The Love of Parents (EA20.11)

Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was staying in Śrāvastī, at Jetṛ’s Grove, in Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park. Then the Exalted One said to the monks:

“I tell you that the kindness of two persons can never be repaid. Of which two? Of one’s father and mother.

“Even if someone should carry about his father on his left shoulder and his mother on his right shoulder and if he should do so for countless years; if he should take care of them by providing them with clothing, food shelter and medicine to cure illness and emaciation, and should they even while being carried on his shoulders pass stool and urine that he would have to put up with, he would still be unable to repay their kindness.

“You should know, monks, that because of one’s father’s and mother’s acts of kindness one is deeply indebted to them: one has been embraced and reared by them, all the time and ever ready to protect their children, and never losing time in perfecting their children’s becoming aware of the wider world. It is on account of this ‘skill in means’ that one appreciates how difficult it is to repay one’s parent’s kindness.

“Therefore, O monks, one should treat one’s father and mother with great respect and never be remiss in one’s filial duty. Thus, O monks, you should train.”

After listening to the Buddha’s words, the monks were pleased and respectfully applied themselves to practice.

Translated from Sanskrit to Chinese by Dharmanandi.

Originally published as Ekottarikāgama XXVIX, Buddhist Studies Review 19.1, 2001–2, pp. 49–55. Translated from the Chinese version by Thích Huyên-Vi in collaboration with Sara Boin-Webb and Bhikkhu Pāsādika.

Transcription by Nola Webb, 2014.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Bhikkhu Sujato.