Can You Hug a Rinpoche?

Whenever I tell people I’m a Buddhist, I cringe a little. Even now, as I write that, little cringe. It makes people assume things about me, like I meditate everyday, that I have my shit together, spiritually, and that I could give a clear definition of Buddhism. Well I don’t, I don’t and I can’t.

But this week I did have a dream about my teacher, the Rinpoche (a Tibetan Buddhist title given to a spiritual teacher). He spends part of his time in the Bay Area, where we have gone to see him whenever we can over the last ten or more years.

And in my dream, when I saw him, my whole body broke into a smile and I ran to hug him, and I had that feeling like when you’ve had a couple bad days in a row, then you wake up one morning and somehow something has just shifted, overnight, and everything feels different, fresh, and okay. It felt just like that. And that’s why I’m a Buddhist.

And no, this post doesn’t have much to do with writing. Or does it…