Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (220)

Why is it so difficult to deliver the rich and powerful?

The Buddha earnestly and patiently exhorted His father: one should not regard the wealth, pleasure, and free indulgence in the five desires that he now enjoys in this world, and when the mind gives rise to greed and insatiable craving toward the objects of form, sound, smell, taste, and touch, one should no longer crave those objects of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharma. When the mind craves the five desires and the six sense objects, it is not easy to satisfy. The World-Honored One's father had been a king for decades, enjoying the worldly pleasures of the five desires, yet he still did not know their suffering and did not know to escape from them. The Buddha therefore exhorted him: you should no longer crave the wealth, honor, and pleasures of this world, because the faculties are like illusions and the objects are like dreams. The six faculties are all illusory transformations—the eye faculty should not crave forms, the ear faculty should not crave sounds. Do not be lost amid the pleasures of the five desires, living a life of debauchery and extravagance; all of these are illusory transformations. The realms of the six sense objects are all like dreams, not real, and will vanish like illusions at any moment.

Why did the Buddha repeatedly and earnestly exhort His father the king? Because the rich and powerful are very difficult to deliver; they have long been intoxicated in the pleasures of the five desires and cannot easily pull themselves out. The poor, however, live lives of hardship and deeply feel the suffering of the world; when they encounter the Buddha's teachings, they will spontaneously and courageously diligence themselves in learning Buddhism and cultivating practice—unless their blessings are too meager, and, preoccupied with making a living, they rush about in worldly life and are unable to learn Buddhism and cultivate practice.