Lord Buddha Master of the Western Peace used to urge his disciples thus: To fulfill filial piety and righteousness, we must accomplish our Four Debts Of Gratitude, which require lots of sacrifice and exertion:

1. Debt of gratitude towards Ancestors and Parents,
2. Debt of gratitude toward the country,
3. Debt of gratitude toward the Three Jewels,
4. Debt of gratitude toward Compatriots and Mankind

             (or ‘Debt toward Donors’ in case of monastics).

DEBT TOWARD ANCESTORS AND PARENTS: 

We were born acquiring a body to develop since infancy to adulthood and maturity.  Within such a years long period, our parents had incurred so much hardship.  But they were born thanks to our ancestors. Thus, as we acknowledge them, so too ought we to toward our ancestors.

To repay our parents, while alive, if they teach us any good and right thing, we must attend to their advice, never take it lightly, lest we should disaffect them. If they mistakenly do anything immoral, we must do our best to stop or dissuade them. Not only that, we need to repay them by taking care of their wellbeing while fostering harmony among siblings and creating familial happiness for their satisfaction. Pray for our parents to enjoy greater merits and longevity. If they pass away, pray for their souls to enter Buddhaland and exit the drowning cycle of rebirth.

To repay our ancestors, do nothing to defile our pedigree. If our ancestors have done anything wrong, afflicting their descendants with dire consequences, we ought to practice harder and sacrifice our lives for righteousness, redeeming our lineage.

DEBT TOWARD THE COUNTRY:

 For birth  we owe it to our parents and ancestors. For living, we owe it to our country. To benefit from every inch of the land and its produce, to facilitate our livelihood and to preserve our posterity, we feel obligated to defend our country should it be trampled upon by invaders. Support it while in dire straits and make it strong and prosperous. Liberate our country should foreigners dominate it. Only when its borders are well protected, do we enjoy peace. Only  when it is rich and strong, do we have greater comfort.

Exert ourselves to sacrifice for the country according to our capabilities. If we are not yet ready to assume significant tasks, nor have we yet had the opportunity to help our country, must we absolutely shun any misstep that may lead to harm it and never lend a hand for the enemy to wreak it. That’s the way we repay it.

DEBT TOWARD THE THREE JEWELS: 

 What are they? They are Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

Humans owe their birthing and raising to our ancestors and parents, and their subsistence to their country. That is on the material plane.

Mentally, we need Buddha, Dharma and Sangha to help develop our intellect. Buddha is a quintessence of morality, beauty, compassion,  resolute to save all sentient beings from their sea of sufferings. Thus, He bequeaths His Dharma, that is, His teachings for monastics to spread over the world: the latter are but His great disciples. Therefore, Buddha always guides and saves the sentient beings from their delusion and sea of suffering. Therefore, we must revere  Buddha and fully believe in His mission by following His teachings through the sangha’s guidance. Our forebears have been perceptive of His miracles and great-heartedness toward the sentient beings.  To respect and worship Him, to practice rightfully within the framework of His teachings, they have further developed the Tao, and constructed an unsurpassed, unparalleled castle of morality, which forever shines on with posterity.

Thus, we ought to align ourselves with our forebears’ dispositions to enhance our acumen for the sake of deliverance, to guide the disadvantaged, especially to continue spreading the morals  so that the spirit of compassion and generosity may permeate the broad masses worldwide. As such, we’ll not desert the legacy that Buddha and our forebears have bequeathed us and the respect from our posterity.

DEBT TOWARD COMPATRIOTS AND HUMANKIND: 

As soon as humans open their eyes to see the world, we already find ourselves reliant on the support of others and, the older we are, the more we depend on them.

We owe our survival to their grains of rice, our warmth to their clothing, our protection against harsh weathers to their accommodation. Happiness: we share it with them. Disaster: they incur it with us.

 They and we have the same skin colour, speak the same language. When our compatriots gather, we become one, that is the Nation. Who are they? They are those whom we often call compatriots. 

 The former and we belong to the same race, to the same lineage, share the glorious pages of history, and support one another in danger. Our common duty is to procreate the best possible future for the country. They and we are so deeply interdependent that we cannot separate from one another nor must we be divided, and there will be no case in which we can exist without our compatriots and vice versa. Thus we must help them so that we can repay the debt of gratitude we have owed them, even for a very small part.

 Not only that, apart from our compatriots, we have a world in which people are toiling to provide for us what we need. They are humankind, those who coinhabit the planet Earth with us.  What will our people be like without humankind? Can we have sufficient goods to meet our needs? Can we have adequate self-sufficiency?

 In brief, can we alone survive all climatic conditions, moments of disease, danger, and sustain these livelihoods?  Certainly not. Therefore, our people must seek help from humankind, that is, we must rely on other races of people, thus we have to acknowledge them. Think about them in the same way as we do about ourselves and our race.

 Moreover, Buddha’s compassion and magnanimity which we have recognized, are very deep and far-reaching. These sentiments are ubiquitous, regardless of skin colors, races, socio-economic backgrounds. They surpass all social strata and classes, and empathically place all into one: humankind and sentient beings.

In this sense, we have no legitimate ground to harm other peoples in the interest of ours or our people. Instead, uphold an ideal of harmony and tolerance toward them  while seeing ourselves bound to assist them where necessary.

As far as monastics are concerned, on top of the aforesaid benefits they have received, they are directly indebted to their donors, that is the male and female adherents who kindly provide them with what they need. The monastics rely on food, fabric, to medicine for their subsistence. In brief, they have entirely to depend  on the sustenance by the kind-hearted.

Toward the society, this debt is very heavy; thus, they ought to guide the living in search for the Truth to return their care and attention.