We are reading about Buddha

I had bought Jack Landaw's book called "Prince Siddhartha" off Amazon and had it delivered to a friend. When it arrived I saw that it was full of text and Lakshmi perhaps would not be able to read it till she was at least seven.

But the book has the most beautiful illustrations in water colour. It looks like Japanese poetry but is only more populated.

So that attracted her and we have been reading it. It is a 142-page book and we read it in bed one day and she sat through. I just read one paragraph from each page. The paragraph corresponded with the picture in the book which is liberally sprinkled with paintings. She actually stayed awake and heard through. I was reading in a sonorous voice. "That was comforting and she likes the pictures" I thought.

The next day she brought it again and this time started pulling out certain pictures and we started reading at those pages. Clearly she had got something.

The third day she started asking questions. What is archery? What is bull's eye? What is aim? What is target? I had to draw and explain. Now I was relieved. I could explain all shooting in these terms.

Then came "what is Mara?" There is a picture in the book of Buddha sitting under the tree of enlightenment and Mara is the evil trying to disturb him. We looked at this page repeatedly for several days. One day we were reading this page and she was asking me "what is Mara?".

"Mara is your gussa. He disturbs you when you are doing something" I replied.

She keeps looking at the picture of Buddha meditating and asking me what he is doing. I told her that he was meditating. Mara tries to disturb him but he concentrates and in teh end found happiness and peace. he then turned a teacher.

One night she was trying to do something. Then suddenly turned cranky. I said that is "Mara". She turned around sat still in a lotus position with a very calm look for a while and said "I meditated and am happy now". Something has gone in.

She has been familiar with Buddha for a while. For two Buddha Jayantis we got up early in the morning and went to the Buddha Jayanti Park. That is the most beautiful sight. There is a tall golden Buddha there that is beautifully decorated by people from Tibet House. There is a canal running with hordes of ducks. Few Buddhists arrive, there is usually chanting and the most tasty prasad. Last year it rained mildly and it was one of the most beautiful experiences for us.