SuttaCentral
To me, it all boils down to one thing: realising the ultimate truth.
The truth according to Buddhism, as far as I have understood, equals conditioned origination. In simple terms, all experience is just a chain of casualty with no subject experiencing them. In short, the sadness that we feel from leaving parents, is as unreal as the parents who feel it.
That said, I think reading Nagarjuna could help with such dillemas. I’ve only skimmed over it.
Really ? Would you be able to give me a reference please ?
Why wouldn’t you want to practice Buddhism if you are Buddhist? Buddha was all for it.
Do you remember where please ?
I do not think you must see the happiness of love, compassion, genuine friendship, warm-heartedness as lower than that of jhana. I think it is even higher. It is more something of the heart.
Jhana is not the end of corruption of the heart, at best some temporary relief.
To claim that the happiness of the birth of a child cannot match the happiness of jhana is, i believe, overstating the happiness of jhana. Jhana as greatest moment…
You can think about jhana as a happiness that is not shared, but the happiness of warm-heartedness, friendship, love, is. It is something between beings and jhana is not.
My daughters first spoken words were, ‘Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis’ which translates to ‘Times change, and we change with them’ Though I can’t speak Latin, I learnt a few bits because I didn’t want her first words being ‘mum/dad’, I didn’t do the same with my son, I could see that he was ‘calm’ right from the offset, just looking at him his name leapt out at me so he is named after the character Patrick Swayze played in the film Ghost!
I fully understand what you are saying here, without the responsibility of our parents none of us would be here in the first place, the biology of parenthood is the easy part, the decision to put a life on the planet and take full responsibility for that is the hard part, yet I doubt very many people even give it much thought, obviously you have or you wouldn’t be showing concern.
All I would say is to be honest, educate them to your studies, show them the calming ways of Buddhism, more so with your manner than dictation, you could find it’s something they look more deeply into as they get older.
And if for any reason after your time on Earth is over, and they reach a point in life where they’re struggling for any reason, they’ll know of a place of sanctuary/honesty/truth and light exists on Earth, and could take refuge within this themselves!
My daughter is in Thailand as I type, she has gone on holiday to Bangkok.
She spoke to her mum a few days ago, she visited a Monastery and chatted to them, it’s her first time talking to anybody related to Buddhism.