OUR NEW MASTER TEACHER...

... Luka!  You may attribute my silence in the past couple of days to this young character...



... (seen here wearing Grandpa's hat,) who came down to spend the weekend with us at our cottage in Laguna Beach.  You may remember that he was a little devil last Wednesday, his day with his grandparents; this weekend he was a little angel.  Well, most of the time.  There were a few devilish moments.  Anyway, it was a joy for us to have him with us, and his mom and, for at least a few hours on Sunday, his dad, down from Los Angeles.  Here he is again, none to sure about his first spoon-fed banana...

You can imagine, perhaps, if you yourself have babies or grand-babies, that there was little time for rest or relaxation.  It's a good number of years since we had one around, and the human memory is mercifully forgetful of the more difficult moments.  The agony of sleeplessness, anxiety, and generally coping with the needs of the littlest among us recedes, like pain, into the past.  It is easier, as grandparents, without the ultimate responsibility for those needs.

I did, however, take time to go to sangha Sunday morning.  After the sit, we got into a discussion about tolerance, and the frequent misunderstanding of the Buddhist teachings on this subject.  It does not mean, as Than Geoff frequently reminds us, that the Buddha expects us to be a doormat; tolerance does not mean ovine acceptance of every circumstance.  Rather it means a skillful acknowledgement of the reality of a situation, and the wisdom to deal with it appropriately.

A good lesson, then, for the weekend.