佛說盂蘭盆經疏 2.17

2.17

It also says: 'The child sees the mother coming from afar; either in the railed cart shaking its head and tossing its brain, or crawling on its belly following along, crying out toward the mother. For her child, the mother bends her body down low, stretches out both hands, wipes away the dust and dirt, makes cooing sounds to its mouth, opens her bosom to bring forth milk, and nurses it with milk. The mother is delighted to see the child, and the child is joyful to see the mother; their two feelings intermingle, and their kindness, love, compassion, and affection are so weighty that nothing surpasses this (and so forth). Once grown to adulthood, following friends, combing the hair and rubbing the locks, desiring good clothes to cover their bodies, the parents wear the tattered and old garments themselves, while first giving the new and fine cotton and silk to their child. As for rushing about on official or private urgent matters, their hearts incline north and south, following their child east and west, the hairpin crooked upon the head. As the child gradually grows up, they seek a wife for him; having obtained another's daughter, he grows increasingly distant from his parents, speaking and rejoicing together inside the private bedchamber. When the parents are old and their strength has declined, from morning until evening he does not come to inquire after them. Or the father is solitary and the mother a widow, keeping lonely vigil in an empty room, just like guests staying temporarily in another's house, constantly devoid of love and kindness. Or having no jacket or quilt, suffering the bitterness of freezing cold, their hardships and distress are excessive. Old in age and withered in countenance, infested with many fleas and lice, through morning and night they do not sleep, groaning long and sighing: "What sin, what past transgression, has brought forth such an unfilial child?" Sometimes calling him, he glares with startled fury, entirely refusing to comply. Yet when wife and children scold him, he bows his head with an accommodating smile (and so forth). Śakra, the Brahmā kings, all the devas, and humans—all in the great assembly, having heard the sūtra, rejoiced, gave rise to the bodhicitta, wept and wailed shaking the earth, their tears falling like rain.' In evaluation, I say: Thinking carefully upon these matters, truly these words are so! Even if there are mothers not like this or children not like that, they are not one in a hundred. This is truly because sentient beings, through beginningless ignorance, are deluded about the real and cling to the false; since the root is inverted, the branches and twigs are all likewise without exception. How calamitous are the ordinary and foolish! How can they ever be delivered?