【Description】
As the old saying goes: If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. This means that parents easily influence their children’s habits.
The environment at home undoubtedly has the biggest impact on a child’s growth. These days, what can parents do to create a good environment for their children?
Grandmaster JinBodhi provides many practical methods in this short video. Try it out, and you’ll also benefit along with your child.
【You will learn】
- How to make children the best they can be
- How to create a good family environment for children
【Featured aphorisms】
- Whether a person is compassionate or not depends on the environment in which they grew up.
- To make your children the best they can be, please create a compassionate and kind-hearted environment for them.
【Content】
People are not born compassionate. It is something you acquire from your surroundings.
If you are born to a family of butchers, your parents kill animals daily. Their talk goes like this: Your dad: “I killed 81 pigs today.” Your mom: “Me, 36 sheep.” What about you? “I killed 2 rats today!” You grow up thinking that butchering animals is okay.
What if your parents chanted and practiced Buddhism? Your dad: “I still have foot pain after 40 years of a vegetarian diet.” Your mom: “I copy the sutras everyday; my eyesight is still perfect.” What about you? “I prostrate for 1 hour a day; I don’t feel tired at all.”
Your parents’ behaviors affect your behaviors. What you are instilled with depends on what you grow up with. If parents want their children to grow up well, they need to create a compassionate environment. That is how you shape your children’s character.
No one is born good or bad. Only gods and buddhas are born good. They make great benevolent achievements under any circumstance. For ordinary people, environment is important. Your parents and your surroundings are your teachers, regardless of what you learn in school.
Imagine your mom curses all the time and your dad kills animals for a living. What could this mean for their child? He could become a lawyer from listening to his mom’s aggressive speech. Sometimes, he could lose his cool when thinking of his dad’s butchering. When he is calm, he is a composed person. This is what we call “Jekyll and Hyde”.
Again, one’s surroundings decide their character. You can’t ask for a good child without doing anything. You need to create a kind environment for them. If you think chanting is good, you can lead a 5-minute chanting session before dinner. “Can we chant the 6-Syllable Mantra for 5 minutes?” You can start chanting loudly even before they say yes. They will follow you, after they hear you chant.
Tell them the benefits of chanting. “Chant, son; your grades will get better.” “Chant, darling, to release your back pain.” Your family will learn that chanting can benefit them. They will be glad to try it. Trying once doesn’t help much; you need to be persistent. If you believe in something, take action; do it. How? Take initiative; influence others. Eventually, they will follow you, and form a habit.
No one despises good habits, only bad ones, right? To shape your children’s good behaviors, provide them with a good environment.