331 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
331 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
Parents And Children
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World Scripture
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PARENTS AND CHILDREN
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In a family, parents are responsible for the welfare of the children and offer
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the children an embracing, unconditional love that overlooks and compensates
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for their weaknesses. Through their example, they teach their children the
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basic values and attitudes which they will carry throughout life. The
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children, in turn, respect their parents as the source of their very being, as
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their teachers, and as the ones who have labored and sacrificed for their
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sakes. When they are grown, they should be responsible to care for their
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parents in their old age. These relative responsibilities should not be
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undertaken as a matter of duty, but rather emerge from the spontaneous
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promptings of parental love and the children's gratitude and respect. This is
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the vertical axis defining relations of love and respect between people of
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unequal status and different responsibilities.
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Train up a child in the way he should go,
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and when he is old he will not depart from it.
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1. Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Proverbs 22.6
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He who spares the rod hates his son,
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but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.
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2. Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Proverbs 13.24
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You can only coil a fish when it is fresh.
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3. African Traditional Religions. Nupe Proverb (Nigeria)
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And remember when Luqman said to his son by way of instruction, "O my dear son!
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Establish worship and enjoin kindness and forbid iniquity,
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and persevere, whatever may befall you. Lo! that is the steadfast heart of
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things."
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4. Islam. Qur'an 31.17
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Nupe Proverb: In other words, you must train a child from infancy when his
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character is pliable; as an adult his character is already set.
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As the child, according to its natural disposition, commits thousands of faults,
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The father instructs and slights, but again hugs him to his bosom.
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5. Sikhism. Adi Granth, Sorath, M.5
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Attend strictly to the commands of your parents and the instructions of your
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teachers. Serve your leader with diligence; be upright of heart; eschew
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falsehood; and be diligent in study; that you may conform to the wishes of the
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heavenly spirit.
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6. Shinto. Oracle of Temmangu
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Children are the clothes of a man.
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7. African Traditional Religions. Yoruba Proverb (Nigeria)
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He established a testimony in Jacob,
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and appointed a law in Israel,
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which he commanded our fathers
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to teach to their children;
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that the next generation might know them,
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the children yet unborn,
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and arise and tell them to their children,
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so that they should set their hope in God,
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and not forget the works of God,
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but keep his commandments.
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8. Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Psalm 78.5-7
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Do not despise the breath of your fathers,
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But draw it into your body.
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That our roads may reach to where the life-giving road of our sun father comes
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out,
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That, clasping one another tight,
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Holding one another fast,
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We may finish our roads together;
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That this may be, I add to your breath now.
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To this end:
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May my father bless you with life;
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May your road reach to Dawn Lake,
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May your road be fulfilled.
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9. Native American Religions. Zuni Prayer
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Oracle of Temmangu: Temmangu is a shrine in Osaka. Its patron deity, Tenjin,
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who was in life the scholar Michizane Sugawara (845-903), is venerated as a god
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of education and literature. Schoolchildren will buy amulets of Tenjin for
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luck at the time of school entrance examinations. Yoruba Proverb: This means
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that a man is assessed by the character of his children. Psalm 78.5-7: Cf.
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Yebamot 62, p. 258. Zuni Prayer: This prayer is spoken at the close of the
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novice's initiation. Doctrine of the Mean 20.8: These are the Confucian Five
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Relations. They are further explicated in the following passage. Book of
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Ritual 7.2.19: Cf. I Ching 37, p. 260. Tattvarthasutra 6.18.24: Cf.
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Acarangasutra 1.35-37, p. 739; Tattvarthasutra 9.6, p. 169.
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- - - - - - - - - - - -
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Brethren, a new child is born.
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While in the uterus it was a woman's thing;
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Safely delivered, it is everybody's child, a native of Nibo, a Nigerian.
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He shall grow under the care of his parents;
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When mature he will look after his parents.
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He shall listen to the good advice of his parents,
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He ought not to obey wrong things.
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We want truly good children, not any thing at all:
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He will grow up industrious, imitating father, mother, and other relations.
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No evil child!
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Instead of a thief, may it pass away through miscarriage.
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The name of the baby is "Chinenye."
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10. African Traditional Religions. Igbo Naming Ceremony (Nigeria)
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There was always, too, a Pipe child--a girl, unless the keeper had no
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daughters....
