About This Teaching
A parent caring for a bedridden daughter receives practical advice. Ajahn Dtun notes that such an illness is the kamma of the child but also touches the parents, since families are related through kamma. He suggests helping her keep the five precepts and, if she can, watch the breath or mentally recite "Buddho", so that over time she may use up the kamma behind her condition and have better health in future births.
He also encourages the parents, whenever they offer dāna, to tell their daughter that a portion is hers, whether food, requisites, a Kaṭhina offering or a building in a monastery. The parents receive the fruits of merit now and later; for her, he says, the benefit comes mainly after death.
Reflecting on his own practice, he attributes its smooth progress partly to generosity in past lives. Giving goes against the ungenerous grain of the heart, cultivates mettā and karuṇā, and turns material wealth into inner wealth. Rings on the fingers can be taken, but merit cannot be stolen.