By Laura Bennett

Welcome to another gathering of the Salt Lake Buddhist Fellowship. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Laura, and I’m one of the new practice leaders of our fellowship. I’ve been a member of the Sangha for a few years now, and I am grateful for the opportunity to share this unrepeatable life with you all.

I am truly grateful that each and every one of you chose to spend your Sunday morning here with us.

Lately, I have been settling back into a semblance of routine after a few particularly busy months. During this time, I’ve been circling back to the importance of the ritual of offering in my practice.

Before I begin, I want to say: Some of these topics and words may be reminiscent of religious concepts you may already be familiar with, and may even have a complicated relationship with, depending on your journey. I want to be clear and say that my intention is to look at these concepts from a different perspective—from the perspective of Buddhism.

I’ll begin by describing what the practice of making offerings means to me, broadly. At this point in my life, I conceive of making offerings as an aspiration to be fully present with what is. The practice of offering myself, or my day, to Buddha or Buddha-nature feels like flowing in oneness. It feels like the embodiment of a larger unity, a larger wholeness. It is intimacy with my surroundings.

It is breathing in and feeling gratitude and oneness with the trees, my external lungs, integral to every breath. It is breathing out and not knowing where breath becomes air, becomes tree, becomes apple. It is biting into an apple and not knowing where the line blurs between apple and me. It is spaciousness, abundance, acceptance. It is pure being.

The body of the apple, just like this body of “me,” is inseparable from all that has ever been, all that is, and all that will be. Everything is interdependent; everything is Buddha nature—everything is pure being. When I make an offering from a place of presence, the offering comes from pure being and is offered to all existence.

In Everyday Suchness, Reverend Gyomay Kubose says, “Only when I see myself truly, Gautama Buddha is present in me. His life is my life. My life is everyone’s life. All life is one. That is the life of Gautama Buddha.”

I was first introduced to the practice of making offerings through our wonderful Gretchen Saiyo Sensei, who leads the Altar Committee of our Fellowship and puts her time, effort, and devotion into the creation of our altars.

The Buddhist practice of offering, also referred to as Puja, Dana (generosity), or Ku-yo, is a wholehearted, embodied ritual rooted in gratitude, service, and reverence. It is a way to focus our attention and respect—to honor our teachers, Buddhas, and Bodhisattvas along the way. It is also a way to cultivate a personal relationship with the Buddha, founded in gratitude. At the very least, it allows for spaciousness to receive the teachings of the Dharma. It allows for intimacy in our daily lives.

The practice of Puja often begins by creating a sacred space—an altar—or if you are more secular in nature, then a Special Place of Tranquility (a SPOT, if you will).

For me, my home altar consists of multiple Buddha statues, including Jizo, Kuan Yin, and Amida, as well as a Ganesha incense burner, a candle, and the rock I received during the Ti Sarana ceremony. This is a place where I may offer light, incense, gratitude, flowers, food, or other physical offerings.

Through having an altar, I have been able to develop a relationship with the Buddha and Bodhisattvas on my altar. The practice of making offerings to these figures is a practice of being in communion with, in dialogue with, and in relationship with Amida Buddha, Kuan Yin, and Jizo Bodhisattva. Even by devoting just a few minutes a day to making offerings, I am allowing space for gratitude and for stillness in my day.

With the practice of making offerings to Buddha, I begin to realize that perhaps everything is Buddha; Buddha nature is everywhere and everything. Just as I cannot separate an apple from my body once it has been eaten, Buddha nature cannot be separated from all existence. I offer myself to Buddha nature by embodying a sense of boundless offering, gratitude, and radical acceptance of all that is.

Often, in Jodo Shinshu Buddhism or Pure Land Buddhism—which our fellowship stems from—the central figure on the altar is Amida Buddha, the Buddha of boundless compassion. As our practice manual says, “This Buddha gives compassion to all without exception, just as you are.”

It is important to note that the intention here is not to worship the image of Amida Buddha, but to bow our heads in respect and reverence before the compassionate wisdom of Amida.

Every Sunday, we all participate in and bear witness to various offering practices. Deep listening is a central practice for our fellowship, as are the candle lighting and incense offering rituals. Even “Come As You Are,” our intentional translation of Namu Amida Butsu, is an offering by and for each of us.

Physical offerings are common in Buddhist practice, but the practice of making inner offerings to Buddha is what truly resonates with me and inspires me day to day.

In fact, lately I have been dancing with these questions: What does it look like, what does it feel like, to offer myself to Buddha-nature? More specifically, how may I offer my day to Amida Buddha, the heart of boundless compassion? These are questions I hope to continue to walk with and live into being, even if only in moments.

Sometimes, this practice can feel more conceptual or intellectual than I’d like, so I’ve come up with a few questions that open me up to the moment and gently invite me into my senses on a moment-to-moment basis. I’ll share a few:

• If I am washing dishes, I may ask myself, “What if I wash this dish with gratitude and presence?”
• If I am walking to my car after Sangha or before work, I may ask, “What does it feel like to move through the world as if my feet are kissing the earth?”
• What does it feel like to exist in this moment as pure awareness?
• What might it mean for me to offer myself completely to Amida Buddha, the great heart of compassion?
• How may I begin to see with eyes of compassion, hear with ears of compassion, and touch with hands of compassion?

