The Importance of Honoring Grandparents : หน้า 163/207

grandparents. Moreover, they must extol their grandparents' virtues to their children, both in the grandparents' presence and out of earshot. By setting a good example, children will clearly see and learn from their parents' acts. Then they will know that a grateful person must treat his parents this way. On the contrary, those who take care of their parents and complain or curse them at the same time - or even worse, directly or indirectly abuse their parents - will have children who mentally record these acts and copy them accordingly. The truth is what goes around comes around. When they reach old age, their child will treat them in the same way as they did with their own parents. They will possess the same feelings that their elderly parents had, which are feelings of hurt from not being loved, of being a burden for the family, of not belonging there, and even of feeling inferior to a house-maid. These negative sensations will hurt their hearts in return because of the bad example they had set for their own children. Thus, as parents, if you want to be treated well by your children in your later years, you must take good care of your own parents first. At the same time, you must train your children to be good helpers. One day, when they become adults, they will take good care of you as well. You will not be affected or hurt by anything or anyone because your children possess the right understanding of being grateful to you. Somehow, you have to prepare yourself for old age. Not doing so will bring trouble later because you may be unable to adjust when your physical body becomes weaker. In addition, there may be pressures as a result of your lack of preparation in dealing with these problems. Now we come to the scheme of how to prepare ourselves to be parents worthy of our children's reverence. First of all, we must know there are two types of elderly people. The first type of elderly person is called "A Fruitless Person," a p person of no avail. These sorts of elderly people have never succeeded in performing good deeds throughout their lives. For instance, they hardly ever offered alms to monks, observed the precepts, meditated, studied Dhamma or chanted. It seems like they led unworthy lives day by day. These elderly people can be annoying because they lack an understanding of cause and effect or principles of judgment. Their children do not like spending time with them because they create trouble for the family, such as causing the break up between a husband's mother and her daughter-in-law. Their children are rarely the recipient of any virtuous knowledge from them. Consequently, they will become neglected because they never taught their children how to become grateful people. The Warm Hearted Family 324 Parents, Worthy of Our Reverence The Warm Hearted Family 325 Parents, Worthy of Our Reverence