The original translator is unknown and is now cataloged in the Western Jin records.
The Buddha asked the śramaṇas, “When a mother gives birth to a child, first she carries the child in her womb for ten months. Her body is as though afflicted by a grave illness. When she is about to give birth, the mother’s situation is extremely dangerous, and at the same time the father is also deeply anxious and afraid. Their feelings are hard to express in words. After the child is born, their love for the child is utterly sincere. The mother’s blood changes into milk, with which she nourishes the child. She bathes the child, provides clothing and food, educates the child, and enables him to understand that he should respectfully honor teachers, elders, and friends, and that he should loyally serve his own ruler. When the child is happy, the parents are comforted and joyful. If the child suffers, the parents are worried and distressed. When the child goes out, the parents are deeply anxious and concerned. When the child returns home, the parents show care and ask after him, fearing that something may not be well with the child or that something may not have gone smoothly. The kindness of parents is like this. How should it be repaid?”
The śramaṇas answered, “Only by serving one’s parents with all one’s heart and full propriety, and by making offerings to them with a mind of kindness, can one repay the kindness of one’s parents.”
The World-Honored One again said, “If children support their two parents, allowing them freely to enjoy flavors as delicious as amṛta, delighting their ears with wondrous sounds like heavenly music, adorning their bodies with precious garments, and carrying them on their two shoulders to travel throughout the four directions, until the children’s lives come to an end, in order to repay the kindness of being nurtured, may this be called filial piety?”
The śramaṇas all said, “In speaking of the greatness of filial piety, perhaps there is nothing higher than this.”
The World-Honored One told them, “This still cannot be counted as filial piety. If one’s parents are foolish, stubborn, darkened, and deluded, do not reverently believe in the Three Honored Ones, are violent, cruel, and oppressive, freely commit theft in ways contrary to reason, are externally greedy and attached to women’s beauty, speak falsehoods and turn away from the right path, sink into drunkenness and become absurd and confused, and turn against the correct and true Way, being fierce and evil like this, then as their children, one should exert oneself fully in admonishing them so as to cause them to awaken. If they are still darkened and do not awaken, one should teach and transform them with principle and meaning. One should cite parables, compare and analyze matters according to reason, and show them the prisons established by kings and the punishments and executions suffered by the prisoners, saying: ‘This is the result of conduct that is not upright. The body undergoes many torments and harms, and one brings upon oneself the disaster of losing one’s life. After life ends, consciousness departs and is bound at hell, where boiling liquids, fire, and myriad torments and pains are endured. One cries out alone, with no one to rescue or deliver one. Because that person practiced evil, he suffers such grave calamity.’ If they still do not change, the children should weep and cry out in grief, and cut off food and drink. Although the two parents do not understand principle, surely, because of the affection and love by which they feel pain for their children, and because they fear that their children may die, they will then force themselves to restrain their indulgent minds and will honor the right Way. If the two parents change their minds and intentions and practice the Buddha’s Five Precepts, being compassionate and sympathetic and not killing living beings, being pure, modest, and yielding and not stealing, being chaste and not engaging in sexual misconduct, keeping faith and not deceiving, and being filial and not becoming intoxicated by alcohol, then within the clan and household, the two parents will be loving and the children filial, the husband upright and the wife chaste, the nine degrees of kinship harmonious, and servants obedient. Their kindness and favor will spread far, and all beings with blood will receive their benefit. The Buddhas of the ten directions, devas, nāgas, ghosts, spirits, rulers who possess the Way, loyal and impartial ministers, and the common people will all respect and love them, protect them, and cause them to be secure and peaceful. Even if there are repeatedly inverted government decrees, flattering and deceitful ministers who are favored, fierce and evil youths, demonic and deviant women, a thousand kinds of Māras, and myriad strange beings, none will be able to do anything to them. Thus the two elders will always obtain security and peace while in the world. After their lives end, their spirits will be reborn in heaven. Together with the Buddhas, they will gather in assembly, be able to hear the words of the Dharma, attain the Way, be delivered from the world, and forever part from suffering.”
The Buddha told the śramaṇas, “As I look upon the world, there is no true filial piety. Only filial piety such as this can be counted as filial piety. If one can cause one’s two parents to abandon evil and follow goodness, uphold the Five Precepts, and maintain the three self-refuges, even if they practice them in the morning and their lives end in the evening, this kindness is heavier than the kindness of the two parents feeding one with milk and than immeasurable favors. If one cannot use the utmost Way of the Three Honored Ones to guide and lead one’s own two parents, then although one fully practices filial support and makes offerings, one is still not filial. Do not, because of an evil wife, distance yourself from worthy people and fail to draw near to them. Women have much desire and passion, are fond of beauty and are never satisfied, turn against the Way of filial piety, and bring harm to one’s two parents, causing the government of the country to become disordered and the myriad people to wander in exile. Originally, one’s aspiration was to give generously, to restrain oneself with propriety and law, to be gentle in mind and nature and to honor benevolence, to increase virtue richly, to submerge one’s mind and intention in stillness, to study with penetrating and accomplished resolve, to have a reputation that moves the devas, and to have wisdom equal to that of worthy ones. Yet one defiles oneself by gathering wives and household attachments, one’s mind and intention are deluded by women’s beauty, and one becomes confused and lost in desire. Their seductive and bewitching postures transform in countless ways. Men of meager wisdom and people of shallow views see them like this and fail to perceive the subtle gradual changes. They then turn back their aspiration and sink their own bodies, following the delusions of drought demons, bewitching spirits, and deviant cunning. Some endanger their two parents and kill their rulers. They are miserly over beauty and are unrestrained in passion and desire; they are angry, hateful, jealous, and negligent. They scatter and disorder their minds, and become blind, ignorant, darkened, and obscure, equal to the conduct of birds and beasts. From ancient generations onward, there has been no case in which people did not lose their lives and destroy their clans because of this. Therefore śramaṇas remain alone and do not marry; they purify their aspirations and make cultivating the Way their task. If one reverently upholds this sacred and luminous precept, then as a ruler one can possess the four seas; as a minister one can be loyal and nourish the people with benevolent love; as a father one’s laws and measures will be clear, and one’s children will be filial, respectful, and loving; as a husband one will be faithful and trustworthy, and one’s wife chaste. If upāsakas and upāsikās practice in this way, then in life after life they will encounter Buddhas, see the Dharma, and attain the Way.”
After the Buddha had spoken in this way, the disciples rejoiced.
Dharma Torch 