This is a genuine quote from the Buddhist scriptures. It’s from the Mangala Sutta.
“To support mother and father, to cherish partner* and children, and to be engaged in peaceful occupation — this is the greatest blessing.”
*In the original it’s “wife,” rather than partner. The language has been changed to make it more inclusive.
“To support mother and father, to cherish partner and children, and to be engaged in peaceful occupation — this is the greatest blessing.” The Buddha Click To Tweet
This is the greatest blessing? Doesn’t sound like something Buddha taught. The greatest blessing is to avoid rebirth by overcoming attachments & realizing no self. I think this is a case of a real quote from a sutta that does not reflect what Buddha’s real message was…
Maybe we could say this is the greatest worldly blessing.
Yes, I agree perhaps the phase would be ‘a great blessing’ not the superlative ‘greatest’.
Hi, Rodger.
In the Pāli, the word in question is uttama. This is indeed a superlative meaning “supreme, highest, greatest, best.” It’s cognate with the English “utmost.” The comparative would be uttara (better, greater). This is from a root ud-, which means “out in an upward direction.” So it’s kind of up (ud), upper (uttara), and upmost (uttama)!
Your quite understandable disbelief notwithstanding, this is an accurate translation.
The Buddha seems to have been fond of saying that multiple things were “the best.” He would also say things like “I don’t see anything that causes distraction as much as … [and then he’d name something].” And then he’d repeat the formula with something else being named. It was just a rhetorical style, I guess, albeit one that’s a little alien to us.
All the best,
Bodhipaksa
I agree.
It’s just a part of the full answer that Buddha gave to a question.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.2.04.nara.html
Maybe, he found these things to be helping in attaining the true goal.
It seems that the act of doing rather than receiving is the blessing. To give love requires that we give up being wrapped up in our selves. This related the the Buddhist concept of non-attachment. Of course you may be correct that it is only part of a whole answer.
I am not sure what the purpose of writting these quotes as all of them can be fake.
Nothing was written down what buddha said for 500 years, people can change someone’s words very quickly.
Anyway buddha probably never existed.
Most scholars seems to agree that the Buddha was a real person, also the wisdom he brought forth and teached for cirka 2500 years ago is profound, timeless and is as relevant even today as in his day. There seems to be a stronger scholarly consenus that the Buddha existed than for example Jesus or Lao Tzu.
Also the way the oral tradition seems to have been transmittted works by memorizing and chanting the suttas, not just word by mouth. They are still practiced, memorized and studied in Pali today which is amazing I would say.