No savings, but spent only for a $1.72 coffee. I brought 4 lunches for the week, so no outside lunch today. Right now I'm at a low point in both my checking and savings, so its feel the frugal burn for a couple of weeks.

Last weekend was quiet, but I had an opportunity to visit a space that I've wanted to for a long time. You might remember that my neighborhood hosts a genuine Tibetan Buddhist

monastery. The Sakya Monastery had a book and media sale inside on Saturday so I saw the meeting room and the kitchen. Several lay people also told me that the Shrine Room was open with a guided tour on Sunday noon. The paintings on the walls, the mandalas on the ceiling and the golden Buddha was amazing. I didn't take a picture - it didn't seem right. I learned on the tour several fun facts:

1. The Shrine Room was personally consecrated by the Dalai Lama in 1993.

2. It was in the film, Little Buddha. (Although our neighborhood is decidedly NOT as snotty as Queen Anne!)

3. The Lama in charge had a dream of the interior of the space in the 1970s, and sketched it. When the building came up for sale, his sketches helped the make the decision, but what really clinched it was:

4. The street number is 108, which is the most symbolic number in Buddhism - the number of beads in a mala, number of defilements to overcome to attain enlightenment.