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II2
SADDHARMA-PUNDARIKA.
IV.
gold, pearls, and crystal, draws up the sum total, and is always occupied in his mind with all that property.
30. The ignorant man, who is living outside the mansion, alone in a hovel, cherishes no other ideas but of poverty, and thinks to himself: Mine are no such possessions!
31. The rich man perceiving this of him (thinks): My son has arrived at the consciousness of being noble. He calls together a gathering of his friends and relatives (and says): I will give all my property to this man.
32. In the midst of the assembly where the king, burghers, citizens, and many merchantmen were present, he speaks thus: This is my son whom I lost a long time ago.
33. It is now fully fifty years—and twenty years more during which I have seen him—that he disappeared from such and such a place and that in his search I came to this place.
34. He is owner of all my property; to him I leave it all and entirely; let him do with it what he wants; I give him my whole family property.
35. And the (poor) man is struck with surprise ; remembering his former poverty, his low disposition, and as he receives those good things of his father's and the family property, he thinks: Now am I a happy man.
36. In like manner has the leader, who knows our low disposition (or position), not declared to us:
Ye shall become Buddhas,' but, “Ye are, certainly, my disciples and sons.'
· Rather, position.
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