Selected Questions and Answers

Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai, Brisbane, Australia, March 21, 1993
(Originally in English) Videotape No. 337

Q: Some of the teenagers of this generation have no respect for their parents. Is it because we're not good parents?

M: No, I don't think so. It depends. I wouldn't say that all parents are good, but most of them are good. You see, the teenagers of this generation probably have not been groomed enough in morality, in seeing their parents as representatives of God on Earth, who take God's place to raise the children and to educate them.
If the parents somehow hinder or obstruct the children when they want to realize God, then we can say these are not very good parents. But otherwise, there are no such things as "no good" parents. Maybe the different outlook of our teenagers nowadays is because of the influence of bad news, violent pictures, many undesirable means of communication, bad company, bad influences and bad friends. That makes the teenagers the way they are today.

So the solution again is that we have to go back to the Golden Age. We have to live the way the Bible teaches us to do, through the way of non-violence, the way of love, the way of enlightenment. Then we can bring our children back to their innocence, back to their ethical way of life. And even children can get enlightenment, too. Then they can know for themselves, and they will change their way of life.

So, if all the children know the way of Truth, maybe they will choose it. And then they will discover love within themselves. Then they will respect their parents more. And then in turn, if the parents are more enlightened, they will be more understanding and clearer about how to raise their children.

Selected Questions and Answers: