Dhamma School

I'm really very happy that the kids are enjoying Dhamma School. It certainly makes having to wake up early on Sunday mornings worthwhile. Last Sunday was their second lesson and they are already learning something good. As soon as class was over, H asked me if I knew how many precepts a monk has and he proudly told me that a monk has 227 precepts to keep (I think that was what he told me. It's only Monday and already I've forgotten) while we only need to keep 5.

That same night we were hanging out in the courtyard. The kids were playing while I was cutting out foam army tanks and helicopters for H's upcoming birthday party. A pesky mosquito was flying around. It didn't really bother me and I was shooing it away but as soon as it landed on H's thigh, I reached out to hit it. I normally wouldn't but with so many cases of dengue these days I wouldn't want to risk it. Immediately H reacted, "mommy, why did you kill the mosquito? You're not supposed to kill!" Oh my, my boy has so quickly internalised the first precept - i.e. refrain from killing. Oops... "Oh yah you're right, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to kill the mosquito, I accidentally hit it too hard." Double oops... not only did I break the first precept, I broke the fourth one too - i.e. refrain from lying.