The Buddha Expounds the Sūtra on Filial Piety

佛問諸沙門：「親之生子，懷之十月，身為重病；臨生之日，母危父怖，其情難言。

The Buddha spoke to the śramaṇas:

“When parents are to give birth to a child, the mother comes to bear the child within her womb for ten months, wherein her body will be beset by grave illnesses; when approaching the day of birth, the mother will be beset by much peril and the father will be seized by much fear — their emotions are beyond description.

既生之後，推燥臥濕，精誠之至，血化為乳，摩拭澡浴，衣食教詔，禮賂師友，奉貢君長；

After having given birth, the parents will push their child unto all places that are dry, while they suffer lying in the damp — utmost is their devotion.

Moreover, the mother’s blood will become milk for the child, and both parents will clean and bathe the child, clothe and feed the child, teach and admonish the child, provide gifts to teachers and friends, and are even willing to offer tributes to rulers and elders, on behalf of the child;

子顏和悅，親亦欣豫，子設慘慼，親心焦枯；出門愛念，入則存之，心懷惕惕，懼其不善。親恩若此，何以報之？」

When their child’s face becomes joyful, the parents also affectionately become joyful, and when the child is suffering with much sorrow, their affectionate minds are too withered by sorrow. Whenever the time comes that the child comes to leave the gates of the familial household, the parents pray for the child’s safety, and whenever the child returns, they are moved to rejoice once again.

The mind of parents are beset by much worry; are ever fearful; and are without lasting joy. The compassion of a parent is like this. How can this ever be repaid?”

諸沙門對曰：「唯當盡禮慈心供養，以賽親恩。」

All of the śramaṇas replied:

“One can only repay the kindness of one’s parents by serving them with utmost reverence and devotion.”

世尊又曰：「子之養親，甘露百味以恣其口，天樂眾音以娛其耳，名衣上服光耀其身，兩肩荷負周流四海，訖子年命以賽養恩，可謂孝乎？」

The Bhagavān asked them thus:

“If children support their parents by providing them with the nectars of a hundred flavours so as to satisfy mouths of their parents;

Or if they play celestial music of such manifold melodies for the ears of their parents to enjoy;

Or if they were to clothe the bodies of their parents in fine and luminous garments;

Or if even were they to carry their parents on both shoulders through each and every direction within the four oceans;

Were they to carry these acts out until the ends of their lives so as to repay the kindness of their parents, then would this be called filial piety?”

諸沙門曰：「惟孝之大莫尚乎茲？」

All of the śramaṇas then replied:

“Would there be any greater act of filial piety than this?”

世尊告曰：「未為孝矣！若親頑闇不奉三尊，兇虐殘戾，濫竊非理，婬妷外色，偽辭非道，酖愐荒亂，違背正真，兇㜸若斯，子當極諫以啟悟之。

The Bhagavān said:

“Even these acts are yet to be true filial piety!

If one’s parents were obstinate and ignorant; if they were not to revere the three jewels; if they were cruel and abusive, or harsh and oppressive; if they were to steal wantonly and are unprincipled; or if they were lustful and pursued after external forms; or if they were to speak deceitfully and contrary to the Path; if they were intoxicated and deluded in confusion; or if they were opposed to what is right and true; whether they acted cruelly or licentiously; then the child ought to earnestly remonstrate each of them by teaching them to awaken.

若猶瞢瞢未悟，即為義化，當牽譬引類，示王者之牢獄、諸囚之刑戮曰：『斯為不軌，身被眾毒，自招殞命。命終神去，繫于太山，湯火萬毒，獨呼無救。由彼履惡，遭斯重殃矣。』

If they be still delusional and unawakened, then one should righteously cause them to transform by drawing on comparisons and analogies and showing them the prisons of kings and the numerous punishments of criminals; saying to them:

“When those people had not followed the rules of law, their bodies came to incur such numerous poisons; inviting the loss of their lives. Just the same — for all evil people in the world — at the end of each of their lives, their spirits will depart and be destined for the great mountains of boiling water; or of fire; or the ten-thousand kinds of poisons, with nobody to call out for help.

Thus, when one treads down this path of evil, one will truly meet with such heavy misfortunes.”

設復未移，吟泣啼嗷，絕不飲食，親雖不明，必以恩愛之痛，懼子死矣。猶當強忍伏心崇道，若親遷志奉佛五戒，

If they still have not been caused to change by one having utilised such skilful means, then one should groan, weep, and wail noisily; or even cease eating and drinking. If one’s parents are still unfazed, then one must — using the pain of their affection — cause them to fear the death of their child. Moreover, one must bear strong patience, subdue one’s mind, and venerate the Path so as to move the hearts of one’s parents to resolve in accepting — with both of their hands — the five precepts of the Buddhas:

仁惻不殺，清讓不盜，貞潔不婬，守信不欺，孝順不醉者，宗門之內，即親慈子孝，夫正婦貞，九族和睦，僕使順從，潤澤遠被，含血受恩，十方諸佛、天龍鬼神、有道之君、忠平之臣，黎庶萬姓無不敬愛，祐而安之。

practise benevolence and denounce killing,
offer to others purely and renounce stealing,
be chaste and cease sexual misconduct,
uphold right speech and disavow deception,
maintain mindfulness and give up intoxication.

