Parent and Child, Teacher and Student

Raising children brings to the fore the always-changing nature of teacher-student. Often we thing of being a parent as being the teacher, protector, and provider for our children. And yet, there is no separation between parent and child on the path. At times, the child is the teacher and the parent the student, a student of what we once knew as children and forgotten, a student of what we never knew but our children have taught us. Isn't this the nature of zazen practice? We try to realize, to truly live without concepts, what we already have...our essential nature. What do our children seek, yet they already have? We are all parent and child, student and teacher, trying to see the true nature of impermanence and attachment, death and birth, and delusion all around.