“They told me what happened,” he murmured, reaching over to where I was dozing nearby. “Sometimes our instinct, our negative conditioning, can be overpowering. Later we regret very much what we have done. But that is no reason to give up on yourself—the buddhas, they have not given up on you. Instead, learn from your mistake and move on. Like that.” He turned out the bedside light, and as we both lay there in the darkness, I purred gently in appreciation. “Tomorrow we start again,” he said.
