No 1425 of Living Life Series 1
Why is there the need to honour the elders even if their days of guidance and leadership are over? They may no longer be as good when they grow old and may know less than the young who are often better educated than them.
While it is in religion to honour elders and parents, there is sometimes the contradictory call to regard God as the father and this some may mistake as the justification to sidestep the elders and fathers on Earth.
Even if fathers are imperfect more so when they are old, there is need to bow to their wishes where we can and not to hurt them when this cannot be done. Do not hurt them even emotionally.
Whilst we look to God and saints as perfect in every way, what God and saints can do is to bless us somewhat but we still have to learn from them how to be good and to manage life on our own for the main part of our life.
We cannot expect God and saints to give us perfection. In fact, the only perfection we can have is imperfection. Uncertainty is the only certainty. Uncertainty or call this impermanence if you may is the greatest imperfection.
A seemingly imperfect God provides the perfection for us to learn. A perfect God never guarantees perfection and never say we will not have the ups and downs in life. Likewise, our elders and parents are good for us when we are young and we need them to grow up. They never say we will not have the imperfect ups and downs in life.
But what they want to teach us is how to grow up and how to depend on ourselves and not on them all the way - how to be as perfect as can be to handle life.
It is a reality that elders and parents become no longer of direct help when old and therefore far from perfect and more a liability. In fact, they need help instead. Nevertheless, we should have as perfect as can be the respect for them as though they are God and saints.
Like God and saints, elders and parents cannot live our lives for us. This is the imperfection that really is not imperfection but perfection to allow us to learn and to be good more and more on our own so that we can have peace especially inner peace as we journey through the major portion of our life. This is what any religion is for and this starts in the family and in society with parents and elders.
We have to learn to live with uncertainty as the only certainty. The inevitable certainty is ageing and death. We must learn to handle even death. God and saints cannot take away certainty of ageing and death.
God and saints cannot promise us that we will not die. It is not that they are imperfect like our elders and parents in some way but that in this, there is the perfect or divine way for us to learn how to be perfect in handling the vissicitudes of life such as ageing, chronic diseases and death.
The perfection is in teaching us the perfect way to handle life that leads to death - the perfect way to handle death even way before death happens. This is the way that overcomes not death but the fear of death.
Do not be deluded that we will be resurrected in the flesh and can escape death. We can be resurrected instead in spirit with divine peace come what may even before death - for the countless days and seconds of we are alive before death. That there is death does not mean there is no life.
Parents and elders do their part to grow us up to handle life and death. That they cannot handle life and death for us and mind you that they have to die as well should not be taken as their being imperfect.
We should not sidelined them and replace them with God and saints who too leave us with the truth or Word to handle life and death despite the ups and downs. Do not be deluded that we will not age and die if we believe in God and saints.
Elders and parents are the first gods or saints and our homes the first temple or church. Family, kin, loved ones, colleagues and friends constitute the first religion. This is stressed too by the Buddha
Bo Tien 武 天 reiterates that respect for elders and parents is a precept or commandment in any religion.
There is no perfect life, only perfect way to live. God and elders lead us to perfect the way to life - not a perfect life. No perfect life, only perfect way to life with elders as the first gods.
Elders are the first gods even before we know God. If we cannot revere elders and parents, how can we truly revere God and saints?
Respect for elders and parents is the gateway for us to be with God and saints.
If we shut our doors on elders and parents, we will effectively be shutting away God and saints even if we are in a religion or frequent a temple.
We may think we are near to God and saints, but we will be far instead. Bo Tien 武 天 says that the near may be far.
In fact, those who respect parents and elders but do not go to a temple or even profess a religion are near though far from a temple or from man-made religion.
They are the more reliable ones whom society, nation and divinity can count on. God and nation love those with respect for elders. They are near to God, society and nation.
Such people will live with their parents and even other elders even if married and even if they have their own children. Do you do so and are there excuses not to do so? Would you like your children to do to you in the same way you do to your parents and elders?
Men always have excuses. No wonder Bo Tien 武 天 says that the problems and issues of men are many and plentiful. This is exactly why life is the greatest teacher and the holiest of the holy texts - the Word of God in any religion or culture.
Those who do not respect elders will be less likely to heed their advice with regards to life and even religion. They do know better but please have second thoughts; otherwise, they will not have inhibitions and have radicalised way of practising religion.
They think they know best and overrule even the majority. They end up loving themselves and not loving others though love is always on their lips and they are proud to let others know of their good deeds to the poor and destitute. But they see not their disrespect and ill-will to elders as problem - even justifying this as right and proper. The consequences need no elaboration.
They claim to have God with them but there is not an iota of God in them. How can God loving persons have hatred and ill-will? As they care less about elders and parents, what do you expect of them? Isn't this obvious dislike for elders and parents. Do they love their parents and elders? Do they think ill of them?
Such men are to be found in any religion and culture and the tell-tale giveaway is that they respect not parents and elders and keep away physically from them for most of the time in any week. Respect for parents and elders must be the cornerstone of any religion or culture.
Temples and societies who mistreat their have-beens, the elders and make them subservient and do the bidding of the young they nurtured are in obvious decay and lack moral not to mention divine fibre.
They are even a few notches worse than keeping away from elders and leaving them alone. They demean the elders and sometimes make the elders do cleaning up jobs for the young in family or in public domain.
That they do in fact pay them allowances does not compensate or nullify the meanness. This may be wrongly regarded as kindness if taken out of context.
Yes, the elderly need money and there is no doubt about that. The context and way it is given makes the difference between real love and respect on one hand and superficial or put-up love and degree of meanness on the other hand.
God, forgive them for they know not what they do though with every word from their mouth they claim to have you in mind, yet they do not honour their parents and elders.
But do know that if elders still need to upkeep family because their children are disabled or poor, to deny the elders cleaning jobs is unthinkable and definitely not kind at all if such jobs are what they can handle.
Even in loving God and saints, there are those who end up patronising human dignitaries instead of God and saints on the very day meant for celebration of God and saints.
Instead, it would have been far better on such holy occasions that they celebrate the past good works of the elders, the have-beens without whom they will not be standing where they are. At least, these elders are the very ones who brought them God and saints and who initiate them in the goodness of God and saints and bring them the Word of God and saints.
But alas, many are those who are attracted to religion or a temple like insects and ants to a flower. Blame not the flower for insects and ants coming to it. This Bo Tien 武 天 did say.
Blame not God and saints for their coming to religion for wrong intention and even making elders and pioneers as persona non grata and even rewriting the history to deny the roles of the elders in the bygone days. These are the very elders who bring them to God and saints and pass the baton of leadership to them.
Such godless people may claim to be with God and saints but abusing the good name of God and saints by degrading the elders at a temple or religion and even forsaking parents at home.
They proudly without any shame at all make it known that to serve God and saints, they need to forsake parents at home and elders in a temple or religion.
But the wonderful and ridiculous part is that there are those who buy what they say. What has indeed become of man in such an eventuality? It is because of such men that saints like Bo Tien 武 天 have to do their part to wake up such men and make good what they did wrong.
But such men are present in any religion and temple - even in a temple in the name of Bo Tien 武 天. This allows observers to learn from their mistakes and not to make the same mistakes in their life.
Observers can learn why it is important to live with and love elders to be near to God and saints, even if these errant men stubbornly stick to their folly of running down elders and sacrificing parents and family in the name of religious calling.
Bo Tien 武 天 reminds us that regardless of our religion, we should learn from the lives of others, not make the same mistakes and be better in our own life and our own respective religion, even if we cannot change such men to be better for their own good and for the good of others.
They will get the hang of it and one day by just being in a religion or temple, they surely will see the light and not stay in darkness. It is far better for them to be in a temple or religion and being wrong in a holy place than to be wrong outside in the world outside religion.
Let them come to a temple or religion like insects and ants to a flower for nectar as said by Bo Tien 武 天. Blame not the flower. Blame not God and saints but let time and divine presence change them in the long run.
Religion must never be the excuse to escape from worldly and family responsibilities. Religion always say that we must give to the world and family what is due to the world and family. Give to God what is due to God.
Don't end up giving money to God when money is of the world. God do not need money but men of God do. Be aware of the difference. Men of God doing God's work need money to do that. But God do not need money. Confuse not what is for men and what is for God.
Our elders and parents do need money. But money is not enough. More than money is needed. Support for elders and family must be beyond what money can provide.
We must be with the parents and elders, live with them and support and cherish them beyond what money can do. Money can buy services of a house helper but nothing can replace the support in person by us.
God does not need our support but we need God blessings and support. What has gone into our head if we think we need to bless and support God.
The problem is that educated and capable people do that. To make matters worse, they give all they can muster for God and plain forget or just give token service to parents and elders.
Perhaps the world we know has gone upside down but many don't agree with that. They should know better what they should or should not do, what they can and cannot do.
They must make the choice and live by the consequences of that choice which many refer to as free will. We should not judge, otherwise we be judged.
Do we live up to the expectations we expect of others? Are we not hypocritical if we cannot do so? Often we like to see the dust in another's eye but fail to see the dust in our own.
Life certainly is the greatest teacher of truth. No need to be in a religion or two to learn about life and God. One great lesson of life is that we must learn to live with and love elders to be near to God and nation.
While it is in religion to honour elders and parents, there is sometimes the contradictory call to regard God as the father and this some may mistake as the justification to sidestep the elders and fathers on Earth.
Even if fathers are imperfect more so when they are old, there is need to bow to their wishes where we can and not to hurt them when this cannot be done. Do not hurt them even emotionally.
Whilst we look to God and saints as perfect in every way, what God and saints can do is to bless us somewhat but we still have to learn from them how to be good and to manage life on our own for the main part of our life.
We cannot expect God and saints to give us perfection. In fact, the only perfection we can have is imperfection. Uncertainty is the only certainty. Uncertainty or call this impermanence if you may is the greatest imperfection.
A seemingly imperfect God provides the perfection for us to learn. A perfect God never guarantees perfection and never say we will not have the ups and downs in life. Likewise, our elders and parents are good for us when we are young and we need them to grow up. They never say we will not have the imperfect ups and downs in life.
But what they want to teach us is how to grow up and how to depend on ourselves and not on them all the way - how to be as perfect as can be to handle life.
It is a reality that elders and parents become no longer of direct help when old and therefore far from perfect and more a liability. In fact, they need help instead. Nevertheless, we should have as perfect as can be the respect for them as though they are God and saints.
Like God and saints, elders and parents cannot live our lives for us. This is the imperfection that really is not imperfection but perfection to allow us to learn and to be good more and more on our own so that we can have peace especially inner peace as we journey through the major portion of our life. This is what any religion is for and this starts in the family and in society with parents and elders.
We have to learn to live with uncertainty as the only certainty. The inevitable certainty is ageing and death. We must learn to handle even death. God and saints cannot take away certainty of ageing and death.
God and saints cannot promise us that we will not die. It is not that they are imperfect like our elders and parents in some way but that in this, there is the perfect or divine way for us to learn how to be perfect in handling the vissicitudes of life such as ageing, chronic diseases and death.
The perfection is in teaching us the perfect way to handle life that leads to death - the perfect way to handle death even way before death happens. This is the way that overcomes not death but the fear of death.
Do not be deluded that we will be resurrected in the flesh and can escape death. We can be resurrected instead in spirit with divine peace come what may even before death - for the countless days and seconds of we are alive before death. That there is death does not mean there is no life.
Parents and elders do their part to grow us up to handle life and death. That they cannot handle life and death for us and mind you that they have to die as well should not be taken as their being imperfect.
We should not sidelined them and replace them with God and saints who too leave us with the truth or Word to handle life and death despite the ups and downs. Do not be deluded that we will not age and die if we believe in God and saints.
Elders and parents are the first gods or saints and our homes the first temple or church. Family, kin, loved ones, colleagues and friends constitute the first religion. This is stressed too by the Buddha
Bo Tien 武 天 reiterates that respect for elders and parents is a precept or commandment in any religion.
There is no perfect life, only perfect way to live. God and elders lead us to perfect the way to life - not a perfect life. No perfect life, only perfect way to life with elders as the first gods.
Elders are the first gods even before we know God. If we cannot revere elders and parents, how can we truly revere God and saints?
Respect for elders and parents is the gateway for us to be with God and saints.
If we shut our doors on elders and parents, we will effectively be shutting away God and saints even if we are in a religion or frequent a temple.
We may think we are near to God and saints, but we will be far instead. Bo Tien 武 天 says that the near may be far.
In fact, those who respect parents and elders but do not go to a temple or even profess a religion are near though far from a temple or from man-made religion.
They are the more reliable ones whom society, nation and divinity can count on. God and nation love those with respect for elders. They are near to God, society and nation.
Such people will live with their parents and even other elders even if married and even if they have their own children. Do you do so and are there excuses not to do so? Would you like your children to do to you in the same way you do to your parents and elders?
Men always have excuses. No wonder Bo Tien 武 天 says that the problems and issues of men are many and plentiful. This is exactly why life is the greatest teacher and the holiest of the holy texts - the Word of God in any religion or culture.
Those who do not respect elders will be less likely to heed their advice with regards to life and even religion. They do know better but please have second thoughts; otherwise, they will not have inhibitions and have radicalised way of practising religion.
They think they know best and overrule even the majority. They end up loving themselves and not loving others though love is always on their lips and they are proud to let others know of their good deeds to the poor and destitute. But they see not their disrespect and ill-will to elders as problem - even justifying this as right and proper. The consequences need no elaboration.
They claim to have God with them but there is not an iota of God in them. How can God loving persons have hatred and ill-will? As they care less about elders and parents, what do you expect of them? Isn't this obvious dislike for elders and parents. Do they love their parents and elders? Do they think ill of them?
