The
next commandment is, Honor thy father and thy mother. Perhaps, in
Moses' time, children were not filial, so this commandment was necessary.
If everyone was filial, no one would know what "being not filial"
is. If people are all beautiful, we wouldn't know what "ugly" is.
If all the people in a country are rich, no one would talk about poverty.
For instance, this is a Buddhist country, so there are monks here.
However, people in some other countries have never seen monks, so
they don't know what monks are and won't talk about monks at all.
Similarly, people then were not well disciplined. The Bible describes
the chaotic situation at that time. After Moses was away for only
forty days, the people gave up the Lord and worshipped a golden calf.
They were low in spirit and lacked morality, so they changed their
master in only forty days.
Of
course, we're becoming more civilized and more advanced. We used to
live in caves and eat raw food and live animals. We had no fire, no
houses, no airplanes nor any civilized tools. Now we're more civilized,
because throughout the ages, extraterrestrial beings have been coming
to impart modern knowledge to us and make us become more intelligent
and our children more clever.
For instance, you're
now following me to practice spiritually and the children that you
bear are also different! Those who were vegetarians since they were
in their mother's womb look plump and rosy. Have you ever seen their
arms? They have at least three to four folds of flesh. I wonder where
they get the nutrition from. They only drink milk! These kids will
definitely grow up to become more intelligent than we are. And those
who've been initiated in their mother's belly may become even more
extraordinary when they grow up! And their children, of course, may
be even more outstanding, being morally stable, emotionally steady,
mentally happy, and more developed in wisdom. So our offspring will
become better and better.
Look
at the time of Moses. It was really chaotic. People's wisdom was very
low. God had given them a lot, manifested Hiers magical power many
times, and protected them in every way. Yet, after the master was
away for only forty days, they abandoned God and worshipped a golden
calf, instead. Can you imagine that? In modern times, some people
are also like those who worshipped the golden calf, but they're relatively
few in number. Few people who follow me will regress. This means that
you're more stable and you have more wisdom. It's possibly because
I have more merit so that God sends me the best disciples. Don't take
my word for it before you check your own hearts. (Master and audience
laugh.)
Why
must we respect our parents? Because God's love takes care of us through
the law of cause and effect and through the love and physical forms
of our parents. Respecting our parents is respecting God. In fact,
it's not the physical forms of our parents who look after us; but
it's God's love that does so. We should understand this point clearly!
Life after life, the Supreme Mother through our physical mother and
the Supreme Father through our physical father have been taking care
of us, teaching us the basic virtues, compassion and love. Because
our parents love us, we know what love is when we grow up. This is
a fact!
If
we're raised in a stable and loving family, we'll become more loving,
and feel more secure when we grow up. Sometimes, we see that some
children do evil deeds, become scoundrels, or are accused of being
criminals and imprisoned. Don't blame them too quickly! It may be
because they lacked loving care and education when they were young.
It may be because their parents died very early or were too busy to
look after them. Or it may be because their parents were not loved
by their own parents before so that they couldn't treat their children
with love.
As the sequence
repeats itself, people will have less and less love and will make
more and more trouble. When they go out into society, they may be
treated unfairly or oppressed and lose their sense of security. Later,
when they're bullied or misunderstood, due to their inferiority complexes,
they'll resist, revolt, and resist society more and more. The more
they resist society, the more they'll lose themselves and their love,
and the more their hatred will grow. Eventually, they'll end up miserable
in jail.
For
the above reasons, we should be filial to our parents. If our parents
don't treat us well, we ought to think that it's our retribution and
unfavorable destiny. Perhaps we owed our parents something in our
previous lives and didn't repay it. Perhaps we were bad parents in
our previous lives so that we have to have bad parents in this lifetime
to learn our lesson. So we have to endure it and be filial. This'll
be good for us as well as for our parents.
In
Costa Rica, there was a fellow initiate who was a little more than
twenty years old. Two or three days after she was initiated, she came
to me crying! I asked her why she was crying. She said that she couldn't
get along well with her family, especially her father. Her mother
had passed away and her father didn't treat her well. He was cold,
stern and hard to communicate with. He always oppressed and dominated
her. So she couldn't bear it.
I asked her, "Have
you ever thought that you might be just as cold and stern to your
father and that you've shelved your love for him? Have you ever thought
that your father also needs your love. It's not only that you need
his." She was stunned and then said, "What should I do? It's possible
that I've never expressed my feelings to him." I told her, "When you
go home today, buy a most beautiful red rose. Then kneel down in front
of your father and offer the flower to him, hug him, and tell him,
'Although I've never shown my love to you because I forgot, I was
young and not sensible, nevertheless, I love you very much.'" So she
did what I told her. As a result, the two hugged and cried together.
Since then, they have become very good to each other.
So
one of them has to open his/her heart first. Parents work outside.
They're often exhausted physically and mentally. They have many worries
and many debts. In addition to heavy family responsibilities, they
can hardly laugh when they're home. However, children may not understand
the hardships of their parents. They may keep demanding and expecting
a lot but don't realize that their parents also need some support
and love. On one side, parents may be stern: "We're your parents!"
They may be strict because they worry that their children won't respect
them; and in addition to their heavy work pressure, they can't laugh
out loud. On the other side, the children think, "Our parents are
very strict. They don't love us and don't give us this and that."
Then the children may get upset or harbor enmity. This will deepen
the misunderstanding between both sides and broaden the generation
gap. In fact, both sides are anxious and eager to hug each other.
They love each other very much, but they can't express it.
You
can just try to express your feelings; you don't have to feel embarrassed.
They're your family members. If you really can't communicate with
them, try this method, that is, hug each other first and talk later.
When you tell them truly out of sincerity, your words will be touching.
You'll gradually communicate with each other and understand that the
other side also has feelings and love, and then you'll reconcile with
them. Family members always love each other. But sometimes they're
too proud to be the first to speak out. So both sides lock themselves
up and wait for the other to knock. However, no one ever knocks first.
(Master laughs.) And then both sides become anxious.
Sometimes
this happens to husbands and wives, too. They want very much to reconcile,
but both are waiting and no one takes the initiative. As days go by,
the atmosphere remains tense and stern. Although they've forgiven
each other inside, they can't put aside their pride but worry about
losing face and what the other party may think of them. "Will he/she
ridicule me for giving in?" In fact, that won't happen. It doesn't
matter even if your husband laughs at you; he's your partner! It's
also fine if your wife laughs at you! In fact, she won't. She's only
waiting for you to apologize to her. Now you understand!
Why
do we have to respect our parents? Because they work hard for us.
The precious bodies that we are able to have were given by our parents;
not by the physical entities of our parents, but by the grace of God's
love acting through them. Therefore, we should respect them in order
to respect God. Everything is created by God. Hes gives us birth through
the bodies of our parents, but not that our parents do that themselves.
However, since our parents have God's love within, that is, since
they have God inside them, when they love us, they have God's loving
power. They're very noble, gracious and superior beings. So how can
we not respect them?
Master
Says
Respecting
Our Parents Is Respecting God 
Keep
The Commandments In Order To Become Special Friends Of The Lord