Mr. Altig’s Overview of the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Sutra

The Parable of the Imaginary City,
A story within The Lotus Sutra,
A teaching of the great Buddha,
To lead us on our spiritual route-a.

A long period of time is shown,
An ink powder deposition known,
Great Astuteness and Wisdom’s rest,
In parinirvana, they nest.

The history of that Buddha’s life,
Attainment of Supreme Perfect strife,
Followed by his sixteen sons,
Towards enlightenment, they begun.

The Brahma kings, they made a quest,
To find the reason of radiant nest,
At the abode of the Buddha they came,
And requested the Wheel of the Law to be proclaimed.

The sixteen princes, they joined the call,
And propagated the Lotus Sutra for all,
Attaining Buddhahood in eight directions,
Shakyamuni, one of their reflections.

A journey to a land of treasure,
With a caravan, at its leisure,
The imaginary city, a resting place,
For the tired, to have a short space.

But the city was only an illusion,
A provisional nirvana conclusion,
The true treasure, Buddhahood, awaits,
The One-Buddha Vehicle, it dictates.

The teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha,
In poetic stanzas, they were summarized,
The Parable of the Imaginary City,
A key message, true nirvana, its glory.

We recap the teachings, once again,
The significance, cannot be contained,
In The Lotus Sutra and the Parable,
The path to Buddhahood, quite able.