Missing

Yesterday, Chris and my daughter went out of town for a few days.

On their way out, Chris said to me: “Mrs. T., I am going to miss you.” “I am not a Buddhist, so I can miss you, right?” How sweet!

I replied: “Sure, you could miss me even if you were a Buddhist.”

He asked: “You never miss anyone, so I assume Buddhist is not supposed to be attached to or to miss anyone?”

I said: “For a true Buddhist you CAN do anything. The key is HOW you do it, the motivation or aspiration, the know-how and the consequence.”

Yes, I hardly miss anyone physically, but I will miss their “inner-spirits or essence”. Last week, I missed Steven’s love for Huayen. His passion, enthusiasm and perseverance for Huayen are very hard to come by. Too bad that passion is temporarily missing!

(July 28, 2008)