The Rituals of the Zhou Dynasty say that “Ren” comes from the ancestors. To use an analogy, ancestors are like the kernel of peach and plum. With the kernel, the Family can be reproduced for generations, so the ancestors and fathers are the core of a family. Chinese people are very filial and know how to be filial to their Parents and repay their kindness by taking good care of their parents’ Food and living.
Some people want to support their parents with filial piety, but their parents are no longer alive, so they do not have the opportunity to do so, so they are sad. There are a few stories in the Qing Dynasty’s An Shi Quan Shu that may provide some reference.
Doing good deeds and making virtues to repay both parents
There was a man in Fujian named Lin Chengmei, who lost his father when he was young and his mother raised him to adulthood. He wanted to repay his father, but his father was no longer alive, so he often cried bitterly.
One day, a Zen master told him, “You are a filial son. It is not a good idea to cry so much. You should look for a way to repay him. As the saying goes, ‘Doing good benefits your relatives’ kindness, but doing evil harms them. If you want to repay your parents, the only way to repay them is to accumulate good deeds.”
Although sincerely mourning and weeping can earn you the reputation of a filial son, your parents will not receive any blessings. The only way to benefit both parents is to do good deeds and accumulate virtue. Lin Chengmei was thus awakened and from then on he quit killing and practiced virtue. As a result of his good deeds, he became a talented scholar in Fujian and lived to be 96 years old, dying without any illness.
He became a monk and saved his deceased father
In the Tang Dynasty, there was a man named Xie, whose father lived by fishing. One day, his father suddenly fell into the water and drowned. Xie thought that his father had killed too many people in his Life and would surely fall into the evil path. So, he shaved his head and became a monk, and his Dharma name was Shibi. He endured hard practice and did not slacken off. At that Time, he was famous for his asceticism.
One day, when Shibi was leading the people over the mountains, he accidentally hurt his foot and bled a lot. But in that very moment, he had a great enlightenment and understood that everything has a cause. Later, Shibi dreamed that his late father came to him to thank him, “You have set your mind on becoming a monk and have understood the truth of God and Buddha. This merit has enabled me to be spared from hell and to be born in the heavenly realm, so I rushed to tell you.”
The Assassin recites the sutra and repays the kindness of his relatives
Wang Chin-shek, the assassin of Cizhou in the Tang Dynasty, was a kind and filial person, who was calm and prudent.
In the sixth year of Zhenguan, Wang Chin-shek’s father died. In order to observe the filial piety, Wang Chin-shek built a hut next to the tomb and guarded the tomb alone, chanting Buddhist sutras every night to pray for his late father. People, at that time, heard the musical sound of chimes from afar, the sound was clear and went straight to the heart. A strange aroma filled the grass hut where he lived and could be smelled from miles away.
Some people commented that Wang Chin-shek, the prince, knew how to not only bury the form of his parents, but also to guide his parents’ consciousness and spirit (the main elemental spirit) to have something to convert to. In this way, he repaid the kindness of his parents, and he was really a kind and filial person.
Although the ancient people repay their kindness in different ways, they all did it for the sake of their relatives and others, so that they could have a better place and a better future.
(The incident is according to “Anshu Quanshu” on filial piety)
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