile and Parable

Shariputra, filled with boundless joy upon hearing the teaching of the One Vehicle, reflects on how he once believed he had attained final nirvana as an arhat, only to discover now that this was merely a resting place on the path to supreme Buddhahood. The Buddha confers upon Shariputra a prophecy that in a future age, after immeasurable kalpas of practice, he will become a Buddha named Flower Light Tathagata, presiding over a world called Free from Stain. This is the first such prophecy in the sutra and sets a precedent for the universal bestowal of prophecies to come.

To clarify the relationship between the three vehicles and the One Vehicle, the Buddha tells the parable of the burning house. A wealthy man's mansion catches fire while his many children play inside, oblivious to the danger. The father calls out to warn them, but they are so absorbed in their games that they pay no heed. Knowing their preferences, he tells them that outside the gate stand three kinds of carts they have always wanted -- goat carts, deer carts, and ox carts. Enticed, the children rush out of the burning house and are saved.

Once outside, instead of the three small carts, the father gives each child a single magnificent cart drawn by a great white ox, adorned with jewels and canopies far surpassing anything they had imagined. The father is the Buddha, the burning house is the threefold world of suffering, the children are sentient beings, and the three carts represent the three vehicles of the voice-hearers, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas. The great white ox cart is the One Buddha Vehicle. The Buddha asks whether the father was guilty of falsehood, and Shariputra replies that he was not, for the father's only aim was to save his children by any means necessary.