The Bodhisatta was once a merchant. One day his young son asked what one word encompassed many ideas about how to be successful. The Bodhisatta answered that the word for this was “skill,” and then said “virtue” and “patience” should be added to it. His son followed this advice throughout his life and was very successful.
In the Lifetime of the Buddha
A man’s son asked him to explain the Door Question, which is about how to begin the path to enlightenment. The father said only the Buddha could do this, so they went to his monastery to ask him. The Buddha told the father this story so he knew that his son had been an equally inquisitive boy in an earlier birth and had asked him this question back then, but had forgotten the answer due to rebirth.
