Ever wonder how you can show your love and gratitude towards Grandpa and Grandma? Ever spend tens of hours looking far and wide in vain for gifts and collectibles? Writing them a card isn't bad. Paying them a visit and having dinner with them may be a good idea. It may be even better if you kiss and hug them and tell them how much you love them and how much they mean to you. And yet, these won't last. Hence, they are not the one way to make Grandparents happy forever.

        Before I let you in on this little secret, here are two hints. The first is that all grandparents hope that their pumpkins can be somebody and do something meaningful. To put it more specifically, they hope that we can serve the people. The more people we serve, the more proud they are. The second is that their happiness ceases at the very moment you give up. In other words, halfway is not an option. Whatever you do, you must make all the way through.

        I guess you must get the picture now. With the following short story, the last piece is sure to fall into place. A Nepalese fellow Tao practitioner, Sushanta, and his grandfather were very close when he was a kid. His grandpa passed away when he was twenty. In 2003, he had a dream about his grandpa, who told Sushanta in the dream that he was hungry and thirsty. From then on, offerings have been made to his grandpa. This is Sushanta's first supernatural encounter with his grandpa.

        And then he received Tao. He made up his mind to both cultivate himself sincerely and help the propagation of Tao ever since then. As he could speak three languages—English, Nepali, and Hindi, he helped with the translation of lectures to facilitate the propagation of Tao. As the number of people who benefited from his translation grew, his joy grew. Therefore, he was even more determined to cultivate himself earnestly and invite more people to receive Tao.

        And there was the second supernatural encounter with his grandpa. One day at a seminar, he saw not only the participants but also the spirits of their ancestors. All of the ancestors were really happy to have the opportunity to attend the seminar. At the end of the seminar, all of them came to hug him to express their gratitude. And the last one was none other than his grandpa, who mentioned how much he had benefited from his grandson's efforts and encouraged him to keep up the good work.

        We may not have the ability to see the spirits of our ancestors. We may never have the opportunity to have supernatural encounters of any kind with them. Yet from this story, we know for sure what we can do to make them happy forever—NEVER ceases to cultivate ourselves and help with the propagation of Tao. We may know nothing about translation, but there sure are plenty of other things that we can be of help to. So next time when you are hard pressed to come up with a way to make your grandparents or parents happy, you can think about what you can do for the temple for a change.