“We’ve seen that this bowl, no matter where you put it, will someday have to break. This plate, no matter where you put it, will someday have to break. But we have to teach our children to wash these things so that they’re clean and put them away safely. We have to teach children in line with these conventions so that we can use the bowl for a long time. This is a sign that we understand the Dhamma and are practicing the Dhamma.
If you see that the bowl is going to break and tell your children, “Don’t worry about it. When you’ve finished eating out of it, you don’t have to wash it. If you drop it, it doesn’t matter. It’s not really ours. Toss it anywhere you want, for it’s ready to break.” If you speak in this way, you’re simply too stupid.
If we understand conventions, then when we fall sick we look for medicine to take. When we feel hot, we take a bath. When we feel cold, we find something to keep the body warm. When we’re hungry, we find rice to eat. We know that even though we eat rice, the body’s still going to die. But at the moment, it hasn’t reached its time to die. Like this bowl: It hasn’t yet broken, so we take care of it so that we can benefit from it while we can.”