Such men are to be found in any religion and culture and the tell-tale giveaway is that they respect not parents and elders and keep away physically from them for most of the time in any week. Respect for parents and elders must be the cornerstone of any religion or culture.
Temples and societies who mistreat their have-beens, the elders and make them subservient and do the bidding of the young they nurtured are in obvious decay and lack moral not to mention divine fibre.
They are even a few notches worse than keeping away from elders and leaving them alone. They demean the elders and sometimes make the elders do cleaning up jobs for the young in family or in public domain.
That they do in fact pay them allowances does not compensate or nullify the meanness. This may be wrongly regarded as kindness if taken out of context.
Yes, the elderly need money and there is no doubt about that. The context and way it is given makes the difference between real love and respect on one hand and superficial or put-up love and degree of meanness on the other hand.
God, forgive them for they know not what they do though with every word from their mouth they claim to have you in mind, yet they do not honour their parents and elders.
But do know that if elders still need to upkeep family because their children are disabled or poor, to deny the elders cleaning jobs is unthinkable and definitely not kind at all if such jobs are what they can handle.
Even in loving God and saints, there are those who end up patronising human dignitaries instead of God and saints on the very day meant for celebration of God and saints.
Instead, it would have been far better on such holy occasions that they celebrate the past good works of the elders, the have-beens without whom they will not be standing where they are. At least, these elders are the very ones who brought them God and saints and who initiate them in the goodness of God and saints and bring them the Word of God and saints.
But alas, many are those who are attracted to religion or a temple like insects and ants to a flower. Blame not the flower for insects and ants coming to it. This Bo Tien 武 天 did say.
Blame not God and saints for their coming to religion for wrong intention and even making elders and pioneers as persona non grata and even rewriting the history to deny the roles of the elders in the bygone days. These are the very elders who bring them to God and saints and pass the baton of leadership to them.
Such godless people may claim to be with God and saints but abusing the good name of God and saints by degrading the elders at a temple or religion and even forsaking parents at home.
They proudly without any shame at all make it known that to serve God and saints, they need to forsake parents at home and elders in a temple or religion.
But the wonderful and ridiculous part is that there are those who buy what they say. What has indeed become of man in such an eventuality? It is because of such men that saints like Bo Tien 武 天 have to do their part to wake up such men and make good what they did wrong.
But such men are present in any religion and temple - even in a temple in the name of Bo Tien 武 天. This allows observers to learn from their mistakes and not to make the same mistakes in their life.
Observers can learn why it is important to live with and love elders to be near to God and saints, even if these errant men stubbornly stick to their folly of running down elders and sacrificing parents and family in the name of religious calling.
Bo Tien 武 天 reminds us that regardless of our religion, we should learn from the lives of others, not make the same mistakes and be better in our own life and our own respective religion, even if we cannot change such men to be better for their own good and for the good of others.
They will get the hang of it and one day by just being in a religion or temple, they surely will see the light and not stay in darkness. It is far better for them to be in a temple or religion and being wrong in a holy place than to be wrong outside in the world outside religion.
Let them come to a temple or religion like insects and ants to a flower for nectar as said by Bo Tien 武 天. Blame not the flower. Blame not God and saints but let time and divine presence change them in the long run.
Religion must never be the excuse to escape from worldly and family responsibilities. Religion always say that we must give to the world and family what is due to the world and family. Give to God what is due to God.
Don't end up giving money to God when money is of the world. God do not need money but men of God do. Be aware of the difference. Men of God doing God's work need money to do that. But God do not need money. Confuse not what is for men and what is for God.
Our elders and parents do need money. But money is not enough. More than money is needed. Support for elders and family must be beyond what money can provide.
We must be with the parents and elders, live with them and support and cherish them beyond what money can do. Money can buy services of a house helper but nothing can replace the support in person by us.
God does not need our support but we need God blessings and support. What has gone into our head if we think we need to bless and support God.
The problem is that educated and capable people do that. To make matters worse, they give all they can muster for God and plain forget or just give token service to parents and elders.
Perhaps the world we know has gone upside down but many don't agree with that. They should know better what they should or should not do, what they can and cannot do.
They must make the choice and live by the consequences of that choice which many refer to as free will. We should not judge, otherwise we be judged.
Do we live up to the expectations we expect of others? Are we not hypocritical if we cannot do so? Often we like to see the dust in another's eye but fail to see the dust in our own.
Life certainly is the greatest teacher of truth. No need to be in a religion or two to learn about life and God. One great lesson of life is that we must learn to live with and love elders to be near to God and nation.
