Dana — giving, sharing, self-sacrifice, and the willing offering of what is beneficial to others — encompasses not only the giving of material wealth and possessions, but also the giving of knowledge, the giving of the Dhamma, and the giving of forgiveness by relinquishing anger. All of these are forms of giving, and all are profoundly good. For the one who gives is beloved; both giver and receiver come to hold goodwill toward one another. Generosity also serves as a safeguard for society, preventing the rise of possessiveness and a lack of compassion among its members. When this virtue is cultivated, the tendency — so common in society — for those with greater reach to simply take all they can for themselves will gradually diminish and fade away.

June 15^th, 2012

Gentle correction and mutual reminders between spouses are entirely acceptable. However, serious disputes and weighty matters must never be allowed to reach the ears of the children. To do otherwise is to undermine parental authority and to forfeit the respect one is due.

April 18^th, 2018

If you do not do so, your accumulated past merit will eventually be exhausted, and you will drift apart — each going your own way. This is the only warning that can be given. If you do not wish for misfortune to befall you in the future, and since we cannot know how much past merit the two of you have made together, begin making new merit in this very lifetime. Place an alms bowl at the front of your home, and each morning, both husband and wife should offer alms together.

Furthermore, when one marries, it is as good as declaring: “I am ready to be a fully responsible adult, standing on my own merit.” While living under your parents’ roof, their merit served as a protective shelter over your head. Now the time has come to prepare your own merit to shelter yourself. And when you become parents in turn, you will need sufficient merit to serve as a protective shelter for your own children as well. Set out your alms bowl and make the offering faithfully.

This wisdom may rightly be called the genius of our ancestors — yet today, this tradition has largely faded away.

June 24^th, 2017

To put it simply — if parents are dishonest, insincere, careless, lazy, untidy, and lacking in responsibility, and we have absorbed those habits of carelessness and disorder from an early age, then only harm can follow. It becomes exceedingly difficult to turn out well.

On the contrary, if our fathers and mothers are attentive, responsible, and thorough in all they do — they need not hold advanced academic degrees — but so long as they are honest and genuine, never sloppy or careless, disciplined in conduct, meticulous and earnest in their work, and truly responsible, that alone is enough. That truly is all that is needed. Such qualities alone open the doors of heaven for us, and represent an immeasurable value in our lives.

Dhamma Teaching to International Buddhist Society (IBS)

February 6^th. 2016

If your children and grandchildren take responsibility for every belonging in the home, and take responsibility for the feelings of everyone living together, then those children and grandchildren are truly of good character.

Dhammakaya Assembly Hall, Wat Phra Dhammakaya 

March 22^nd, 2015

Record of a Dhamma Teaching at Catumaharajika Pavilion 18 January B.E. 2559 (2016)

They also took care to show us the benefits and rewards that came from conducting ourselves in those ways — until what began as a habit of goodness gradually became moral character, then inner virtue, and ultimately the highest virtue of all: the complete liberation from defilement and suffering, just as the Arahants of the Buddha’s time attained, and just as our Lord Buddha himself attained.

Such is the process of training a person. And it must be said again: all Dhamma will arise within the heart through diligent, continuous practice until it becomes habit. Observing the precepts — do so continuously until it becomes habit. Giving alms, offering food to monks, participating in Kathina Ceremony and robe-offering ceremony — do so continuously until it becomes habit. Chanting and meditating — do so continuously until it becomes habit. From habit, these practices refine themselves into moral character and inner virtue, layer by layer — much like watering the roots of a tree, from which the trunk, leaves, blossoms, and fruit naturally emerge in their own time.

From the Sunday Public Moral Training Program Kaew Saraphatnuek Hall, Wat Phra Dhammakaya

March 8^th, 2015

In doing so, the virtues of a good householder are immediately and remarkably cultivated within us. It becomes our personal character and our personal virtue. And when we are able to do this consistently — even if we cannot yet perform miracles, and even if we have not yet overcome all our imperfections — we become a worthy role model: for those in our household, for our children and grandchildren, for those in our community, and for our temple.

From a Dhamma talk delivered at the Eighth Buddhist Missionary Project (Dhammaduta Bhikkhus Project) Wat Ratchaorasaram, Bangkok 

March 25^th, 2015

The more educated the parents, the more they tend to focus solely on their child’s academic achievement. But household chores — particularly cleaning — are never taught. As a result, the child never receives training in responsibility toward cleanliness, which is one of the most fundamental disciplines of life. That is where things go wrong.

When a child has never properly learned to clean themselves from head to toe, nor how to care for their clothing and belongings correctly, what follows? The habit of careful observation never develops, and the mindfulness needed to prevent things from becoming dirty or disordered never takes root.

And when observation and mindfulness are absent, the same lack of attentiveness carries over into learning. Meanwhile, the children of parents with far less formal education — who were trained in cleaning and household tasks from an early age — have mastered the basics. When the time comes to study, they prove to be sharper and more capable.

Children who have been well trained in foundational tasks — in cleaning and keeping order — come to their teachers already prepared. Whatever is taught, they grasp it readily and with ease, because the groundwork has already been laid.

Guidance given at the Kaew Sarapadneuk Hall, Wat Phra Dhammakaya 

March 1^st, 2015