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"When I was the Pipe child, whenever my mother took the Pipe bundle outside of
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the lodge, I took the tripod out after her. I was told how to set the tripod
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when the camp was about to move, with two of the legs close together and the
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third far out. Whenever my father made smudge with pine needles, he would give
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me some and I would chew them and would hold my hands over the smudge. Then I
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would rub my left palm up to my right arm, my right palm up to my left arm, and
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then both palms from the top of my head down the sides of my neck and down my
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breast...
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Whenever while I was the Pipe child I got sick my father would put pine needles
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on me, and then he would take down the bundle and put it on my parents' bed,
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and would say to me, "Put your arms around your brother [the Pipe] and pray to
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your brother so you may get well." [My father] the Pipe- keeper and his wife
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claim the Feathered Pipe as their son and tell their children that the Pipe is
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their brother.... Of course the Pipe was not human, but because I was a baby
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when my father got it I grew up with it and thought just as much of it as of my
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own blood relatives.
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When my father transferred the Pipe to Sitting High I was outside playing. When
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I was coming home I saw the bundle at Sitting High's door, and when I saw it I
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started to cry, and when I saw my father I said to him, "Why did you give my
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Pipe away?" It was just like a person leaving. I was lonesome for it, and
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felt just as if I had lost a relative or friend. All through my life I have
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felt the same toward it. All through my life I have made it a point to be
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present at any Feathered Pipe ceremony. And whenever I went to any ceremony, I
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would bring something for it....
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My father used to tell me, "This Pipe was given by the Supreme Being through
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Bha'a; the Supreme Being is the father of the Pipe."
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11. Native American Religions. Gros Ventres Tradition of the Pipe Child
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(Montana)
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Igbo Naming Ceremony: This prayer was uttered by an elder from the village of
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Nibo at the naming of his grandson, Chinenye. Notice the phrase 'it is
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everybody's child', which indicates that raising children is a community
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responsibility. Gros Ventres Tradition of the Pipe Child: This testimony is an
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example of how, in traditional societies, religious education of the young is
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integral to daily life.
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This I ask Thee. Tell me truly, Lord.
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Who fashioned esteemed piety in addition to rule?
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Who made a son respectful in his attentiveness to his father?
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12. Zoroastrianism. Avesta, Yasna 44.7
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The gentleman works upon the trunk. When that is firmly set up, the Way grows.
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And surely proper behavior towards parents and elder brothers is the trunk of
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Goodness?
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13. Confucianism. Analects 1.2
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In the Kingdom of Heaven, true love is fulfilled centered on parental love....
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The family is the original base [of true love] and the foundation of eternity.
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14. Unification Church. Sun Myung Moon, 9-30-69
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Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which
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the Lord your God gives you.
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15. Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Exodus 20.12
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There are three partners in man, God, father, and mother. When a man honors
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his father and mother, God says, "I regard it as though I had dwelt among them
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and they had honored me."
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16. Judaism. Talmud, Kiddushin 30b
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"Do not neglect the [sacrificial] works due to the gods and the fathers!
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Let your mother be to you like unto a god! Let your father be to you
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like unto a god! Let your teacher be to you like unto a god!"
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17. Hinduism. Taittiriyaka Upanishad 1.11.2
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Those who wish to be born in [the Pure Land] of Buddha... should act filially
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towards their parents and support them, and should serve and respect their
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teachers and elders.
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18. Buddhism. Meditation on Buddha Amitayus 27
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Thy Lord has decreed... that you be kind to parents. Whether one or both of
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them attain old age in your lifetime, do not say to them a word of contempt,
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nor repel them, but address them in terms of honor. And, out of kindness,
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lower to them the wing of humility, and say, "My Lord! bestow on them Thy mercy
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even as they cherished me in childhood."
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19 Islam. Qur'an 17.23
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One companion asked, "O Apostle of God! Who is the person worthiest of my
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consideration?" He replied, "Your mother." He asked again, "And second to my
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mother?" The Prophet said, "Your mother." The companion insisted, "And then?"
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The Messenger of God said, "After your mother, your father."
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20. Islam. Hadith of Bukhari and Muslim
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Analects 1.2: Cf. Book of History 5.9, p. 466.
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Now filial piety is the root of all virtue, and the stem out of which grows all
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moral teaching... Our bodies--to every hair and bit of skin--are received by
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us from our parents, and we must not presume to injure or wound them: this is
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the beginning of filial piety. When we have established our character by the
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practice of the filial course, so as to make our name famous in future ages,
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and thereby glorify our parents: this is the end of filial piety. It commences
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with the service of parents; it proceeds to the service of the ruler; it is
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completed by the establishment of [good] character.
