Duties and responsibilities of the laity.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.

  

The laity is generally a person with a personality, responsibility and duty to himself, his family and the social community. For Buddhism, any person, irrespective of their background, color or social status, makes a vow to follow the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, observing the five precepts (the Five Precepts), practicing 10 good deeds and home-based practice are called lay Buddhists. Put simply, Buddhists are Buddhists specializing in home study.
Buddhist laity is one of the two disciples of the Buddha: Monastic and Theravada. The disciple, renunciate, holds 10 precepts called Sa Di, holds 250 precepts called Bhikkhu. The priestess holds 348 precepts called Bhikkhu Ni.
Both the disciples, renunciants and at home, can keep the Bodhisattva world, if voluntarily practicing the virtue of Compassion, Compassion, Joy, Discharge, No-Self, and Forgiveness, sacrificing themselves to save sentient beings.
Monk renunciate from relatives and secular, cut hair into the temple, live a single life, have the duty to study, propagate the Dharma, spiritual leadership.
Goods at home have family and duties to social community, have the duty to protect the family, provide the needs and materials for the ordained.
Each party has its own position, duties and authority, not to step on each other but to respect and support each other. The Buddha often likened the two rows of renunciant and home disciples as the wings of a bird, with both of them to operate effectively. He emphasized the equal spirit of the two rows of disciples, not only monks ordained and enlightened, but also at home there are enlightened people like layman Duy Ma Can, who are all Bodhisattva. slapped, Thanh Văn respects respect.
Of course, ordained goods are easier to cultivate, easier to witness than home goods because they have enough convenient conditions to practice, while at home goods there are still many things in life to worry about such as earning a livelihood, educating children, and public duties. People, the time spent for spiritual practice is not much more difficult than the monks. Therefore, there is a saying: " The hardest thing is to practice at home, to practice at the market, or to meditate in three temples." 
The duty of the layperson living in the family of 
Kinh Thien Sanh, also known as the Tho Thi La La Vietnamese Sutta (Singalovada Suttanta), expresses the Buddha's deep concern for the conduct of the residents monks at home, in relationships with family and relatives, as follows:
There was a young man named Sigala who obeyed his father's instructions before he passed away, turning his face every day to the six directions: East, South, West, North, Upper and Lower, to make prostrations. The Buddha told him that according to Buddha Dharma, the six directions have different meanings.
Buddhism teaches that Phuong Dong is a parent, Phuong Nam is a teacher, the West is a wife and children, the North is a friend, relatives, neighbors, Phuong Under is a worker and a boatman, Phuong On is a monk and guru. He taught Sigala to respect this six directions. Respect here has a very special meaning, because people only honor something sacred, noble, respectable. Buddhism sees these six groups as sacred things, worthy of reverence.
But how to pay homage?
The Buddha taught that sincere respect can only be paid by fulfilling their duties to them. These duties are clearly explained to the Buddha by Sigala as follows:
First : Parents are sacred to their children. Parents are Heaven. According to Indian thought, the word "Heaven" symbolizes nobility and holiness. So even in this age, in the devout Buddhist family, every morning, children still have actions to pay respect to their parents. They have to do some duties to their parents according to the Buddhist teachings: Take care of their aging parents, do the necessary things to help their parents, preserve their family honor and traditions, protect their possessions The parents leave, and when the parent dies, perform the funeral rites.
As for parents, they also have obligations to their children, to uphold and teach their children to avoid evil paths, to encourage their children to do good and beneficial things, to give their children a thoughtful education, finding honest families for the children to marry and when the children have grown up, divide the fortune for them.
Second:  The connection between teachers and students. The student must respect and obey the teacher, must pay attention to his needs, if he needs to, to take care of his study. On the teacher's side, be devoted to teaching students carefully, introducing good friends to students and when students graduate, they will try to find jobs to ensure their livelihoods.
