On the way back from three days with my parents, I’m reading A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (actually rereading and highlighting passages for class tomorrow) on the train and see this:

“If you think you are so enlightened,” Ram Dass said, “go and spend a week with your parents.” That is good advice. The relationship with your parents is not only the primordial relationship that sets the tone for all subsequent relationships, it is also a good test for your degree of Presence. The more shared past there is in a relationship, the more present you need to be; otherwise, you will be forced to relive the past again and again.

Yes.