ห้องสมุดธรรมอิสระ

Supporting all relatives

June 18, 2021

Relatives mean close and familiar people.

Relatives can be classified into two groups.

1. Relatives by birth such as great grandparents, grandfathers, grandmothers, uncles, aunts, elder brothers and sisters, younger brothers and sisters, nephews, nieces, great-grandsons, great-granddaughters. Whereas parents, children, and spouses are the groups of people who deserve first support, so they are not included in this category.

2. Relatives as fellow human beings

These people are not relatives by blood, but they are friends and fellow human beings and animals.

Within relatives as fellow human beings, there is also special type of relative so-called relatives by Dhamma. This group of relative has been classified based as their importance as follows.

1. Preceptor is like parents who gives birth to one’s Dhamma path.

2. Teachers are regarded as relatives because they have taught and supported us to have wisdom and knowledge.

3. Disciples and followers who have the same preceptor or spiritual leader are regarded as relatives.

4. People who practice, study, and memorize Dhamma together.

5. People who donate, listen to Dhamma, and observe precepts together.

6. People who do good deeds for the sake of other people together.

Six ways to support relatives by Dhamma is prioritized from the first to sixth and they should be supported based on necessity.

Ways to support relatives

1. Being last resort when they are in difficulty, according to one’s social status

2. Supporting them to have their own jobs

3. Suggesting them what they should do and should not do

4. Supporting them to have money in honest ways

5. Treating and curing them

6. Relieving their burden

7. Protecting them from direct and indirect danger that could happen

Four principles of kind treatment to support relatives as follows.

1. Donation and giving

2. Kind speech means suggestion and advice that indicate causes and effects and result in wisdom.

3. Being helpful towards relatives as much as one can and appropriate according to causes and persons

4. Being supportive to all kinds of relatives, supporters must behave appropriately and do not make them feel inferior. Do not disparage, insult, or humiliate them.

Merits from supporting relatives

1. Being basis to protect oneself from harm and enemies

2. Being basis of power to expand their work

3. Being meritorious deeds

4. Holding people’s hearts together

5. Gaining more closeness and familiarity

6. More harmony and unity

7. Loyalty

8. Big and well-established family

9. Having a lot of relatives in every life

10. Being good role model for next generations

11. Building good environment in the society

12. Bringing peace into society and community that we support

This is the most auspicious factor in one’s life.

Buddha Isara