NonStop Chatter

Ah, the delight of children. Good thing Buddhists are patient, no? Because a toddler decided it would be fun to play in the sand of a mandala they had been working on. They had been more than halfway done.

Of course, being Buddhist monks, they understand that all is temporary and the toddler’s destruction of all their hard work is merely a reminder of that. They’ve started over. 

As a mother, I’m shocked that the toddler was allowed to do it, yet I can sympathize with the desire to get out fast. It has to have been humiliating, even if the right thing to do would have been to report it. But that sympathy doesn’t mean I think she was in the right at all. The child should have been better watched and should have seen his mother do the right thing and report the issue. Not an easy thing to do, but the best example you can set when something like that happens.

I do admire the monk’s response. Just goes to show that they are living their faith and taking such a setback calmly rather than getting angry. Of course, since they destroy the mandala themselves when it is complete, having it ruined early on is no doubt easy to align with their beliefs.

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