Supreme Master Ching Hai tells a Buddhist story of “Great Wealth.” “Great Wealth” was the name of a treasurer’s son. Due to inheritance, “Great Wealth” and his wife were incredibly wealthy. But the young husband was tempted by rogues to begin indulging in drinking. Soon, he couldn’t extricate himself from it. Eventually, the couple lost all their wealth and possessions and became beggars. When Buddha saw the aged “Great Wealth” wandering around and begging for food, Buddha couldn’t help but become very emotional and said that the wealthy couple could have achieved much, either in this material world, or in their spiritual development. But, because of drinking, they instead live in poverty.
Master reminds parents to watch over and protect their children, not letting them be influenced by bad friends to get into the traps of drinking, smoking, drugs, and so on, thus hurting themselves mentally, emotionally and intellectually. Supreme Master also shared her experience in using incentives to successfully persuade people to quit the bad habits of smoking and drinking.
|