filiality
父母呼，應勿緩，父母命，行勿懶。 父母教，須敬聽，父母責，須順承。 When my parents call me, answer immediately. When they give instructions, carry them out, don’t drag my feet. When they give advice, listen respectfully. When they scold me, accept it with gratitude. – Standard for Students [Note: translation is a bit different than the one provided by the link —I think filiality looks [...]
To be honest, I never thought about what it meant to be a "good son" until I became interested in Buddhism and the monastic life. It was an unexpected teaching that really sank in when I became a sophomore in college. [...]
So there I was attending retreats and Dharma talks at a Buddhist monastery, learning from Buddhist monastics, and reading spiritual works that strongly emphasized the teachings on “filiality.” It was a teaching I agreed with: yes, I should repay the kindness of my parents–but whenever I went home and actually spent time with my mother, I had the impression I was making her miserable. [...]
We all know how much it can mean to us when someone takes the time to listen. Simply being able to tell your story gives a space and a kind of freedom – it creates trust. If there is one figure in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition that embodies this listening, it is the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Avalokiteshvara. [...]
Forty-eight days after my stepfather passed away, I had a dream. In the dream I am in the house I grew up in, the house where my mother still lives. My mother and two of my uncles are there, and also several people from the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. People are standing around the [...]
My stepfather passed away Sunday afternoon, having been bedridden with cancer for two months. There are a lot of stories to be told about what the past two months have been like for everyone involved, but for this post I just want to tell the story of what my own experience has been like, and [...]