Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Respect Parents and Teachers (禮敬雙親師長)
Sentient beings are obscured by ignorance and disbelieve cause and effect. So, they keep creating delusional attachments. By relying on delusions, their thinking becomes confused and distorted. When these delusions arise, many difficulties follow. People create bad affinities over many lifetimes, so they attract painful retributions. Confusion and delusion make it difficult to break away from pain and suffering.
How can you stop the pain, extricate yourselves from unhappy conditions or from disagreeable things? It is truly difficult. But the Buddha compassionately taught the Dharma so that we could have faith without doubts. We must believe that He came to the world and taught us out of compassion. He hoped to teach us according to our abilities so that we can accept the concept of the karmic law of cause and effect. Then we will naturally be kind and filial. This is an essential human principle. So, we hope that everyone has the opportunity to encounter the Buddha-Dharma.
Let us now talk about the next passage. “When we are unfilial, we create contrary and vicious karma.” Being unfilial to our parents creates contrary and vicious karma. When our minds are deluded, we become contrary. Instead of being filial, we are unfilial. Instead of doing good, we do evil. Vicious implies being ignorant and violent. Violent behavior arises from the ignorance of the mind and the actions of the body. This is contrary and vicious karma. When there is action, there is karma. When an ignorant thought arises, such as one that may inspire the Five Offences, the body will act. We can see many families in society where the mother complains, “My son was so well-behaved. I don’t know why he changed after he got married. Now he is so unfilial. When I would nag him, he used to accept it with a smile. Now I can’t say anything. If I make a peep he will yell at me. His attitude is terrible.”
Sometimes it is the father. He used to be a good husband, a good father, and had a successful career. But with success, he began having affairs, and became lax in his responsibility to his wife and kids. Not only that, his behavior become terrible. Not only did he not cherish his family, he constantly yelled at them. He looked for a chance to abandon his family, and establish a new one. This also happens.
So not only are some children unfilial, some parents are irresponsible as well. This “contrary and vicious karma” seems very widespread in modern society. It is produced by evil views.
Next, “When we look down on teachers, we create karma of disrespect.” A teacher for a day is a teacher for a lifetime. Being filial in return for parental support is familial ethics. Our parents gave birth to us, provided for our lives and helped us grow up, so we should be filial. But teachers gave us knowledge. Making a living requires knowledge. In the old days, to learn a skill, apprentices had to work for their teachers. If it took them three years and four months to learn the trade, they lived in their teacher’s house and swept and did housework for the teacher’s wife. They did it all gratefully because the teacher was teaching them a skill so they could establish and support a family. They respected their teachers.
We no longer have apprenticeships. We have a national educational system. Children in Taiwan are very fortunate. Starting in kindergarten, teachers are like nannies who take care of them as if they were precious treasures. Students now have less respect toward teachers. If teachers raise their voice a little, the children complain to their parents. Parents nowadays spoil their children, so the parents will go after the teachers. Teachers cannot rely on the support of the educational system, so if the parents sue them, they are helpless. So now, teachers do not want to attract trouble. They dare not raise their voice or use physical punishment. Some children rely on their family’s wealth, so they do not think they have to work hard.
But modern society is also very competitive. Being a teacher is difficult. Children start talent classes at an young age and also need to score well on tests. How do teachers cover all this? Many teachers are at a loss. Children nowadays do not know to respect teachers. Teacher need to use many methods so that children will listen to them, accept what is taught, and develop their talents. It is difficult to be a teacher now because student “look down on teachers.”
In the Buddha’s time, He predicted this would be the most common wrong. This era is the Era of Dharma Decay. When is this Era of Dharma Decay? Right now. Now is the Era of the Five Turbidities. The Dharma is already declining. What does it mean for the Dharma to decline? It means that gradually, people’s minds will no longer be on the Dharma-path. If they do not follow that path, ethics and morals will be easily corrupted.
The Dharma-path that people need to follow is starting to be destroyed. During Dharma Decay, our collective ignorance and defilement is tremendous and continues to grow. The principles are valued less and less. So whether we are talking about how we treat our family members or deal with matters, we deviate from the rules more often. This is the Era of Dharma Decay. It is also a time of destruction. Disasters constantly arise. They are the product of our collective karma. If the minds of sentient beings are disorderly, the seasons and climate will change.
The principles, the laws of nature and the mind must be in harmony. If the principles are in disorder, nature will become imbalanced. The principles are disturbed because our minds are disturbed. People’s minds and principles are in disarray, so natural processes will be chaotic. Society is disorderly, so we are in the Era of Dharma Decay, a time when the land will be shattered a time when the land will be shattered. We will see a succession of disasters. Now the climate is abnormal. It is imbalanced because the principles are, too. The greenhouse effect keeps growing. Temperatures are rising, and people are dying of heat in more and more places. We often hear about earthquakes in other countries. There are the results of imbalance. Many imbalances begin with the mind.
Everyone, if our minds are imbalanced, our principles will be imbalanced, and the natural environment will be imbalanced. We must act in accordance with the principles. One who is uneducated is unprincipled. If we do not receive proper education, we will not know the right principles. Teachers teach students to be humble and follow etiquettes. It is worrisome that students are becoming less respectful toward teachers. I am grateful for Tzu Chi presence in schools. Volunteers help teachers as “class mothers.” In the last few years they organized ceremonies before graduation where the students serve their teachers tea to show their gratitude and respect for their teachers. They used many methods to show this gratitude.
Indeed, they should give back their teachers, and not just at graduation. They should know to show respect to their teachers whenever they see them. During the Japanese Occupation of Taiwan, when children saw their teachers, they had to stop within a certain distance and politely pay their respects and show their gratitude. This applied to all teachers at a school. This applied to all teachers at a school. If they knew this parson was a teacher they had to pay their utmost respect. That is a way to respect teachers.
But now students disrespect their teachers and create bad karma. Courtesy disappeared so they are disrespectful. They dare to yell at their teachers make fun of them and play tricks on them. This disrespect creates bad karma. In communities focused on spiritual practice, we often talk about the Six Points of Unity. We must love and respect our fellow practitioners. If we do not know to respect those with more experience, we also create bad karma. Respect is a method of spiritual practice. If we look at others with our Buddha-mind, then we see that they are all Buddhas. If they give us knowledge and inspire our wisdom, of course we must respect them.
Next it says, “When we distrust our friends, we create karma of disloyalty.” We must trust our friends and know how to pick good friends. When we are making friends, we must have faith and be trustworthy. Tseng-Tzu reflected on himself every day. Was he being filial toward his parents? Was he loyal to his lord, his ruler? In ancient times, a minister would loyally serve his lord. Was he also loyal to friends? We must also constantly reflect on these things.
Tseng-Tzu said, every day I reflect three times. In serving others have I been disloyal? In my interactions with friends have I been untrustworthy? Have I practiced what I was taught? –The Analects.
We should know the answer to these questions. Are we filial toward our parents? Are we respectful of our teachers? Are we trustworthy friends? Do we speak false words, or improper words, or evil words? These all create karma.
There are four kinds of karma of speech. Gossip is meaningless speech that creates disputes between others. If we speak harshly, lie, flatter, or gossip, then we are not kind or loyal friends.
Everyone, we must treat our parents, teachers and friends very well. This is our basic duty as human beings. We should always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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