3Ven Master Xue Wu 20220223 11《All good things do not depart from the foundation of filial piety》

The cause of all these problems is that we have forgotten our roots. We've forgotten our foundation to our correct well-being and character, this is another way to say: you forgot your roots. It's a way to remind you. This is very easy to do, people easily forget where they came from.
1940 I'd like to share a story from 10 years ago. There was a young person who came to my temple to find me. He wanted to debate me. Do I have to respond to him? No. I don't have to, because it's a waste of time. He told me, after telling me so many things, one of them was: Buddhism, it's all about filial piety, because you guys talk a lot about that. What era is this?! What time is this?! This is an era of technology! Why do we need filial piety? If you don't follow the flow of the era, change according to the era, we’ll be rejected. What he meant was that Buddhism is outdated, the values are outdated, so this is a very severe view. It’s quite common. What he meant was that in the future you won't even need to have parents, you can use In vitro fertilization, that means a scientist is required to help fertilize.
2108 But I didn't respond. When I heard that, I had a thought upon hearing his view. I knew why society had gotten messy, chaotic and turbulent. It is because when there is interaction between parents and children, there's a lot of young people who are not patient with their parents and they easily get angry and talk back in a very rude way. Why do we have such a turbulent society? It is because of people like this.
2151 A lot of these kinds of people forget where they come from, that why they are here today is because of people who gave everything they have for them, they forgot them.
Everyone forgets about their roots, the society is a mess, in a mess. So that's why I advise all the elder people, those who are parents, to take care of yourself, you can't rely on your children anymore because if you have too much hope (you might be disappointed). There's a common Chinese saying that you have children to help you to overcome the pain of aging. So right now, in this era, it's hard, you can't rely on them because of these false views. The first thing is society, everything is busier, everything is on a more tight schedule. They don't have time to take care of their own (parents), not even their own children, let alone their own parents.
2253 This is one of the pathetic parts about people nowadays. This is why there is such a booming industry in retirement, because of this reality. So young people, I urge all of you, all of us, no matter how successful, how high, what peak you have achieved in your field, never forget the love your parents gave to you, never forget those who give everything they have to you, their love to you, their care to you. That's what matters, truly, because if we can't even get this point correct, there's no point to come to Buddhism and learn from Buddha. You have no roots, no land, you can’t build anything. This is why we need to start from Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva. This is why.
2352 If you want to be successful in cultivating Buddhism, achieving Buddhahood, begin from here. Number one is Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva represents filial piety, love and respect towards our elders. The first thing that defines humanity is repaying kindness.
The second thing is being aware, appreciating the kindness we actually receive from people around us, starting from our parents and from everyone else. It's not given from God, it's not from a heavenly being up above, it's by people, your society that gives you everything they have. So repay the kindness for those who actually give it to you.
2456 So number one, among the Four Kindnesses above when we do the Dedication of Merits, the first one is parents, the second is the teacher or the Triple Gem, Buddha, Dharma and Sanga. The third is the country, the fourth is the society, all the sentient beings.
Number three is promoting virtues, the merits of cultivating virtues. If you look at modern people, when you look at society nowadays, you can see a common problem: people lacking virtues, lacking decency. We use a simple word, decency.
2536 If you look around them, no matter what they do, there's a lot of those driven purely by self-interest, purely driven by desires because of that they're willing to let go of any semblance of dignity as a human and do something that is basically disgusting.
2607 So I have another story. I have a movie given to me by my friend, my classmate. This movie is about observations about current society and the story is about a good doctor.
Why is he addressed as a good doctor? It is because in this hospital, a lot of other doctors are lacking virtues, lacking ethics.
2647 I think it's a documentary. It's showing behind the scenes, what actually happens in the hospital and those doctors not following their ethics.
2701 Knowing this reality, not just in one field, in many fields, we understand that this is truly the end, like the world that Buddha described for a Dharma Ending Age. So back to the point, we need to understand the worldly goodness of all goodness, all kinds (of goodness), all things that are good in the world, do not depart from the foundation of filial piety, from being respectful and loving towards your parents and elders.
2735 Without this foundation, whatever good you did towards anyone else, it's not sincere. A lot of people like to give, for example, to offer to a temple, I like this temple, I give a lot of money to help them to build it up. If this Dharma Center likes to build something, they will help. However, if you look at their character, their character in private, behind the scenes, to those who give everything to them, to those who are kind to this person, he's not being very kind towards his own loved ones. So this person might look like a good person, donating all these things, but behind the scenes, when treating their own parents, they are lacking a basic virtue of respect.
2828 Shakyamuni Buddha gave Dharma talks for 49 years. All of them, every detail, every sutra, actually all center around the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva Sutra, the sutra about filial piety. They do not depart from this, you can call it an annotation of this sutra. So we cannot just read through this sutra and treat it like anything (insignificant). We need to appreciate the importance of this in our cultivation.