Practice Filil Piaety Here and Now

Venerable Master Hsing Yun

 

 

There was once a little frog that had always contradicted his mother's orders. When she asked him to go east, he would go west, and vice versa. One day, the mother frog realized that she was going to die soon. She wanted to be buried in the mountains and not near the water. But since the little frog always contradicted her wishes, she thought she would tell him to bury her near the water. However, the little frog had awakened from his mistakes and decided to oblige his mother's last wishes. So he buried her near the water. In the evenings, he worried about his mother being too lonely by the water, so he croaked loudly there. When it rained, he worried that the rising water would wash her away. Again, he croaked loudly by the water. However, when his mother was alive he would not listen to her, so what purpose does all the sadness and croaking serve upon her death?

 

 

In today's society, fewer and fewer people practice filial piety, creating problems associated with the "generation gap." Nowadays, the different generations have become more and more indifferent toward one another. In hospitals, one can easily observe that there are many filial, pious parents in the children's ward, while there are few filial, pious children in the geriatric ward. Many children do not care enough to visit their parents in the hospital, much less attend to every need of their bedridden seniors. In our daily lives, we observe parents who unconditionally take their children to and from school day in and day out without a second thought. But when children are occasionally required to accompany their parents to medical appointments, they get impatient and behave as if they are doing their parents a huge favor. 

 

The love of parents for their children is illustrated by the                                               following verse, "I can still remember how I brought up my child,                                              and now my child is bringing up my grandchild. It is alright if my                                             child lets me go hungry, but hopefully my grandchild will never                                                  let my child go hungry." There was once a butcher in Mount                                                   Putuo who treated his mother very poorly. One day, he went with                                                others for a pilgrimage up the mountain. On learning about the                                             existence of a living "Avalokitesvara" Bodhisattva, he started to                                                 ask around for her whereabouts. An old monk then told him,                                                   "The living 'Avalokitesvara' is already living in your home."                                                        On rushing home, he discovered that the monk was referring to                                                  his mother, who explained, "When you do not even honor your                                            parents at home, what is the use of making a pilgrimage up the                                       mountain?"

In honoring our parents, we should not wait until they are gone.                                                 We should do it here and now! Otherwise, we will be like the little frog croaking loudly by the water.