Only then, within such a household, will the parents be compassionate and will the children filial, or will husbands be upright and wives be faithful, or will the nine degrees of kindred be harmonious, or the servants and attendants be dutiful. Such a family’s blessings will extend far and wide, and all those who are born within such a bloodline will receive blessings from all of the Buddhas of the Ten Directions, as well as from the devas, the nāgas, the pretas, the āryas on the Path, loyal and well-temperate ministers, as well as from all of the tens of thousands of beings. Truly there will be none who will not bless and keep this family safe.

數有顛倒之政，佞嬖之輔，兇兒妖婦，千邪萬怪，無如已何。於是二親處世常安，壽終魂靈往生天上，諸佛共會得聞法言，獲道度世長與苦別。」

Though, externally, there may come to be perverse governments, flatterers and favoured sycophants, malicious children or women who seduce husbands to cheat, thousands of evils or tens of thousands demons, none of them can harm this family. Henceforth, one’s two parents — when dwelling within the world — will be in everlasting peace, and at the end of their lives, their spirits will depart and will be born within the various realms of the devas, wherein they will be able to hear the Dharma from all of the saṃghas of the Buddhas, and thus seize upon the Path of Liberation from the World — finally cut off the long source of all suffering that has lasted since beginningless time.”

佛告諸沙門：「覩世無孝，唯斯為孝耳。能令親去惡為善，奉持五戒，執三自歸，朝奉而暮終者，恩重於親乳哺之養、無量之惠。

The Buddha then addressed the various śramaṇas:

“Contemplate on how this world is without true filial piety; understand how only having heard about this practice is one able to give rise to true filial piety. It is through this, that one is able to cause one’s parents to renounce evil and enable them to enact good; to cause them to receive — with both of their hands — the five precepts, and cause them to obtain the threefold refuge. Those who accept this practice of filial piety, from morning until the final act of the night, will with this fine and nourishing milk, come to nurture the great compassion within the hearts and minds of one’s parents, and thus invite them to obtain innumerable blessings.

若不能以三尊之至化其親者，雖為孝養猶為不孝。無以孽妻遠賢不親，女情多欲，好色無倦，違孝殺親，國政荒亂，萬民流亡；

If the children within a nation are unwilling to transform their parents through the virtues of the Three Jewels, then such acts of filial piety cannot be considered true filial piety. Let it not be that, because of harmful husbands and wives, children are pulled away from the āryas and are caused to be without parents. Or that they are caused to develop excessive lust and become enamoured by superficial beauty. Or that they come to disregard filial piety and and thus invite death to one’s parents. All of these evil acts will thus cause the governance of one’s nation to fall into chaos and for the tens of thousands of citizens to be scattered and lost — wandering in despair.

本志惠施，禮式自撿，軟心崇仁，烝烝進德，潛意寂寞，學志叡達，名動諸天，明齊賢者，自穢妻聚，惑志女色，荒迷于欲，妖蠱姿態其變萬端。

When one’s original intent is set on conferring blessings on others, to have conduct disciplined through propriety and self-restraint, to have a gentle mind which reveres benevolence, to advance step by step and develop oneself within virtue, to abide in the quiescence of the ideation of non-discriminating of dharmas, and to resolve for enlightenment that penetrates deep into the marrow of wisdom itself, then one’s name will come to move even the minds and hearts of the devas, and enable one’s understanding to become equal to that of the āryas. However, by keeping impure company with a harmful husband or wife, one’s mind will become disturbed by external beauty, become lost and confused in desire, or even become seduced by tens of thousands of manifest-forms that appear within the world.

薄智之夫、淺見之士，覩其如此，不覺微漸，遂迴志沒身，從彼魃魅邪巧之亂，或危親殺君，悋色情蕩，忿嫉怠慢，散心盲冥，等行鳥獸，自古世來，無不由之殺身滅宗。

Husbands and wives of little wisdom, and people of shallow understanding, upon seeing such things, will gradually lose their enlightenment and thus turn their minds away from wisdom, thus inviting ruin into their lives by following the chaotic and evil paths of pretas — such as piśācas, bhūtas, and rākṣasas — in such a way that they bring ruin upon their parents and death unto the rulers of one’s nation. When conducting themselves in these ways which are filled with much desire and lust, or anger, envy, sloth, and pride, or even with minds bereft of mindfulness such that they are as if blind within the dark — when enacting all such conduct akin to birds and beasts — such conduct, since the times of old, have never once been unable to bring death and ruin upon the families and nations of the world.

是以沙門獨而不雙，清潔其志以道是務。奉斯明戒，為君即保四海，為臣即忠，以仁養民，即父法明子孝慈，夫信婦貞。優婆塞、優婆夷執行如是，世世逢佛見法得道。」

Therefore, when such children are conducting themselves as śramaṇas, they ought to live alone and be without husbands or wives and thus purify their resolve in devoting themselves to their development along the Path. When receiving — with both hands — the various illuminating precepts, they will as rulers come to protect every direction of the four oceans, or as ministers, remain loyal to the rulers of a nation, and through one’s benevolence, bring much nourishment to the people. When they come to understand the Dharma, then they will come to act as fathers for the children, and as children they come to be filial and compassionate for the parents. As husbands they will be faithful, and as wives they always remain chaste and free of sexual misconduct. When upāsakas and upāsikās practice accordingly, then for generation after generation, they will always come to meet with the Buddhas, achieve direct insight into the Dharma, and attain completion upon the Path of the Āryas.”

佛說如是，弟子歡喜。

After the Buddha had spoken thus, the disciples all rejoiced with great joy.

佛說孝子經

Thus ends the Buddha Expounds the Sūtra on Filial Piety.