Hope you had a good Vesak day yesterday!

I try not to do too much screen time on Vesak Day, I want to talk about the Buddha with my friends face to face. At the moment, that means a 4 year old who doesn't want to talk about the Buddha and my partner, who has gotten more into nature worship lately (which I don't mind) (but she also meditates).

My daughter knows what she wants and pursues it vigorously and since I spend a lot of time with her I have adopted an accepting attitude. I need to be more of a leader and teacher her and structure her day more.

Anyway, I had her watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. She actually quite liked the movie. She almost wanted to watch the updated version, but then changed her mind. In a way I find the movie quite scary. The sort of spoiled children end up going away in scary ways. It is very much about the dangers of following our desires all the time and the habits that form around that, that help you not hear about reality and focus on your wants.

Maybe I can extract a Dharma lesson from everything, but I thought it was a good movie to watch on Vesak Day for children. I don't know how much my daughter understands, but she watches things many times, so she's laying the foundation for further learning.

At the moment I feel very lucky. I offered to speak English in video chats to some Sri Lankan monks who want to learn English better. I responded to a request on Reddit. And the result is that I have been helping two monks improve their English. It makes me feel so lucky and so happy to be doing this. My spiritual friends have drifted away, and it feels really good to cultivate spiritual friendship. I'm just so happy. I need to learn to be a English as a foreign language teacher. If anyone gets the opportunity to do such a thing, I would highly recommend it. Among other things, I'm learning more about Sri Lanka which I've always been very curious about. I learn more about the Dharma. And I'm helping someone with language skills, who wants to improve their English. So I have to think about what words mean and how to use language on a basic level.

I am also lucky to have a good library of the Dharma. Thank you to the translators, to the people who preserved the books, to the publishers.

I am lucky to have a partner that provides feedback on how to grow.

I am grateful to the teachers that have taught me in person. I am grateful to the traditions. I am grateful for the Buddha, who chose to go forth from the homelife and seek his answers.

I feel lucky to have found the Dharma, not being born in a country where it is not popular yet only .7% compared to 70% in Sri Lanka.

I am still trying to figure out how to celebrate Vesak day. On reddit they just say meditate, which is good. Anything that moves you closer to the Buddha is good. But it's a public celebration and many people go to temples on this day. I've only gone once to a NYC gathering and it was quite interesting. I'm looking for general Buddhist gatherings and holidays. I am looking for the follow through in myself to do these things.

I am grateful for so much room for growth within myself.

Links:
Here is a message from the Dalai Lama