Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Ooh, baby, I love it here. I would totally expat in Taiwan, but I bet that's what my parents are banking on. Back to the question of their ploy, right before I left, they mentioned that if I enter a "temple" – they don't know what a monastery is – better that I join one in Taiwan. My internal reaction was a resounding, "wtf!"

They are great parents for practicing non-attachment. I need to focus on their suffering, which they are unaware of, and their ignorance in order to not feel anger, but my natural reaction to them tends towards anger. It's hard separating fact from feeling.

The fact is that they have no bearing on my decisions or my life. They have no awareness or knowledge of it, nor have they made any effort to know it or understand it or anything different than their idea of it.

The feeling is that they are insulting me by implying I don't know what I'm doing or what I want. And maybe I don't, but they do?!! It also ventures on their having no right. If their philosophy on children is a non-participatory one, then they should remain non-participants. Except for that control issue they have.

So they encourage me to join Plum Village by insulting my decision to join Plum Village. In fact, they guarantee it because even if I wanted to do something else, I wouldn't want to give them the satisfaction. Mm, that's not it, either.

Conclusion: laugh them off and continue on my path. Whatever I do has nothing to do with them. My practice isn't that weak even if I try to make it so.