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21. Confucianism. Classic on Filial Piety 1
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Son, why do you quarrel with your father,
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Due to him you have grown to this age?
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It is a sin to argue with him.
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22. Sikhism. Adi Granth, Sarang, M.4, p. 1200
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Rama, "How can I transgress this command of my mother and my father? It is for
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thee to occupy the throne in Ayodhya, the throne that all revere, and for me to
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live in the Dandaka Forest, wearing robes of bark! Having spoken thus, the
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great King Dasaratha made this division of duties in the presence of the people
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and then ascended to heaven. The word of that virtuous monarch is our law! It
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is for thee to enjoy the kingdom given thee by our sire, and, taking refuge in
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the Dandaka Forest for fourteen years, I shall carry out the part assigned to
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me by my magnanimous sire. That which my high-souled father... has directed me
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to do, I regard as my supreme felicity, not the dominion of all the worlds."
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23. Hinduism. Ramayana, Ayodhya Kanda 101
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We have enjoined on man kindness to his parents: In pain did his mother bear
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him, and in pain did she give him birth. The carrying of the child to his
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weaning is thirty months. At length, when he reaches the age of full strength
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and attains forty years, he says, "O my Lord! Grant me that I may be grateful
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for Your favor which You have bestowed upon me, and upon both my parents, and
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that I may work righteousness such as You may approve; and be gracious to me in
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my issue. Truly have I turned to You and truly do I bow to You in Islam."
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Such are they from whom We shall accept the best of their deeds and pass by
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their ill deeds: they shall be among the Companions of the Garden: a promise of
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truth, which was made to them. Paradise, holding the true promise which has
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been given them.
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24. Islam. Qur'an 46.15-16
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Ramayana: At the insistence of Rama's stepmother, his father the king decreed
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that upon his death, Rama the heir apparent would be exiled to wander in the
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forest for fourteen years while his stepbrother Bharata was to rule as king.
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Though Bharata himself, along with all the populace, implored Rama to take his
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rightful place as king, Rama refused out of filial loyalty to his departed
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father. Cf. Ramayana, Ayodhya Kanda 109, pp. 708f.
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Brethren, one can never repay two persons, I declare. What two? Mother and
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father.
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Even if one should carry about his mother on one shoulder and his father on the
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other, and so doing should live a hundred years; and if he should support them,
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anointing them with unguents, kneading and rubbing their limbs, and they
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meanwhile should even void their excrements upon him--even so could he not
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repay his parents. Moreover, if he should establish his parents in supreme
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authority, in the absolute rule over this mighty earth abounding in the seven
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treasures--not even thus could he repay his parents. Why not? Brethren,
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parents do much for their children; they bring them up, they nourish them, they
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introduce them to this world. However, brethren, whoso incites his unbelieving
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parents, settles and establishes them in the faith; whoso incites his immoral
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parents, settles and establishes them in morality; whoso incites his stingy
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parents, settles and establishes them in liberality; whoso incites his foolish
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parents, settles and establishes them in wisdom--such a one, just by so doing,
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does repay, does more than repay what is due to his parents.
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25. Buddhism. Anguttara Nikaya i.61
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My father, thank you for petting me;
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My mother, thank you for making me comfortable;
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Thank you for robing me with wisdom, which is more important than robing me
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with clothes.
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Slaves will minister unto you;
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Servants will be your helpers.
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Children which I shall bear will minister unto you.
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26. African Traditional Religions. Yoruba Nuptial Chant (Nigeria)
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If your parents take care of you up to the time you cut your teeth, you take
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care of them when they lose theirs.
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27. African Traditional Religions. Akan Proverb (Ghana)
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You shall rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of an old man, and
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you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
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28. Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Leviticus 19.32
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My father sent for me; I saw he was dying. I buried him in that beautiful
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valley of winding waters. I love that land more than all the rest of the
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world. A man who would not love his father's grave is worse than a wild animal.
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29. Native American Religions. Nez Perce Tradition
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Nez Perce Tradition: Veneration of parents' graves and the spirits of ancestors
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is an important expression of a son's or daughter's abiding love for their
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parents. Cf. Winnebago Invocation at the Sweat Lodge, p. 373; Igbo Invocation
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at a Trial, p. 372; Khuddaka Patha, p. 374; Nihon Shoki III, p. 371; One
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Hundred Poems about the World, pp. 780f.
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