The Significance of Ordination in Thai Culture : หน้า 150/207

I have seen parents make funeral arrangements for their children, grandparents for their grandchildren. It should not be this way, and I certainly did not want this to happen to me. But since life is so unpredictable, the priority was ordination. Besides, my mother's health was deteriorating; my grandmother was getting very senile, and if I delayed the ordination any longer, they might be too weak to know. I should do it as soon as possible. And then my decision was swayed. Upon graduation, I was offered a very good job, the workload consumed me, and thoughts of ordination were pushed aside. It must have been my past merit coming to help me, for one day, the senior monk who knew about my earlier intention came to guide me. His first words were, "How about ordaining this coming rain retreat?" I hesitated for a while, but finally said, "I still have a lot of assignments on hand, I don't think I should leave now." As if he had expected my answer, he retorted, "If you die today, your bosses are not going to care enough to forward you any merit." His reply was like lightning in the dark. It jolted me to think that if I died today, my mother and grandmother would be the only ones who would care enough to share their merits with me. Once this thought flashed in my head, I instantly resolved to ordain during the rain retreat. Merits from Ordination After my ordination, I learned that Thai people believed that ordination is repaying one's debt of gratitude to one's parents. Yet there were still quite a few Thais who did not subscribe to this conviction. How could a son be repaying his parents when he was accepting offerings by himself and performing various virtuous tasks, while his parents were at home? It looked more like he had deserted them. Someone had asked the senior monk the same question, and this was how he explained it. "Everybody has his own beliefs, but before you believe in anything, you should look at the logic behind it. In Buddhism, we believe that 'whoever performs good deeds will receive good outcomes, and vice versa. We reap what we have planted.' "When a son is ordained, certainly he will receive the merit for trying to purify himself according to the Lord Buddha's teachings. The parents receive a different type of merit: First, they will gain merit for supporting his ordination. Secondly, when their son is a monk, out of concern for him, they will go to the temple to offer food, not only to their son, but other monks as well. Consequently, they will gain merit for generosity. Third, some parents, out of deep concern, will spend more and more time at the temple. While there, they will hear the teachings of the Lord Buddha, making them more The Warm Hearted Family 298 Ordaining for One's Parents Brings Merit The Warm Hearted Family 299 Ordaining for One's Parents Brings Merit