Thinking about filial piety during Vu Lan season: Filial piety has no season

Vu Lan season is an occasion to remind people of filial piety, for parents and children to be grateful to each other and live well for each other - Photo: QUANG DAO

According to this young lecturer, filial piety is instilled in every Vietnamese person, starting with lessons about respecting and supporting parents when they are alive and always remembering them when they have passed away.

On the occasion of Vu Lan season, Venerable THICH NGO TRI DUNG has a conversation with Tuoi Tre about filial piety, the most meaningful way to show gratitude to parents...

* Venerable sir, filial piety is a daily thing, not seasonal or waiting for an occasion.

Venerable THICH NGO TRI DUNG

- That's right! Filial piety is the duty of every child throughout this life, at all times and in all places, as the Buddha taught: "Even if we carry our parents on our shoulders and circle Mount Sumeru for hundreds of thousands of lifetimes, we still cannot repay our parents' kindness."

The Buddha's short teachings are enough for us to see that as long as we have the opportunity, we can continue to show filial piety, because showing filial piety to our parents is never enough.

The seventh month or the full moon of the seventh month is just an occasion for us to sit together, recall, and review the merits and ways to show filial piety to our parents according to the Buddha's teachings associated with the Vu Lan Bon Dharma, the story of Maudgalyayana saving his mother - which has become a beautiful tradition passed down through many generations.

Accordingly, on this occasion, people often go to the temple to have a deeper understanding of how a Buddhist child shows filial piety to his or her parents. Therefore, July is considered the "season of filial piety" in this sense of remembrance.

In fact, parents never calculate with us in a way that gives one and pays one back, but their love is always unconditional. Therefore, whether it is material or spiritual, what parents need most is still a filial heart, always loving towards their parents.

Venerable Thich Ngo Tri Dung

* So what should young people do to show filial piety in the most practical way?

- The most practical thing in the present is to do what we can to bring happiness to our parents in both material and spiritual aspects.

In my opinion, you can show filial piety by doing specific things such as providing your parents with necessary items made by your own efforts, taking care of your parents when they are sick, always being there to share with them (if you live far away, you can call and visit them often), obeying your parents, fulfilling their wishes...

To be honest, parents never calculate with us in a way that gives one must pay one back, but their love is always unconditional. Therefore, whether it is material or spiritual, what parents need most is the filial heart, always loving towards their parents of their children. No matter what we do, we should always put that heart into it.

Besides, when we see our parents doing wrong things, we must find ways to advise and help them avoid creating bad karma.

As a young person, if you are also a Buddhist, I believe you will be aware of every thought, word, and action based on the law of cause and effect.

Therefore, each person will proactively advise their parents to do good deeds and avoid doing evil deeds, so that their parents will not only be happy in the present but also in the future.

* In life, there are also children who do not live with filial piety. For unfilial children, even in Buddhism, normal behavior seems unacceptable?

- This is something that people have always considered a moral corruption that needs to be corrected. However, Buddhism does not believe that people will be evil and unfilial forever. Each of us always has a good part inside. Even if we are an unfilial child, if we realize it and repent, we can still become a filial child.

We should not look at a person's unfilial actions at a certain time and be harsh, or they will always be like that.

We need to have a tolerant mindset. Tolerance here does not mean being humble and accepting indifferently, but tolerance to give them a chance, to awaken the seed of filial piety that is also there, hidden in their consciousness, so that they can change for the better every day.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nghi-ve-chu-hieu-nhan-mua-vu-lan-bao-hieu-khong-co-mua-20240818080327918.htm