A specific way this practice manifests for me is in making food as an offering. As I’m cooking, I consider: How might I prepare this food as if I were making it for Shakyamuni Buddha or to aid in the awakening of Buddha? It is important for me to remember that there is no “correct” way to do this—it is a practice. This metaphor becomes a way for me to cook in an embodied way, from a place of wholehearted awareness, imbuing love and gratitude as a secret ingredient to aid in the awakening of all beings. It might sound silly, and it felt a little silly at first, but I can tell you that cooking is much more joyful when I do it from this space of boundless offering. I am always grateful for any way I can make the mundanity of adulthood a bit more joyous and lighthearted.

This leads me to my favorite conception of making offerings: the practice of offering that continues to be a gateway into presence for me. I feel it’s best highlighted by this quote from Kokyo Henkel:

“How do we make offerings to Buddha?
First we find Buddha everywhere,
and then we offer everything.”

To put it more concretely, Kokyo Henkel describes a practice of making inner offerings. He says:

“In addition to making physical outer offerings, we can also make inner offerings. We can understand inner offerings more easily if we offer our five physical senses. We can make this kind of offering to Buddha during meditation—or at any time, such as while walking down the street. We can start with the eyes, our own eyes, offering them to all Buddhas throughout space and time. Sincerely offer them, feeling, ‘I give them to you, Buddha, do what you will with them.’

For Buddha to receive our eyes, Buddha must come in and inhabit our eyes. And then it is Buddha looking through our eyes. If Buddha is boundless awareness, the totality of everything—if we give our eyes to that, then the totality of everything starts seeing through our eyes.

And we can give our ears to Buddha, letting Buddha inhabit them so Buddha can hear through these ears. We can give this …” nose, tongue, and body sensations to Buddha.”

I love this embodied practice he describes. It offers a way for me to direct my intention and attention toward the Buddha and to offer my entire being to a higher good that I may not even understand, but can trust and flow with as I move through the day. As I bring my intention and attention to Buddha nature, at least for a moment, I rest in pure being with Buddha. Of course, it is a continual, lifelong practice to let go of the thoughts and delusions that arise and try to take over, but each moment becomes an opportunity to practice this sense of boundless offering.

In offering it all to Buddha, we can also offer the things we are struggling with and say: “May Buddha help me see this with fresh eyes.”

For example, I was recently struggling with feelings of jealousy—feeling jealous that my partner is going on a trip that I am not going on. I knew that what I was feeling wasn’t logical or helpful, so not only was I feeling jealous, but I was frustrated with myself for feeling this way. After stewing in it for a while, I decided to call upon Amida Buddha for guidance. I said, “Amida Buddha, great heart of compassion, I am struggling with these feelings of jealousy and frustration. I offer these emotions to you, Amida Buddha, so that I may see from a place of boundless compassion. Namu Amida Butsu.” In making an offering of these emotions, I was able to see how my struggles and challenges could be transformed when held in compassion. I was able to allow my emotions, yet not be beholden to them. In offering them to Amida Buddha, I was able to release the attachment I felt toward these emotions and see the situation in a new light.

Engaging in this mindful, embodied offering provides endless opportunities to see with fresh eyes. It allows me to be a compassionate witness to what I am experiencing and to reframe my thoughts and emotions in ways that help me relate to the world around me with more awareness and compassion.

This practice also provides, as Jon Kabat-Zinn says, “a chance to continually return to what is deepest and best in ourselves.”
He says: “The real practice is living your life as if it really matters from moment to moment. The real practice is life itself. And the body, coming to all of those senses—hearing, smelling, seeing, tasting, touching, and also, we could say ‘minding’—is a big part of that.”

While practicing making offerings, just as in saying Namu Amida Butsu, I am put in a position of receiving, of listening, of being open to the call of Amida Buddha—the call of compassion, the call of the Dharma.

Our intentional translation of Namu Amida Butsu as “Come As You Are” is continually powerful for me as well. It is a mantra I repeat and try to embody, particularly when I begin to feel anxiety creeping up—like before this talk.

I am overcome with a sense of humility, gratitude, and reverence when I consider each day, each moment, as a potential offering to Buddha.

I’ve shared a lot about what this practice means to me and how I imagine it in the altar of my mind. How do these concepts land for you? In your imaginal space, in your heart-mind, what does it look like or feel like to make offerings to Buddha or Buddha-nature in your everyday life?

Thank you for sharing. Whether or not words come to mind to describe this, whoever feels so inclined, I invite you to explore this practice of making offerings in your daily life as it makes sense for you.

I also challenge you to walk with this question into your week. It is a quote by Eve Ensler:

“How in our daily lives are we connecting, in every single respect, with ourselves and everything around us?”

I’ll say it again, slightly differently: How, in your daily life, are you connecting, in every single respect, with yourself and everything around you?

For me, that kind of captures what I’m getting to—making offerings as a way to be intimate with all that is.

May I offer all that I am, all that I have, and in this space of embodiment, of openness, of emptiness, may I receive the boundless Buddha and come to realize that there is no “I” apart from Buddha nature, no separate or contained “me” apart from all.

Every moment can be an offering to the Buddha nature within us all—the Bodhicitta, or boundless heart, within us all. This practice of offering it all to Buddha was my first and primary way of practicing Puja before I created a home altar. Now, I try to practice this in tandem with a home altar practice, and both strengthen and are strengthened by one another. I love the practice of making inner offerings to Buddha because it is a practice that is available anywhere and becomes anew in every moment.

I want to end with a poem that I wrote:

As I bow, I offer devotion
close eyes to the commotion
open heart to the motion
as I rise, I am lifted
in the rising
the spinal stem of my being
is uplifted
renewed by the grace of gratitude
I bow, as sunflowers do
in reverence of the light
which sustains every field
Namu Amida Butsu

—Laura Rose