The simplest place to begin is cleanliness — and from there, orderliness in all other matters will naturally follow.
The reason we must start with cleanliness is that human beings are the world’s greatest producers of waste. Wherever there are people, there is inevitably uncleanliness; wherever there are people, there is inevitably waste.
It is for this reason that civilized nations and well-functioning families are meticulous and persistent in matters of cleanliness — even going so far as to carefully sort and separate their waste.
When waste is not sorted, disposing of it becomes far more difficult. What is mixed together becomes a burden — some waste could have been recycled, while other waste could have been disposed of by simple means. But once everything is mixed indiscriminately, the problem compounds. Wet waste is considerably harder to process than dry waste, and the moment wet and dry waste are combined, the cost of disposal multiplies many times over.
Therefore, any family that has not been diligent and persistent even in something as basic as waste separation should not expect their children and grandchildren to grow up to be attentive and detail-oriented individuals. To hold such an expectation would be misguided — and disappointment will surely follow.
Kaewsarapadneuk Hall, Wat Phra Dhammakaya March 1st 2015
