In Buddhist teachings, parents are revered as the first teachers and gateways to heaven. Thai children demonstrate respect by bowing at their feet and caring for them in old age. Neglecting elderly parents has become a serious issue in Thai society. The success of a person is closely tied to how they treat their parents. Our ancestors emphasized the incomparable kindness of parents, who sacrifice for their children. To combat neglect, children must be taught gratitude from a young age, participating in caring for their grandparents. This instills a sense of responsibility and respect, ensuring they will honor their own parents in the future. Ultimately, gratitude and true love are essential to avoid the tragedy of ungraciousness.
หัวข้อประเด็น
-Parenting in Buddhism -The importance of gratitude -Caring for elderly parents -Thai cultural practices -Ensuring respect for family traditions
ข้อความต้นฉบับในหน้า
In Buddhist teachings, parents are revered as Arunhatans
in the family. They are the first teachers to their children. There
is a Thai saying that at the parents’ feet are gateways to the
heavenly realms. Thai children express their respect and show
gratitude to their parents by bowing at their feet. In addition,
in their old age, parents should be taken care of by their
children. However, nowadays, old parents who are neglected
have become a major problem in Thai society where Buddhism
is the most common religion.
Our ancestors taught that a person’s success depends upon
how well he treats his parents to whom he owns his gratitude.
Because their kindness is incomparable, if a person does not
realize and appreciate this fact, he will not be gracious to
others as well. Whoever neglects their parents, the gateway
to the heavenly realms and prosperity will be shut.
Our ancestors remind us of the following important issue.
When we look back to our infancy, we could not help ourselves.
But if our parents became tired of us and left us in garbage
cans or along the roadside, we could never survive our own.
Suppose we were to survive, we may have become homeless
children who starved and had no future at all. Therefore,
because of their help and acceptance of us into their family,
our debt of gratitude to them is incomparable. Their kindness
is beyond what we can repay. Think for a moment: they
sometimes starved and sacrificed for us, so we could be fed.
They struggled in every way to raise us into grown adults. For
this reason, we must repay our debt of gratitude to them as
best as we can.
From the aforementioned scenario, if we think about
becoming old or being future grandparents, of course, we will
become senile and feeble. We may depend on our children for
our every movement, even for our trips to the toilet. Our
physical bodies will be worn down and this will cause us and
our children to feel uneasy. Without gratitude and the true
love our children have for us, we may become neglected.
However, some are only patiently caring for their parents or
grandparents with the expectation of an inheritance. How can
we prevent this problem of ungraciousness to those worthy
of our reverence?
With great vision and wisdom, our ancestors had clear
criteria for solving this problem. Primarily, parents must assign
their children to be helpers in caring for their grandparents
from the time they are little. As a result, they will automatically
bear witness to their parents’ actions. In later life, they will
treat their own parents in the same manner as they did with
their grandparents.
Also important, to effectively inculcate gratefulness in
children, parents must have them participate in caring for their