Reflections on Family and Kammic Retribution : หน้า 116/207

"Luang Phaw, I feel like my father takes unfair advantage of my mother. He doesn’t care about his children and only looks after himself. He is only concerned about his own wellbeing. During tough times, he lets our mother earn the income to take care of us. He stays home and womanizes with the maid. Will I receive kammic retribution if I hate my father?" Luang Phaw gave this advice to the boy: It is already wrong that your father is not being responsible for his duties. Moreover, seeking comfort in life only for him, and womanizing with the maid, breaks the precept of adultery. He is accumulating tremendous bad kamma on his own. The problems he has with your mother are strictly between the two of them. Luang Phaw wants to remind you, when you look at your father and mother, please consider this: Before any living thing is born, it is necessary for it to have a prototype. For instance, if we have a piece of clay and a mold to make a cup, we will get a cup when we put the clay in the mold. If we have a mold for a bowl, we will get a bowl. If we have a mold for a Buddha image, and we put clay in the mold, we will have a Buddha image to pay homage to. This same piece of clay, if used with different molds, will have different values. If we have no mold at all, that clay will just be a piece of clay with no additional value. If people are to be born, they need to have a prototype. If the parents’ prototype is a cow or buffalo, then the child will have to be born as a cow or a buffalo. If the prototype is of a monkey, the child will be a monkey. If the parents’ prototype is a human being, then the child will have to be human, too. Ask yourself: If one, who is clever from the merits of a past life, were to be born in a monkey’s womb, and cried like a monkey at birth, how much work it be able to do? Or ask yourself which situation you would rather be in: To be born a human, with parents who do not take care of you, resulting in you growing up in an orphanage; or to be born as a monkey, yet well taken care of until you are grown. Which situation is preferable? Would you like to be born a monkey? We would not want this because the attributes of a human being are the most suitable for accumulating all forms of merit. We can offer donations [Dana], observe the Precepts [Sila] and practice meditation [Bhavana]. We can perform all those things. When we possess the attributes of an animal, we will not be able to perform meritorious deeds, and possess the higher thinking of a human being.