Offerings

I was asked by a friend of mine, who is a Buddhist nun in graduate school on the East Coast, to read and edit a paper she is writing about women and Taoism.  I am happy to help her: I am an mindful editor,  I see this as an opportunity to learn, and I serve the sangha in any way that I am able and in any way that does not compromise anyone's precepts.

I read the paper and turned my thoughts to offerings.  

When I first entered the Buddhist temples in my community, I noticed artistically balanced plates of fruit, small bowls of rice, professionally arranged vases of flowers and leaf-stalks, and spent sticks of incense all set before the statues of the Pure Land tradition.  

Food on an altar?  Strange, I thought.  Why give food to deities that might not exist?  Isn't it wasted?  Or meaningless religious ritual?  

I never considered making an offering.  My only thought was to sit.  Isn't this what we do in Zen?  We just sit and see what happens, following Shunryu Suzuki's instructions.  Why make an offering?

Offerings are essential not to Buddhist practice, but to life.  We must make offerings to honor our own humanity and to recognize our common humanity with others.  I can see a pantheon of offerings:

offerings of food

offerings of medicine

offerings of knowledge

the offering of an open ear and a closed mouth

offerings of incense burned before an image

an open-ended offering to someone who is trusted

offerings of something we love and cherish rather than something we do not value

offerings of money

offerings of time

an offering of love that is selfless and wise

I made a number of offerings today.  I told a man that I loved him (and I meant it).  I lit incense for a friend who lost her mother to Alzheimer's (keeping in mind that this could be anyone's fate).  I listened to a friend express her disappointment in herself.  I rode my bike (an offering to myself and my not-so-thin-anymore body).  I drove a man to the airport.  I watered the plants around my house.  And I read my nun-friend's paper.    

I hope she gets an A.