1 - ‘A Spiritually Enlightened Individual’

Summary

The house has caught fire, the children are inside, absorbed in their games and their toys, oblivious of the cries and shouts outside. How do we get their attention, get them to come out before it is too late: better games, better toys – we have to entice them with something more attractive than what now diverts them, and yet within the limits of their understanding. This is from the Lotus Sūtra but there is something dreadful about it: no one is going to risk their life to go in and rescue them – they’re going to have to make their own way out – not for fear of the fire but for the sake of better toys and better games. We know too much about the horror of burning buildings, conflagration, whether in London or in Delhi or Dhaka. But even in the Lotus Sūtra, the story conveys desperate urgency about our predicament.