Once there was an elder who possessed a vast fortune. He was the proprietor of lands he had amassed, dwellings and retainers and a mansion huge and wide but with just a single doorway to depart outside.

Though this house was broad and spacious, it was in decay. Yet it teemed with countless people, plus a large array of living creatures, big and small, all about the place. While in the halls the pillars were rotten at the base.

The plaster and foundations were cracking all around. Its rooftops and verandas were falling to the ground. With crumbling walls, beams and rafters crookedly askew, that building was quite dangerous, as the elder knew.

The aged man was in decline, nearing his demise. He was prudent, very seldom taken by surprise. Suddenly, fire broke out and set the house in flames. His sons and daughters were within, playing at their games.

That father always felt concern for his children dear. Seeing this inferno, he was overcome with fear. Tongues of flame flared up in all directions round about. With only just one access, how would they make it out?

The youngsters were oblivious, so entranced were they in their childhood amusements and entertaining play. That door was small and narrow to leave the family home. And, oh, their lives were fragile, like bubbles on the foam!

The elder, in the meantime, was consumed with worry. He had to make them flee the mansion in a hurry. Hence, the man ran back inside and then began to shout that they were in great peril and quickly must get out.

He pointed to the fire, plus how it swiftly spread, and sought to warn his offspring that soon they would be dead unless they ceased their merriment, heeded his alarm… The father could not bear it if they should suffer harm!

Nonetheless, in spite of all the elder’s coaxing cries, the children paid no mind to those admonitions wise. Thoroughly absorbed in their diversions and delight, they just did not believe him, nor had they any fright, nor wish to stop their playing and hastily take flight.

The man could not abandon them to be burned alive. He had to find a clever way, so they would survive. The father, wrung with agony, wondered what to do. Such awful pain lay ahead— somehow, he must get through.

The aged man reflected on what tactic to pick—an expedient means that was sure to do the trick. He told the children of exquisite toys he possessed along with lots of precious carts of the very best craftsmanship and quality, that all had been designed expressly with the youngsters’ own enjoyment in mind.

The elder next, in order to persuade them, stated that right outside the house at the entrance awaited, to suit the young ones’ fancies, skillfully created goat, sheep, deer, and ox carts, ornately decorated.

He said that they must rush to leave the mansion in haste, and he’d give them everything—there was no time to waste. Then the children finally fulfilled his desire and scurried in a race safely out of the fire.

The father beamed with bliss that the urgency had passed. They had securely left the burning building at last!

When they’d exited and scampered out, they all sat down on the dewy earth and asked their father, with a frown, where the toys and carts were that the elder had portrayed for their own special likings to have been tailor-made. The youngsters had escaped and the elder’s heart was eased. But now each one of their capricious wants must be pleased.

Thereupon the elder gave them all a single cart. It was tall and broad with gems adorning every part and had bells on all four corners plus a balustrade surrounding, with a hanging awning offering shade.

Valuable jewels that were fastened with a cord made of costly fibers, and the trimmings they adored embellished every inch that their dazzled eyes explored… How their faces now lit up at such a rare reward!

To pull the cart there was a huge white ox, extra strong, perfectly proportioned for a journey very long. In form it was superb; it had impeccable hide. And with regular hoof-steps to match its steady stride the ox could go as fast as the wind on any ride. Yes, this powerful cart was the elder’s joy and pride.

The question might be asked, when it all had come to pass and the children were delivered from the blaze en masse, if the father’s behavior seems artfully contrived, in enticing his offspring—who subsequently thrived—with numerous playthings, toys and carts, so they would run away from the burning house… then giving them just one single ox cart only, after all was said and done?

The point is that he was not attempting to impress the children with his vast array of riches, much less to appear more exalted or intimidate them—no, his aim was decidedly to liberate them.

Yet the house symbolizes our living-dying realm, with the troublesome worries that tend to overwhelm us humans; but rather than trying to escape it, with Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, we wholly reshape it.

The fire of desire, instead of bringing pain, through this sole theme and title, accesses the terrain of our deep Dharma nature, which is one and the same as the whereabouts of the elder’s mansion, aflame.

So, to give this ancient parable a modern feel—nowadays, the never-ending truth it can reveal is that those who follow Nichiren will come to know, by constantly reciting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, that they’ve entered the ox cart that’s wonderfully great and arrived on true enlightenment’s path as their fate!

[Inspiration for Ablaze is the Parable of the Burning House which can be found in the Third Chapter of the Dharma Flower Sutra (aka, Lotus Sutra).]