Friday 1 May 2009

A Bed time story - The Five Brothers


Long time ago there was a story, about 5 brothers in the jungle, they were living in a high mountain, the peak of mountain is very high, reaching the sky, and they are living lawlessly, because the emperor is living far far away from them. Every day they had a same small quarrel redarding their parents where about.

One day the youngest brother came all the way from town to visit his elder brothers who were living in that mountain, and he heard their quarrel about their parents who passed away many years ago.

The elder brother acclaimed: "Papa and mama are now living in the western sky, because they had reach the perfection, the place is called nirwana..I dreamt about them, they are living there happily..You disrespect papa and mama, in arguing this with me..I am the elder brothers. You must listen to me."

The second elder brother: "No, I do not agreed with you... papa and mama are living in a place called hell, I dream about them, people said this is true. I burnt incense every weeks and days, even paper money, paper clothes, car made of paper for them. You did not respect papa and mama. You are nut! You must listen to me."

The third brother: "No, I do not agreed with you two, the people living at the another mountain, said our parents are not living in the sky above or the place called hell, they had reincarnated to be a cow or a chicken, or a pair of butterflies, or a dog, or a man, papa and mama are not like what you said, they are probably now living in this mountain with us, so do not ever kill any cow, any chicken, any dog, any cat, and bird, you may hurt papa and mama..you two are foolish, you had killed the cows, and you shoot the birds, and now you wanted to kill me too!"

The forth brother: "No, I do not agreed with you all, the people living at the mountain foot, said that our parents have became a pair of ghosts or spirits, they are now living with us, they are now living at the home altar in our living rooms, they are now our unseen ancestors, I give them food and drink every day, I pray at them every day, I burnt incense to them every day. How can you all said papa and mama are not living with us. You are not filial piety like me, you should bow to papa and mama now, in saying this in front of them, disrespect papa and mama."

So they had this kind of quarrel everyday, and no body from other mountain heard about this, because they were living together in a small hut, and their neighbour were staying every far from them.

The youngest brothers from the town was speechless in listening to their quarrels, and all their brothers came to ask him their parents where about. The younger brother said "Our parents must believe in God, trusting and believe devoutly in God, in order to go to God's place, the heaven, this is what I know."

When all his brother heard about this, they became very angry, and furious with the youngest brother, so they bitten the youngest brother severely, and they chased away him from the hut, and they threaten him to be hurt in saying this again, so the young brother stay away from his elder brothers for a moment until the things being cooled down. Until today his elder brothers are still quarrelling about the parents where about. The youngest brother asked his close friend, "I rather believe in God rather than my brothers' words. Who is the filial piety son, do you think? You wanted to be our judge?"

This bed time story is a lesson to the young men, we are told to look after our parents before it is too late, it is better to pay our tribute and respect to our parents when they are still living with us, we must respect and honor our parents, do not wait until they passed away, do not wait until we quarrel about their where about. It is too late.

Confucius once said, "How can one know about death before he knows clearly about life?" In one's lifetime, one should fulfil one's responsibility in realizing the ideal of a harmonious society. He said, "四海之内,皆兄弟也...政者正也,子帅以正,孰敢不正? You know the meanings?"

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