"I tell you, monks, there are two people who are not easy to repay. Which two?
Your mother & father.
Even if you were to carry your mother on one shoulder & your father on the other shoulder for 100 years, and were to look after them by anointing, massaging, bathing, & rubbing their limbs, and they were to defecate & urinate right there [on your shoulders], you would not in that way pay or repay your parents. If you were to establish your mother & father in absolute sovereignty over this great earth, abounding in the seven treasures, you would not in that way pay or repay your parents.
Why is that?
Mother & father do much for their children. They care for them, they nourish them, they introduce them to this world.
But anyone who
rouses his unbelieving mother & father,
settles & establishes them in conviction / faith rooted in understanding;
rouses his unvirtuous mother & father,
settles & establishes them in virtue;
rouses his stingy mother & father,
settles & establishes them in generosity;
rouses his foolish mother & father,
settles & establishes them in discernment / wisdom.
rouses his unbelieving mother & father,
settles & establishes them in conviction / faith rooted in understanding;
rouses his unvirtuous mother & father,
settles & establishes them in virtue;
rouses his stingy mother & father,
settles & establishes them in generosity;
rouses his foolish mother & father,
settles & establishes them in discernment / wisdom.
To this extent one pays & repays one's mother & father."
- Kataññu Suttas: Gratitude AN 2.31-32
Dhamma Sharing 'Honoring the Departed: A Buddhist Perspective'
by Āyasmā Aggacitta Mahāthero
by Āyasmā Aggacitta Mahāthero
Sharing or Dedication of Merits
'.. In memory of deceased relatives people perform numerous merit-sharing ceremonies in order to purify their own minds. They may give something to religious places or to the poor, observe the precepts or teach the Dhamma. ...'
'... This merit-sharing ceremony, according to the Tirokuddha Sutta, was introduced by the Buddha himself in order to help King Bimbisara of Magadha in sharing merits with his deceased relatives who had been reborn among the spirits who subsist on the offerings of others.'
Read the Tirokuddha Sutta here ...
www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/pv/pv.1.05.than.html or here ...
www.tipitaka.net/tipitaka/study/tirokudda-090111.htm
www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/pv/pv.1.05.than.html or here ...
www.tipitaka.net/tipitaka/study/tirokudda-090111.htm
- Picture : Relatives visit the tombs of their deceased loved ones / ancestors to clean them and honor their anscestors during the Qing Ming Festival.
Qing Ming is .. a traditional Chinese festival on the first day of the fifth solar term of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar. This makes it the 15th day after the Spring Equinox, either 4 or 5 April in a given year. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qingming_Festival).
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