Tuesday: Relationship between husband and wife. Love between husband and wife is considered almost a religious life, with a divine nature. Husband and wife must have trust, respect, sacrifice, and duties towards each other. Husband must always respect his wife, must not lack respect for his wife, must love and be loyal to his wife, must ensure his position and comfort, and should please his wife by giving her Apparel and jewelry. ( The fact that the Buddha did not forget to mention giving gifts to his wife makes us see his human sensitivity and sensitivity to the emotions of ordinary people). On the side of the wife, she has to considerate housewives, please guests, friends, relatives and employees. A wife must love and be loyal to her husband, must know how to preserve her inheritance, be smart and active in her work.
Fourth : Relationship between friends, relatives, neighbors: Everyone must be warm and kind to each other, speak cheerfully and graciously, work in mutual benefits and treat equally do not argue with each other but help each other when needed and do not abandon when people are in difficult situations.
Thursday: Relationship between employer and employee: the employer has a lot of duties for a maid or an employee, the amount of effort required to deliver a suitable job, an adequate salary, and a provision of medication and sometimes reward people. On the part of the employee, they must work hard, not lazy, be honest and obedient to their boss, not cheating and must be dedicated at work.
Sixth : Relationship between monks and laity: With respect, the laity must take care of the monks' physical needs, the monk must spread the knowledge to the laity with a compassionate heart , unknowingly and guide them on the right path, not straying into the wrong path.
Thus, we have made it clear that even though an ordinary person living in the family, attending social activities, they still enjoy the Blessed One's teachings, can still practice and create the peace in the life of a Buddhist.
Dhamma's Responsibility
Lay people are a majority of the two disciples of the Buddha. Therefore, in addition to the duties in the family, in addition to the society and upholding the Dharma, the Unforthgoing Buddhists also have an obligation to practice and practice to contribute to the spread of the Dharma, that is, to contribute to turning the dharma to bring the light of liberation for life. Thus, the duty of the Unforthgoing One is extremely important in the development of Buddhism in the sense of forgiveness as well as preparing a good situation for one's self-reliance. Historically, many Buddhist kings have made great contributions to the propagation of the Dharma, namely King Asoka in India, King Tran Nhan Tong of Vietnam and Luong Vo De of China.
In the task of contributing to the spread of the Dharma, Buddhist laity need to do and must do is to keep the precepts because the Buddha's precept to prevent harmful motivations of greed and to develop the compassionate mind to protect protect happiness and happiness for ourselves and for others, as well as for the social community. A lay Buddhist always observes the five precepts, does no evil, does good deeds, is sympathetic, selfless, humble and often helps others, is a qualified person, a person high moral qualities, is the most ideal way of evangelizing the Unforthgoing Ones to those around them. People around the world are not clear about Buddhism, they do not have time to learn Buddhism, so they tend to judge Buddhism through the behaviors of the people they meet daily.In his spare time, Buddhists talk intimately in the family, or visit the sick neighbor ... are all flexible sermons of lay people. The way to eat at home, the ethical treatment of your neighbors, is the sermon of Buddhist living at home. Buddhists at home can carry out their duties, which is the true guardian. "
Among the ranks of lay Buddhists, there are also Laity Bodhisattva Buddhas, for anyone who wants to generate bodhicitta:  on the Buddhist bridge, under the salvation of sentient beings. This is an important Buddhist force at home, helping both monks and nuns in preaching the Dharma, as well as a bridge between the monks and the masses of Buddhists. Currently, there are many localities where there are no temples or teachers so the propaganda of these places is mainly done by this precept. Currently in Vietnam the number of Buddhists at the Bodhisattva's ordination is not very large; each Dai Gioi Dan held in Vietnam the number of prayers for the Bodhisattva Preceptship does not exceed 100; Therefore, the Unforthgoing Buddhists who have attained the Five Precepts have the desire to bring Buddhism to every house everywhere, with the desire to contribute the hands to ease the suffering of sentient beings, they should be encouraged to join the ranks. This team. END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN =THICH CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.27/3/2020.