Celebrating Vesakh Day
May 9th 2009:

To mother and the late father of mine
with Much Love, Metta and Mudita

"What the Buddha Said
about the Deep Kindness
of Parents
and the Difficulty of
Repaying It"

"If there were a person who carried his father on his left shoulder and his mother on his right shoulder until his bones were ground to powder by their weight as they bore through to the marrow, and if that person were to circumambulate Mount Sumeru for a hundred thousand kalpas until the blood that flowed out from his feet covered his ankles, that person would still not have repaid the deep kindness of his parents.

If there were a person who, during the period of a kalpa fraught with famine and starvation, sliced the flesh off his own body to feed his parents and did this as many times as there are dust motes as he passed through hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have repaid the deep kindness of his parents.

If there were a person who, for the sake of his parents, took a sharp knife and cut out his eyes and made an offering of them to the Tathagatas, and continued to do that for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have repaid the deep kindness of his parents.

If there were a person who, for the sake of his father and mother, used a sharp knife to cut out his heart and liver so that the blood flowed and covered the ground and if he continued in this way to do this for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, never complaining about the pain, that person still would not have repaid the deep kindness of his parents.

If there were a person who, for the sake of his parents, took a hundred thousand swords and stabbed his body with them all at once so that they entered one side and came out the other, and if he continued bin this way to do this for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have repaid the deep kindness of his parents.

If there were a person who, for the sake of his parents, beat his bones down to the marrow and continued in this way to do this for hundreds of thousands in this way to do this for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have repaid the deep kindness of his parents.

If there were a person who, for the sake of his parents, swallowed molten iron pellets and continued in this way to do this for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have repaid the deep kindness of his parents."

(Excerpted from "Filial Piety Sutra")




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