Appreciate the Kindness of Benefactors

The Lord Buddha’s Dhamma teaches us to be aware of and appreciate the kindness that is bestowed on us by people we are indebted to such as our parents or teachers, by those who took care of us or who taught and trained us. We should respect and honor them and help them when necessary. We shouldn’t be stubborn or cocky, boasting that we are highly educated and have high status. We should always remember their kindness when we were their child or their disciple. We should always consider them as more important than ourselves in the same way that a mountain, no matter how high, is always under the feet of those who have climbed it successfully. A machete, no matter how sharp, can never be without a whetstone. No matter how exalted the knowledge of a student, it is only what teachers have been kind enough to bestow on them. Therefore, the Lord Buddha taught us that having respect for parents and teachers is the basic foundation of a good human being.

This reflection by Ajahn Maha Boowa is from the book, Death Is Always Watching Us, p. 5.