It has taken me a while to get around to this parable, due to the request to write about the Physician’s Good Medicine at the end of 2014. At the time I was disappointed that I would need to put this parable aside for a while. Looking back I know I would not have written it the way I’m going to now. This is going to be the shortest of the books focused on the parables found in the Lotus Sutra. One reason for this the color photos I am including. I’ll explain in detail later why I am using color in the printing. A simple explanation is I am using color so the little pieces of art I created for the book could be seen better. As to why I am using art, that you will need to wait for.
This project also includes an aspect of community participation and input. This was an unexpected outcome from the little art creations. On a whim I posted the first one on Facebook and decided whoever liked it first I would send it to them. In some cases this prompted some exchanges in the comments section. I thought this was an interesting development, an unintended outcome if you will. Sometimes the exchanges became in depth explorations of the concept depicted in the art.
While this was going on I attended an International Dharma Teachers conference in June 2015. One of the main reasons I wanted to attend this conference was the part on the use of technology in spreading and teaching the Dharma. Out of that portion of the conference I set up the first online fully digital weekend retreat for Nichiren Shu in America. Using some of the strategies I learned at the conference and with the eager participation of those doing the retreat, we were able to build something quite unique which included a sense of community and an experience many of us did not think possible.
Here were two instances where community sprung up and deepened providing an enhanced experience for all those who chose to participate. The tie in here to the parable is the children are together playing in the burning house. The father is required to develop a strategy that will enable all the children to leave the house together. The possibilities of a digital experience replicating a retreat held in a physical structure, I now see as possible. It will require a leader who has both skillful means and one who will employ a good strategy. There are some other tie in’s however they will be better presented later on in the book. So let’s get started.
