譬有人年既幼稚，舍父逃逸，久住他国，或十二十至五十岁。年既长大，加复穷困，驰骋四方，以求衣食。渐渐游行，遇向本国。其父先来，求子不得，中止一城。其家大富，财宝无量。长者见其子，即大欢喜，心念：我财物库藏，今有所付。子见父坐师子之座，宝几承足，诸婆罗门、刹利、居士皆恭敬围绕，心大惶怖，悔来至此。我本贫贱，而此人者，是王若王等，非我佣力之处，不如往至贫里，力役求衣食。
逐句解释
舍父逃逸，久住他国，或十二十至五十岁
「穷子喻」是《法华经》第二个著名的大比喻。一个少年离家出走，在外漂泊了几十年，穷困潦倒。他的父亲（一位大富翁）一直在寻找他，终于在一个城中重新相遇。这个比喻对应的，是众生与佛性之间的关系——我们本有佛性，却因无明而离家流浪。
It is like a man who in his youth abandoned his father and ran away, living in another country for perhaps ten, twenty, or fifty years, growing old and increasingly destitute, wandering in every direction in search of food and clothing.
The Parable of the Prodigal Son (穷子喻) is the Lotus Sutra's answer to a question that had been hanging since Chapter 2: if all beings have the seed of Buddhahood, why do so many seem so far from it? The parable answers through the image of a son who has forgotten his own inheritance. He doesn't know he is wealthy. He doesn't know who his father is. He has lived so long in poverty that poverty feels like his identity. The decades of wandering represent countless lifetimes in samsara, spent seeking the most basic satisfactions — food, warmth, safety — while an unimaginable inheritance waits, unclaimed, at home.
其父先来，求子不得，中止一城
父亲没有放弃，他一直在找儿子。这个细节意味深长——在佛教的世界观中，佛陀（或佛性）从来没有放弃任何一个众生。众生可以离开，可以迷失，可以流浪无数劫，但父亲始终在等待，始终在寻找。
The father, meanwhile, had been searching for his son without success, and had settled in a city, where he became enormously wealthy.
The father's unceasing search is one of the most tender details in the entire sutra. In Buddhist terms, this represents the fact that Buddha-nature (佛性) is never absent from any being — it is always there, always "looking for" the being who has lost contact with it. The father's wealth grows while the son wanders in poverty, which maps onto the idea that our deepest nature is not diminished by our ignorance of it. We may live as paupers; the inheritance remains intact. The father does not give up, does not disown the son, does not stop loving him across all those decades of separation. This is the sutra's portrait of boundless compassion.
子见父坐师子之座……心大惶怖，悔来至此
当穷子终于远远看到父亲时，他被父亲的威严吓坏了，以为自己走错了地方，转身想逃。他认不出自己的父亲。这正是无明的本质：我们对自己的本性如此陌生，以至于当它真的出现在面前时，我们反而会感到恐惧和退却。
The son, seeing his father seated on a lion throne, attended by nobles and respected persons on all sides, was seized with great fear and regretted having come. He thought: This must be a king or someone of royal rank — this is no place for me to hire myself out for labour. Better to go to the poor quarter and find work there.
This moment of misrecognition is psychologically precise. The son has spent so long identifying as a poor labourer that he genuinely cannot conceive of himself as an heir. When he sees the wealthy father, he doesn't think "that's my father" — he thinks "that's someone far above me." His self-image is so impoverished that he literally flees from his own inheritance. This is what the sutra calls the "inferior mind" (下劣心) — the inability to recognise one's own Buddha-nature because one has habituated to smallness. The father's genius is that he does not call out to the son directly. He knows the son's current mind cannot receive such a revelation without panic.
父知其子志意下劣，以方便力，密遣二人，形色憔悴，以告其子
父亲看穿了儿子的心理，没有强行相认，而是悄悄派了两个外貌普通的人去找到儿子，以雇工的名义把他引回家。父亲用了整整二十年，让儿子先从最低级的工作做起，慢慢建立信心，才最终将家产托付给他。这是「方便」最深刻的诠释。
The father, understanding that his son's aspirations were low, used skillful means to secretly send two men of humble appearance to find the son and offer him work. Over many years, the father gradually entrusted his son with greater and greater responsibilities, until at last he revealed the full truth of their relationship.
The father's twenty-year strategy of gradual disclosure is the parable's most subtle teaching. He doesn't force the revelation — he creates conditions for the son to grow into it. First menial labour, then more responsibility, then management of the entire estate, and only then, when the son has developed the confidence and capacity to receive it, the full truth: you are my son, and everything I have is yours. This mirrors the Buddha's pedagogical approach across countless lifetimes. He does not dump the highest teaching on beings who are not ready for it. He meets them at their current level and slowly, patiently, expands their sense of what is possible. The Lotus Sutra itself, arriving near the end of the Buddha's teaching life, is the moment of final disclosure.
总结 · Summary
「穷子喻」讲的是每一个众生的故事。我们都曾离开「家」——那个本有的觉性——在轮回中流浪，忘记了自己的真实身份。佛陀就像那位父亲：从不放弃，始终在找我们，但足够智慧，不强迫我们去接受我们暂时还无法承受的真相。他用方便一步一步地引导，直到我们真的准备好了，才揭开那个终极的秘密：你就是继承人。
The Parable of the Prodigal Son is the Lotus Sutra's most psychologically nuanced story. It shows that the problem is not the absence of Buddha-nature, but our habitual failure to recognise it. We flee from our own inheritance because we have lived so long in poverty that we have forgotten we are heirs. The father's patient, decades-long strategy of gradual re-introduction mirrors the Buddha's infinite compassion and pedagogical skill. He does not force; he creates conditions. He does not demand; he invites. And when the moment is finally right — when the son has grown strong enough to hear it — he speaks the truth that was always waiting: everything I have is yours.