Parents Have a Great Responsibility

Parents Have a Great Responsibility

Date Posted:
October 2005

A student in Hong Kong was wondering whether to have a child or not.

You should have a clear goal as to your purpose in having a child. The purpose to have a child is to raise him or her with a good heart. You have to cause love and compassion, kindness to others, generosity, and universal responsibility, feeling responsible for all living beings’ happiness. Then there will be so much peace and happiness in your own life and fulfillment in your heart. You will be able to bring great peace and happiness to all other living beings, to the whole world, to this country, and to your family.

When a person is generous and kind to others and good hearted, then all the good things in life come from that: prosperity, health, and along life. Such a person will receive all of those things. If those good qualities are within a person’s mind, even if they live in poverty they will experience peace and happiness, and there will be satisfaction and fulfillment in the heart of that person.

I mentioned to him the violence in Colombia, where there has been so much killing and fighting for many years. I visited Colombia and the members of our center there mentioned to me that their family members can be killed any time. There is so much violence that people can be killed any time.

One of the most important things in life, which is missing from the schools and universities, is education in the practice of transformation of mind and actions. This would bring more peace and happiness to the country. Since the future peace and happiness of the world and of the country depends on the children, even if only 90 percent, 50 percent, or even a quarter of the children practice, that will help very much to bring peace in the world and in their own country.

Historically, there are individuals who have been responsible for the torture and killing of many millions of people. From this, you can see that if even one child or one person develops a good heart, that precious quality of the human mind, then when that one person gains influence or power, they can bring so much peace and happiness to many millions of people just by having trained their mind in the good heart. So, it is very important to educate children in having a good heart, feeling kind and generous toward others, and feeling responsible for all living beings’ happiness. This education is important in school and also at home, from the parents, because children spend more time at home than at school. That is why parents also should be educated in this way and should practice a good heart, loving kindness, and compassion. They should be kind and generous to others, have a sense of universal responsibility, and feel that they are responsible for all living beings’ happiness.

I have done a divination and, for you, it is better to have children than not, but it has only a small benefit. Parents suffer so much for their children. They sacrifice their life from the time of conception for so many years, giving them physical and material support, their means of living, education, and so on. If the child grows up with a selfish attitude, with anger and bad thoughts, and performs selfish actions, then instead of bringing peace to the world, they only bring harm to others. It can turn out that they only bring harm to this world and unhappiness to the family, by creating problems and fear, causing worry, anger, and loss to their parents. This can happen.

Of course, each child has its own karma. How this life will turn out depends on their previous karma and on the conditions they meet in this life. Parents are a condition, an example, and an influence on children. Many children follow their parents’ ideas, their behavior, and their life style, so parents have a great responsibility. Those who would like to have children should be aware of this. They should have think about these things before they rush to have children.