佛說孝子經

One day the Buddha asked the śramaṇas:

– When parents bear a child, they must endure ten months of pregnancy, the body as though gravely ill. When the day of delivery arrives, the mother's life is imperiled and the father's heart is filled with dread; the circumstances of that moment can scarcely be told in full. After the child is born, the mother lies in the wet place and rolls the child to the dry place. The mother's heart is utterly devoted; her blood is transformed into milk. She bathes the child, carries it in her arms, sees to its food and clothing, teaches and instructs it, offers it to teachers and friends, and presents it before the king.

When the child is joyful, the parents rejoice along with it; when the child suffers, the mother's heart withers. When the child is away from home, they long for it; when the child returns, they embrace and console it. The hearts of the mother and father are forever anxious lest the child fail to become a good person. The kindness and virtue of parents being so vast, how can it ever be repaid?

The śramaṇa addressed the Buddha:

– World-Honored One! One must employ every form of ritual courtesy and devote all the loving-kindness of one's heart to support and serve them, so as to repay the kindness and virtue of the parents who gave one life.

The World-Honored One asked again:

– Suppose a child serves his parents, offering a hundred fine flavors for them to enjoy, playing beautiful music to delight them, providing the finest garments for them to wear, bearing them upon his shoulders to travel everywhere, and using his own lifespan to repay the kindness and virtue of the parents who gave him birth. May this be called filial piety?

The śramaṇa addressed the Buddha:

– World-Honored One! This is great filial piety; there is nothing greater!

The World-Honored One said again:

– Even this is not yet a true repayment of filial duty! Suppose the parents are deluded and benighted, do not reverently serve the Three Jewels, are violent and cruel, unlawfully usurp and seize what belongs to others, are lustful and chase after the beauty of women, use false and deceitful speech contrary to the Way, indulge wildly in wine, and act against the right Way. When parents commit such fierce and evil deeds, the child must remonstrate with them so as to enlighten them. If they are still benighted, then one must at once instruct and transform them, drawing on parables and citing matters of like kind—such as the prisons of the royal house, where convicts are put to torture—and say: "These are people who did not follow the law, and so their bodies must undergo punishment and torment, bringing death upon themselves. After death, their consciousness is imprisoned in hell, enduring scalding water and burning fire, every kind of torment, crying out yet with none to rescue them. Parents who create such evil karma will likewise meet this calamity." If the parents still will not change, then one must weep and lament, refraining from food and drink. At that time, though the parents still do not understand, yet out of the pain born of worldly love they will still fear that their child may die. At that moment the child should strive to endure with patience, urging the parents to humble their hearts and revere the right Way.

If the parents change, then urge them to receive and uphold the five precepts established by the Buddha: first, to give rise to a heart of compassion and not kill living beings; second, to be pure and not steal; third, to be chaste and not commit sexual misconduct; fourth, to keep one's word and not lie; fifth, to be filial and obedient and not indulge in wine. When this is so, then within the clan there will be kindly parents and filial children; the husband upright and the wife chaste, the nine degrees of kindred harmonious, the servants compliant, virtue moistening every quarter, and beings of every kind receiving its grace.

Thereupon the Buddhas of the ten directions, the devas, nāgas, ghosts and spirits, kings who possess virtue, and loyal officials, together with the multitudes of the people, will all cherish, revere, and help them, so that they dwell in peace and security. Though they may repeatedly encounter mistaken policies, treacherous ministers assisting in government, fierce children, wanton women, and a thousand perversities and ten thousand monstrosities, yet these can do nothing against them.

Thus the parents, while alive, will be at peace, and at death their spirits will be born up into the heavens, where they will meet the Buddhas, hear the right Dharma, guard the Way and deliver the world, and forever depart from suffering.

The Buddha said to the śramaṇas:

– In all the world there is no other dharma that may be called filial; only this dharma is filial piety! For this dharma enables the parents to forsake evil and do good, to receive the three refuges, to uphold the five precepts, and morning and evening to reverently serve the Three Jewels. Only this is truly to repay the weighty kindness. The merit of giving birth, nurturing, and suckling, and the kindness and virtue therein, are immeasurable; if one cannot use the supreme Three Jewels to teach and transform one's parents, then though one practices filial support, one is still unfilial. Do not, on account of an evil wife, distance oneself from the worthy and wise, for the heart of woman is full of desire, craving the pleasures of beauty without ever knowing satiety. When within a country there are many who are unfilial and who slay their parents, then the governance of that country falls into chaos and the people are scattered. But if one uses the precepts to restrain oneself, with a heart gentle and harmonious, revering benevolence and righteousness, magnanimous and generous in cultivating virtue, with mind and intention still and quiet, and one's resolve to learn penetrating and thorough, then one's renown will reach to the heavens and one's wisdom will be equal to that of the worthy and wise. But if the heart sinks into wives and concubines, then the will becomes infatuated with female beauty, dissolute amid the passions of desire. The alluring and lovely appearance of woman changes into ten thousand forms; one of shallow wisdom and superficial views, seeing this, fails to recognize the seed of calamity, and so turns his resolve and sinks his very being into it. Then, through the seductive and cunningly false words of such a woman, he comes to harm his parents and slay his sovereign. Coveting and clinging to female beauty, giving free rein to the passions of desire, jealous and arrogant, his fresh mind grown dim—he becomes the same as the birds and beasts. From ancient times until now, it is by this very thing that human beings have harmed themselves and destroyed their clans. For this reason the śramaṇa dwells alone, with mind and intention pure, taking the cultivation of the Way as his task. If one can reverently keep these luminous precepts, then ruling as a king he will bring peace and stability to the country; serving as a subject he will be utterly loyal, using a benevolent heart to nourish the people; as a father he will be exemplary, as a child loving and filial, as a husband faithful, as a wife chaste. If the upāsaka and the upāsikā practice exactly thus, then life after life they will meet the Buddha, hear the Dharma, and in the end will attain the Way.

When they had heard the Buddha's teaching, the disciples all rejoiced and reverently put it into practice.