98662 ZaZen update

So this morning I was joined for tea and ZaZen by Hannah at around 0400. I had just got down on the Zafu when she came into the room, sleepy eyed. I said to her “good morning sweetheart, what are you doing up?” And she replied sweetly: “I want to do ZaZen with you Daddy.”

Awwww.

Now so you know I don’t really push the kids into doing what I do. Particularly because of how miserably I failed at getting the wife to sit with me. I figure they have to work out their own salvation, but I will do my best to give them a positive role model and such and yes bedtime stories are often in the form of Jataka tales.

Nowadays both kids also recite the poem of five reflections with me at meal time, though they were never really told to, they just do like daddy does. Yeah, even the four year old. The kids even had it memorized before I did. They used too remind me I needed to read the “paper” (the cheat sheet I was reading off of) when we were sitting down to eat. This is really cool in my book.

Anyway, Hannah got up after 27 minutes of sitting which is better than I do on some mornings. The thing about this whole evolution is that it is really really really nice to have someone sitting with me. I do not expect it to become a regular occurrence but at the same time I sure would appreciate it if it does. Now I am considering getting another Zafu just to have one available in case someone else decides to join me for the early morning sitting.

Last night I had an odd and memorable dream. I was in a ZaZen hall reading the Dammapada aloud in the style of a Baptist minister. Can I get an Ommmmmmm!