When your birthday arrives, as a Buddhist, it is important to observe it in accordance with the Lord Buddha’s teachings:
1. Make merit for yourself — replenish and strengthen your own merit foundation.
2. Remember and honor your parents, or those who raised and cared for you, regardless of whether they are still living or have passed on. If they are still alive, bring them along to make merit together. If they have already passed, dedicate the merit of your good deeds to them. For without their loving care and guidance, the person you are today would never have come to be. Furthermore, this act of merit-making deepens the spiritual bond between you and your parents — ensuring that across however many lifetimes lie ahead, you will continue to be born together and create goodness side by side, bound to one another in that enduring way.
19 January 2018
