My parents are in for a visit and I violated the no intoxication precept with them last night, lol, and part of that was remembering Pastor Hal, who was a great friend to the family that recently passed away. Pastor Hal was a Lutheran pastor that spent many an hour with me during some of my darkest hours growing up, a great guy, a great listener, totally willing to wrestle with the Big Questions of life and being ok with not having all the answers. He reminds me a lot of Jundo, actually. When I questioned religion Pastor Hal said "ok." When I left off being a Lutheran he would have said "that's to bad, but ok." No pressure, and I loved him for that, very much. It occurs to me this morning that he was my first great spiritual teacher. I honestly can't imagine being where I am now, a Buddhist, without him. Strange, huh. Thinking of him I realize that Jundo would be my only other great spiritual teacher. So I've been lucky enough to have two great spiritual teachers which is quite the life double treasure. So I thought a thread of where people could post who their great spiritual teachers are would be nice, so here I am, remembering Pastor Hal, and wondering what other pastor hal type folk others have had in their lives. Honor them here.