5. Belief in the admirable qualities of the mother and father

Another characteristic of Right View is to have faith in the worthy qualities of one’s mother and father. The mother and father are brimful of those great qualities loving-kindness (mettā), compassion (karunā), altruistic joy (muditā) and equanimity (upekkhā) with which the Mahā Brahma1 beholds the world. How a mother nourishes you is by turning into milk the lifeblood warmed by those noble qualities. An embryo that sprouts in a mother’s womb turns into a little baby in ten months purely owing to those great qualities of loving-kindness, compassion, altruistic joy, and equanimity found in a mother and father. When a mother and father gazes at you with the same qualities that Mahā Brahma looks at you with, you must return the gaze with as much reverence as you would look at Mahā Brahma. Hidden in such a respectful thought are wholesome karma-formations needed for you to become Sakka2 in a future birth.

Where hundreds of thousands of children are abandoned in orphanages without the care and protection of a mother and father, where certain children are living in slavery, revered-you have received so precious a mother and father only because you attended to them in the previous life, having discerned the worthy qualities of parents. It’s just exalted Right View that brings to the fore the celestial comforts hidden in a glimmer of a smile, a drop of urine, a fleck of stool or a soiled garment of a mother and father. The qualities of loving-kindness, compassion, altruistic joy and equanimity that exist in parents are pregnant with the potential to produce a buddha, an arahat or a Sakka for the world. Don’t ignorantly make such worthy parents cry! Don’t cause them grief, or give them tears! Sacrifice your happiness for the sake of your parents’ happiness. You be happy, seeing them being happy.

Thousands of eggs are hatched on poultry farms. Those eggs are hatched with the help of incubators. The broiler chicken brood that come into the world from those incubators don’t get to experience a mother’s warmth, love or protection. It is a karma-result (vipāka) of an unwholesome deed that these animals experience. Wouldn’t take care of the mother and father in saŋsāra. Couldn’t discern the worthy qualities of parents and didn’t show gratitude for those qualities. Come into the world as orphans as a result. Take for instance such animals as the iguana, crocodile, or cat. Those animals kill their own offspring for food. Such animal mothers denote the results of broken-down parent-children relationships in previous lives as humans. It’s just Right View that lays bare for you the woeful destinations of rebirth that lie hidden in a tear of a mother and father, and the fortunate destinations hidden in a smile of theirs. It is one of the greatest characteristics of Right View.

1 Mahā Brahma is the title name of the highest denizen of certain brahma worlds. Brahmas are said to always have in them the qualities of mettā, karunā, muditā and upekkhā.

2 Sakka is the title name of the chief of deities (the lord over the celestial beings) in the heavenly realm Tāvatiŋsa.