Filial Piety.
Reverence
for Parents.
Also
love for children.
Proper Parenthood.
Filial piety (hsiao) is the root of (all) virtue, and (the stem) out of which grows (all moral) teaching. (...) By the practice of it the people were brought to live in peace and harmony, and there was no ill-will between superiors and inferiors (...). Attributed to Confucius, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.125.
The service which filial children do to their parents is as follows: in their general conduct to them, they manifest the utmost reverence; in their nourishing of them, their endeavor to give them the utmost pleasure; when they are ill, they feel the greatest anxiety; in mourning for them, they exhibit every demonstration of grief; in sacrificing to them, they display the utmost solemnity. (...). Attributed to Confucius, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.125.
Your Lord has enjoined you (...) to show kindness to your parents. If either or both of them attain old age in your dwelling, show them no signs of impatience, nor rebuke them; but speak to them kind words. Treat them with humility and tenderness and say: "Lord, be merciful to them. They nursed me when I was an infant." Quran, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.302.
And we have enjoyed upon man to be good to his parents. With difficulty upon difficulty did his mother bear him and wean him for two years. Show gratitude to Me and to your parents; to Me is your final goal. Quran 31:14.
We owe a debt to the gods. We owe a debt to parents. We owe a dept to our wives (...). No work can be satisfactory concluded until the debt to parents at least has been paid (...). So long as parents remain in want, the practice of devotion avails nothing. Ramakrishna, quoted in: Rolland, Romain. (1994). The Life of Ramakrishna. P.186.
Be yourself and seek your own path. Know yourself before you attempt to get to know children. Become aware of what you yourself are capable of before you attempt to outline the rights and responsibilities of children. First and foremost you must realize that you too are a child, whom you must first get to know, to bring up and educate. Children are not the people of tomorrow, but are people of today. They have a right to be taken seriously, and to be treated with tenderness and respect, they should be allowed to grow into whoever they were meant to be. The unknown person inside each of them is our hope for the future. Janusz Korczak (1879-1940), How to Love a Child, quoted in: Michael Shire, The Jewish Prophet, P.115.
On this Father’s Day we affirm the fealty of
the Heavenly Father. While the human father’s love is not always
unconditional, still his love is guided by wisdom, regard for law, and the will
to protect others. (...) A father should remember he is not just a human
parent; he is the representative of the Heavenly Father. (...) Each father
should therefore realize that he has a responsibility to behave properly (...).
He must keep himself pure, for it is through him and through all the fathers
that the Heavenly Father looks after the children of earth. (...) To produce
offspring is not a unique accomplishment; the animals do that too. But to
produce children on the plane of divine love and in a spiritual consciousness
is an important achievement. (...) Character building should be taught in
schools and colleges, but fathers should realize that the example is more
important than schooling. (...) If you want a child to be mild and noble of
speech, you should not talk to your wife impatiently (...). Let every father
remember, when tempted to speak to a child with dictatorial harshness, “(...) I
should always guide my children with the loving persuasiveness of truth. My
mind should be a transparent glass through which shines the Heavenly Father’s
light of wisdom.” Paramahansa Yogananda’s
speech on Father’s Day, 18 June 1944, quoted in: Paramahansa
Yogananda (1975, 1982, 2000).
Man’s Eternal Quest. Los Angeles, CA: Self-Realization Fellowship. OGN#579.
Last updated: 2013/06/09
See the related subjects: Compassion, Human Love, Marriage, Duty