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Saturday, May 22, 2010

One can never repay two persons



Monks, one can never repay two persons, I declare. What two? Mother and father. Even if one should carry about his mother on one shoulder and his father on the other, and they meanwhile should even void their excrements (as urine or feces) upon him, and so doing should live a hundred years, attain a hundred years; --ev...en so could he not repay his parents. Moreover, monks, if he should establish his parents in supreme authority, in the absolute rule over this mighty earth abounding in the seven treasures, --not even thus could he repay his parents. What is the cause of that? Monks, parents do much for their children: they bring them up, they nourish them, they introduce them to this world. Moreover, monks, whoso incites his immoral parents, settles and establishes them in morality; whoso incites his stingy parents, settles and establishes them in generosity; whoso incites his foolish parents (with a wrong view), settles and establishes them in wisdom (with a right view), --such an one, just by so doing, does repay, does more than repay what is due to his parents.' -The Buddha