The Parable of the Physician and His Children

The Parable of the Physician and His Children

Found in Chapter 16 (The Life Span of the Thus Come One), this parable explains why the Buddha appears to pass away even though he is in truth eternally present. It is the last and arguably the most profound of the sutra’s seven parables.

A skilled and wise physician has many children. While he is away from home, his children accidentally drink poison. When the father returns, he finds some of his children have lost their senses while others remain lucid. All of them are suffering. The physician, employing his expert knowledge, compounds the finest medicine -- perfect in color, fragrance, and flavor -- and offers it to his children. Those whose minds are still clear take the medicine immediately and are cured. But those whose minds have been most deeply affected by the poison refuse the medicine, saying it looks and smells wrong. Though the cure is right before them, their clouded minds prevent them from accepting it.

The physician devises a plan. He tells his children, "I must go away on a long journey. I am old and may not return. I leave this medicine for you -- please take it." He then departs and, from a distant land, sends a messenger with the news that their father has died. Stricken with grief and now feeling utterly alone in the world, the children who had refused the medicine experience a profound shift. In their sorrow, they finally take the medicine their father left behind and are completely healed. The father, learning that all his children are cured, returns home alive and well.

The physician is the Buddha. The children are sentient beings. The poison is the delusions of greed, anger, and ignorance. The medicine is the Dharma. The Buddha's apparent death -- his passage into nirvana -- is not a real extinction but a compassionate device. If the Buddha were always visibly present, complacent beings would take his presence for granted and would never develop the urgency needed to practice the Dharma seriously. By appearing to die, the Buddha creates the conditions under which even the most resistant beings will finally accept the medicine of the Dharma. This parable is the key to understanding the revelation of Chapter 16: the Buddha is eternally present, but manifests birth and death as the ultimate act of skillful means.